by Eisengrim » Fri Apr 25, 2014 1:34 pm
There are a few improvements I'd like to see to existing libraries -- actual harmonics in the strings, for instance -- but my biggest wish would have to be for a choir library.
Not being adept at technological wizardry, I use Garritan exclusively in Finale, and the choir is the biggest fault I find in the sounds available there. You can create a pretty decent orchestral sound there -- I'm not producing perfect mp3s, just listening to my scores, but everything choral is just... well, embarassing. Especially if you're got a choir singing along with the orchestra. Not least because the slightly better choir sounds have ludicrously small ranges and so you end up using the not-as-good patches.
So an easily-integratable choir library would be nice, ideally with some form of keyswitching available for changing syllables. Nothing too ornate -- it doesn't need to be on the level, of, say, EW's Symphonic Choirs (whose word building is quite impressive -- the 'Glory to the Knight' sample is kind of jaw-dropping, actually, even if the intonation is rather weird), but at least getting to choose vowels. Anything more elaborate would probably have to be developed in tandem with Finale, which would likely have to design a new Choir View in the style of the Studio View. So we'd probably end up with a Finale for Choirs that could be integrated into full Finale for extra money. (And if this ends up being what happens, you're all witnesses that I'm owed royalties on this.)
What I particularly hope, though, is that Garritan realises that there's a huge hole in the market to be filled, one that they're particularly well-suited to plug given how integrated they are with Finale. I don't know what Garritan's share of the market looks like when you remove Finale users from the equation, but I imagine it's a fairly vertiginous drop, so there's a base to be placated there. And Finale is extremely common for education and community users. All the good choir packages I've come across, on the other hand, are geared towards huge video game and cinematic sounds.
So I hope Garritan will notice the place for a chamber choir. I was very disappointed when I found out that Soundiron's Micro Choir wasn't actually a small choir, just not-as-much of the big one. Instead of sampling a 60-voice cinematic choir like Soundiron did, go and record a 20-voice choir like the Elmer Iseler Singers or someone, and the local choir directors of the world will be grovelling at Garritan's feet. Something that could do a creditable (if wordless) rendition of, say, a Palestrina mass, Mozart's Ave Verum, Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine, a few folk song arrangements, and let's say Zadoc the Priest and the Hallelujah chorus for volume control, would be a huge attraction. None of the other packages I've come across can manage that. (Maybe they can and just don't put out samples of them, but the Vienna Choir's attempt at Palestrina leaves me sceptical. Still too loud.)
Of course, on top of that I'd like a library of 9 soloists (coloratura soprano, lyrical soprano, mezzo, alto, countertenor, heldentenor, lyrical tenor, baritone and bass), but now I'm just getting greedy. Here too, things don't need to be as elaborate as Soundiron's 'Voices of Rapture' series -- it would just be nice to be able to properly distinguish between the choir and the soloist.
All of these, of course, would have to have reasonable, real-life ranges. And ideally the development team would include an actual real-world choral director as opposed to a bunch of people going 'I wanna be able to do the Lord of the Rings soundtrack with this!'