Anyone know a good Choral sample?

[Ronyn]

I've been able to collect a wide array of samples I'm at least modestly okay with, but I haven't really found a good choir sample collection yet. Anyone know anything really good out there? I use most GIGA format. I've got Reason Refills and some basic stuff but I'd really like something top of the line. I saw the list from the sample sticky but I'm wondering what people really recommend and if they have demos maybe.

[zircon]

Quantum Leap Voices of the Apocalypse, which is no longer in production, is probably the best GIGA library you will find. There might be some copies left somewhere (was previously sold through Soundsonline.com) However, it has been succeeded by East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs, which is the clear winner right now in terms of flexibility (word builder, male/fem choir, boys choir.) VoTA had the same kind of sound, and a more crude word builder, but QLSC is superior. Here's some further info;

http://www.soundsonline.com/EastWest-Quantum-Leap-Symphonic-Choirs-pr-EW-165.html

In terms of more varied material than a full film score style ensemble, you could look into Spectrasonics' "Symphony of Voices", which is AKAI format and a few others. Should convert easily to GIGA. No wordbuilder, but has combined and male/female choirs, boys' choir, soprano and tenor soloists, gregorian choir, various phrases, 'pop stacks' (think Enya) and SUPERB recording quality. It came out something like 15 years ago and I still think it kicks the ass of anything else in terms of the sound and playability, though unfortunately it's still expensive.

http://www.spectrasonics.net/libraries/symphonyvoices.php

[Ronyn]

just what I was looking for, thanks zirc!

[dannthr]

I have to second SC and it should also be noted that VotA is scheduled to be merged with Symphonic Choirs in one of their PLAY updates (when it comes around, probably next year sometime). They're also integrating wordbuilder into PLAY as well.

Now, to keep it fair, while I'm a fan of EW, in a way, and I own SC myself and find it extremely useable (I've been able to get gregorian sounds and their boys choir is very nice), Bela D Media has a couple of choir packages that sound really great, though I haven't had the opportunity to try them, and they're fairly priced:

http://www.beladmedia.com/products-main.htm

Specifically, the Giovani Edition children's choirs which, I think, is the only choir package that has a separate girls choir:

http://www.beladmedia.com/gio.htm

Cheers,

[zircon]

Yes, I forgot to mention that. Bela D's "Giovani Edition" is quite realistic and has a very natural sound, plus more basic phrase building - not as advanced as QLSC, but still nice. It definitely takes advantage of Kontakt programming. They have also announced a separate full adult choir product; we'll see how that goes.

[dannthr]

Oh, I notice you wanted some samples--well, here is a Gregorian Chant test that I made with Symphonic Choirs a while back, just to see how it would do.

Wordbuilder can be challenging and in this instance I went with some of their out-of-the-box latin phrases without tweaking it.

Then I took a classic gregorian chant midi and let it do its work--then I soaked it in cathedral verb.

http://dannthr.com/samples/sketches/chant_test.mp3

Aside from a few glitches that could be cleaned up with some minor tweaking, it did a pretty good job out-of-the-box.