I’m not sure whether your question is directed at Fabrizio or at me. Since Fabrizio published his rendition of Sicut Cervus in 2019 before Opus was introduced, he must have been using Play. My videos were created using Play version 5.0.1 on Windows 10.
Thank you John! Great work.
I am also very interested in the subject because I write for choir as well. I use Hollywood Choir for this purpose. You can listen to the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis here:
Magnificat
Nunc Dimittis
I have made these in Cubase but I would love to be able to produce this from Dorico as that is my notation software (obviously).
I see you use Play 5; would this be possible with Opus as wel? I have Windows 10 also.
I hope there will be an upgrade to these choir libraries as I can tell you I had to edit A LOT to make the syllables more convincing and as you can hear I could have done more. But enough is enough at times…
One thing I dislike is that there are certain accents coming from nowhere…also with one instance because I avoid double choirs when there are unisons in singing. .and sometimes the rhythm is not as notated or as in midi; random too fast or kind of dotted where there are two strait 8th notes. Do you experience this too?
Best! Frank
In this post, @Brian_Roland said that Opus VST3 does not work with Dorico but Opus VST2 does work when bridged via Bidule (at extra expense).
If you create a test project in which the women’s or men’s voices sing the same vowel sound at every possible pitch, I suspect that some pitches will sound noticeably louder than others; this is where the perceived accents are coming from.
I have encountered this problem on rare occasions, usually when a syllable begins with too many consonants.
Hmm, I’m using Opus right now on my Win 10 system/Doric Pro 3.5 with no probs. Specifically EW Gypsy and Voices Of Passion. The choirs work too, but I haven’t tried Wordbuilder ( I use Cubase for that, but so far the results are nowhere near as good as the demos above.)
I assume that most people who would be interested in using the EastWest Choirs with Dorico would want to use WordBuilder; otherwise, there are lots of vocal libraries that provide oohs and ahs. So when I am asked whether an EW Choir will work with Dorico, my answer also assumes that the questioner will want to use WordBuilder.
The wordbuilder part for Symphonic and Hollywood choirs is what was not working with Dorico for me.
Those hang up and do not cycle properly. My solution is to bridge Opus or Play6 through Bidule and then it works. For someone that doesn’t have Bidule, keep a copy of Play5 on the system and that works in Dorico for the choir wordbuilder. Play5 isn’t showing on the main website anymore, but the links are still good from the wayback engine and such. I’ve links to it here.
So, would VEP do the job too?
It might. I don’t know. It’s worth a try if you have VEP.
I have read that some are using Play5 in VEP.
The good news about rolling back to Play5 is this. It keeps its files in a different location from Play6 and Opus. Using the installers to quickly roll back and forth, it won’t over-write your Play6 stuff, and using the ‘uninstall’ options don’t delete your user files.
I think Play5 and Play6 do use the same plugin ID, so don’t keep both plugins in the plugin directory at the same time. Swap them out…
If one wanted, could just make a simple batch script or something to swap between play 5 and 6 with a click (exchange the plugins in whatever directory you keep it in before launching your host(s)).
PS, the main difference I can see in play 5 and 6…is play 6 is more integrated into XCloud. You can preview and download instruments one at a time from inside Play itself. Otherwise, I see very little if any difference between the two.
I am using Wordbuilder/Play 5.0.6 in VEP which works fine with the general reservations such as accented notes, some consonants (most commonly “s” for some reason) dropping etc which have been discussed here and elsewhere. Like @johnkprice to me the raison d’etre of SC is the Wordbuilder feature and I do hope they update the library with Opus support before too long. The hope of this is the main reason I don’t want to invest too much more time working on the results with the current system
Opus and WordBuilder work correctly in Finale, Sibelius, Notion and Overture. I hope the Dorico team will look into this at some point.
1 Like
with what? I wasn’t aware there was a version of Symphonic Choirs available to run under Opus? If there is and it works OK with other notation software, I’d like to get the details of exactly what you have been testing.
1 Like
I have not tested it extensively, but Symphonic Choirs and word builder ‘seem’ to work in Opus in my brief ‘check’. The button to enter word builder isn’t in the place we’re used to seeing it in Play, but it can be found if you load it into Opus tab around.
dko, all the old libraries work in Opus.
Brian, Wordbuilder shows up in the Perform tab. As stated above, the syllables don’t progress with the notes.
In Dorico, true. Otherwise it seems to work for me in stand alone, or in other hosts (or if bridged via Bidule in Dorico).
Sorry, I’d picked up on the comments about it working in other hosts…
in which case the information on the EWQL FAQ is very misleading. In addition, there is no way you can download Opus to my knowledge on its own unless you are a subscriber? How did you (and Brian) get hold of it ? I’m of course very curious to test it for myself if possible!
I had a go, and from their FAQ, they’re only offering Opus to people with Hollywood Strings Gold and/or the subscription. They plan to introduce Opus to other users later, but it will have a cost.
that’s exactly what I read months ago. So I assume that @wcreed and @Brian_Roland are probably subscribers then which won’t help me.
Yes, I was curious about the choirs with word-builder and some other things. Decided to take advantage of a discount offer they had back in the summer and give XCloud a try for a year and see how I like those, and other instruments from EW. Out of the gate, they sent installers for Play6 and Opus.
My main beef with EW is that a licence only covers a single seat.
1 Like
and I have no interest in other EWQL software at present so my only option is to wait for Opus to be made available to non-subscribers.