Recording - April 2011 - 57

velocity (which can be assigned to suit your touch) determines which of them is active at any given moment. The men and women, separated by several octaves, are laid out in parallel fashion, with some nice-sounding effects thrown in, so it’s easy to get a feel for the Phrase Builder. Creating phrases is easy. After activating staccato and sustains for both the Men and Women, I opened up the Phrase Builder page. Key switches laid out on the bottom CC octave on an 88 key controller let you toggle between a maximum of 12 phrases. Each phrase has slots for up to 20 syllables, which include vowels and Latin sounding fragments. A selection of effects is also included on this page. I used the Random function when I improvised this track, then went back and created a 20 syllable phrase in slot 1 and a second phrase that had just the syllable “A,” which yields the “ah” sound. In overdub mode I recorded key switches that alternated between these two phrases. It’s important to note that the Phrase Builder incorporates legato technique. Notes connected by legato touch will remain on the syllable that’s active. When you release a key before playing the next note the Phrase Builder will move to the next syllable in your phrase. Let’s reload the Legato Sections and try to figure out what the so-called Voice Leading Engine is all about. I sat down and improvised a short chorale-like phrase. Audio clip

3 has the VLE engaged. Wow, that’s really smooth. Playing back the same phrase with the VLE disengaged yields a far less satisfying result, as you can hear in audio clip 4. Oh, I get it—the voice leading engine lets you play block chords while still getting the smoothness of legato transitions. Nice. Back to Bach And now—the main event. In this corner the challenger, VOXOS. Over there, the undisputed heavyweight champion, J.S. “The Chorale Kid” Bach. Let’s recall the Phrase Builder and put VOXOS to the ultimate test: intoning the opening bars of Bach’s B Minor Mass. Kyrie Eleison (“Lord have mercy”)—has there ever been a simpler or more poignant sentence? Unanimously viewed as one of the pinnacles of Western art, the B Minor Mass demands purity, gravity, and balance from any choir that attempts to sing it. Bach wastes no time getting down to business; from the opening bars of this first part of the Mass, anguish and redemption are in full effect. I started out by tracking the organ part, which is actually a reduction of the orchestral score. Using just one instance of VOXOS I built the five-part choir (which includes a pair of soprano staves) from the bottom up. Then I used the Phrase Builder to construct a single string of syllables. If I was going for maximal authenticity I would have tracked the parts individually with their own

legato phrasing to capture the melismas that Bach wrote for each part. The piece sounded excitingly good while it was being put together, but once I finished sequencing the entire choir and migrated over to the Mixing page to select only the Far and Surround mic placements (to impart that huge church sound) I went back, hit Play, and... I was literally dumbfounded by what I heard. The full scope of Bach’s dramatic intention—it was all there. I had to bring my wife Jerri down to my studio. Over the years Jerri has shown a remarkable indifference to any and all aspects of music technology, but when she heard this sequence she literally could not believe that samples were involved. Check out audio clip 5. What do you think? Singing the praises VOXOS is a remarkable product. Do I wish that the developers had found a way to let the user type in phrases, which would sound authentic on play back? Sure, and maybe the technology will allow for that at some point. VOXOS is still in development; Cinesamples is currently working on a free update to VOXOS which will include new material and some tightening up of the original sample set— check their website for details. But the recordings are superb, the tools are powerful and easy to use, and if you’re looking to augment your arsenal with a highly effective choir, you have to check VOXOS out.

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Recording - April 2011

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