I got an email announcement today from Steinberg for a new sound library called Colors. Couldn’t find any information as to possible compatibility with Dorico. Does anybody know?
Also, has anyone here tried it yet, particularly with choral sounds. I use NotePerformer for everything else, but their choral sounds are horrible, even with vibrato turned off.
There are a few versions of colors make sure to check you are getting the library you want. I have two of them - tapes and vintage synths, sound quality is great - depends on what sounds you are after.
The version I got the email about is called “Orchestra: Colors.” It says it contains sounds of solo instruments, blends of instruments, and choral sounds. I find NotePerformer perfectly adequate for instrumental sounds but sadly lacking for choral.
Orchestral Colors are just as bad as all the other choral sounds.
Oh dear! Do you know of ANY choral sounds that are even halfway realistic?
Maybe try one of the choirs at eastwest sounds? It’s pretty cheap to sign-up for their all access pass and test them out before buying to see if you like them. You can type your own words/syllables into Hollywood choir.
The only sampled choirs which can sing the text you write are the Hollywood and Symphonic Choirs from EWQL as @Alex_Oryan mentioned. As they use a phonetic alphabet, they can effectively sing in any language, though there is direct support of English. There are plenty of quite decent ones which have limited or no text ability if it’s simply the choral sound you’re looking for (Dominus is one which is quite often recommended)
This will change in due course with the advent of AI and such companies like Cantai about which there has been a lot of discussion on the forum but they’re not quite there yet with choirs. Another possibility with a rather beautiful sound is the Catalan company Cantamus.
The only thing I really know of (at present, Cantai expectations excepted) is using Synth V and Vocoflex.
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I don’t honestly care about the words. I just want voices that sound like voices. NotePerformer voices sound like some sort of a cross between a saxophone and a 'cello.
In that case, EWQL has quite a few choices other than Hollywood choirs. Their voices of passion are arranged by national tradition ie wales, Arabic, American, etc, with prerecorded phrases, vowels etc. They also have voices of the opera, background voices - I’m probably forgetting some. When they fit your piece they can be effective IMO.