Can anyone tell me which of these two choir vocal progams are better overall, the Apocalypse or the Symphony of Voices? I am a composer, and I need good vocals. I have heard some of the demos on both of them and they both sound pretty good, but I need to hear from one of you that has actually used them and can compare them.

By the way, if you don't know already , I believe that, with the Sonar Production Studio edition, the Vsampler3 software can work with the software formats of both these programs, Akai and Gigga, or at least that is what I observed. When you open the Synth Rack, the differenct sampling formats are listed as buttons that you can click on and import programs like Symphony of Voices or Apocalypse (that you have purchased and loaded into your computer), etc into your Sonar program to play like any other instrument. I hope that I am correct. Has anyone used the Sonar VSampler 3 with the Akai or Gigga formats?
Marty

I have the Best Service volume 13 that has some nice sounding choirs, and the double cd set has several different formats ready for you to load. Everything seems to work fine(I chose the Halion format), except that some of the loop points have clicks... not good. The Akia banks seem the worst. But 'in the mix', they work fine.
And to think how long it took me to create a multi-sampled choir from just the wave files compared to how easy it is to just load the pre-formated banks has made me a true fan.

I'm rather a big fan of the good ol' Mellotron Choirs.

GMEDIA's M-Tron VSTi is an absolute blast with the famous Choirs + 2 other variations. Not to mention the flutes, strings and vibes.

www.gmediamusic.com

Call me old fashioned, but you just can't whack a choir that's very slightly out of tune and lasts 8 seconds...

VSampler3 does indeed work with Giga and Akai formats, and some others. You may want to ask your question at the Northern Sound forum as well - http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/index.php?

You might already have heard these examples if you browsed the 'Songs' forum, but if not, there are a few examples of heavy VOTA use at www.soundclick.com/guglielmo -- used with Sonar 3 + gigastudio, I think that vsampler could handle the format, but haven't tried because gigastudio works fine and I have it already. Never used Symphony of Voices, so if you buy it, please report back!

I am a user of Symphony of Voices and I must say, you have the full London Choir at your disposal, so yes, this I think is definitely up your ally, great samples, voices, programs, FX, etc......I bought a year ago or so and I have been pleased with it....

But do buy it in the Akai sample format. I got my in the Roland format and there are some samples that just will not play nice with a K2000 sythn:)...

Can anyone tell me which of these two choir vocal progams are better overall, the Apocalypse or the Symphony of Voices?

They're both excellent choices. However, I own the Symphony of Voices here at home for two reasons: 1) I wanted the Roland format for my XV-5080; and 2) The SOV is more expressive, offers a larger variation of different choirs, and tends to be more applicable to a wider range of musical styles.

The VotA library is excellent as well - however, it tends to lean more toward that big "Hollywood" choral sound that is found in so many films. Think of the choral piece at the end of Star Wars Ep. I, and that pretty much sums it up. Certainly it offers a dynamic range from soft to loud, but even the soft parts have a certatin intensity to them that I find inappropriate for many of the softer musical styles, such as new age, meditation, ambient/trance and basic pop backgrounds.

The SoV library gives four choirs - London Choir, Boys Choir, Gregorian Choir and Pop Vocal Stacks (think Enya). Each one offers velocity variations in several vowel expressions (ee, oh, oo, ah), along with phrases which are tastefully done. Then there is the Soloists section, which though more limited in its application, does offer some nice colors which can be used when appropriate.

The VotA libray has one thing going for it - there's a downloadable speech editor, which allows one to create phonetic phrases for the choir to sing. It gets pretty close to sounding like the real thing, and is great for film scores.

My advice...

If you want variety and a wide range of applicable sounds, then go for SoV. You will not be dissappointed, trust me. It's an exceptionally well done library.

If you're looking for "film score" chorals, and need more intensity in their performance, along with the need to create specific phonetic phrasing, the go for VotA.

And if budget is not an issue (or the studio/label is covering it), get both and have all bases covered - musical and dramatic. If I had only one to choose from, it would be SoV. Actually, that's why I have a copy here at home for my own projects...

Thanks for the balanced report, Akshara! Now I'm thinking about adding SOV to my collection. I know it has no consonants, but is your vowel list complete? (Only ee oh oo ah? Not eh uh ih mm?)

It doesn't offer every vowel sound, but focuses on the most useable ones, which can be combined/filtered to get just about anything. If they went for every vowel, this set would have been 10+ CDs and over $1k, not just 4 CDs and $500, lol. Here's what it does have...

Full Choir - Ahs, Ohs, Oos, Mms, Oh<Ah Crescendo
Mens Choir - Ahs, Ohs, Oos, Ees, Oh<Ah Crescendo
Womens Choir - Ahs, Ohs, Oos, Mms, Oh<Ah Crescendo
Boys Choir - Ahs, Oos, Ees, Mms
Gregorian Choir - Ohs, Mms
Male/Female Stacks - Ahs, Ees, Oos, Ohs, Mms, Vvs, Zzs
Male/Female Scoops - Ahs, Ees, Oos, Ohs, Mms

Understand that these are all velocity switched, multisampled stereo sounds. And the above listings cover only 10 of the 29 categories offered on the four CDs. There are a lot of articulations, phrases and soloists in each category too.

For a full listing, go here...

http://www.ilio.com/spectrasonics/symphonyofvoices/index.html

Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and the far right tabs offer detailed sound listings and a short exceprt from the liner notes.

Both are wonderful productions.

But in addition to what Akshara said, I'd recommend a very careful study of both licenses. As I recall, one (if not both) have rather strong use limitations with either television or soundtrack albums. I can't recall the specifics, but given the price for either VOTA or SOV, that's not a surprise you want after you've made your purchase.

Regards,

Joe Tabby