Oboe Choir
This instrument began as one of those slightly strange ideas in the middle of the night. I was thinking about how pads, synths and these choral voices that we all use are generally preferred if they are born from natural, organic sounds; and as an oboist why is it that wind instruments are not used […]
The story
This instrument began as one of those slightly strange ideas in the middle of the night. I was thinking about how pads, synths and these choral voices that we all use are generally preferred if they are born from natural, organic sounds; and as an oboist why is it that wind instruments are not used more for this purpose?
At 3am in a student halls of residence it is generally considered unacceptable to start recording music, so I formed this pad out of some leftover scraps of audio from a previous session.
The choir is made up of purely two sounds: the oboe, and the cor anglais which have been combined to double the octave.
The instrument is almost self evolving, and although there is only one sample stretched across the whole keyboard, it evolves from organ-like in the bass, to very choral in the mid register, to very fragile and dirty at the top.
Reviews
Dang what a cinematic sound!
Immediately, I felt like I was scoring some sci-fi thriller! Just some simple, slow melody lines or ominous chords go a long way with this. Excellent use for drones too. The control knobs give it a completely different sound too, plenty of room for experimentation. I found that I enjoyed it more with the tone knob lower, at times the high notes are a bit harsh or overpowering.
A very unique kind of oboe sound
While the oboe by itself is a very warm and hard to capture instrument, these combined sounds result in a very textured signature that I really doubt you'll find anywhere else, and that's the beauty of this community anyway. Because of this kind of sound, I'd say it won't be very optimal to play multiple notes at the same time, since that might create some chaos.
As a last note, I think that all the samples are slightly panned more to the right channel, but that's not something to turn you away.
Very expressive for such a simple library
This is a nice library for pads and long textures, and it holds pretty well as a backdrop for more "natural" orchestral sounds, or for some solo/sound effects.
The tuning "problems" that others have indicated are indeed there, but I find they're part of the overall sonority that I like here. You won't get a pristine, clean chord here, but a lusher colour that's always moving a bit. For me, that's a positive.