Soniccouture announce Crowd-choir Project

[soniccouture]

We are very excited to launch the Crowd-Choir project- a crowd-source concept of a unique sampler instrument comprised of hundreds of different voices from all around the world.

If successful, the idea is that the resulting instrument will be a huge choral pad, a wash of vocals with all kinds of characters, recorded with all kinds of different equipment, melded into one sound.

We don't yet know if it will work or how it might sound - but we're going to give it everything we've got to try to pull it off.

*We have 650 notes already, this is a fantastic start. We're hoping for 2000 to make something really deep.*

All contributors will receive the resulting Crowd-choir instrument free of charge ( in Kontakt, EXS24 & Ableton Live format).

The project will run for approx 2 months, ending on 31st March 2012.


ADD YOUR VOICE & WIN A $2000 ARRAY MBIRA

One very lucky entrant, selected at random, will win a great prize : a custom-made Array Mbira instrument, used to create Soniccouture's VSTi of the same name.

Each note uploaded has one chance to win, so record as many notes as you can!


HOW TO TAKE PART

All details of how to record and upload a note can be found on the Crowd-Choir page :

http://www.soniccouture.com/en/crowdchoir/

[Harry_HH]

I think this is a great idea and have already given my humble contribution
by sending some "aahs".

I've been waiting for the moment when the sample manufactures include the fashionable growd sourcing to their instrument creating methods.

In this case I just wonder why to limit just to a long (recommended 10 s) "aah"
expressions. This one long syllable is usable in some cases but
in the really serious choir generator you need a much larger variety of
vocal expression - you could haves started by e.g. 8-12 expressions.
Or is the Crowd-Choir supposed to be just a fun gimmick - or maybe a start?

Harry

[soniccouture]

thanks for your contributions, Harry!

we're not trying to build an actual choir emulation instrument, but something closer to a synth-choir pad - a vocal wash kind of idea. we wanted to keep it as simple as possible, rather than asking people to upload many different articulations.

we don't know exactly how it will sound, but we will do our best to make it sound cool. One thing i am sure of, it won't sound like anything else!

James

[DocAtlas]

This is a great idea. I just finished recording (and octave and a fifth), and I'm uploading the notes now. I'll be curious to see how it sounds.

[soniccouture]

This is a great idea. I just finished recording (and octave and a fifth), and I'm uploading the notes now. I'll be curious to see how it sounds.

thanks - us too!

[Sascha Franck]

Very cool idea. Sniffs as if this could be expanded to quite a lot of sounds.

No promises to record anything from me, though (you may know why...).

Cheers
Sascha

[sethtmf]

Will you use all the samples you get or just select the best (in tune ones)?

[soniccouture]

we will try our very best to use all of them - we will adjust tuning where required ( within reason).

we did a brief test last week, and for one note , 7 out of the ten received at that point were usable, and a couple of the other 3 could probably have been fixed with a little attention.

quantity is the name of the game here.

James

[arachnaut]

Hi guys,

How about a quick update on the project status? How many entries did you end up getting? When do you expect it to be out?

[soniccouture]

Hi,

we had around 4000 notes, submitted by just over 1000 people.

Bob Derkach won the Mbira competition, and he can be seen here :

http://www.facebook.com/soniccouture

here is an example of one single note :

http://soundcloud.com/soniccouture/crowdchoir-test


we now have a basic mapping of the choir, and it sounds pretty cool, although there's more voices in the middle of the range than at the extremes.

it will certainly be out in the next couple of months, it's just a question of finding a window.


James

[damstraversaz]

oh, what a great sound !
Damien