Not a Dorico-specific question but I thought this would be a good place to ask, and maybe useful to others on here.
I’ve tried so many different sounds to stand in for a solo vocalist on playback, depending on the project: plain piano or e.piano sounds, or flute/oboe/clarinet/bassoon, or sometimes a custom-made vocal-ish synth patch.
The one thing that definitely sounds awful to represent a solo vocalist is any default choral sound! They always have a super slow attack and release, have no legato, and generally just sound like a muddle for anything but pads, making the melody totally unclear. The exact opposite of useful.
I’m not trying to create “realistic” solo vocal playback, and don’t want anything that takes a lot of extra effort. I’m just sick of what I’ve been using and curious what sounds others find useful as a placeholder. Bonus points if it’s something one can access easily in Dorico (a Halion sound for instance). The current project I’m working on is 3 operatic voices (countertenor, mezzo, baritone) and a mostly conventional chamber orchestra, if that helps.
What I’ve found to work well in a pop/rock context is a warm brassy synth sound. Cuts through the mix, has a nice complex sound with some shimmer/vibrato/tremolo.
I sometimes use Vibes. They have a definite attack, but still are somewhat mellow overall, and I usually am not writing for actual Vibes in most projects I do. Probably not super appropriate for operatic stuff though, LOL!
Interesting! I do like things that have an attack, but the cutoff (length of note) is super crucial and I feel vibes aren’t great for that. Electric piano is a bit better in that regard, I’ve found, as it decays a little less (but still not the greatest for long notes)
That makes sense. Maybe for this operatic sound that one is too dense & detuned. But yeah sometimes it’s better to go synthy because it doesn’t get confused with the actual orchestra.
Another option might be to combine sounds. If you were to use the choir for the sustain, but double the parts with something that has a clear attack, like vibes, you might end up with a good compromise. I suppose you would have to create new staves for the vibes and then hide them on the score layout. But this way you could EQ the vibes to tamp down some of the harshness of the attack so that it blends.
Actually, I’ve written quite a bit of vocal music using Kontakt’s stock choral sounds including several songs, choral pieces, and half an opera. Of course, it doesn’t sound great, but it does the trick because I never intend to use the sound in a public-facing music performance.
There is, somewhere, a plug-in that’s a singing simulator. I think there’s an overview on the Scoring Notes Web site if you’re interested. I tried it but since I’m simply mocking things up for myself, it was too much effort to get it to sound good. The Kontakt chorus suffices for my purpose but of course, YMMV.
There are programs like EmVoice and VOCALOID for to add lyrics to solo voices, but EmVoice needs to be run through a DAW to add dynamic variations, and the English singers in VOCALOID still have some vowel sounds (“oo” in particular) that sound more Japanese than English.
While these are great tools in their way, no one is going to mistake them for live singers, and they both tend more towards “pop” voice timbres than concert hall or musical theater sounds. (Male voices all sound more tenor like than baritone or bass no mater what one does to them.)
There are also choral parallels for these, but I have no experience with them.