vocal sample libraries/instruments (moved from soundware)

[Stokely]

Hello, long-time lurker, hopefully this is the spot for this question. Actually I posted this in soundware, somehow missing this entirely-more-appropriate subforum just above that one

I'm getting back into "playing around in a home studio" mode and feel pretty good about my soft-synth lineup. What I'm looking to add would be what is probably quite a niche deal: female vocals, not words so much, but phrases/oohs/aahs...Hell I don't even know what you'd call it Granted, there are words, but I'm thinking something like you hear on the Gladiator or last song on the Gravity soundtracks. More in the cinematic/soundtrack line and not house/pop etc.

I'd much prefer "raw" vocals with no fx, and certainly not in a synth bed or looping instruments. Getting to mess with the vocals with fx and adding my own tracks is the fun part!

Whether this would be a vocal "instrument" (Kontakt or other) or just samples that I can place and manipulate, no clue. Certainly while I know a bit about software synths this is an area of ignorance!

I have found a few that sound like what I'm looking for, so any thoughts on these or similar are very welcome.
https://sonuscore.com/shop/lyrical-vocal-phrases/
Also, Allura and Strawberry Gaia something or other, both from soundiron I think. The first is Kontact full version only (which I'd like to get once Komplete goes on sale), the others have wavs that I could use now.

Thanks!

[DSmolken]

Not too hard to find. There are quite a few voices out there, especially for the cinematic soundtrack thing, with lots of them being for Kontakt. Not having the full version of Kontakt will limit you, though. Might just be worth springing for that to have more vocal options.

In general, you'll probably want to have true sampled legato for the vowels. The Ethera collection is a solid choice, for example.

You can also try synthesis - Sharpkey, Kanru Hua's Synthesizer V and Plogue Alter/Ego are all free, and will give you a degree of control over the legato and vibrato that might be worth it. Getting natural-sounding timing on lyrics is tough, but if you mostly want "aaah" then there are no transitions between phonemes, you avoid the tough terrain entirely, and synths can work great. But they don't really have classical timbres and except for Alter/Ego you can't play the parts in live including expression. Still, those are free, and I did this tutorial to show what's possible:

[Spitfire31]

Realitone's Realivox Ladies and Realivox Blue come to mind. They can do a lot more than just ooohs and aaahs but are based on recorded syllables rather than phrases, which adds up to a lot of flexibility but also some fiddling. Full Kontakt needed. Black Friday half prices right now…

A bit more 'out there' but quite inspiring for 'cinematic' (so tired of that expression!) voice is Zero-G Ethera series. It features oodles of phrases and sounds of hypersensual Italian singer Clara Sorace. Again, Kontakt full version.
zero-g.co.uk/products/ethera-2-0

Hope that helps!

/Joachim

[Stokely]

Thanks guys! I realize this is probably old hat stuff to most of you, I haven't really been doing music for years (just dabbling every so not-so-often!)

Yeah, Kontakt has been a bit of a wall, although many of the vocal "instruments" also include browsable .wav files for directly putting on tracks (or importing into ESX24, which would be another new world for me.) I am strongly considering Komplete though but the bargain-hunter side of me will compel me to wait for a sale on that, which means that same part of me says "don't buy Kontakt now!".....I have found a few cheap sample-only libraries in the meantime though, and it sounds like those free ones could keep me plenty busy.

Rome wasn't built in a day, I'll watch out for sales knowing that I'll be picking up Kontakt eventually (especially instruments that do have the raw wav files).

It would be fun to record the singer in my (weekend classic rock cover) band and "roll my own", but cows would fly before I could convince her to record this kind of thing LOL!

[thecontrolcentre]

If you're looking for female oohs & aahs then you may like my Marnietron sample pack. Its designed for the Sampler Instrument in Live, but all the samples are included as 24bit Wav files without any effects. Audio demo & download is here: www.thecontrolcentre.com/packs