Roof-Raising with Spectrasonics' Vocal Planet

By Dave Hill

Sample CDs can save a producer time, money and hassle, given that they are done with the right amount of imagination, stylistic focus, and authenticity. The method for creating both original and usable catalogs of sounds or loops is not exactly common knowledge either, as evidenced by the vast array of crapola available for free download on the World Wide Web. A select few companies, however, have taken the form to new heights. Among them is Spectrasonics, makers of the popular Distorted Reality and Liquid Grooves series, who have recently released two ambitious new CD-ROMs, Metamorphosis and Vocal Planet--both featuring Spectrasonics innovative time stretching tool, Groove Control--which up the ante considerably in terms of programming ingenuity and sheer scope.

A World of Voices

Vocal Planet is the hip urban cousin to Spectrasonic's acclaimed classical sample CD Symphony of Voices. But instead of the latter's lush London Choir or angelic Cantate Youth Choir, Vocal Planet delivers gospel belters, funk screamers, Tuvan throat singers, opera divas, hipsters, preachers, blues men, Rasta raconteurs, Mariachi crooners, and Scandinavian warblers; in other words, an extremely thorough representation of the earth's vast vocal talent. There are "oos," "ahs," "ohs" and even "hallelujahs," as well as hundreds of commonly sung lyrics, spoken word musings, and beatbox licks in every language.

Since inserting ethnic flava into dance music has become commonplace, Vocal Planet's ethnic elements should be well received. Beginning with the rare Tuvan throat singer's growling multiple-tone chants, and ending with a good old-fashioned country yodel, the "World Voices" disc packs in 39 megabytes of Native American chants and yells, plus the exotic sounds of Black Sea and Balkan singers, as well as beautiful African, Eastern European, and South American performances perfect for creating exotic-sounding melodies or pads.

Vocal Planet is made up of five CDs, so the complete track listing, as well as the CD credits, are obviously too lengthy to include here, but the over 12,000 samples of blues, jazz, R&B, soul, gospel, hip-hop, spoken word, and unusual ethnic vocal sounds immediately catapult Vocal Planet into a category of it's own. That's more than eight hours worth of material, an impressive amount for any sample collection, and it leads us to ask: is it possible for the quality to match the quantity? The short answer is "yes."

Technical Ecstasy

Generally the recordings are single-channel and dry, noise-free and perfectly intonated, with convenient loop points for each long voice sample, much like Symphony of Voices, although some of these pre-looped group samples are in stereo, which adds another level of thickness to their sound. This loop point feature accelerates the construction of pads or smooth fade-ins and outs. Also, rhythmic loops in the form of beatbox and vocal sound grooves are a welcome addition, complete with Groove Control MIDI files ready to be imported in Cubase, Logic or a MIDI-compatible hardware/software device (See Groove Control below).

The sixth disk, the Data Disk, is full of additional documentation, MIDI files, track listings, and extra software. One extra cool inclusion is the Vocal Planet Mod for Rebirth 2.0 software. Rebirth users will agree that the Mods are among the cooler aspects of the Propellerhead's infamous 303, 808, and 909 emulation software. The addition of this new mod with human beatbox and vocal drum sounds is a welcomed and unique idea. Also found on the data disk, Spectrasonics Soundfinder and Qdesign's MVP player allow quick auditioning and locating of samples, using low-grade compressed .MOV files, as opposed to having to load each sample bank into your sampler for previewing.

While some of the R&B spoken lyrics (like "peace is a state of confusion") might remind you more of Jack Handy's "Deep Thoughts" than Beale Street, astute producers will find plenty in the breadth of Vocal Planet to run with, both in terms of recording quality and the time, money and hassle saved by grabbing a quick "Ohh Baby!" or "Can I get a witness?" With the increasing union restrictions and escalating costs of hiring vocalists for commercial sessions, the value of Vocal Planet becomes even more concrete. While it's no fun to spend valuable session time coaching a singer, it's getting even harder to pay them. Vocal Planet offers, quite literally, a world of alternatives.

Groove Control™

Included in Metamorphosis and Vocal Planet, is Ilio and Spectrasonics' latest innovation, Groove Control. The Groove Control feature takes pitch shifting and time stretching to the next level, by enabling you to impose feel and dynamic variety into once stagnant loops and tired-sounding patterns. Broken down, Groove Control is essentially nicely chopped MIDI loops, which can then be altered or controlled into the specific feel and dynamic level you desire (like any other MIDI information). It can be the audio equivalent to injecting the feel of Bernard Purdie, Matt Chamberlain, or Steve Gadd into your drum machine, while simultaneously telling them to hit the snare just a little harder on 2 and 4 and lay back a little.

Even more advantages of Groove Control become apparent as you copy the files onto your hard drive and begin to play with your sequencer's interpretation of the sample data. Similar to the way audio loop files can be tweaked, tempo and pitch adjusting can be done independently (as in Acid Pro), but since this is MIDI you may also adjust the quantization ratio to tighten (or loosen) up the rhythm, or turn a straight groove into a shuffle. Even more fun is listening to how a sample--actually a series of small samples--follows the tempo changes in your sequencer with zero artifacts or glitches, and no channge in pitch. Want to replace the kick drum? No problem. The snare? Sure; even lay it back a touch? Done.

Different Strokes

You will undoubtedly invent other creative uses for Groove Control, but here are a few other possibilities:

Randomizing grooves: Simply exchange either the sample set or the GC sequence to create entirely new combinations. Import a few of your own samples and see what happens.

MIDI delay: By copying sequencer tracks and trailing them 1/16, or 1/32 note behind the original track (usually at a lower volume). These delays will automatically adhere to the tempo even if you change it.

Change the groove's feel: If you nudge the snare track back, or push the hi- hat track ahead, you might create a lazier or more energetic musical feel.

Groove Control works with all hardware and software sequencers that read and write Standard MIDI file sequences. Also, a CD-ROM drive is necessary to read the files and some samplers have limits as to how many samples can be loaded at the same time. CDs include preformatted MIDI files in Cubase (.arr) and Logic Audio (.lso) as well as standard MF (.mid).

Other Groove Control releases include: Spectrasonics Vocal Planet, Retro Funk, Liquid Grooves, and Ilio's Skippy's Big Bad Beats and Ethno Techno.

Product Summary
Spectrasonics Vocal Planet CD-ROMs

Vocal Planet (CD-ROM w/Groove Control $399; CD Audio $149)