Mechanised Choir
A 'vocoded' choral instrument, 'ah' and 'oh' vowels sang through a TC Helicon Talkbox Synth pedal... Become one with the Machine
ByTobias James
The story
Inspired by mucking about with my ‘TC Helicon Talkbox Synth’ pedal (a second-hand find) I wanted to create a synthesised vocal sound, but (hopefully) with enough life and character to not sound fully synthetic. The mod wheel fades between the two vowel sounds.
Originally I had planned on a slightly more complex instrument but ultimately some things didn’t work out, such as the round robins which somehow ended up being too different to be usable, and it became a matter of diminishing returns. And let’s be honest, I ran out of steam/enthusiasm! But still, I really enjoy how it sounds!
The samples cover every note from midi numbers 45 to 71 (A to B, just over two octaves) and then I’ve artificially extended the range just a tiny bit, down to 36 and up to 72. I’ve indicated this by colour-coding the on-screen keyboard, white and light grey respectively, and then out of range keys are dark grey.
Anyway, thanks so much to everyone on the Pianobook discord server who gave feedback and advice over the course of development. Thanks especially to Sid_B for helping me troubleshoot a loop-point issue and putting me on to Polyphone, which I ended up using to set my loop points when REAPER and Audition were both misbehaving in different ways! And thank You for giving my instrument a go! I hope you enjoy it and find some use for it.
A quick demonstration video
Interface
Reviews
LOVE the UI as well as the PAK
Wow Tobias - what a great addition to my library. I'd love to know more about the process you used to build the background png. I have just written an ALLELUIA for a choir - I will post it to PB demos once it's complete. Again - would love to know more about the UI BG. let me know if you can - rga@rgaproductions.com
Very Cool
This sample library is really cool, the only things I would like are a larger range and more control over the timbre and shape of the sound, though they are already very good.
Really good, unique choir sound
The intent to be somewhere in between a realistic choir sound and a synthetic or "artificial" one here was IMO a success. For me that's why the value is mostly leaning heavily towards the "ah" sound, but depending on what I'm doing, it might not. It's simply very well done and many thanks for it!