Software Review
The perfect mix of pristine, high-quality recordings and creative sound design
It has taken over six years to produce this choir library from UVI. And it is clear that they have been extremely careful and well prepared in the work of sampling all these voices. Here we find everything in terms of vocals, from classical choirs and folk music parts to solo voices and synthetic sounds where they’ve really taken things to the extreme. In short, here we will find most of what you could need to create expressive vocal creations.
Captured With Precision
All recordings have been made with the utmost care. This applies to both microphone selection and placement. UVI simply wanted to capture all the nuances and variations of all the singers who contributed to this choir library. For example, they have made sure to capture the natural release part of the classical choir members. Here, all notes are allowed to ring out in a natural way. The developers at UVI call it True Release.
They have also managed to capture a number of unique articulations, vocals with long reverberations, dynamic volume increases (swells) and other special techniques, all in order to be able to create a library with lots of creative possibilities.
The voices have been sampled in several different good-sounding locations – each with its own, special sound character. Although Augmented Choirs contains a variety of expressive sounds, great care has been taken to ensure that the most common and most useful sounds – vocals like Aah, Eeh – are reproduced with the best possible fidelity. The result is more than 500 different vocal sources that can be used in their pure form or transformed almost beyond recognition using the various effects included.
Lots of voices
The different sounds in Augmented Choirs have been divided into different categories with different characters and areas of use. It is actually so much more than a regular choir library. UVI has used its proven sampling technology to create a very good-sounding package, but it offers so much more than just familiar voices. Each preset can consist of up to four different vocal sounds and here you can mix, morph and modulate between the different vocal parts.
In addition, as mentioned, there are a variety of synthetic vocal sounds that make it all incredibly exciting. And here there are both synth sounds, vocoder effects, and tape noise if you want to experiment.
Augmented Choirs also offers a sequencer that allows you to create rhythmic textures, ostinatos, or “swells” that change over time – and all this also based on the more static basic sounds.
A sea of presets
Augmented Choirs offers more than 800 ready-made presets, for those who want something to start from. And if you don’t want to fiddle and tweak too much, there are plenty of fully usable presets here that can be used just as they are. Using this library you can create pretty much everything from soundscapes for film music to pure pop productions – and everything in between. In some presets the human voice is presented in an extraordinarily convincing and realistic way, but there is also working material to start from for the most creative modern sound designers.
Different signal sources
The voices are divided into different categories, each with its own special character and area of application. At the same time, you are encouraged to dare to experiment with all the included extra functions.
The classic voices were recorded in a legendary concert hall in Budapest, and those who share their voices are all members of one of the city’s best choirs. The powerful voices in Massive Tutti stand out in particular. A hundred-member choir recorded with the large concert hall as a sounding board. Very powerful!
Here you find everything from discreet whispers to floating textures – everything you can imagine from soft humming and open vocal sounds to extremely dramatic effects, and all delivered with natural nuances and a large portion of musicality. Here you are offered two different microphone setups. One close-micked and intimate, the other more distant with a more open character.
The studio version is more compact than the classic set. It was recorded in a studio and therefore provides both greater accuracy and flexibility. Here, tenors, basses, altos and sopranos are allowed to sing at the same time, creating a natural mix of voices. In the “All” setting, you have access to all of these voices at the same time.
Folk music by chord is a somewhat unique variant where the choir provides ready-made chords for polyphonic composing. Here, ready-made, fixed intervals such as fifths, sixths, sus4 and more are sung. This of course allows you to create harmonious sounds in a completely new way. Here, the male and female voices have been recorded separately, with both long, short and crescendo-like articulations. Very useful in a variety of contexts.
The Georgian Choir was recorded in Tbilisi, Georgia, and consists entirely of women. It has a somewhat mysterious character filled with the typical timbre of the region. It offers a large set of different articulations such as Aah, Ooh and Mmm, but also syllables with more attack such as Che and Da. My thoughts wander to the female voices that Kate Bush has used as background on some of her albums.
The multi-sampled phrases make the whole thing very realistic and you also have access to special effects such as glissandi and voice-controlled percussion imitations.
The solo voices consist of six different vocalists, all with slightly different characters. Here they have created a mix of acoustic pop voices and “hybrid choirs”, thus achieving a wonderful blend of both organic and synthetic sounds.
In the Synths & Processed department, the developers have to some extent continued on this track, and here the UVI team has shown that they really master sampling of both synths and human voices, and then processing all this with all available means. Here there are both iconic synth voices and vocoders. Together with classic tape effects, the result is vocal parts that could just as easily have been an electronic instrument.
This package has been divided into seven different parts: Synth Choirs, Pad Choirs, Attack Choirs, FX Movement, Formant Waves, Vocoded Choirs and finally Tape Choirs, where the sampled choirs have been re-sampled to tape, which has been slowed down or sped up. Quite amazing!
How does it all sound, to be honest?
How do we describe this library? Of course, impressive is an appropriated word, but Augmented Choirs also offers choirs that sound really powerful, choirs with the most delicate sound images, choirs that just sound incredibly realistic, and if you then mix several different segments from this choir package, really sweet music is made – almost by itself. It is also so easy to do this – regardless of whether you use the free player UVI Workstation, or the really powerful sampling program Falcon, where version 3.1.1 or later applies.
Since you have four different choir slots to fill with whatever you feel like at the moment, you can just pick and choose. Maybe you want some of the lucid solo voices and mix them with the Georgian choir, and in the background you might then want to add some different sounds from the synth package. Go ahead, just put them in their respective slots, and then you can add the effects on offer, completely according to what you think could work at the moment. And here you have both send effects and bus effects available.
However, what impresses me the most is the high quality and versatility of the clean voices. Here UVI shows that they really have mastered the sampling technology. Earlier they have released quite a few sampled versions of various classic synthesizers – both Oberheim, Roland variants and others – and opinions differ as to which technology can best recreate these, sampled or emulated software synthesizers, but when it comes to human voices, percussion and the like, sampling wins ten days a week. And UVI has acquired enormous expertise in this area over the years. This is noticeable both in the quality of the end result and the efficiency achieved. This library never becomes cumbersome or difficult to work with like other choir libraries tend to be. High sound quality, fast loading and glitch-free handling are key words that linger after having worked with Augmented Choirs for a few weeks. Full points!
Summary
By combining real, and extremely realistically sampled voices with synthetic versions, UVI has managed to create an incredibly useful choir library in Augmented Choirs. You have over 800 (!) presets at your disposal, loads of useful effects and a playback engine that handles four different sets of creative sounds at the same time. With Augmented Choirs, the UVI sampling team offers a truly powerful and versatile sound palette for music creators in all imaginable genres. I am tempted to use the cliché “Only your imagination sets the limits”, but in this case that expression feels extremely accurate and appropriate. Go to UVI’s website, listen and judge for yourself!
Links
Watch it in action:
Trailer:
Showcase:
SPECS & SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- Runs in UVI Workstation version 4.0+, and Falcon version 3.1.1+
- iLok account (free, dongle not required)
- Internet connection for the license activation
- Supported Operating Systems:
– macOS 10.14 Mojave to macOS 15 Sequoia
– Windows 10 to Windows 11 (64-bit) - 21 GB of disk space
- Hard Drive: 7,200 rpm recommended or Solid State Drive (SSD)
- 4GB RAM (8 GB+ highly recommended for large UVI Soundbanks)
Developer UVI, www.uvi.net
Price 199 euro; Black Friday: 99 euro
COMPATIBILITY
Supported Formats: Audio Unit, AAX, VST, VST3, Standalone
Tested and Certified in: Digital Performer 8+, Pro Tools 2019+, Logic Pro X+, Cubase 7+, Nuendo 6+, Ableton Live 8+, Studio One 2+, Garage Band 6+, Maschine 1+, Tracktion 4+, Vienna Ensemble Pro 5+, Reaper 4+, Sonar X3+, MainStage 3, MuLab 5.5+, FL Studio, Bitwig 1+, Reason 9.5+, Ability 1+
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