Home

EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs Virtual Instrument Manual

1. 13 Set the MIDI in to your MIDI Controller input port Do not leave this input set to All It must be set to a physical MIDI input INSERTS A E SENDS A E fi autorea 7 Choirs 1 L S M read Choirs2 wal 88 val 86 val He wal 88 vol 86 vol 56 e m p D E D Play Wordbulldr Choirs Choirs 2 Choirs 3 Choirs 4 Choirs 5 Choirs 6 14 Set the MIDI out to WordBuilder 1 Channel 1 15 Create 6 new MIDI tracks 16 Name the 6 new MIDI tracks Choirs 1 through Choirs 6 17 Set the MIDI input for Choirs 1 to Choirs 6 to the values of Virtual WordBuilder 2 channel 1 through channel 6 The channel should match the track name e g Choirs 3 should be set to Wordbuilder 2 channel 3 A suoresa 7 18 Set the MIDI output for Choirs 1 to Choirs 6 to the PLAY plug in The channel should match the track name e g Choirs 2 kl should be set to PLAY 1 channel 2 Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 19 Hold the SHIFT key and click on the record enable buttons for all 7 MIDI tracks including the WordBuilder track as in the tall narrow image at the right on the previous page Always leave Choirs 1 to Choirs 6 record enabled When you no longer need to re hearse or record with Symphonic Choirs you should take only the WordBuilder track out of record mode Please note
2. FX Bin Cakewalk FX k wWordBuilder MF Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder DO EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Enter notes into the track as shown in the first image above and words into WordBulld er s Text Editor When you play the track you should hear Sonar sing the words you typed WordBuilder Running Standalone with Logic These steps start by opening a Sopranos voice type as an example but you can choose any voice type you like as long as you are consistent through all the steps 1 Launch WordBuilder PLAY from your Applications gt East West folder Set the voice type to Sopranos for this example Set the MIDI IN Port to EASTWEST Virtual Wordbuilder 1 and set the MIDI OUT Port to EASTWEST Virtual Word builder 2 Leave the channels set to 1 In the main Wordbuilder window type some words in or load a phrase 2 Open a new project in Logic Create a new Software Instrument Instantiate PLAY onto this Instrument track and rename the track itself to PLAY Open the PLAY plug in and within the Browser view select a Sopranos multi ewi file from the EWQL Choirs Instruments Multis folder 3 Goto the Window menu and select the Environment window Select the Clicks amp Ports environment page There you will see the physical and virtual ports available on the system including the 4 WordBuilder virtual ports You will also see here a Sum cable from the Physical Input ports goi
3. Ww Ut Pre Delay Volume M 1 d 1 B E j f Fer f0rireaheee E fe boucropdones 2 8 EN ENS ON ON ON RESET s N N a Y M Y Portamento Repetition Legato Round Robin 8 8 v a Pan Onvelope Nl Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 5 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT IAC Bus 7 Draw a cable from the tert Wordavilder 1 Physical Input port P9 caps Lock ke splitter where it says WordBuilder 2 Con nect this cable to the PLAY instrument track 8 Record enable the MIDI track in your arrange window and play the song Make sure you are playing in the appropri ate range for the voice type selected 9 Logic sends data to WordBuilder on these Physical Input channels via Virtual WordBulilder Port 1 and receives the channel ized data back on Port 2 which is cabled directly to the PLAY 10 Save this project as a template for future ref erence MIDI Click Input View MALUI Input Notes aT ATATATATATAT AT ATATATATAT AT ATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATLTATATATATATAT LT ATATATATATATLTATATATATATATATATAT BTS Creating the WordBuilder Voice Once WordBuilder has been loaded into the host the Voice Properties window opens The MIDI input from the host is managed by the host therefore the Voice Properties dialog is much simpler than when opening Word zi Builder standalone Name the voice select the sampled voice you intend to use and select the Vo
4. qe First Sopranos J e When started on a Windows PC all the windows open inside a frame allowing you to work on several voice files at once within the same program The image at the right shows two voices First Sopranos and Sec ond Sopranos as part of a single choir E N FPE CT UE e When started on a Mac each window opens on the desktop seemingly independent of the other The image below shows the same two Wordbuilder voices open on a Macintosh Second Sopranos ADE sof WO UR PL OPE LD AALS P2 E Fi m T V ST zd Boo Er First Sopranos Type Sopranoa Each voice requires a setup in the Options dialog like what is described on page 74 Each voice within the choir uses its own MIDI ports for both input and output For exam ple if First Sopranos and Second Sopranos each have their own tracks in the sequencer then each is set to a different MIDI port and those same two ports are assigned to the two voices in WordBulilder In contrast when opened in a host program you can insert as many instances of Word Builder as your computer resources allow Each instance is its own voice and is pro grammed individually The set of all voices open at once is called a choir For example a choir might have two Soprano voices and two Alto voices SSAA When you choose Save all the voices are Chapter 4 A Quick Tour of WordBuilder 39 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT wri
5. vent them from showing up unneces we midi in Pertz c sarily when selecting a port from the Maple Midi In Port 3 v drop down list You should only need to xu wi do this step once and your selections LAE E will be remembered Weems Lor every new voice you open within PLAY you need to select the port Channel 17 USS Keysiaton from which it will receive MIDI data The image at the left shows where Transpose Maple Midi in Port 2 you make this selection in the PLAY window In this example Maple Maple Midi In Port3 Midi In Port 3 is being selected That choice matches the Out Port 3 selected in WordBuilder above which now allows WordBuilder to send its output directly to the PLAY engine and its samples When using WordBuilder as a plug in within a host program there s no need for a Loop back Connector The plug in s interface such as VST MA or MFX handles the MIDI data Installation Specifics Most of the instructions for how to install any library in the PLAY system are in the main PLAY System manual Because Symphonic Choirs also has to install WordBuilder there Is an extra step in the installation process as described below The exact look of this choice depends on your operating system so read the correct section below Chapter 2 EWQL Symphonic Choirs An Overview 18 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT On a Mac The installation on a Mac takes you through a series of pages that a
6. EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs Virtual Instrument Users Manual EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not rep resent a commitment on the part of East West Sounds Inc The software and sounds described in this document are subject to License Agreements and may not be copied to other media No part of this publication may be copied reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded for any purpose without prior written permission by East West Sounds Inc All product and company names are or trademarks of their respective owners East West Sounds Inc 2009 All rights reserved East West Sounds Inc 6000 Sunset Blvd Hollywood CA 90028 USA 1 323 957 6969 voice 1 323 957 6966 fax For questions about licensing of products licensing eastwestsounds com For more general information about products info eastwestsounds com http support soundsonline com EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 2 3 9 6 7 8 9 About EastWest Producer Doug Rogers Producer Nick Phoenix Recording Engineer Prof Keith 0 Johnson Credits How to Use This and the Other Manuals Online Documentation and Other Resources Click on this text to open the Master Navigation Document l EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Welcome About EastWest EastWest
7. Instead you will probably be matching the position of the Mod Wheel as the choir pro gresses from one note to the next When dragging a node a small rectangle called a tool tip opens on the screen The x and y values locate the exact position of the node as it moves The x coordinate locates the node in time measured in milliseconds In the accompanying screen shot the x value is 224 ms If you see negative values that only indicates that the time is in the right pane and so do not signify a time before O ms The y coordinate specifies the value of CC1 on a scale from O to 127 In the screen shot the node in the upper envelope is being dragged with the mouse not visible in the im age The Mod Wheel at the third node is at a position of 46 about 36 of the maximum 127 You can use these y coordinates to match the position of an envelope at the end of one phonetic segment to the position at the start of the next one if desired It s also possible that you may want to set the position at a fixed value and leave it there For example if you like the sound of the tenors at a Mod Wheel position of 4O in the TENR WB SOFT MOD instrument then you can set it to that level consistently But be aware that you will get more realistic results if nothing in a performance remains static for too long Real choirs never retain an exact dynamic or a consistent level of vibrato over every note in a composition Other Envelopes You can use the t
8. Instrument Properties spin control in the PLAY user interface set to 32 simultaneous voices It is also possible to modify this value in the Current Instrument Properties Pitch Bend Intensity 2 55 dialog box which can be opened from the main menu Voice Limit and selecting Current Instrument gt Advanced Properties The image at the right shows part of that dialog with the Voice Limit set to 40 Tuning W c EI Articulations Control This control is much larger and more prominent than in some ARTICULATIONS other EastWest and Quantum Leap virtual instruments Where uem others show a maximum of 4 articulations at a time EWQLSC ae shows up to 16 at once rm Da mm Esp Vib 2 adi Dit amp o Mon Uib em ERonEspUib A Bdb F8 00 Mon Lip The first 3 columns within the Articulations control allow you to do the following tasks e Activate and De activate an articulation Click in the first col umn a visible check mark means that the articulation will sound when played e Load and Unload samples Click in the second column to release the samples from computer memory and click again to reload them into memory Use this facility to unload any samples you will not be using to save CPU resources A visible check means the samples are loaded e Change the loudness of the individual articulations Click and drag up or down to make that articulation louder or softer without affecting the o
9. phabets you should only need to learn one The EWQLSC team recommends always us ing Votox sounding out the words to achieve the desired sound Use the other two modes to help you learn Votox but once mastered Votox gives you more direct control because you re working in the same alphabet as WordBuilder with no conversion necessary The tables are on the next two pages positioned one per page in case you want to want to print out a page to use as a reference guide while you learn your phonetic alphabet of choice Chapter 9 The Phonetic Alphabets 95 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Phonetic Alphabet with English Vowels PHONETIC ALPHABETS WITH ENGLISH VOWELS Phonetics Votox a a Ai Au b c d d e e U a aE u0 b C d t money rough copper wander white sigh brown mouse blue slab chair catch red candor the neither red steady black after grey slate file enough green leg ping hangar hat ahead index finger green ski orange fidget black coal blue less Chapter 9 The Phonetic Alphabets Phonetics Votox m n 0 0i Ou p r m n 0 oE 00 P money hammer green snug Orange naughty oil boy yellow ocean pink upper red car purple lower Silver lace white true theme sloth put could blue pool olive avert wait awash fix excess flesh nation yellow yonder Zero poison vision azure 96 EAST
10. Create a Voice File from the selected voice Create a Voice Learn File with timing information for the selected voice Close WordBuilder Chapter 5 The WordBuilder Menus 43 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The Edit Menu File Edit View voice Tools Window Help WordBuilder PLAY File View Voice Tools Window Help Undo Ctrl 2 Undo 362 Reda tr Cut Chrl Cut 8X Copy Ctrl C Copy C Paste Ctr Paste 36V Paste Text only Cbrl Shrt Paste Text only eV Delete Delete Del Select All 38A Select All Ckri A Here are the operations available from the Edit menu Undo Undo the last change can be called repeatedly to undo up to 100 changes Redo Reapply the last Undo can be called repeatedly until there s no more to undo Cut Copy Paste The usual features Paste Text Only Paste only text from the clipboard no timing data is copied Delete Delete the selected text select All select all the text The View Menu File Edit View Voice Tools Window Help WordBuilder PLAY File Edit View Voice Tools Window Help Horizontal Zoom Imn Ctrl Horizontal Zoom In 88 Horizontal Zoom Gut Ctrl Horizontal Zoom Out Vertical Zoom In Alt Vertical Zoom In i Vertical Zoom Out Vertical Zoom Out AlE4 w Toolbar w Status Bar Here are the operations available from the View menu Horizontal Zoom In Out Change the zoom of the time resolution in or out in the Time Editor has no effect on timers values Ve
11. to work with him on Fab Four At the 2007 NAMM convention Doug Rogers unveiled the world s first 64 bit audio engine named PLAY a technical achievement that makes possible EastWest Quantum eap s latest collection of virtual software instruments including the Symphonic Choirs for PLAY described in this manual In 2006 Doug Rogers purchased the legendary Cello Studios formerly United West ern Recorders on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood renaming it EastWest Studios The 21 000 sq ft facility since remodelled by master designer Philippe Starck houses five recording studios and is the world headquarters for EastWest Rogers worked for nearly 2 years with Starck on the project in addition to his work for FastWest and the result can now be seen at http www eastwest studios com Doug spent I m sure 10 times what he wanted to spend and 10 times the time he wanted to spend on it STARCK acknowledges but l ve never had a partner who was so obstinate so stubborn to have the right result and so confident The proud owner runs his eyes over Starck s dazzling creation and sighs with satisfaction Everybody wants to come here he says They already know that the place sounds amazing and they can t wait to see what this man who virtually reinvented the hotel has done to reinvent the recording studio We hope that it stimulates artists and produc ers to create something special because that s ultimately what this is all ab
12. user to specify how often the internal engine sc Centre Change will convey note and Control Change data through the MIDI output You should nor mally leave these settings at the minimum Chord Timer v Chord Timer 100 ms value but they can be raised when it Is nec essary to conserve CPU processing or MIDI connection overhead Chapter 7 The WordBuilder Options Dialog 4 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT For example when a cross fade is in progress the ear cannot really hear a small change in dynamics every 10 ms Therefore Note Volume and other CC data can be sent less often to conserve the processing power in the computer The Chord Timer set at the bottom of the tab permits the user to specify how far apart in time notes can be and still be considered a chord that is referring to the same syl lable of text Using this feature is especially helpful when playing melodic lines on a keyboard in real time If you re not 10076 accurate in hitting all the notes of a chord at once you could end up triggering different syllables for what are supposed to be several voices singing the same syllable You can turn this feature on and off by clicking on the small checkbox at the left and when on you can specify the tolerance in milliseconds You can turn this feature off if you never use chords in a single choral voice If you need to leave this feature on then you may have to experiment to det
13. Choirs RA Voices of Passion Ministry of Rock Gypsy QL Pianos QL Silk VOTA QL Brass QL Guitar and Bass Hardcore Bass Goliath and Colossus Nick s studio is located in Venice California and is 100 solar powered www nickphoenix com Chapter 1 Welcome D EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Recording Engineer Prof Keith 0 Johnson Prot Keith O Johnson has spent over 30 years developing a reputation for innovative thinking technical achievement and musicianship which has elevated him to a position in the audio industry occupied by only a handful of visionaries His intensive investigation of electronic behavior and acoustic perception have led most recently to his development with digital engineer Michael Pflaumer of the revolutionary High Definition Compatible Digital encoding process produced and marketed by Pacific Microsonics and acquired by Microsoft HDCD is widely considered to be the most accurate recording process ever invented His 90 plus recordings have long been considered the standard for high fidel ity and include three Grammy award winners and eight additional Grammy nominations SOME REVIEWS OF HIS RECORDINGS How Johnson got that huge climax at the end of the Dances cleanly onto tape tran scends engineering and goes into the realm of magic Harry Pearson THE ABSOLUTE SOUND Keith Johnson s engineering mastering and production have in this case produced the fi
14. Choirs product and an optional Expansion product This version of the manual does not include informa tion about the Expansion patches If you have bought the Expansion product check for a separate manual on its DVD Using the Choir Patches This first part of the chapter deals only with choir instruments that is the sounds of multiple people singing together in unison not those of the soloists For details of how to use the solo instruments see that section of the manual starting on page 105 These choir patches fall into the following categories e 5 voice types in a traditional choir Sopranos altos tenors basses plus boy sopranos e 2 voice types that combine sopranos and altos into a women s voice plus tenors and basses into a men s voice to provide a wider range on a single voice type All seven of these voice types are found with the Browser in the Multis folder A multi instrument to use the full name is a means for loading more than one instrument file with a single click of Add or Replace in the Browser Using Multis with WordBuilder To accommodate the large number of separate phonetic sounds associated with each note of the scale a single section for example the Alto section uses 6 instrument files in a single collection known as a multi Certain rules must be followed to let the Word Builder software work properly with this collection of related instruments but PLAY and WordBuilder set up most of w
15. Hint 10 If your choir is sounding fake Maybe you need to leave more space between consonants or perhaps make each con sonant longer Try overlapping certain consonants and possibly cross fading them sometimes legato attacks can make things sound better or worse Sometimes you need to use slurred legato on the vowel to improve a consonant vowel transition sometimes an accent on a certain syllable is crucial to realism Hit the keys hard for an accent Sometimes it s a good idea to fix MIDI velocity in your sequencer at a single value This can improve smoothness and make editing in WordBuilder easier Use CC 11 and the Mod Wheel to inject dynamics Hint 11 We really recommend using Votox exclusively Once you get good at sounding things out and you learn the letter symbols it s powerful stuff Look for more hints like these and contribute some of your own in the Symphonic Choirs WordBuilder section online at http www soundsonline forums com Enjoy Nick Phoenix and Doug Rogers Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 72 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 14 The General Tab 74 The Timers Tab 75 The Voices Default Tab 11 The Events Tab Click on this text to open the Master Navigation Document 13 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The WordBuilder Options Dialogs Among the buttons at the right side of WordBuilder s window is one named Options Clicking
16. If you plan to send for example the Close and the Stage mics to separate audio channels you need to change that setting individually in all 6 or 12 of the instruments within the multi rmance Controls There are four buttons grouped together in the Performance section They include three buttons for turning on and off scripts specific to Symphonic Choirs that control performance parameters ON ON RESET Repetition Legato Round Robin e Portamento e Repetition e Legato Chapter 3 The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface 26 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT and one button for resetting the Round Robin counters See the section on Performance Scripts starting on page 82 for information on how to use these scripts When you first open an articulation all three scripts are in the default state set by East West If you want them to open with a different default you will need to save the ewi file that way and load your new version Portamento Button Portamento also sometimes called glissando is the technique of a continuous slide in pitch from one note to the next note in the phrase Portamento as used in this virtual in strument is usually a short anticipatory movement between the pitches of two adjacent notes This technique is most common in strings the trombone the human voice and several other instruments that are not restricted to playing notes of the diatonic scale The effect of
17. Rings Return of the King Harry Potter 5 Wall E Star Wars Episode 2 Spiderman 3 Pirates of the Carib bean 3 Blood Diamond Night at the Museum 300 and The Da Vinci Code Quantum Leap has now firmly established itself as one of the world s top producers of high end sample libraries and virtual instruments Chapter 1 Welcome 2 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Producer Doug Rogers EastWest founder and producer Doug Rogers has used his vision of the sound develop ment industry to lead a company that creates products that not only keep pace with the technological advancements of the last 20 years but push the boundaries of what can be achieved with the latest technologies This vision has earned him his company and its products numerous award and accolades Keyboard Magazine awarded East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra its Key Buy Award And Rene Dupree the composer for Cirque de Soleil has characterized that library as an exquisite fine wine areal orchestra at your fingertips The companion product Symphonic Choirs was awarded the 2006 Best Sound Library award by the Game Audio Network Guild G A N G and another Key Buy Award from Keyboard Magazine Plus there are too many other award to mention here Starting with the very first commercial drum sample CD in the late 80s to the multi ple award winning Bob Clearmountain Drums sample collection soon thereafte
18. by recording engineer Prof Keith O Johnson The full and surround ambiences reflect the positioning perfectly sopranos on the left down to basses on the right as on a typical concert hall stage The close mics do not reflect the positioning on stage because they are close to each section or soloist These have been pre panned in programming to match their true place on stage You will notice that the close mics have panning values and the full and sur round mics do not You can of course easily change any panning setting but to do so may make less realistic the apparent natural positioning of the singers within the concert hall The 3 Mic Positions Much has been written about extra efforts of the East West Quantum Leap team to record all samples from three separate microphone positions within the hall dif both in Symphonic Orchestra and Symphonic Choirs To understand how the three mic positions work let s perform a quick thought experiment Imagine your self in any large concert hall with an entire a capella chorus on the stage The diagram at the right shows the concert hall stage at the top with the letters indi cating the placement of the various mics First you re invited to sit directly in front of the tenor s section while they sing their part What you hear ap proximates the sound recorded in the Close mic posi tion The sound coming directly from the singers Is so Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 8
19. first time Pro Tools These steps start by opening a Tenor voice type as an example but you can choose any voice type you like as long as you are consistent through all the steps 1 Open WordBuilder PLAY from your East West Program Files Applications folder In the Voice Setup dialog box select the Tenors voice type 3 MIDI In should be set to EASTWEST Virtual WordBuilder 1 PC users see the note at the end of this section 4 MIDI Out should be set to EAST MIDI Input Filter WEST Virtual Wordbuilder 2 Click Record OK Ail k C Only 5 Type a few words into the English Gl gom Text Editor in WordBuilder PLAY Channel Info Controllers 6 Start Pro Tools and create a new session 7 Select Setup gt MIDI gt Input Filter and choose Record All as in the image above Click OK 8 Select Setup gt MIDI gt Input Device and check MIDLnput Enable all the WordBuilder ports as well as the physical H AC Driver Bus 1 input of your MIDI controller as in the image at Aine we Oe the right Click OK a cosa 9 Create a stereo Instrument Track piee ie 10 Load PLAY Stereo as an insert in the new Instru M Wordtuilder 4 ment Track 11 In PLAY Click on the Browser button and select a Tenors WB Multi from the list of EWQL Choirs Instruments gt Multis Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder D EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 12 Create a MIDI track in Pro Tools and name it Wordbuilder
20. following table lists the codes that affect these scripts Note that the MIDI Control Codes have no effect unless the corresponding script is turned on in the PLAY interface Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 83 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Code Portamento Repetition Legato 9 Time Time 65 On Off 68 On Off 69 On Off The three On Off control codes all work the same way a value 64 or higher turns the script on and any other value 0 63 turns the script off CC 5 affects the duration of the portamento or legato The possible values are 0 127 The higher the value the longer the effect takes to complete that is you should set higher values to make the sound more pronounced Use your ear to find the right values for each note in the phrase The image at the left shows two envelopes affecting the Portamento script in a host The nine white horizontal bars are the notes The light gray line that jumps from the top to near the bottom and back to the top is CC 65 that turns the script on and off so that only some notes use portamento The curving line near the middle is CC 5 setting the effect s Portamento time parameter for each note individually Note that the middle section when the CC 65 line is near the bottom CC 5 actually has no effect because the script is turned off at that point Monophonic Behavior Both the Portamento and Legato scripts change the instrument ewi file so tha
21. it opens the dialog box shown below From here you can change a number of parameters that affect the ways the program operates The General Tab The first drop down list on this tab Sound Library defines the library of samples that generates the sounds At the time of this writing EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs is the only library available General Timers Voices Default Events General Sound Library Eastwest Quantum Leap Symphonic Chairs Language English vowels English Mode Latin Made In a second drop down list called Language you can specify from what language the dictionary will translate to Phonetics The only dictionary available at this time is English There are two modes in the Vowels drop down list English Mode and Latin Mode They affect the sym bols used for Votox sounds but do not affect the sounds themselves See page 94 for more information about these two modes when to use each of the two modes and charts comparing the two sets of vowels The Timers Tab The upper section of this tab Timers Resolution provides two slider controls For Notes you can set the resolution to any value between 1 and 10 milliseconds A similar setting can be made for the resolu M xX tion of Control Changes any value between eneral Timers voices Default Events 10 and 50 milliseconds Timers Resolution Motes Fine tuning these two settings allows the m
22. live The answer was Prof Keith O Johnson His 90 plus recordings have long been considered the standard for high fidelity and include two Grammy award winners and eight ad ditional Grammy nominations All of the recording equipment used in the project was either hand built or extensively modified by him to optimize fidelity Prof Keith O John son had previously recorded EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra so it was an obvious choice Next we had to find the right concert hall in which to record EWQLSC Fortunately his experience was invaluable here as well He had recorded in most of the critically ac claimed concert halls throughout the world and had a short list of favorites After the success of EWQLSO we decided to use the same concert hall to record EWQLSC Once the recording was completed the post production team was put to work which included some of the finest sound designers and programmers in the business Special software was developed to edit the multiple tracks simultaneously and keep them in phase An advanced version of our revolutionary WordBuilder software for both PC and Mac was developed specially for EWQLSC Nearly a year of post production was neces sary to achieve the final result a result we are all extremely proud of We hope you enjoy EWQLSC as much as we do and we would love to hear what you create with it Explore the many sections of this Guide especially the sections on the WordBuilder
23. mix together any combination of these microphone positions to control tone and ambi ence It s like virtually repositioning the listener by incrementally moving out from the close mics to the stage mics to the hall mics known as audio zoom all in real time Note that the several choirs available in the optional Choirs Expansion are built on samples from an earlier library called Voices of the Apocalypse VOTA These voice types were recorded only with mics that correspond to the Stage mics those near the front row of the audience Therefore this text about the 3 mic positions does not apply to those choirs Angels Demons and Frankenchoirs All three sets of samples were recorded simultaneously for each note in the library Therefore there are predictable and natural delays in the time it take the music to reach the further mics This latency is part of the natural reverb of the hall and produces a pleasing fullness to the sound when the samples are mixed If you want to tighten up the reverb from the S samples it is possible with modern sequencers and mixers to adjust the audio track from the S samples a little forward in time Either perform a calculation using the speed of sound at sea level approximately 340 meters second 1100 feet second if you prefer or let your ears decide what works best The close mics of course have virtually no latency only a small amount necessary to retain the sonic perspective of the choirs in the con
24. note 72 one octave above Middle C NON PITCHED CONSONANTS Consonants Sample words Notes ch chair catch C4 f file enough CH4 h hat ahead D4 k black coal D 4 p pink upper E4 q quick acquaint F4 S Silver lace F 4 sh flesh nation G4 t white true G 4 th theme sloth A4 X fix excess A 4 Chapter 10 Instruments Articulations and Keyswitches 104 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The individual instrument files for the boys choir are similar but not exactly the same Here s how they differ The vowels have only two notes used as keyswitches Therefore all the file names end in CO C 0 to indicate that Use the CO MIDI note 24 for Normal Attack and C O for Legato In every other way the same 8 cross faded program files exist for the boys choir samples The Boy Sopranos vocal effects are a different list than for the adults See the following table The consonants are identical to those of the adult choirs The sample set includes the following four vocal effects for the boys choir File name Description of the effects BOYS cluster Pitch clusters on various vowels and M and N sounds BOYS ah staccato The ah syllable sung staccato BOYS oh slur DXF The oh syllable with a small upward slide at the start BOYS shouts Various group shouts The Soloist Samples This section deals only with soloist samples not those of the choir For details of how to use the choir samples
25. note off event You do not need to specify in WordBuilder the duration of the note in the melody The MIDI notes in the sequencer specify that Or the keyboard player specifies that when playing in real time The two horizontal bars after the vertical separator are the sound of the syllable being closed so they are triggered by the note off event The E persists until the tongue can move into position to pronounce the T sound When you enter text in the Text Editor WordBuilder uses default setting for how long to make each bar You can use the mouse to drag the ends of the bars and change the start time and duration of each sound in the syllable As you might guess from the variety of little plus signs and minus signs at the left end of each lane there s lots more that can be done here but that s too much detail for this quick tour Even though the melody in the sequencer played only one note WordBuilder triggered 5 samples in the PLAY engine And you are given total control over when each sample begins and ends as well as how much they overlap Chapter 4 A Quick Tour of WordBuilder 39 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Cross Fades Sometimes the sounds of a syllable don t exactly follow one another instead one sound fades out as the next one fades in This is known as a cross fade If you consider the ending of the word throw the sound shifts slowly from mostly o to mostly w with no cle
26. option as in the image at the right 6 In that window create 4 ports in both the In w N Setup Windows Help Commands L Set View Filter a6 F Set Input Filter Set Event Chasing Auto Scroll Colors Automation Setup Legend Time Formats VAT Frame Rate p Receive Sync Transmit Sync Slave To External Sync 867 Open Audio MIDI Setup Jnterapplication MIDI Autoconfigure MIDI Devices C rntrnl Surtara Satur Interapplication MIDI puts and Outputs sections If you d like you can name these Sopranos Output Altos Tenors Input Output and so on in the Outputs section and Basses Input Sopranos Input Altos Input and so on in the Inputs section as in the image at the right Each voice type needs 1 port Launch Wordbuilder PLAY from your EastWest folder in Applications Altos Input Sopranos Input Add Delete 8 n WordBuilder s Voice Properties dialog box us choose Tenors for the voice type Tenors Output Basses Chutput 9 In the same window choose Tenors Ouput for Aone Cine Sopranos Output the MIDI input port leave the channel at 1 10 In the same window choose Tenors Input for the MIDI output port leave the channel at 1 and Click on OK MEC DEL 11 Type some words into the English text editor C Software Synthesizer 12 Back in Digital Performer create seven MIDI ener ety fe track
27. specify This is done in the same way as in the previous section on foie Velocities Then click on the 3 dots ellipsis to the right of ks Nothing o in the Letter control at the right of the WordBuilder user interface switch tthis and next notes C Text Syntax In the image at the right you can see it s the same dialog box as f Normal Attack for velocities but here we use the bottom half That means you ird can change both parameters at once if you choose to There are 5 options available for keyswitches Based on what you choose here WordBuilder will send the appropriate keyswitch automati Cancel cally and at the right time The choices are e Text Syntax use symbols in the text to specify the articulation of this segment This is the default Look for more on this option below e Normal Attack the natural articulation of sung speech e Legato smoothly connected to the following syllable e Staccato disconnected from the following segment e Slurred Sliding Legato a transition between segments in which the voices slide up ward into the note Click OK to save your selection C Slurred Sliding Legato When the articulation in the dialog is set to Text Syntax which is the default Word Builder looks to symbols in the Text Editor to know which articulation to use There are 4 symbols that can be typed anywhere in the text to affect the transitions TRANSITIONS Symbol Articulation E
28. the number of samples being played at once Some EWQLSC instruments routinely play more than one sample at a time And the release trail for each note also uses its own voice It is not uncommon for a monophonic line to require 10 to 20 voices especially when play ing rapidly so that multiple release trails are playing simultaneously The best way to see how many voices are required is to play the piece and watch the Voices display just above the right side of the keyboard The voice limit can be set to any whole number Chapter 3 The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface 28 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT from 1 to 999 The default value is set by EastWest for each instrument and can vary by library and instrument setting the Voice Limit too low causes notes to end too soon when PLAY is forced to stop already playing notes in order to start a new note If you hear notes being clipped check to see whether you need to raise this setting as described in the previous paragraph setting the Voice Limit too high reserves unnecessary data buffers in RAM The total number of voice buffers that can be reserved is limited by the amount of computer mem ory RAM The larger the project the more likely it is you will run out of RAM in such cases you may want to check the Voice Limit of each instrument to determine whether you can reduce the value y The image at the left shows the Voice Limit
29. the various samples that the PLAY Engine plays that is unless you ask WordBuilder to change some or all of them If the English word fun is being sung on a single note there are three letters being played to enunciate the syllable WordBuilder gives you the control to adjust the velocities on the Votox F and u and n separately set the velocity for a letter by following the steps below select the word by clicking anywhere in the word in the Time Editor the flashing cursor will indicate the word has been selected This step fre fo to sing will display parts of the fun in the Word Syllable and Letter controls across the middle of the window as shown below hin nef SOLO CFF ems select the letter you want to work on by clicking anywhere in the horizontal lane for that in letter the Time Editor That will cause the lane to appear a little lighter than the oth ers Make sure the letter also appears in the Letter display at the right end of the image above The image at the left shows the Votox letter F selected in the Time Editor As you can see in the Letter control at the right a in the image above there are two numerical set tings you can modify labeled ks and v for keyswitch and velocity respectively For now we are looking at the velocity so click on the 3 dots ellipsis in side the small square to the right of the v name This will open the small dialo
30. voice type in WordBuilder and PLAY you have a single voice that can sing notes over a range of F2 to E5 almost 3 octaves Likewise a voice type of Men combines Bass and Tenor samples to create a voice that covers the notes from BO to D4 more than 3 octaves As you might expect there is a somewhat discernible change in timbre at the point near the middle of the range where the underlying voice type changes so evaluate whether this will be a problem for your project before deciding to use either Men or Women as a voice type EastWest achieves this wider range by using 12 MIDI channels instead of the 6 chan nels for the other voice types And note that Men and Women use special range restrict ed versions of the instruments for Sopranos Altos Tenors and Basses This small range makes sure that each note in the Men s voice type plays either a Tenor sample or a Bass Sample but not both Memory Considerations When Choosing Multis Note that the DYN MOD multis use a lot of memory and therefore require a high powered computer Use other multis when dynamic cross fading from the softest to the loudest is not crucial or when the computer s power and or memory is too low to handle SO many samples at once The Component Programs The multis listed in the previous section are designed to be used only with WordBuilder you should not load any one of them into PLAY and call it from a sequencer directly If you try that you wi
31. want to include in your current project and it will appear in the Text Editor control starting at the mouse cursor Latin Phrases k Mare Latin Phrases A Bene Placito Bibere Venemum In Auro Deus Ex machina Dominus Illuminatio Mea Gloria In Excelsis Deo In Omnia Paratus Locus Desperakus Morituri Te Salutant Omnia vincit Amor Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes semper Ubi Sub Ubi Si vis Pacem Para Bellum Notes from the Producers This software was an enormous undertaking but it is not something we plan to release and then forget about Please check the EWQL forums at http www soundsonline forums com for a forum called Symphonic Choirs WordBuilder Here you can find hints and discus sions about WordBuilder and it s where to get the most from this software Hints We want to mention a few things about the choir samples that may not be obvious These hints will we hope be the sort of thing you will be able to find being posted on our forum so please contribute there anything you find that may help others Hint 1 Normal Attack and Legato Attack vowels in the 4 adult choirs all have a hard Staccato accent that kicks in at velocity 102 and above This means that independent of Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 70 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT everything else if you hit the keys hard you will get a strong attack This can be very use ful for fast accented passa
32. which MIDI note will next be played The Bypass button sends the MIDI input data directly to an output port without any Word Builder processing In the Advanced MIDI Out dialog you can control to which MIDI port the data is sent Chapter 4 A Quick Tour of WordBuilder 40 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The Panic button turns off every MIDI note on every channel This is an effective way to turn off a stuck note if for any reason the sample player does not receive a MIDI Note Off message and a note starts playing indefinitely The Options button displays a dialog box in which the user can set values relating to tim ers voice defaults events and general data See page 4 for more detail on this dialog box The Phrases button opens a displays a menu that allows MN Sadd to Poreases u you to manage a list of reusable phrases or to select a A Add to Phrases From File phrase to insert in the Text Editor See more information about this feature starting on page 69 pall ple More Latin Phrases Organize Phrases Chapter 4 A Quick Tour of WordBuilder 41 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 43 The File Menu 44 The Edit Menu 44 The View Menu 45 The Voice Menu 45 The Tools Menu 46 The Window Menu 46 The Help Menu Click on this text to open the Master Navigation Document 42 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMEN
33. which note you select so be aware of the following e f you assign an articulation to a note that is already a keyswitch and don t move the other keyswitch then that note will trigger both the old and the new articulation effectively playing two articulations at once That might sometimes be useful and at other times a problem e f you assign an articulation to a playable note in white on the onscreen keyboard then playing that note will also change the articulation The articulation will be changed after the start of the note so the note itself will not be in the new articula tion it only starts with the next note e f you change the keyswitch note for the currently selected articulation then all the notes temporarily stop being playable until you select a new articulation by selecting a keyswitch note Visually this means all the white keys on the onscreen keyboard turn the darker tan color Remember that the lowest keyswitch note usually CO is the default keyswitch so it is considered currently selected until another keyswitch note Is selected e f you open the context menu on a slot that does not contain a keyswitch the value None will be selected and you will not be able to assign a keyswitch note e his feature does work on the older keyswitches in the folder 6 Old Keysw but because these files are included to provide compatibility to projects begun in earlier versions of EWQLSO there are probably fewer re
34. www soundsonline com has been dedicated to perpetual innovation and un compromising quality setting the industry standard as the most critically acclaimed producer of Sample CDs and Virtual software Instruments Founder and producer Doug Rogers has over 30 years experience in the audio industry and is the recipient of many recording industry awards including Recording Engineer of the Year In 2005 The Art of Digital Music named him one of 56 Visionary Artists amp Insiders in the book of the same name In 1988 he founded EastWest the most criti cally acclaimed sound developer in the world and recipient of over 5O industry awards more than any other sound developer His uncompromising approach to quality and innovative ideas have enabled EastWest to lead the sound ware business for 20 years In 1997 Rogers partnered with producer composer Nick Phoenix and set up Quantum Leap a wholly owned division of EastWest to produce high quality no compromise sample libraries and virtual instruments Quantum Leap virtual instruments are mostly produced by Nick Phoenix Some of the larger productions such as Symphonic Orches tra Symphonic Choirs and Quantum Leap Pianos are co produced by Doug Rogers and Nick Phoenix As a composer Phoenix began scoring film trailers and television com mercials in 1994 To date he has either scored or licensed music for the ad campaigns of over 1000 major motion pictures including Terminator 3 Lord of the
35. 8 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT much louder than the reflections off the walls and other surfaces that these reverbera tions make up a very small part of what you hear Next you re placed in a chair at the very front of the stage or maybe the front row of the house and you listen to the same tenor melody Now you hear more of the natural reverberation of the hall because your ears are not so overpowered by the sound coming directly from the chorus This sound is captured by the Stage mics also called Far mics hence the F in the diagram a cluster of microphones near the front of the stage Finally you re asked to sit nearer the back of the house and high up maybe in the middle of the Balcony The same tenor melody is played From this perspective the full acoustics of the hall are most evident because you hear clearly the sound bouncing off the ceiling the walls all the reflective surfaces in front of you and even behind It can be a very lush sound though perhaps lacking in the immediacy of a closer position however adding in a little of this sound either in a stereo mix or in the rear speakers of a surround sound recording can add dimension to the recording This mic position was used to create the Surround samples This is the first choral sample library to include user control of three simultaneous stereo microphone setups Close Stage and Surround for the soloists and sections You can
36. As was shown in the example on page 38 WordBuilder assigns the ee of sweet to start at about 175 milliseconds after the start of the note But if the tempo is fast the note could be over by then or the sw could take up most of the note s duration making it sound unnatural You could of course compute the number of milliseconds for each note and adjust the lengths of the sounds manually But there s a much easier way The Learn button opens a dialog box where you can set two options The first option EE xi specifies whether you want WordBuilder to adjust the duration of the phonetic seg Made Change Speed v cont g ents called Change Speed mode or only cepe to indicate the length of each syllable in the time line at the top of the Time Editor called Draw Only mode Apply Ea With the second drop down list you spec ify whether you want WordBuilder to learn durations for all voices or only the currently selected voice as shown below Once you pick the options you want and click x on Start another dialog box opens and asks you Learn to start the melody Begin playing the notes for Mode Change Speed cancel this part whether from the sequencer or the key board WordBuilder keeps track of how long the note for each syllable lasts When the color in the progress bar fills it completely WordBuilder has received as many notes as there are matching syl
37. Controls 28 Reverb Master 28 Voice Limit Control 29 Articulations Control 31 The Graphical Representation of the Envelope and the Curve Knob 31 The Browser View Click on this text to open the Master Navigation Document 21 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface Each library presents its own interface when one of its instruments is the current one as specified in the Instruments drop down in the upper right corner The image at the bottom of the page provides an overview of the entire window in Player View when the current instrument is from the Symphonic Choirs library Much of this interface is shared by all PLAY System libraries and the common features are described in the PLAY System manual The Choirs specific controls described later in this section are those listed on the next page If you don t see a control described in this chapter look at the PLAY System manual that s the other manual installed on your hard drive during program setup MAIN MENU SETTINGS r BROWSER BASS ah OXF CO D 0 1 Mediar MIDI Port In USB K T P Art Dye A Le t N ARTICULATIONS P Q pur m Tupe 2 Channe Source Amount I Il en m IT Qu CHA Legato Piana i TI Mrs EW Hall RL E E on LE Staccato ON Tune Hath Te Mm on my Slur O s J A COARSE iB e El Sn Pre Delay Vol
38. DYN MOD From medium volume with medium vibrato to loud volume with heavy vibrato The first of these gives you the most flexibility to adjust volume with the Mod Wheel through the entire gamut of recorded dynamics so it requires the most computer power and resources The other two options use less memory and therefore may be better choices on hardware constrained systems There are of course other ways to control dynamics including MIDI velocity and expres sion parameters These controls are discussed later in this chapter There are two main advantages of dynamic cross fades DXFs over other means Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 81 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT First a DXF controls not only the volume but also the timbre of the sound The sound of a soprano section singing loud is different from them singing softly even if the volume knob on the stereo is adjusted to normalize their output level Because a DXF is shifting between samples and not only changing the volume that change in timbre is preserved As mentioned above the vibrato also increases as the volume goes up second unlike velocity which is fixed for the entire duration of any MIDI note the posi tion of the Mod Wheel can be adjusted continuously to achieve swells and other expres sive details mid note Segment Transitions and Keyswitches The samples of the sung vowels are available in 4 versions except for th
39. Leap Symphonic Choirs Virtual Instrument e an installation program to set up the library software and documentation on your computer e an Authorization Wizard for registering your license in an online database One required item not usually included is an iLok security key If you already have one from an earlier purchase of software you can use it Otherwise you need to acquire one They are available from many retailers that sell EastWest and Quantum Leap products or you can buy one online at www soundsonline com Chapter 2 EWQL Symphonic Choirs An Overview 16 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Hardware Requirements see the Play System manual for a complete list of the Hardware and Software Require ments for installing and running any PLAY System library In addition the available space on the hard drive required for a full installation of EastWest Quantum Leap Choirs is approximately 39 GB Gigabytes Optional Software MIDI Loopback Connectors When physical MIDI devices communicate they do so through hardware cables And when an external physical device such as a keyboard controller sends data to its computer it also uses a cable typically a MIDI cable though nowadays USB and FireWire cables can also carry the required data But when the two devices are virtual that is they are com puter programs only acting like traditional MIDI boxes you cannot run a cable from one program to anothe
40. M LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Note that the image on the previous page Includes a row of colorful tool icons near the top If you are not seeing these on your screen and you want to then open the View menu and select the Toolbar option Voice Settings The values you choose when you open a new voice are displayed Dp Prutblr in the upper left corner of the voice window You are most likely to refer to these setting when you have more than one voice window open at once Here you can see the voice type your In and out MIDI ports and your in and out MIDI channels The two plug symbols next to the In and Out MIDI channel num bers flash whenever a MIDI message is received the left sym bol or sent the right symbol Click on the vertical bar to the right of these fields to open an Options dialog box allowing you to change these settings These flashing MIDI symbols are a quick check that MIDI data is flowing in and out of WordBuilder If you are not hearing the choir when you play on your MIDI keyboard these flashes can help you determine you how far the MIDI data is travelling in its path from keyboard or sequencer to WordBuilder to Symphonic Choirs The Text Modes Below the display of your settings are three buttons labeled English Phonetics and Votox The button lit in bright blue the Phonetics button in the image indicates which of the three text layers ap pears in the Text Editor Click on one of the
41. Normal Legato gt staccato lt Slurred Sliding Here is an example of text whose articulation is specified with the Text Syntax symbols gt the why and where fore gt of the lt mer ry 2day And the image below shows the same phrase in the Text Editor but using the Votox let ters Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder ol EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT As with all keyswitches remember that each one continues to affect all notes or in this case all segments until a new keyswitch overrides the previous one Adding New Words and New Pronunciations If an English word is not found in the dictionary and you intend to use it again then you can add the word and its Add to Phrases phonetic spelling so that next time it will get translated E T automatically When a word is shown in red inside the Text Phrases Editor meaning that it is not found in the dictionary right Add to Dictionary click on the word in Windows or control click on a Mac to open the context menu then select Add to Dictionary xj A dialog appears that lets you enter the Phonetics layer for the yl ae word not Votox Do not type in hyphens to separate syllables Phonetics HiwerFor BINE The same facility can be used to add new pronunciations of ex isting words This way you can even teach your choir to sing in regional accents Although you need to be careful not to over write a traditio
42. SA 323 957 6966 or email licensing eastwestsounds com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2007 EAST WEST SOUNDS INC e Windows XP Vista are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel VST Instruments is a registered trademark of Steinberg Media technologies AG OS X Audio Units and Core Audio are registered trademarks of Apple Inc All other product and company names are trademarks of their respective holders All specifications are subject to change without notice License Agreement 108
43. Symphonic Choirs this choice appears to reverse the natural layout in effect when these Choirs were originally recorded Most applications will use the Stereo setting to achieve the natural stereo ambience One of the Mono settings might be used to bring a single voice to center stage to create the feel of a pre stereo recording or for other special effects The Tune Controls These controls include two buttons to select between Coarse tuning and Fine tuning as well as a knob and two digital readouts that allow the user to change the Coarse and Fine tuning settings When set at O 0 the instruments play at concert pitch Coarse tuning adjusts the pitch up or down in semitone increments Fine tuning measured in cents moves the pitch up or down in increments of 1 100 of a semitone One possible use is to move Symphonic Orchestra up or down to the same pitch as live recordings or other sample libraries Adjustments can be made by turning the knob moving up or down with the mouse but ton held down or by selecting one of the two digital readouts and entering a new value by typing a number or by using the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys on the computer key board Double clicking the knob returns the value to O for whichever mode is selected Coarse or Fine ADVANCED In PLAY there are two ways to transpose a musical phrase the Transpose con trol and the Tune control but they work very differently 1 The Transpose control can only
44. T SOPRANOS SOPR WB DYN MOD 3 way Mod Wheel cross fade SOPR WB HARD MOD 2 way vibrato Mod Wheel cross fade SOPR WB SOFT MOD 2 way non vibrato vibrato Mod Wheel cross fade SOPR WB NV non vibrato SOPR WB VBF vibrato forte SOPR WB VBM vibrato medium ALTOS ALTO WB DYN MOD 3 way Mod Wheel cross fade ALTO WB HARD MOD 2 way vibrato Mod Wheel cross fade ALTO WB SOFT MOD 2 way non vibrato vibrato Mod Wheel cross fade ALTO WB NV non vibrato ALTO WB VBF vibrato forte ALTO WB VBM vibrato medium TENR WB DYN MOD 3 way Mod Wheel cross fade TENR WB HARD MOD 2 way vibrato Mod Wheel cross fade TENR WB SOFT MOD 2 way non vibrato vibrato Mod Wheel cross fade TENR WB NV non vibrato TENR WB VBF vibrato forte TENR WB VBM vibrato medium BASS WB DYN MOD 3 way Mod Wheel cross fade BASS WB HARD MOD 2 way vibrato Mod Wheel cross fade BASS WB SOFT MOD 2 way non vibrato vibrato Mod Wheel cross fade BASS WB NV non vibrato BASS WB VBF vibrato forte BASS WB VBM vibrato medium Chapter 10 Instruments Articulations and Keyswitches 101 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT BOYS BOYS WB DYN MOD 2 way non vibrato cross fade BOYS WB HARD non vibrato forte BOYS WB SOFT non vibrato piano Full Men s and Full Women s Choruses Symphonic Choirs creates a voice type known as Women by using the Altos samples for the lower half of the range and Sopranos samples for the upper half If you load this
45. T The WordBuilder Menus WordBuilder includes a menu system in the frame when used in standalone mode This chapter lists the various operations that can be performed from the menus Note that there are none of these menus when WordBuilder is used as a plug in The File Menu File Edit view voice Tools Window Help WordBuilder PLAY File Edit View Voice Tools Window Help New Voice Ctrl M New Voice 88N Close Voice Close Voice Ww Mew Choir CErig ShfFE2 M New Choir Open Chair Cro m a oO Close Choir Close Choir Save Choir 885 Uu NN LS Save ChoirAs 4S Save Choir 4s mem Voice File Voce Fle apre m Export Exit Voice Learn File Here are the operations available from the File menu New Voice Create a new voice within this choir Close Voice Close the active voice New Choir Create a new choir the current choir and all its active voices are closed first Open Choir Open a Choir File from the file system including all its voices the current Choir File is closed first Close Choir Close all voices save Choir save a Choir File with all its voices save Choir As save a Choir File under a new name on in a new location in the file system Import Has two options Voice File Import a Voice File to a new voice Voice Learn File Export Voice File Voice Learn File Exit Win only Import a Voice Learn File with its information about syllable timing into the current choir Has two options
46. UM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 94 How WordBuilder Uses Phonetics 96 Phonetic Alphabet with English Vowels 97 Phonetic Alphabet with Latin Vowels Click on this text to open the Master Navigation Document 93 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The Phonetic Alphabets How WordBuilder Uses Phonetics This chapter of the manual compares the various phonetic alphabets available with WordBuilder It also provides examples of English words that use them to assist the reader in understanding the sound each symbol represents The sounds in WordBuilder and Symphonic Choirs are based on the sound of natural speech not the way words are spelled on a page Therefore WordBuilder uses a pho netic alphabet to notate the sounds that will be sung The Votox phonetic alphabet was designed specifically for the task of representing the sound of sung words This chapter presents what you need to know about Votox to help you get the most out of WordBuilder Lists of The Phonetic Symbols The tables on the next few pages list the symbols from the Phonetics alphabet and com pare each one to the corresponding Votox symbol Two English words are provided to give examples of each symbol s sound There are two table because WordBuilder provides two sets of Votox symbols that differ only in their vowels In the Options dialog box the user has a choice between English Mode and Latin Mode see page 74 The cho
47. Various Ways to Combine the Samples Surround Sound Samples Click on this text to open the Master Navigation Document 79 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY The EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs Virtual Instrument to use its full name comprises two main parts WordBuilder and the PLAY software that actually creates the sound of the phrases set up in WordBuilder The last few chapters have been devoted to WordBulilder This Chapter turns the focus to PLAY Playing Music with Symphonic Choirs This section of the manual describes how to take advantage of the musical and techni cal features of this sound library to create choral music that is expressive varied and realistic Without this control of the available parameters music created on a computer can sound static lifeless and dimensionless Using the features described below is akin to a singer controlling dynamics phrasing and technique to interpret the music In other words there s more to music making than perfecting the pitch loudness and duration of each note Instruments and Multis The various instruments in Symphonic Choirs fall into two types e Individual instruments these include both soloists and selections of choral sounds that cannot be used with WordBuilder to form sung phrases e Multi instruments these are the choirs in 7 different voice types that work with WordBuilder See the chap
48. WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Phonetic Alphabet with Latin Vowels PHONETIC ALPHABETS WITH LATIN VOWELS Phonetics Votox a A a a Ai ai Au Au b b c C d d d t e e e a Ei Ei f F g g g ng h H i i T j j k K money rough copper wander white sigh brown mouse blue slab chair catch red candor the neither red steady black after grey slate file enough green leg ping hangar hat ahead index finger green ski orange fidget black coal blue less Chapter 9 The Phonetic Alphabets Phonetics Votox m m money hammer n n green snug 0 0 orange naughty Qi oi oil boy Ou ou yellow ocean p P pink upper r r red car r Ar purple lower S 9 silver lace t I white true t theme sloth u U put could u U blue pool V V olive avert W W wait awash X X fix excess x S flesh nation y y yellow yonder Z Z Zero poison Z Z vision azure 9T EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 99 99 100 102 105 106 Using the Choir Patches Using Multis with WordBuilder The Multis in Symphonic Choirs The Component Programs The Soloist Samples Soloist Files Click on this text to open the Master Navigation Document 98 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Instruments Articulations and Keyswitches EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs consists of both the standard
49. You should only record with WordBuilder using Destructive Record Mode Note Virtual WordBuilder ports are only available on the Mac version of WordBuilder If you are using a PC you ll need to download one of the loopback connectors described on page 17 To follow the Instructions above replace Virtual WordBuilder with the MIDI loopback connector you are using For example Virtual WordBuilder port 1 channel 1 would correspond to MIDI Yoke port 1 channel 1 if that s your loopback connector Sonar Inside Sonar insert the play VST module in the Synth Rack either from the Insert menu or from within the Synth Rack window Then load play VST into the MIDI Out port of the track you want to hold the MIDI data Assign 1 to the MIDI Channel E New Choirs Song cwp Track i EX Sooo een boone Sooo TEM 00 00 00 000 IIo Preset arista aca LIBET 2 mE EC Ss e Re A j Ez Presels No Preset gt Gl vst 0 teal c MAIN MENU SETTINGS To install WordBuilder right click in the Effects Bin of a MIDI track if you don t see the MIDI Effects bin click on the All tab all the way at the bottom If WordBuilder has been installed correctly then it should appear in the context menu so select it The picture at the right shows Exe the play VST 1 already in the 3 MIDI Out port and WordBuilder EE B MFX PLAY being inserted into ane MIDI Plugins Plug in Layouts P the
50. apture the sound of the hall from the moment the note ends As Is evident in the Time Editor within WordBuilder Symphonic Choirs includes some of the phonetic content of a syllable in the release trails This is the small but non zero time it takes the singers vocal apparatus to close the syllable and may include the consonant s at the Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 87 7 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT end of the syllable And the release trails also include the natural sound of each note s decay within the ambient space of the concert hall The complex and subtle nature of the reflected sounds off the walls ceiling and other surfaces is nearly impossible to generate accurately after the fact with an artificial reverb The release trail samples are triggered by the MIDI Note Off event Their parameters can be adjusted in PLAY or even turned off if you want The release trails are amplitude matched to the wave form of the playing note no matter where the playback is in the AHSDR envelope when the note ends The software analyzes the amplitude of the note s waveform at the time of the Note Off event then activates the release trail automatically adjusting the release trail amplitude so the two samples blend seamlessly The result is very natural Panning Panning is not usually necessary Every section in the library has been recorded in its proper place on stage using custom equipment built
51. ar break between the two WordBuilder handles this situation by controlling the relative volume of the two sounds er a 65 EP S T Note in the image above that WordBuilder has automatically added volume envelopes to both sounds causing the o sound to disappear slowly while the w sound becomes louder You can of course modify or eliminate these envelopes if you re looking for a different effect In this example the volume adjustments were added automatically when Word Builder constructing the Phonetics layer but manual control of volume as well as some other MIDI parameters can be used on any sound in any syllable The Tools In the upper right corner is an array of seven buttons that provide access to several important functions UNDO The Undo button removes the most recent change made in the in terface Clicking on the button repeatedly removes more and more RESET POSITION consecutive changes Up to 100 of the most recent changes can be removed BYPASS PANIC OPTIONS PHRASES The Redo button undoes the Undo operation For example clicking on the Undo operation 8 times in a row and then the Redo button 8 times in a row re turns you to the state of the UI before you started clicking on the Undo button The Reset Position button tells WordBuilder that the next MIDI note should sing starting with the first word in the text That is it resets the syllable position back to the start of the text but it does not affect
52. are discussed in much more detail starting on page 59 Typing English When English words are typed into the Text Editor they are color coded to indicate their status medium blue the word was found in the dictionary dark blue the word has more than one entry in the dictionary this happens when the word can be pronounced in two or more ways dark red the word was not found in the dictionary if it is misspelled correct it or if it is not a common word you will need to enter the word phonetically light blue the word was entered in the Phonetics or Votox layer and is displayed here phonetically even in the English layer dark red there is an error in syllable separation or WordBuilder cannot find the word in the dictionary For example if you separate an English word into syllables WordBuilder may have to set the word in red to indicate it cannot make good automatic phonetic separations In this case make the syllable separations in the Phonetics layer gray a comment the number sign and all text after it on a line are considered com ments and not sung The following screen shot shows many of these colors If you re reading this in black and white only then try typing it yourself The proper name Gerri is not in the dictionary so it s in dark red The words must fly and me were galas xe co a Phrases From File found so they re in medium blue Phrases Add to Dictionary When WordBuilder look
53. asons to do so than with the Master keyswitches Chapter 3 The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface 30 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Note that changing the keyswitch note for any given slot in the list does not change the name in the list For example if you change the D O keyswitch to F1 a D O will still appear in the name The only way to know the currently assigned keyswitch note is to open the context menu and see which note is checked If you use this feature often you might consider creating your own detailed mapping of what notes have been moved and to where And you might want to save the ewi file un der a new name so you can recall your customized mapping for this and future projects The Graphical Representation of the Envelope and the Curve Knob The Envelope Controls are described in the main PLAY ZI System manual because they are common to all PLAY System libraries Only some libraries include the graph as shown here so it is included in the manuals for those libraries only Attack Curve Hold Quem Sustai in Release ec wf a we 3C ms ms dB The Envelope has an extra knob compared to the same control in the Uls of other libraries the Curve knob It af fects the curve of the attack but Is not displayed in the graph just above Turn the knob to the left toward O76 to have the attack start slowly with most of the rise late turn it to the right toward 10076 to have mo
54. cert hall If you don t use the close mics and you play something that requires very quick and punchy attacks you may no tice some small delay which can be cured by adding in some of the close mics In most cases you would want to use the close mics to add definition to a section The idea is to experiment until you find a combination that works Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 89 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT During sampling the simultaneous recordings from all three positions were phase locked This attention to detail ensures that the samples can be bounced down to a single audio track without introducing phasing problems Many composers still work in stereo only You can mix all three ambiences together with out any phasing issues You will actually hear a lot of dimension in your stereo mixes Consider this if you render a close mix a full mix and a surround mix of every piece you write you will have an archive that can be used to create surround mixes in the future And you know it will work perfectly This technique also allows you to do quick wetter or drier remixes in the future Controlling Ambiance with the 3 Mics Controlling the natural reverberation of the concert hall can be as easy as adjusting the level of Surround mics and turn a ing on or off the Close mics If you require more control the EN ern volume of the release trails can be altered in the Articulations i con
55. crease from 127 down to y 50 instead of near O This detail makes for a more convincing diphthong Hint 6 Generally the slurred legato is best for a rolling legato line The regular legato Is good for fast clean connected notes The legato attack is the least natural and most perfect sounding of all the attacks In the Boys choir the normal attack has a lot of the character of the boys and the legato attack is more perfect and synthetic Nice lines can be created by mixing the two styles Normal Legato Legato Legato Normal Legato etc Hint 7 When consonants are even slightly too loud it can sound unnatural Real choirs in a hall are hard to understand Consonants that are too soft are preferable to consonants that are too loud Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 71 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Hint 8 Use the Mod Wheel and CC11 for expression It really helps See the sections Starting on page 85 for more details Hint 9 The preset default relationship in volume between the vowels and consonants in all the multis is supposed to be consistent That means that if you load the soft multi and create some text then decide to switch to the hard multi the vowel consonant re lationship should be the same In reality though there may be slight differences For this reason we recommend that you don t do any final tweaking in WordBuilder until you have loaded the multi you plan to use in the final version
56. dness knob Velocity a term based on how fast a key board player hits the keys controls how forcefully the note is sung Adding force changes not only the loudness of the notes but usually also changes the notes timbre With a piano s action the velocity cannot affect what happens to the sound after the hammers hit and leave the strings and ve locity works the same way In the current implementation of MIDI velocity is usually designated by a number between 1 and 127 And most software sequencers display velocity as vertical bars something like the dia gram at the right Many modern sample players PLAY included play different samples for different rang es of velocity For example the team creating the samples recorded the alto section s Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 85 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Middle C at pp p mp mf etc The team then assigns the pp samples to say velocities 1 25 the p samples to velocities 26 45 and so on Because each dynamic level of a voice has its own timbre a note s velocity affects not only its loudness but also its timbre Velocity changes are therefore a much better way than volume changes to achieve natural sounding dynamics The disadvantage of velocity is that it cannot be changed mid note Using the two together gives the orchestrator control over more aspects of the dynamics In MIDI velocity is an attrib
57. e boy sopranos which use only two The difference among them refers to how segments transition from one to the next e normal attack e legato e staccato not with boy sopranos e slurred sliding not with boy sopranos When using WordBuilder to drive the choir multis the transitions can be specified either with one of the 4 symbols gt lt inside the typed text or by selecting properties from a dialog box See page 60 for more details When loading individual vowels the segment transitions are managed with keyswitches The file names for the adult sung vowels end in CO D O to indicate there are 4 key switches C C D D in the CO octave For the boy soprano files the CO C O shows that only the first two keyswitches are available A keyswitch is a note out of the range of the singer that can be added to the MIDI output to specify which version of the sample to play PLAY interprets the keyswitch and plays the correct sample WordBuilder generates keyswitch notes automatically therefore WordBuilder users will likely never use the manual keyswitches there They are however used extensively in the soloist files ADVANCED When playing the individual vowel programs if you want to use this feature it must be done manually You can include the keyswitch note a little before the Note On event of the first note to play the associated version That version will continue to be used until another keyswitch changes the s
58. e instru ment s sound arriving at the left mic first Also move its EQ ed right channel later as if it took longer for the sound to get to the right microphone Reverse those directions to pan the sound to the right Surround Sound Samples Stereo Mixing When using the Surround samples for two channel mixes adding in a little of the lush sound of the S mics can convincingly convey the feeling of a live recording in a concert hall well at least as much as any stereo recording can do that If you want a realistic concert hall sound do not over add the Surround samples a little in the mix may be all Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 91 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT you need Those looking for other types of recordings film scores audio tracks for games etc should feel free to experiment Surround Sound Mixing This discussion focuses on the most popular format 5 1 but the guiding principles ap ply to other standards as well Here s a Starting point for creating the 6 channels you need to create a 5 1 recording Feel free to experiment with variations Front Center Take either the left or right signal from the stereo Close mics but not both left and right Use this to create the immediacy needed for the front center Front Left amp Right The Stage mics left and right are assigned to the front speakers left and right Add in a little of the Surround mics here for a lus
59. e overall sound There s no reason to keep the mix constant for the duration of the piece Maybe you ll want to add in a little extra Close mics to a section that has the most important lyrics at the moment Or give the altos the extra punch to stand out when they carry the melody or push up the Surround perspective to make the chorus of townspeople sound more distant when they first arrive on the scene Use your ear and your imagination to find the best mix for both you and the piece you re working on Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 90 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Blending All Three Mics Another approach is to create three mixes of a piece that are identical except that they were played with the three separate sets of samples Each of the three takes Close Stage and Surround is bounced down to a stereo track In a final bounce down the volume levels of the three perspectives are adjusted to achieve a single track with the desired sound This approach can generate either stereo tracks or any of the surround sound formats 4 0 5 1 LCR LFE Matrix UHJ and many others More on surround sound can be found on page 92 Go for the Intimate or the Expansive Sound Note that some musical styles can benefit from using the Close or Surround sound as the Starting point A recording of a Renaissance motet or other chamber ensemble might benefit from the sound of using mostly the Cl
60. echniques described above to create continuous changes in other MIDI parameters as well Any Control Change can be transmitted but if the downstream MIDI processors don t respond to that CC then nothing will happen Expression CC11 is the best way to change the short term dynamics that shape the singers nuanced performance Small swells within a single vowel or a natural decre scendo at the end of a long held note can be important in making the final results feel more human and less like computer assisted composition Click on a plus sign to open a lane for a new envelope Click on the minus sign to remove that envelope and its lane Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 68 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Note Volume One envelope that warrants special mention is the one that appears at the top of the drop down list x Note Volume This parameter affects the given phonetic segment without affecting others It can be used for fade in and fade out effects within a single phonetic letter It can also be used to achieve cross fades between phonetic elements This use of Note Volume can be seen in some of the default Votox spellings rn PTT s ate Par am t T The sound of the long i in the English word might is spelled as aE in Votox As is shown in the image above WordBuilder knows that the process of closing the syllable consists of moving the tongue in a way that smoothly changes fro
61. ed for with in the diction Salo ary it found two possible pronunciations Although v wid wik Chapter 4 A Quick Tour of WordBuilder 36 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT the word is usually pronounced with the same th sound as in thigh in certain pho notactic situations it can be pronounced with the th sound in thy Decide how you want it to sound in your piece and make your choice by right clicking in Windows or control clicking on a Mac You ll see the context menu you see here The choices at the bottom are the two possible pronunciations e wid for the th sound in thy e wit for the th sound in thigh If the one with the check is not the one you want click on another choice Because the scat syllables she bop are not in the dictionary they were entered by changing to the Phonetics layer and typing them in phonetically Returning to the Eng lish layer they appear in light blue as in the image above When writing in languages other than English all text is entered this way Finally the text sung at entrance is a comment It is not sung It appears in gray Note that you can also insert the symbol to remove text temporarily from what s being sung Then delete the and WordBuilder will sing that text again The effect of the ends at the end of the current line i e until the next carriage return which may be dif ferent from where the phrase automa
62. eiled with EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs is WordBuilder an application that lets the composer type sentences that the choirs sing A large part of this manual is devoted to various aspect of WordBuilder starting with a tour of the program on page 33 and continuing with an in depth look at how to use the application starting on page 49 Chapter 2 EWQL Symphonic Choirs An Overview 14 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The Instruments in EWQL Symphonic Choirs IMPORTANT NOTE This version of the manual applies only to the basic Symphonic Choirs Virtual Instrument without the optional Choirs Expansion content If you have bought a license for the Expansion module check to see whether there s another manual that includes information about that extra EastWest Quantum Leap product The instruments included within the EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs are those listed below Note that a few are only included with the optional Choirs Expansion as indicated below e Choirs in voice types These are the only instruments that use Wordbuilder to create the sound of sung speech Sopranos Altos gt Tenors gt Basses gt Boys Women gt Men e Choirs in 5 of the above voice types In these instruments the vowels and conso nants can be played individually in case you want access to a specific phonetic letter out of the context of speech Also included are choral effec
63. eives as language Where some projects require intelligibility others may need only the perception that people are singing without the need for conveyed meaning The care you need to take with WordBuilder depends on where your project falls in that spectrum The success of WordBuilder in creating recognizable words and meaningful phrases re lies on the programming of phonetic cues Consonants often require the most care their duration and their volume relative to the nearby vowels are often the keys to clearly enun ciated and understandable words The use of small gaps between phonetic elements especially before an initial consonant can sometimes make consonants stand out more clearly Or the opposite technique overlapping the end of one segment with the start of the next can integrate the sounds into more recognizable patters The duration and loudness of a consonant are interdependent Often the longer the con sonant lasts the louder it will seem and vice versa You should experiment to see how this works on real words Also the type of attack chosen for a vowel after a consonant will have a noticeable effect on the sound of a word There is no fixed rule except always to listen to the words spoken and then emulate what you hear Be prepared to adjust any aspect of each phonetic component es pecially if intelligibility is one of your requirements You will soon learn many tricks that will improve realism Also look for hint
64. ep the sound a little different on each repetition e Use the sample for a nearby note for example a half step higher or lower and retune it to the needed pitch e Start the note a tiny amount before or after the specified start time e Detune the sample a few cents hundredths of a semitone higher or lower This variability gives the sound a more human less robotic feel After all what human sings every note exactly on pitch and at exactly the notated time The EWQLSO producers have selected which of these three approaches will be used for each vocal patch and how much variability to allow to achieve the most realistic be havior That is some patches randomly use all three approaches while others may use only one or two of them Volume Velocity and Expression There are at least four ways to make sampled voices sound louder or at least make the real notes seem to have been sung louder One of these the dynamic cross fade was discussed on page 81 above Volume is just the loudness of the generated sound Changing volume is basically the same as turning the volume knob on your audio system A soprano singing softly can be cranked up a soprano belting a note can be turned way down Volume can be adjusted mid note that is the listener can experience a crescendo or diminuendo for a held note And as with a live choir the various parts are changing their loudness independently something you cannot do with the stereo s lou
65. ependent of CC7 and can adjust dynamics to shape phrases within the tracks Although the volume and expression controls can be adjusted separately the volume setting does change how expression affects perceived volume Think of CC as setting an upper limit on the dynamics at any moment as in the diagram at the right Expression like most continuously changeable values in MIDI takes values between O and 127 CC7 specifies how loud a sound to generate for the maximum CC11 value 127 and for other CC11 values proportionately CCCII 1909 COT 30 perceived volume level time MIDI Envelopes and Control Data Most modern sequencers let you draw an envelope for the most common MIDI control codes The diagram with the light colored curve at the end of this paragraph is an ex ample of an envelope for CC11 Notice how the values are constantly changing the Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 86 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Same way a singer modulates his or her breath and tone to shape the musical line The horizontal lines near the top are the notes CC 11 40 0 When saved as MIDI data this same envelope appears as a finite set of commands In a sequencer track these often appear as vertical lines each line being a command to change the value in this case to change CC11 The other way and many say the better way to send CC11 events to the sample player is with a MIDI c
66. ermine the value that works best for your playing style The Voices Default Tab There are three dialog boxes that open from TC i this tab Each is used to set the defaults that first appear when those dialog boxes are pre sented If ever you want to change the val ues that you have set in these dialog boxes to apply to a specific project you should do that in the project specific dialog boxes not here Details of this process are presented in the paragraphs below General Timers Voices Default Events Default values Default Voice Advanced Midi In Default voice Advanced Midi Out Default Voice Properties Dialog Box This is the same dialog box that appears xj each time you start WordBuilder in stand alone mode If you never set values as the defaults in this dialog then you Voice Mame voice will always see the same values as shown on page 50 But Voice Type Ewo Symphonic Choirs Sopranos Midi In Midi Part m USB Kevstation Midi Ch Ej idi q zi Advanced Midi In Midi Part None x Start in Midi Ch 1 Advanced Midi Out Consonants Valume Pitched m Midi Gut gioecococtenaceconconegensecogcaoeocooeocecnoncoeoocoeoncenoncencesconon Man Pitched omen let s say you always use your keyboard to play the melo dies and always transmit on MIDI channel 9 Then you can preset those choices and others here and not have to reset them every time you
67. ess the 32 bit components within the 64 bit installer Important exception For Sonar which requires the MFX version of the plug in East West does not support using 32 bit WordBuilder within Sonar x32 on a computer run ning a Windows 64 bit operating system The WordBuilder installer is very straightforward and in some cases requires no choices from the user For those running the 64 bit installer you will see the following page dur ing the process This screen allows those using Cubase in a 32 bit environment to install Chapter 2 EWQL Symphonic Choirs An Overview 19 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT the 32 bit VST plug in in addition to the other option standalone version Everyone else should install only the other choice WordBuilder for PLAY 64 Bit i in Select Features Please select which features you would like to install Feature Description B4 bit fordBulder executable sS T arid v ST MEX plugins for PLAY This Feature will Eie installed on the local hard dive His Feature requires 4B ori vour Hard dre wise Installation wizard A Disk Cost Heset Back Nets Cancel Chapter 2 EWQL Symphonic Choirs An Overview 20 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 23 Important Note for the Multi Choirs 23 Master Controls 26 Microphones Controls 26 Performance Controls 28 Stereo Double
68. etting If you want to accept the default set ting normal attack for a notes then no keyswitch notes are necessary Performance Scripts Symphonic Choirs includes three built in scripts that can provide extra realism to phras es that take advantage of their benefits Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 82 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT e The Portamento script provides a sliding pitch between consecutive notes in a phrase This can be used to emulate the subtle portamento that occurs for example when a singer s voice moves upward or downward toward the next note at the end of a sound ing note but not a full glissando e The Repetition script changes the quality of the notes when a single pitch is sung multiple times in quick succession Although similar to what can be achieved with the Round Robin patches found in other EastWest and Quantum Leap libraries the effect here can be used on any articulation e he Legato script creates a more flowing and connected sound for notes in a continu ous phrase Note that this Legato script mentioned here is not the same as the Legato attacks de scribed earlier starting on page 60 They have a different sound and can be used sepa rately or together Try experimenting with both to see what works best in your project The scripts themselves are not modifiable by the user but one important parameter can be adjusted using a MIDI contr
69. even though the microphones are much closer to the performers than Is the listener in the hall The sense of vocal directionality and its effect on stage and hall sound is evident Post Production The EWQLSO and EWQLSC samples originate from this Decca setup The user can ma nipulate or mix file perspectives to work a composing project with the same mix capabili ty available in most soundstage and classical recordings Microphone pickups are select able allowing the user to mix and create a complex full sounding performance External equalization adjustments can make soloists be very soft yet have pinpoint resolution in a lush full ensemble Offstage singers can sound diffuse and merge into 5 channel sur rounds without creating distraction Stereo accents with time phase control can extend near field images beyond the speakers a useful effect for computers and gaming Three Dimensional Samples Three file groups operate in conjunction for each choral section soloist or sample They provide e afull soundstage e a close focused sound e the hall response All three pickup signals are synchronized to the choir s position for correct time phase arrival as well as pre equalized so they will fit into a traditional large scale mix with both other sections and instruments from EWQLSO In this manner other preset syn chronization and mix variations can be made to modify the placement of a section or soloist within the full sound of all chora
70. f for example a round robin patch contains two samples A and B and a piece uses that note 7 times the PLAY Engine plays ABA BA B A If the piece is played again from the beginning the engine will play starting with B because that s next in order The second rendition will be subtly different Being able to reset all round robin articulations to the beginning of the cycle allows for consistent playback Chapter 3 The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface 2 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT You can use this button to reset all round robin articulations on demand Or use your choice of a MIDI note or MIDI control code to reset them one instrument at a time from a MIDI keyboard or the data stored in a sequencer project See the description of the Set tings dialog in the PLAY System manual for more information about this articulation Specific approach Stereo Double Controls This knob with its three buttons gives the user the option of using ex cr TM clusively the left stereo signal or right when Stereo is selected from the Moe Channel Source drop down For any other setting this control has no effect fere Lowubhle CRY The knob lets the user determine the spread of the signals how far apart the ear per ceives the stereo channels to be Turning it all the way to the left brings the two channels together at the center unless the Pan knob positions the output differently and is the eq
71. g box you see at the right The top half is shown here with the drop down list of 6 possible operations open velocity Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 59 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT selecting Nothing leaves the note s velocity unchanged that is leaves it the same as the velocity of the original MIDI note sent from the sequencer or keyboard Selecting the equal sign sets the velocity to the exact value specified in the box at the right For example selecting 85 sets the velocity of the F segment to 85 no matter what the velocity of the played note is Remember that values for velocity range from 1 almost silent to 127 played with maximum force The other 4 symbols are the arithmetic operations plus minus times and divided by Consider an incoming note with velocity of 50 Here are examples of how the settings in this dialog affect the outgoing velocity for the individual segment VELOCITY ARITHMETIC Setting in Dialog Box Result 12 62 30 20 2 100 ub 60 3 17 All results are rounded to the nearest whole number between 1 and 127 inclusive If you use these relative settings instead of absolute instructions such as 60 it al lows you to change the velocity of notes in the sequencer or at the keyboard and have WordBuilder adjust the segments velocities proportionately Controlling Segment Transitions with Articulations When setting lyrics it is important t
72. ges When writing smooth lines avoid these hard velocities Hint 2 Unusual and non English vowel or consonant sounds can be created by layering vowels or consonants in WordBuilder For example the French word Louvre can be created in Votox with this text IOU vrgU In the first syllable overlap O and U so that they play together until note off To accomplish this overlap drag the ends of the horizontal bars in WordBuilder s Time Editor In the second syllable overlap r and g for a French R Experiment to find your own combinations and post what you find on the WordBuilder forum Hint 3 The Latin word maximus can be written either like this in Votox maX E mOS or like this maX SE mOS In the second example the S sound at the end of the maX syllable gets connected to the next syllable because the S sound is triggered again at the beginning of the next syllable Hint 4 Many words work better if you repeat the first vowel twice The word drum is usually written like so in Votox drum But it can also be written like so druum Now when you let go of the note u is triggered again for a short period of time before the m You can overlap and cross fade the second u and the m for a smooth re alistic effect Hint 5 Consider a word like rain which can be written like so in Votox reEn The realism of the vowel sound can be enhanced by adjusting the curve on the eE cross fade Have the e de
73. hat you need automatically The Choirs instruments are divided into Instruments and Multis in the x eis browser as in the screen shot at the oe right Those in the folder called Multis all load more than one instrument ewi file into PLAY and assign each instrument a unique channel number usually from 1 to 6 sometimes from 1 to 12 After loading one of these multis into PLAY if you look in the Instrument drop down list in the upper right corner of the PLAY window you will see that either 6 or 12 instruments have been loaded for you as in the image at the left By the way if you have not already changed the setting to Auto Increment MIDI Chan nels in the Settings dialog box you should probably do so otherwise you may have to assign the separate channels to all 6 or even 12 instruments individually e Chapter 10 Instruments Articulations and Keyswitches 99 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The loaded multi must match the voice type specified in WordBuilder For example if you load an Altos multi you must also set the instance of WordBuilder to Altos and in Standalone mode make sure that the output port in Word Builder for the Altos exactly matches all 6 or 12 input ports in PLAY for the Altos multis Following these rules guarantees that when you request a z sound on the note E3 that s what you get Like most other instruments in the EastWest PLAY System libraries t
74. he choirs do con tain multiple articulations Each of the multis except Boy Sopranos provides a choice among 4 separate articulations e normal a natural attack e legato a fast smooth attack e staccato short level 3 velocity e Slurred subtle and quick sliding up to the pitch These articulations are selected in the WordBuilder Ul and therefore they are described in the chapter call Using WordBuilder in a section called Controlling Segment Transi tions with Articulations starting on page 47 The Boy Soprano multis contain only 2 articulations e normal a natural attack e legato a fast smooth attack The Multis in Symphonic Choirs The following tables list the names of the multis and a brief description of their sounds The names that include HARD MOD SOFT MOD and DYN MOD warrant further explana tion than what fits in the tables e DYN MOD multis are a 3 way dynamic cross fade soft through medium to hard with more detail in the two items directly below e HARD MOD multis are a 2 way dynamic cross fade between medium volume medium vibrato samples and loud heavy vibrato samples the loudest two thirds of the DYN MOD patch e SOFT MOD multis are a 2 way dynamic cross fade between soft volume non vibrato samples and medium volume medium vibrato samples the softest two thirds of the DYN MOD patch Chapter 10 Instruments Articulations and Keyswitches 100 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMEN
75. her overall sound Rear Left amp Right The two rear channels accept input from the two stereo Surround mics exclusively Use your judgment about how much signal to send here based on the type of recording you re creating LFE Unless you re creating a mix for a hardware environment with a discreet LFE chan nel the system that plays your music can best determine its own crossover frequency between the sub woofer and the other channels based on the characteristics of the hard ware Therefore none of the music from the EWQL libraries should be added to the LFE channel Only non musical effects such as explosions and dinosaur footsteps should be added to this track directly Note that this is a change from earlier advice about sur round sound mixing If you are writing for specific hardware that does not provide its own crossover then use the older advice as follows The low frequency and effects channel should be pulled from a mix of all the other channels that is the relative volume of the various mics including any time delays and EQ applied separately to discreet channels should be proportionally applied to the LFE channel Be sure you use a crossover filter that removes from the other 5 channels the exact same range of frequencies added to the LFE Not excluding the low frequency sounds from the other channels results in inappropriate doubling of those frequencies Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 92 EAST WEST QUANT
76. her perfectly whether building stereo or surround sound recordings ApvANCED A Decca tree for those interest ed is an arrangement of three microphones originally designed at the English Decca Re cords and still used for orchestra recordings especially when recording movie scores The mics are arranged as in the diagram at the right Because of the 2 meter spacing between the left and right mics the audio provides the inten sity cues necessary for detailed stereo imaging while including sufficient phase information to e e produce an open and spacious sound In addi tion the middle microphone generates a solid central image Much post production work and active DSP is mandatory to align the multiple time phase paths from all of the sample groups In addition a large concert space was re quired to avoid claustrophobic wall sounds and to capture the choir sound we hear at an appropriate distance These ultimately achieve overall mix clarity To provide process headroom for this work a super resolution recording chain was used FM microphone responses extended to at least 26 kHz all signal paths had minimal discrete circuit electronics and conversions and files were at least 24 bit 88 2kHz We also recorded everything at 176 4kHz for future updates Hence the Gigabytes of data needed to access the sounds of instruments from different angles placements and distances The six channel high resolution files containing cl
77. ic letter in the Time Editor You can manually drag the ends of the bands to achieve the desired effect Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 64 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The above screen shot shows the Time Editor for the syllable sleep after running Learn in Draw Only mode No manual adjustments have been made to Individual segments The 3 colors in the time line have the same meaning as in Change Speed mode The last two segments are still timed to the Note Off event as seen by their position in the rightmost pane If you want them timed to the Note On event then drag them into the left pane Their timings will change from negative values to positive ones Use the bands within the time line so you know where you re placing segments in relation to the end of the current note beginning of the dark red and to the start of the next note end of the dark red Whether to Use Learning This Learn function is a way to automate some of the precision work needed to adjust letter timings to match note durations It does not achieve with a single mouse click perfect enunciation of the sung letters you still need to listen to the result and fine tune the performance Because Draw Only mode makes no changes to the output it can provide information about how the notes timings relate to the default letter timings within the syllables Even for those who prefer to adjust the timings of the phonetic segments the
78. ice Mame First Tenor channel over which MIDI data will be output Re Voice Type EwQL symphonic Choirs Tenors member that WordBuilder may reserve 6 or even owch i H 12 consecutive channel numbers for talking to the pc fe e Pitched Consonants PLAY Engine The Port and the MIDI In channel are eee E selected in the host program cancel Optionally modify the Pitched Consonant and the Non Pitched Consonant sliders to set how loud compared to vowels you want the two types of consonants to be NPC Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 58 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Data Flow MIDI data entering WordBuilder is most often one MIDI note per syllable the composer thinks in terms of the S L and Y sounds in sly being one sung entity WordBuilder breaks the syllable into 3 notes all at the same pitch so that each can trigger its own samples Many more MIDI events flow out of WordBuilder than flow in The following sections describe how WordBuilder gives you control over the various as pects of the outbound MIDI data so that you can shape the performance For the most part you are working in terms of words syllables and letters leaving it up to WordBuilder to translate your intentions into data the sample player can understand Setting Velocities for Letters The incoming note from the sequencer or keyboard has a MIDI velocity parameter and that velocity will be passed through to
79. ice does not affect the sounds only the symbols used to represent those sounds in Votox Speakers of Romance languages may feel more comfortable using Votox in Latin Mode as the symbols more closely reflect spellings in Romance languages English speakers will most likely prefer the English symbols In the Vowel Comparison table below read aloud each of the words in the right most column and decide which of the vowels to the left seems more natural to you Then work in the mode e the column that most often felt more correct Here are two tables that compares the two sets of Votox vowels First the table of simple vowels Note that in the first three rows the English and Latin versions of the vowels of the same Chapter 9 The Phonetic Alphabets 94 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT VOTOX VOWEL COMPARISON English Mode Latin Mode Example English words a a money rough e e red steady 0 0 orange naughty u A money rough A a black after E index finger E never used alone only in diphthongs 0 u pool blue And here is the table of diphthongs the sounds made up of two vowels sounds in a row VOTOX VOWEL COMPARISON English Mode Latin Mode Example English words aE ai white sigh u0 Au brown mouse IE EI gray slate FE ii green ski oE oi oil boy 00 ou yellow ocean ur Ar purple lower Because of the close relationship between the symbols of the Phonetics and Votox al
80. ill open with a button for selecting the Control Change number The default setting is Volume 3 4 Foot Pedal 5 Portamento Time 6 Data Entry MSB 7 Volume 8 Balance Control 9 10 Pan 11 Expression 12 Effect type selector 1 13 Effect type selector 2 14 Control 14 15 Control 15 16 General purpose 1 17 General purpose 2 18 General purpose 3 13 General purpose 4 20 Control 20 2 Control 21 4 22 Control 22 B3 Control 23 24 Control 24 There s a graph inside the long box to the right 4125 Control 25 as shown in the image after this paragraph Rn 26 Control 28 v wo 1 Click on the hyperlink titled Vol to open the small dialog in the image at the right Select l Modulation Depth from the drop down list Click on OK to effect the change The orange link now says CC 1 Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 6 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT You can drag nodes with the mouse and create new nodes by double clicking with the left mouse button You can also delete nodes by double clicking with the right mouse button in Windows or double clicking with the Command button held down on the Mac Add as many nodes as you need to draw in the desired changes x 224ms y 46 It is unlikely that you will want to draw complicated curves like the one above inside a single phonetic segment unless the choir is holding the note for a very long time
81. ion of others playing at the same time Output Channels Control This drop down list at the bottom of the Master controls as show in the image at the right above allows the user to select the pair of stereo audio channels to which the output will be sent This control can be used to send the audio output from each loaded instrument to separate audio tracks in the system s sound cards when in standalone mode or in the host sequencer when in plug in mode In the case of Symphonic Choirs you should not separate the audio output for the 6 instruments that PLAY loads for the WordBuilder voices or the 12 instruments for the Men and Women instrument types The 6 or 12 instruments are acting as a single instrument and need to have their audio directed to a single output If two or more voices within the same instance of PLAY share the same output channels then their audio signals will be mixed into a single stereo pair of audio channels Chapter 3 The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface 2b EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Microphones Controls loading C 0 ah Exp Vib Surrouna ON any of the lights toggles it loading or unload mU ES ing the indicated samples from memory Note Perfo Portamento DF ay OIIUEIOE When EastWest Quantum Leap recorded the voices in Symphonic Choirs it used three sets of microphones in different parts of the concert hall e Close directly in front of each choral sectio
82. ition so the next MIDI note will sing the first syllable Reset the syllable position so the next MIDI note will start at the current position of the cursor Edit the keyswitch and velocity of the current letter Change the speed of the syllable timers Send all MIDI data for the current voice directly to output send all MIDI data for all voices directly to the output channel with no WordBuilder processing Open the dialog with the properties and MIDI setup of the current voice Open the Advanced MIDI In or Out setup dialog box for setting extra parameters Open a dialog box to initiate the Speed Learning feature A check next to the selection English Phonetics or Votox indicates that that text mode is currently in effect The Tools Menu File Edit wiew voice Tools Window MIDI Panic w Phonemes votox Letters Options Save options WordBuilder PLAY File Edit View Voice BCG Window Help MIDI Panic Help Ckri M Ctrl F v Phonemes EIE Chapter 5 The WordBuilder Menus 45 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Here are the operations available from the Tools menu MIDI Panic Turn off every note on every MIDI channel Phonemes Show or hide the display of phonetic symbols with their example words grayed out when the text mode is not Phonetics Votox Letters Show or hide the display of Votox symbols grayed out when the text mode is not Votox Options Wi
83. l results Here the p that closes the syllable occurs during the rest With no rest between notes all the phonetic segments happen within the duration of the note itself or might intentionally overlap the start of the next note by a small amount When writing a score for real singers to read simplicity of the notation is important but in WordBuilder and Symphonic Choirs fine tuning the duration of the MIDI notes by 10 or 20 ticks can have an impact on the sound of the syllables When trying to fix a syllable that doesn t sound quite right ask yourself whether lengthening or shortening the rests between notes can improve the result Click on each word in the Text Editor to see how WordBuilder has modified the timings of all the segments to match the music to which the phrase will be sung Once WordBuilder has learned the note on and note off events of a musical line you can manually tweak the timings to fine tune the performance If you change the tempo or the note durations you may want to rerun the Learn fea ture to conform the phonetic segments to the shape of the new melodic line Changing pitches does not require rerunning Learn Draw Only Mode If you choose Draw Only mode when starting the Learn feature WordBuilder writes the length of notes and rests into the gray red and blue regions of the timeline at the top but does not change the actual lengths of the phonetic letters the colored bands next to each phonet
84. l defaults for the choral voices are listed below And one of these is what will be set when you select the voice type you want e Sopranos D3 62 to E5 88 e Altos F2 53 to A4 81 e Tenors C2 48 to D4 74 e Basses BO 35 to D3 62 e Boys C3 60 to B4 83 e Women F2 591 to E5 88 e Men BO 35 to DA 74 Sopranos Altos Tenors e Basses Boys Women Men guess The Transpose drop down list allows the user to shift all notes that arrive from the MIDI In Channel by a specified amount when sent via MIDI Out to the PLAY engine Possible values are e Up 2 octaves e Up 1 octave e No transpose e Down 1 octave e Down 2 octaves Chapter 7 The WordBuilder Options Dialog 76 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Once the choir file has been saved these defaults remain in effect unless changed in the Voice Properties dialog box that is opened e by clicking on the vertical rectangle near the upper left corner of the WordBuilder window e each time a new voice Is created Default Voice Advanced Midi Out To understand what this dialog box does you have to know that each voice in WordBuilder connects to the PLAY engine running Symphonic Choirs over 6 separate MIDI channels Here you can set the default values for both the port and the channel over which the MIDI data is sent Under normal circumstances you do not need to set these values but advanced users can control the parameters to accom
85. l parts and instruments Such automatic options are not only convenient but they perform very well and reduce processing requirements to help allocate computer resources to create the complex real sound of a good recording Chapter 2 EWQL Symphonic Choirs An Overview 13 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT One Dimensional Samples Note that a one dimensional sample even with extensive electronic support doesn t cre ate the varying spatial energy relationships that occur when singers sing different notes The reflected sounds from all the surfaces of a concert hall mix audibly in a good space to provide the whole listening experience Small room and anechoic samples lack this complexity a serious problem when attempting concert hall reality Convincingly com plex and therefore realistic sound radiation cannot be achieved with current sound processing software the EWQLSC sample library was made in a big space where mul tiple paths for reflections achieve the sense of space appropriate to a concert hall Recording Engineer Prof Keith O Johnson Two Revolutionary Concepts The first of these revolutions actually began with the companion library EastWest Quan tum Leap Symphonic Orchestra but bears repeating here the recording of 3 microphone positions to achieve concert hall realism unparalleled in sampled orchestras This fea ture is described in detail starting on page 88 The second revolution unv
86. lables Click on OK to return to the program s main interface Cancel discards the learned information Appl En Current Voice Me All Voices Current Voice If you asked WordBuilder to Change Speed on the notes then the horizontal bands that represent each phonetic sound s duration in milliseconds will change Consider lyrics that include the word sleep Before the learning process the Time Editor looks like this T5 ms OFF eb ms I i o E Wo ade am a Lin 250m 1 a After learning the timing of the five phonetic segments is quite different In the time line at the top the lighter blue interval is the duration of the note itself The dark red interval Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 63 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT is the time for singing the consonants and glides that close the syllable In our example this takes place in the sixteenth note rest The very dark blue black shows where the next note starts N In this example the syllable is sung on a dotted eighth note with a six p 4 sleep no more ama teenth note rest before the next note The tempo is 90 bpm If you do the math you ll see that the duration of a dotted eighth at 90 bpm is 500 ms which agrees with the image The staff at the left shows this configuration setting the words to quarter notes with no rests between the notes would yield similar but not identica
87. le in the pop up menu You will be prompted for a Voice file extension voi or Choirs file extension cho that was Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 69 My Eskimo Phrases k Cruce Salus EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT exported at an earlier time from WordBuilder Once you open a Tile the Add Phrase dialog appears allowing you to name the phrase and indicate the folder where it should be stored You can also specify whether the phrase is for only the original voice type or all voice types The entire contents of the Text Editor in the opened file is stored as a new phrase You can also create a new phrase file from the tabel First Greeting current contents of the Text Editor by selecting Available to ont Sopranos Canel Add Phrases from the pop up menu The proce Create in dure is the same as in the prior paragraph except E WordBuilder New folder Latin Ph that you are not asked to select a file iik organise My Eskimo Phrases Organizing Your Phrases If you select Organize Phrases from the pop up menu a file system explorer opens allowing you to move files and folders to create whatever folder hierarchy you want for your phrases Loading Phrases into the Current WordBuilder Project Add ta Phrases Hover the mouse over one of the folder names at the diced bottom of the pop up menu to see the phrases and sub folders inside that folder Select whatever file you
88. le Tenors to Basses If that s not a problem in your project then this approach is a good choice You re still using WordBuilder so you have all of its power at your disposal In addition the computer resource requirements may be reduced enough that you can load the entire SATB Choir in a moderate amount of RAM The Soloists Three soloist voices are provided soprano alto and boy soprano Like the choirs de scribed above the soloists are available in all three mic positions The soloists are not available from WordBulilder Cross Fades and the Modulation Wheel A cross fade uses two or more different samples on the same MIDI channel and provides a means to lower the volume of one sample while simultaneously raising the volume on another sample This fading between the two sample creates a smooth transition from the sound of one to that of the other In EWQLSC the Mod Wheel controls cross fades that affect the sound of the virtual sing ers The parameters controlled include the amount of vibrato and the dynamics The basic Choirs package without the optional Choirs Expansion provides three types of cross fades in the choir multis e DYN MOD 3 way dynamic modulation an all in one collection of dynamic range e SOFT MOD 2 way soft modulation the lower end of the dynamic range in DYN MOD From soft volume without vibrato to medium volume with vibrato e HARD MOD 2 way hard modulation the upper end of the dynamic range in
89. les co Ranomsjlabes GO Random syllables ao Random syllables The last 4 keyswitches for the boy soloist generate common Latin syllables Stringing these together on a melody makes it sound as if the boy is singing words in Latin or some language the user does not understand You have 4 syllables to choose from for each note in the melody As an example play the lowest B in the boy soprano s range four times and precede each note in turn with the keyswitches AO G 0 GO and F 0 That creates the text noo mah nah fee Chapter 10 Instruments Articulations and Keyswitches 107 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT EASTWEST QUANTUM LEAP LICENSE AGREEMENT EASTWEST END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT Please read the terms of the following audio samples License Agreement before using these audio samples By opening the packaging and installing these audio samples you agree to become bound by the terms of the License Agreement If you do not agree with the terms of the License Agreement do not open the packaging or use these audio samples East West Sounds Inc Licen sor guarantees that all of the samples with these discs have been created and record ed specially for this project and any similarity to any other recording is unintentional 1 The audio samples recorded with these discs remain the property of Licensor and are licensed not sold to you for use with your sampling software o
90. lighted button is what you re typing in At the right is an example of a word typed in Phonetics It defines the sounds of a Latin word common in liturgical music lacrimosa which means weep o0 ing Note that the syllables are separated with spaces And when you click on the Votox button you can see the same Latin word spelled in Votox as shown in the second image on the right You are most likely to start a project in the Phonetics or Votox layer if you are writing lyrics in another language or have lots of extra syllables in the setting such as I love you hoo when the moo hoon is bri i i ight be bops a doodle la KrE mo Sa You might also start in English let WordBuilder translate the text to one of the phonetic alphabets then make adjustments phonetically to get the exact performance you want If you plan to use WordBuilder a lot then learning to work entirely in Votox is strongly recommended that will give you much more control and it s easier than it might seem at first The Time Editor Just as the Text Editor gives you total control over the sounds within each of the words the Time Editor allows you to fine tune how these sounds move from one to the next over the course of each note in the melody 4L 0 Consider a syllable like sweet Vocalists may move from the s to the w quickly or slowly or at any rate in between A careful choral director may give the chorus direction
91. ll get unpredictable ett results Instead EWQLSC provides in dividual instrument files that you can open in PLAY to hear any single pho netic components directly These files are documented below The Instrument files for the four adult choirs Soprano Alto Tenor Bass all have the same patterns of consonants vowels and vocal effects To save space only the bass ar ticulation files are listed below The others use TENR ALTO SOPR in their names Chapter 10 Instruments Articulations and Keyswitches 102 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The first group listed Is vowels These are all dynamic cross fades The keyswitches pro vide access to the same four articulations available through WordBulilder KEYSWITCHES Articulations Keyswitches staccato DO slurred sliding The table below lists the vowels and some example English words that use those sounds The third column provides the Votox equivalent VOWELS File names Sample words Votox BASS uh DXF C0 D 0 money rough u BASS ee DXF C0 D 0 green ski E BASS oo DXF C0 D 0 blue pool 0 BASS ih DXF C0 D 0 index finger BASS eh DXF C0 D 0 red steady e BASS oh DXF C0 D 0 yellow ocean 0 BASS eu DXF C0 D 0 put could U BASS ah DXF C0 D 0 copper wander a Note that none of the effects listed below is available in WordBuilder To generate one you have to load the individual file listed here directly int
92. m the ah sound of the held vowel to the ee sound at the end This is achieved by fading out the ah and fading in the ee until the ah sound is complete replaced with the ee sound The two envelopes in the screen shot implement this cross fade You do not have to create these envelopes yourself WordBuilder does it automatically for you for the standard diphthongs of English But you may have to adjust the duration and slope of the enve lopes to achieve the sound you re looking for Using a Library of Phrases If there are phrases you plan to use more than once WordBuilder oe provides a way to store in a phrase file on the hard drive all the in ggg e Phases i es Add to Phrases From File formation about the phrase phonetic letters timing cross fades Organize Phrases and so on The phrase can then be quickly recalled each time it s Latin Phrases needed without having to reconfigure all the settings E on My Eskimo Phrases r Included Latin Phrases WordBuilder includes a selection of Latin phrases in two folders If you need to use one of them open this menu and find the phrase in one of the folders You may need to ad just the timings and other features to suit your piece or you may be able to use It as Is Adding Your Own Phrases If you have created phrases in another project and want to import them into your list of stock phrases locally click on Add to Phrases from Fi
93. me of its cho ral instrument files These are voice files that respond to changes in the Mod Wheel by changing the mix between two contrasting sets of samples You can use WordBuilder to simulate turning the Mod Wheel at specific times during a performance thereby dictat ing which of these samples predominates and by how much Changes to the Mod Wheel are transmitted using MIDI Control Change 1 also called Control Code 1 either way abbreviated CC1 WordBuilder lets you set up envelopes that transmit via any Control Change number though you will probably only use a few num bers in this context Here is an example of how cross fades are useful The Full Soprano voices are used in this example but this functionality is available in all of the vocal ranges and in all 3 mic positions The vocal file named SOPR WB HARD MOD uses the Mod Wheel to move smoothly from a value of O medium volume medium vibrato samples to 127 loud heavy vibrato samples This cross fade can create realistic swells either within a note or over a phrase in which more vibrato is added at the same time as the volume Increases Control Change x To send Mod Wheel Control Changes you first MEM need to set up an envelope on any phonetic iai slide Wace 5 5 5 6 set segment affected which usually means on a gam WIL J cw vowel Click on the small plus sign to the right mE of the Votox letter in the Time Editor A new Control 3 lane w
94. modate special circumstances In the seventh drop down list you can select x the port over which to send any other MIDI tier ce data The last control lets you specify a differ twouse part Maple Mi Outs Pott m Ro y ent channel to accept the data stream when the yascpacz wapemdourgoti A z y Bypass button in WordBuilder is turned on EWQLSC Part 3 Maple Midi out Pot 3 d EWQLSC Part 4 Maple Midi Out Poti Ae 4d The Events Tab EwOLSC Parts mapie mdi ouw Pot m o The fourth tab in the Options dialog box lets WSt e Parts Mape midi ow Poti e ij you set event triggers MIDI messages that Orf Mente ma Out Port E control the position of the performance cursor Bypass Mapls Midi Out Port 2 E while the vocal lines are being played Ces At the top of the tab you can specify the MIDI Control Change code and its value that will tell WordBuilder to reset the syllable cursor to the beginning This MIDI event is the way for a sequencer to tell WordBuilder that it has stopped and gone back to the beginning For example without this setting if you played the first 4 measures stopped the sequencer then started again from the begin ning WordBuilder would pick up at the words from measure 5 DC REN x The default setting is CC20 with a value of 127 General Timers Voices Default Events It is recommended that you insert this message Renrneothe Bean or whatever you change it to before
95. move notes up or down in semitone increments nothing smaller It does not change the audio data instead it replaces the incoming MIDI note with a higher or lower value For example if the Transpose control is set to 2 playing MIDI note 60 Middle C will cause PLAY to play back the audio for note 62 2 The Tune control allows adjustments as small as 1 100 of a semitone The audio data is stretched over time to lower the pitch or compressed to raise the pitch For small changes of less than a quarter tone the effect on the timbre is negligible the larger the change in pitch the more noticeable the distortion Note that only the Tune control can let an instrument play above or below the range of provided samples Finally transposing has almost no effect on CPU usage adjustments in tuning require significant CPU processing Pan Control The Pan knob moves the apparent position of the sound source left or right in the audio field by adjusting the relative loudness of the signal in the left and right output channels It preserves the relative panning for the individual panning knobs in the Microphones control The choir voices are already located in their correct position on stage as captured in the otage and Surround mics The Close mics were recorded with the singers directly in Chapter 3 The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface 24 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT front of the stereo microphones so i
96. mselves this extra information can be useful Change Speed mode provides the greatest benefit when used on fast moving music where the default durations of phonetic segments may not have time to play out before the notes end Making Changes to Learned Text To remove all modifications made by the Learn feature place the cursor in the syllable you want to revert to its default timings or select several syllables and then choose Normal in the Syllable Speed dialog shown below This action has the side effect of removing any change you made to the affected syllables the same as if you deleted the syllable and then re added it Other Ways to Adjust Timings In the Syllable control of the WordBuilder interface directly below the Learn button is a field marked Speed with 3 dots ellipsis to the right Clicking on the 3 dots opens Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 65 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT a dialog box for adjusting the speed of the selected syllable by adjusting the duration of its segments There are three options to choose from The first Normal xj Hold on first vowel lets you use the default settings That is it removes any adjustments previously made to the syl Hald on first vowel cancel lable It also removes any Control Changes that had been C Learn applied It has the same effect as removing a syllable and i S adding It in again or t The second opti
97. n e Stage centered at the front of the stage e Surround high above the back of the house Details about the three microphone positions are provided starting on page 88 The Microphones controls shown at the right with an Output PORRE NER drop down list open allow the user to select the microphones i LN AN from which to use the recorded audio and how to mix them when IAN M M generating audio tracks The knobs at the top can pan the audio separately within the sound space The volume sliders can adjust the individual loudness of each microphone in the mix The three lights above the word Loaded indicate whether the samples for that microphone position have been loaded Clicking 4x that when you click on a light to load samples for a new microphone position a small window like the one at the left appears to show you the prog ress and let you abort the loading of samples if you change your mind At the bottom is a Mute button with the letter M and an output button with three dots on it The Mute button temporarily si lences the output for that microphone The Output button allows the user to specify the stereo track to receive the audio output from this microphone Note that Default sends the output to whichever output pair is selected in the main Output button in the lower right corner of the user interface Note that in the case of the WordBuilder voice types each multi loads either 6 or 12 instruments at once
98. n an existing file instead maich rH advanced Main j vanced Midi In then click on Cancel If you do want to create a new voice file then provide a name for a new voice by which you can refer to it later and select which Midi Pot maple midi Out Port 1 E of the 5 voice types in EWQLSC will supply the Start indi Ch fi f Advanced midi out samples Sopranos Altos Tenors Basses Boys Midi Gut Consonants Volume WordBuilder sits between the source of the notes il MUI crus and the sample player In the example image at the right the MIDI In Port identifies that source of notes which is probably a MIDI keyboard or other MIDI generator Also select the number of the MIDI channel on which note data will be transmitted to WordBulilder The Advanced buttons are discussed later in this section In the MIDI Out section of the dialog box select the port with which you re sending data to the PLAY Engine If you re running WordBuilder and PLAY on the same computer then you need to specify the same loopback connection as an output here and as an input in PLAY You also need to select a MIDI channel by which data will be sent to PLAY WordBuilder needs to talk to Choirs for PLAY across 6 channels it reserves 6 consecutive channels starting at the number you select Unless you have a reason to do so and that you have tested to know it works it is suggested you use channels 1 6 Advanced MIDI In and Advanced MIDI O
99. n only Open the Options dialog box save Options Win only Save the options to a file to be loaded every time WordBuilder is opened A check next to either Phonemes or Votox Letters indicates that the listing of sym bols in a box to the right of the Text Editor is currently open The Window Menu File Edit View voice Tools Window Help WordBuilder PLAY File Edit View Voice Tools Help Cascade Tile Minimize Window 38M Arrange Icons Bring All to Front 1 Tenors 1 X Tenors 2 Tenors 2 Sopranos w 3 Basses 1 Altos 4 Basses 2 Basses Here are the operations available from the Window menu Cascade Win only Display multiple voice windows mostly overlapping Tile Win only Display multiple voice windows overlapping as little as possible Arrange Icons Win only When voice windows have been minimized their icons are returned to their docked position at the bottom of the frame Zoom Window Mac only Enlarge the view of the current Voice window Minimize Window Mac only Minimize the current Voice window Bring All To Front Mac only In addition all open voice windows are listed at the bottom of the menu Selecting one brings it to the front and makes it the current voice The check in front of a voice name indicates that it is the current voice The Help Menu File Edit View voice Tools Window Help About WordBuilder WordBuilder PLAY File Edit View Voice Tools Window i45 EE WordBuilder PLAY Hel
100. n the center but the Close instruments have their Pan control adjusted to sound in the same location as the other mic positions It is not necessary to adjust the Pan control of individual singers or sections but you can use this control to achieve a more personal sound or special effects Master Volume Control and Meters This vertical slider adjusts the volume of the final output It preserves the relative mix of volumes specified in the individual sliders within the Microphones control The two vertical volume meters for the left and right audio channels display the real time volume of the output signal Mute and Solo Buttons The Mute button temporarily silences the output for the selected articulation file without affecting other open articulation files Note that the Mute but ton like all the Mute buttons in PLAY does not stop PLAY from processing the MIDI and audio data for received note data therefore using the Mute ERES button does not reduce the load on the computer s CPU If you want to tem MERE porarily turn off the processing for this articulation file uncheck the Active Pss checkboxes for all loaded entries in the Articulations control The Solo button temporarily silences the output for all articulation files that are not currently soloed The same note about CPU load from the previous paragraph applies here as well Use this button to listen to the sound of one voice or just a few without the distract
101. nal phonetic spelling if you may need the traditional pronunciation again You might consider making up your own English spelling of words in a specific dialog and then provide the phonetic spelling for WordBuilder to use This facility can also be used to some degree to teach the WordBuilder program some words from other languages but be aware that only English phonemes are available so you will have to use approximations for many non English sounds Soloing a Word sometime when you re making changes to the sounds of a word you would like to hear it over and over while you tweak the settings You can do that with the operation known as soloing In the Word control at the left side of the WordBuilder window is a button named Solo Click on that button while the cursor is within the word in question The word will turn to red to indicate it is soloed and the button will turn light blue Now every time you send notes into WordBulilder it will cycle through only this one word If playing the word with a sequencer you can set the sequencer to loop through only the appropriate notes Click on the same Solo button to turn off soloing Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 62 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT How WordBuilder Learns Timings Fag rr Ai hoa INNEN D VEA fe cain ee Em l i When you first type text into the Text Editor WordBuilder uses default lengths for each sound that makes up a syllable
102. ne page file with hyperlinks to the PLAY System documentation and to all the library manuals Hyperlinks to this Master Navigation Document are found on the title page of each chapter in each document From there you can open any other document in the collection For example if you re reading something in this documentation for the Quantum Leap Gypsy library and need to open the manual for the PLAY System as well go to any chap ter title page and click on the link that says Click on this text to open the Master Navi gation Document It will open in a new window on the screen In that document click on the icon for the PLAY System and its manual will open in the same window hiding the MND You now have both the Gypsy library manual and the PLAY System manual open in separate windows so you can refer to them both Chapter 1 Welcome 8 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Online Documentation and Other Resources For the most up to date information visit the support pages at EastWest s web site There you can find e information made available after these manuals were written e FAQ pages that may already list answers to questions you have e suggestions trom EastWest and other users of the EastWest PLAY System e news about upcoming releases The address is http support soundsonline com You can also visit the EastWest online forums There you can read comments and ques tions from others who use EastWest p
103. nest orchestral recording have ever heard Russell Lichter SOUNDSTAGE Chapter 1 Welcome 6 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Credits Producers Doug Rogers and Nick Phoenix Recorded by Prof Keith O Johnson Custom recording equipment built and designed by Prof Keith O Johnson Assistant Recording Engineer Rhys Moody Engineering and Mastering Nick Phoenix Editing Nick Phoenix Jared Selter Justin Harris Jonathan Marmor Pierre Martin and Arne Schulze Art Direction Steven Gilmore and Doug Rogers WordBuilder concept by Nick Phoenix and Nuno Fonseca WordBuilder software by Nuno Fonseca Software Doug Rogers Nick Phoenix Klaus Voltmer Klaus Lebkucher Patrick Stinson Stefan Kersten Toine Diepstraten Thomas Merkle Ezra Buchla David Kendall Nick Cardinal and Jonathan Kranz and Justin Harris Manual John Philpit Chapter 1 Welcome EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT How to Use This and the Other Manuals All documentation for the EastWest PLAY Advanced Sample System and its libraries Is provided as a collection of Adobe Acrobat files also called PDFs They can be viewed on the computer screen or printed to paper Each time you install one of the PLAY System libraries two manuals are copied to the file system on your computer e he manual that describes the whole PLAY System This the largest of the manuals addresses how to i
104. ng to a series of objects which lead eventually to an object called Sequencer Input Remove this virtual cable from the environment by clicking on the cable to highlight it and hit the Delete key Not doing this step causes a MIDI loop AAA Symphonic Choirs Environment Click amp Ports m s New Edit View Options Y Physical Input i Ld leon ER Fort 1 MIDI Click WordBuilder 2 WordBuilder 4 Caps Lock Keyboard nd Sequencer Input JUWETEHEH EE RE Input Motes 4 Create a new cable from your Master Key MEE board s port usually port 1 or 2 in the Phys PA ical Input object and connect to the Input Notes object it looks like a keyboard or where the Sum cable was before you deleted It Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 56 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 5 Create an Instrument from the New menu tn this Environment window and name it Sopranos or whatever as in the image at the right Go to the arrange page and create a new track Eme unm E ER md Control click on it and re peee P instrument assign it to Clicks amp Ports i Re Sopranos as shown below Mapped Instrument Touch Tracks Fader a AA ATA ATA TATATATA TAT ATAT AT AT AT ETAT RTs With this track selected you RR see the track information on GM Mixer MMC Record Buttons the left side of the Arrange window You may need to click on the small arr
105. nstall and use all aspects of the software that are common to all libraries e he library specific manual such as the one you are currently reading This smaller document describes aspects that differ from one library to the next such as the list of included instruments and articulations Using the Adobe Acrobat Features By opening the Bookmarks pane along the left edge of the Adobe Acrobat Reader the user can jump directly to a topic from the section names Note that some older versions of Acrobat Reader might not support all these features The latest Acrobat Reader can be downloaded and installed at no cost from the Adobe web site As an example of a hyperlink you can click on the last word of the previous sentence to be taken directly to the Adobe site When reading this and other manuals on the computer screen you can zoom in to see more detail in the images or zoom out to see more of the page at once If an included picture of the user interface or a diagram seems fuzzy or illegible then zoom in using one of several means provided in the Acrobat Reader software Note that images are clearest and screen shots most legible at 200 and next best at 10076 The Master Navigation Document Because the EastWest PLAY System is a collection of components each with its own User s Manual a Master Navigation Document MND is provided to allow users to jump quickly between these PDFs when being read on the computer screen This MND is a o
106. nstrument on MIDI channel 1 and do not repeat that change on the other instruments in the multi when you play a phrase in WordBuilder you will hear some of the phonetic letters sung in the center and others sung from the left Master Controls The Master controls are presented in a strip along the right side of the EWQLSC interface They affect the overall output for the selected voices Channel Source In the upper right corner is the Channel Source drop down list Use this list to choose how you want to use the two stereo channels of the output Stereo uses the two stereo channels as they were originally recorded with no added processing Mono Sum combines the left and right channels into an output that is identi cal in both channels approximating the sound of a single microphone at the center of the stage Mono From Left copies the left channel of the audio to the right output chan nel discarding the audio from the right channel Mono From Right copies the right channel of the audio to the left output chan nel discarding the audio from the left channel Chapter 3 The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface AF Mono From Left Channel Source ai igh Tune COARSE RE FN k Pan 23 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Stereo Swapped uses both stereo channels but reverses the left and right audio Because of the natural positioning of the choirs on the concert stage in
107. o PLAY EFFECTS File names Description of the effects BASS cluster oh The voices sing notes close in pitch but not the same BASS whiswords Each MIDI note is a different unpitched whispered word BASS ahiheh A slowly evolving sound through 3 vowels ah ih eh BASS falls A held note with falling pitch BASS cluster fx Clustered slides evolving shouts etc BASS eeoheh A slowly evolving sound through 3 vowels ee oh eh BASS shouts Various short unpitched shouted vowels 77 77 7 The whispered words are real words such as blood dream evi silence and Hallelujah Chapter 10 Instruments Articulations and Keyswitches 103 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT CONSONANTS File names Sample words BASS b blue slab BASS d red candor BASS g green leg BASS orange fidget BASS blue less BASS m money hammer BASS n green snug BASS r red car BASS rr a rolling R BASS th the nether BASS v olive avert BASS w wait awash BASS y yellow yonder BASS z zero poison BASS non pitched see table below The non pitched consonants are those that carry no breath in linguistic theory they are called unvoiced The following table enumerates them Because they have no pitch only a single note Is required to play any one of these consonants and those note names are listed in the table The meaning of note names can vary with implementation here C4 is MIDI
108. o specify how the sounds flow into each other or don t Singing the word alone might need to be noticeably different than singing the phrase a loan even though the sounds of the letters are the same and even though the notes on the staff are identical As in all musical lines instrumental or vocal the performers need to make choices about how connected or disconnected the consecu tive notes should be WordBuilder distinguishes between staccato and legato as well as other styles Not only was each sung note recorded with all the various phonetic sounds but also with four different attacks for each vowel e Normal e Legato e Staccato e Slurred Sliding WordBuilder uses the concept of a keyswitch to move among these four articulations In stead of writing extra notes in your score as in EWQL Symphonic Orchestra keyswitch ing can be managed with per segment settings in WordBuilder Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 60 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT There are two ways to specify articulations in a dialog box or directly in the Text Editor ADVANCED Actually there is a third way more consistent with other PLAY libraries You can send the keyswitch notes directly instead of having WordBuilder translate your in structions into MIDI note events The note numbers are 24 25 26 and 27 respectively note names CO to D O To open the dialog select the letter whose articulation you want to x
109. ol code See details of how to use the con REPE trol codes in the descriptions that follow x LE ay OIIUEIOE In order for a script to actively affect the notes in an articulation file the script must be activated in the PLAY user interface The image above shows two of the scripts turned on and the Repetition script left off In addition the appropriate MIDI Control Code must not be turned Off that means if MIDI values are being generated for the On Off code on this channel as in the table below they must currently be in the range 64 to 127 If MIDI CC values are not being generated the Control Code is considered On as long as the light in the user interface Is On The effect of engaging the Portamento or Legato effect is subtle The goal is the sound of smooth connected playing and not anything so pronounced that it will draw attention to the effect itself These two scripts share many features in the ways they affect the sound that is the Legato script includes a small portamento component and vice versa MIDI Control Codes These MIDI values can be controlled in standalone mode by adjusting the controls knobs or sliders on a control surface or MIDI keyboard When run as a plug in inside a se quencer or other host you can create a controller envelope to automatically adjust values during playback See the documentation from your hardware or software for information about how to change the values of control codes The
110. on Learn Compress expand by learning Is grayed and not available unless the Learn functionality has already been applied to this syllable It is useful when a syllable has been learned in Draw Only mode Select ing this option and clicking Okay completes the action that would have been done had Learning been done in Change Speed mode You might also use this after changing a word in the text leaving the notes as they are but changing nice to sweet for ex ample and you want WordBuilder to learn timings for the new phonetic segments The third option is Adjust Speed If selected the controls below it become active In the left drop down list you can choose whether to apply changes to only the On pane only the Off pane or both panes The right text box allows you to enter a number that speci fies how long the new notes should be compared to the old Setting it to 50 cuts all lengths in half Setting it to 25076 makes all durations 2 5 times as long as before a bar that beforehand lasted 80 ms now lasts 200 ms 80 times 2 5 For each syllable in the Text Editor window the Syllable section lists its speed in the Ul After the word Speed appears one of e Normal if the default lengths are still in effect e Learned if the lengths have been learned from either the Learn button or the Syllable Speed button e Edited if lengths or start times have been modified with the mouse e Adjusted if the Syllable Speed dialog b
111. ontroller either a keyboard or a control surface As long as you have an extra hand or foot if you use a pedal you can enter these control codes while playing the notes into the sequencer This allows you to hear the interchange among the notes their velocities how hard you re hitting the keys and the expression being added with COLLE This process can also be done in two passes notes first then control data if your setup allows you to record automation data to a track that already contains other MIDI data Everything written about CC11 in this section also applies to CC1 Mod Wheel and all other MIDI control codes Learning to shape musical lines the same way a singer does will give your work a more natural musicality By combining velocity control expression Mod Wheel and volume you change digital samples into real living music Release Trails in Symphonic Choirs The EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs is an ambient library complete with release trails for the Stage and Surround samples Note that the close C samples do not include release trails partly as a measure to conserve computer resources A small amount of artificial reverb can be added to make them mix appropriately with the other samples And because the close samples are the one with the least natural reverb rela tive to the loudness of the sung notes the lack of release trails on this component should not significantly degrade the mix Release trails c
112. ose full and reverberant feeds can produce a real 3D orchestral sense like that from a good recording To do this Chapter 2 EWQL Symphonic Choirs An Overview 12 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Simplified user commands or pre setable instrument placements replace outmoded pan and gain controls functions The new controls make complex adjustment of direct to reflected sound time phase relationships and equalizations to track a section s place ment In this manner a section can be accented within the whole choir brought forward in the mix or moved off stage and the acoustic sound will correlate Recording Practice A good recording setup often requires a close mic accent pickup to assist the ear in focusing on an important phrase in the polyphonic mix Once used the accent is of ten removed as only a few of these spots are effective at any one time Sometimes a reverberation pickup is added or increased to restore a correct sense of hall response to instrumental and choral power Generally a good recording setup for a concert hall has accent capability and will be much like early big sound Decca setups omni or non directional pickups at front a center tree often of directional microphones sev eral close placed accents and a hall sound microphone group Combinations of phase interferences sonic bleeds to microphones time arrivals and special energy convey a best seat perceptual experience
113. ose samples And a dreamy or mysterious film score might be more effective when based on the Surround samples Such decisions may also apply with religious music or if you are looking for a Lord of the Rings type of sound Let your ears decide Beyond the Panning Controls All EWQLSC voices take their traditional position on the concert hall stage And the pan ning position is reinforced by tiny differences in the arrival of sounds to the left and right mics Not only do the sounds directly from the different sections have different arrival times but so also do the reverberations from the left and right walls This is true though only for the Stage and Surround mics on the center line of the concert hall for the Close mics any difference in timing is imperceptible To fit properly in the soundscape the Close samples are programmatically panned left or right to simulate their respective positions on the stage you can see that in the PLAY interface But panning only affects relative volume of the two channels If you want to pin down perceived location even more strongly when using the Close mics it s possible to time adjust the left and right channels separately to move the singers where you want them To reinforce panning the listener s left first remember that the direct sound in the C mics is stronger than the natural reverb Therefore take its EQ ed left channel audio and move it earlier a few milliseconds this will simulate th
114. other two buttons to change the text display to that mode These are called layers because all three ver sions of the text are always available but only one layer at a time is brought to the top in the Text Editor window where it becomes visible OFF T rms When you type English words in the English layer WordBuilder automatically translates any word it finds in its 100 000 word dictionary into the other two layers though they remain hidden until revealed by clicking on the button for that layer When you type correctly formatted text into either the Phonetics or Votox layer it gets translated into the other of those two but not into English Chapter 4 A Quick Tour of WordBuilder 35 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT When you place the cursor in the Text Editor information about the selected word syllable and letter appears in the three controls across the middle of the window as shown on the previous page where the word English word with was selected At the same time in the lower left corner the Phonetics and Votox symbols are Stacked one above the other creating lanes in this case 3 symbols 3 lanes Because WordBuilder uses the Votox layer when dividing a syllable into its sung sounds it s the Votox symbols that are mapped to the colored bands to the right of the letters each band represent the duration of a sampled sound The user controls in this section of the interface
115. out If they walk out of here with a great record we ve done our job it s a success Rogers is currently working with co producer Nick Phoenix on several new Virtual Instru ments projects in the new EastWest Studios Chapter 1 Welcome 4 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Producer Nick Phoenix Nick began scoring film trailers and television commercials in 1994 To date he has ei ther scored or licensed music for the ad campaigns of over 1000 major motion pictures Star Trek Harry Potter 6 Tales of Despereaux The Dark Knight Valkyrie The Hulk Ren dition Spider Man 3 Golden Compass The Assassination of Jesse James Pirates of the Caribbean 3 Babel Hitman Am Legend 300 No Country For Old Men Harry Potter 5 The Brave One Wall E Blood Diamond Speed Racer and Night at the Museum are a few recent examples Nick and Thomas Bergersen founded the ultimate trailer music company Two Steps From Hell in 2006 www twostepsfromhell com Nick has also scored numerous TV shows for NBC CBS Showtime and Fox The journey as a composer has also inspired Nick to record and program his own sounds and samples Nick founded Quantum Leap Productions in 1997 and Quantum Leap has since grown to be the world s top producer of high end virtual instruments A 10 year partnership with Doug Rogers and East West has yielded countless award winning soft ware titles such as Stormdrum Symphonic Orchestra Symphonic
116. ow next to Sopranos to drop down this information Set the port to WordBuilder 1 channel 1 wy EN E as EE f IS M ule Inspector Preferences Settings Auto Zoom Automation Set Locators Repeat Section Cut Section Insert Section 5pli F MIDI Thru Ee rrr osi Spr Se RUE t d H Edi Track v Region MIDI Audio v View v Quantize off 3840 Loop Transposition 0 pi ae Velocity 0 Reassign Track Object E input Notes ea a i Mixer Dynamics Configure Track Header Software Instrument Gate Time A MIDI Click Delay 0 Sopranos e ge Ea m Folder Port WordBuilder 1 Channel 1 Prenram f 6 From the Mixer environment window select your PLAY Instrument track Copy it into the clipboard Apple c Go back to the Clicks amp Ports environment page and paste the channel into the page Apple v 49 C New Edit View Options T 7 Dx gt Setting Setting 4 o View Show Channel Strip Show insert v It db EQ EQ s Bypass Compare Te Inserts Inserts MAIN MENU SETTINGS e BROWSER SOPR Util SOFT P MIDI Port All a Sleareo Double f ARTICULATIONS fictas Leue TTUDG ee E E MM Qe SOPR Util SOFT P1 I NE Beverd Dark Abbey vo uo Channel 1 mE Klopfgeist Transpose 0 Audio 256 inst 1 inst 256 Output 1 2 Vel Min Vel Max mil 8 8 L 4 4 4 4 ON Voice Limit MP oF T E N
117. ox was used to adjust the lengths Resetting the Syllable Cursor As WordBuilder receives each note event it has no way of knowing whether the se quencer is playing the next note in the musical phrase or the melody has been restarted WordBuilder always makes the assumption that it is being requested to sing the next syllable unless it receives a Reset command There are three ways to tell WordBuilder to start again at the beginning of the text e Click on the Reset Position button in the array of buttons in the upper right corner of the window e Select Reset Position from the Voice menu or press the F5 key Menu options are only available in standalone mode e Send a MIDI message see page to learn how to specify the message WordBuilder looks for Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 66 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT In either case the Reset command performs three actions e repositioning the syllable cursor to the beginning of the text e resetting any open keyswitch files back to normal attack the default keyswitch CO e resetting the Mod Wheel to a zero value It is also possible to reset the cursor to anywhere you want in the text Use the mouse to position the cursor in the syllable you want to start with Then select Reset Position to Text Cursor from the Voice menu or press the F4 key Using Built in Cross Fades The EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs includes cross fades in so
118. p Here is what s available from the Help menu Chapter 5 The WordBuilder Menus 46 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT About WordBuilder Win only Open the About Box which is also the WordBuilder Splash Screen On the Macintosh the Help menu also provides access to a Search function The About Box An image of the About Box is shown at below Note that the version number for the Word Builder you are running is included in the lower right corner version 1 0 0 D imnc2 PL A VyordBuilder PLAY by Muno Fonseca Doug Rogers and Mick Phoenix Sy Copyright 2 2008 EASTWEST Chapter 5 The WordBuilder Menus 47 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 49 90 99 99 60 63 66 67 69 69 70 Starting the Program in Standalone Mode Starting the Program as a Plug in Data Flow Setting Velocities for Letters Controlling Segment Transitions with Articulations How WordBuilder Learns Timings Resetting the Syllable Cursor Using Built in Cross Fades Note Volume Using a Library of Phrases Notes from the Producers Click on this text to open the Master Navigation Document 48 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Using WordBuilder WordBuilder is a tool for approximating the sound of sung speech Its effectiveness in reaching that goal depends on your craft in shaping a series of phonetic material into realistic patterns that the listener perc
119. r Doug Rogers has produced a long series of diverse virtual instruments that have defined much of the progress the industry has seen over these two decades EastWest introduced loop sample libraries to the market in the early nineties followed closely by the first midi driven loops Dance Industrial He released the first sample library to include multiple dynamics followed by the first sample library to stream from hard disk an innovation that led to the detailed collections available today Chapter 1 Welcome 3 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT He persuaded audio legend Prof Keith O Johnson to record EWQL Symphonic Orchestra and its companion library Symphonic Choirs and came up with the revolutionary idea of recording all instruments and voices with 3 simultaneous stereo mic setups so users can control the tone of the performances and the acoustics of the concert hall as well as create surround sound mixes His latest productions include Quantum Leap Pianos another 3 mic setup and the most detailed virtual piano collection ever produced and Fab Four inspired by the sounds of the Beatles featuring the same kind of vintage instruments and original EMI Abbey Road recording equipment as the Beatles used to create their music He persuaded audio legend Ken Scott who was involved in the recording of five Beatles albums and engineer for Magical Mystery Tour and The Beatles also known as the White Album
120. r equipment 2 A right to use the enclosed sounds is granted to the original end user of the product Licensee and is NOT transferable 3 The Licensee may modify the sounds LICENSEE MAY USE THE SOUNDS FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES WITHIN MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS 4 The following terms apply to the use of loops compositions that contain a combination of sound samples that can be repeated to form a continuous piece of music used in music or production libraries that are relicensed to multiple third parties 1 Loops must be used in a musical context with at least two other instruments that contribute significantly to the composition 2 The entire loop cannot be left exposed at any time in the com position 3 If you have any doubts a composition meets this criteria you may submit it to licensing eastwestsounds com for written approval Please do not send audio or MP3 files send us a link to your composition on your web server 5 This license expressly forbids resale relicensing or other distribution of these sounds either as they exist on these discs or any modification thereof You cannot sell loan rent lease assign upload to or download from any server or transfer all or any of the enclosed sounds to another user or for use in any competitive product 6 Licensor will not be responsible if the contents of these discs does not fit the particular purpose of the Licensee If in doubt over usage please contact East West Sounds Inc by fax U
121. r program inside the same computer Instead of running a MIDI cable from your computer s MIDI Out port to the MIDI In port you need what s called a loop back connector This is a software driver that exposes several ports Each port can be connected to a MIDI In or MIDI Out within a program that knows how to talk MIDI for example the PLAY program a sequencer or WordBuilder Think of a loopback connector as a set of virtual MIDI ca bles It is best to obtain one that exposes multiple MIDI In Symphonic Choirs ports and MIDI Out ports Connect the same numbered In running in PLAY and Out ports between a program that sends data and one that receives it and you have a way for them to communicate For those using Symphonic Choirs together with WordBuilder exclusively in a sequencer a loopback connector is not required therefore this software Is considered optional For those running the programs in standalone mode even if only some of the time this software is required On the Apple Macintosh a loopback connector is already part of WordBuilder and the ports appear in drop down lists that ask for MIDI In and Out connections On a Windows PC you have to obtain one There are many to choose from Some are a free download others are commercial versions with extra features Suggestions are below Some can be downloaded from more than one site so run an online search to determine the best place to obtain your copy Here s a lis
122. roducts and post your own The many forum par ticipants are a good source of helpful information about both the technical and musical aspects of this software The address of the forums Is http www soundsonline forums com Chapter 1 Welcome 9 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 11 The Design Point For the Symphonic Choirs Library 12 Recording Notes 14 Two Revolutionary Concepts 15 The Instruments in EWQL Symphonic Choirs 16 WordBuilder 16 What s Included 17 Hardware Requirements 17 Optional Software MIDI Loopback Connectors 18 Installation Specifics Click on this text to open the Master Navigation Document 10 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT EWQL Symphonic Choirs An Overview The Design Point For the Symphonic Choirs Library The EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs virtual instrument is the result of years of planning scoring recording editing and programming by over 100 creative profes sionals Our goal was to create a Symphonic Choirs virtual instrument that would blend perfectly with the multiple award winning EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Orches tra and could be reproduced in surround sound recorded where choirs and orchestras sound most natural in a state of the art concert hall First we had to find the right team to execute the plan To capture the sounds we needed someone with an impressive history of recording choirs and orchestras
123. rtical Zoom In Out Change the height of the bars in the Time Editor Toolbar Win only show or hide the main Toolbar status Bar Win only show or hide the Status Bar at the bottom of the WordBuilder window A check next to either of the last two menu items indicates that the toolbar or status bar IS currently visible Chapter 5 The WordBuilder Menus 44 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT The Voice Menu File Edit View Voice Tools Window Help English w Phonetics Vobox Reset Position Reset Position Ea Text Cursor Letter KSjVelaciby Syllable Speed Solo Word Bypass Bypass All Voices Properties MIDI Setup Advanced Midi In Advanced Midi Gut Speed Learning WordBuilder PLAY File Edit View Voice Tools Window Help English v Phonetics Votox Ctrl 1 Ctrl 2 Ctrl 3 Reset Position sR F5 Reset Position to Text Cursor R F4 Solo Word Bypass Ctrl B6 Bypass All Voices Properties MIDI Setup Advanced MIDI In Advanced MIDI Out Ctrl 0 Speed Learning Here are the operations available from the Voice menu English Phonetics Votox Reset Position Reset Position to Text Cursor Letter KS Velocity syllable Speed Bypass Bypass All Voices Properties MIDI Adv Midi In Out Speed Learning Change the voice mode to English Change the voice mode to Phonetics Change the voice mode to Votox Reset the syllable pos
124. s 13 From the Studio menu select Multi Record 14 For the first MIDI track name it simply Tenors MIDI set the input to your key board and set the output to Tenors Output 1 15 For the next 6 midi tracks set their inputs to Tenors Input 1 through Tenors Input 6 respectively Set their outputs to PLAY 1 1 through PLAY 1 6 re spectively Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 52 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT La Seq Sequence End MVE LOOP LOCK REC MOM INFUT CH LEVEL PLAY XMPT OUTPUT TAKE ENA COL TRACK NAME Conductor EH J Tenors MIDI e HB a Play 1 EH Jj Choirsl Midi Contraller any EEE Tenors GQutput 1 amp Built in Audio 1 2 Tenors Input 1 Play 1 1 Tenors Input 2 Plag 1 2 Tenors Input 3 Play 1 3 Tenors Input 4 Play 1 4 Tenors Input 5 Play 1 5 Tenors Input 6 AL sap Play 1 6 EH Jj Chairs EB Jj Chaoirs3 EB Jj Chaoirs4 EB Jj Choirs5 Hum 4 Chairs amp p pa pa pi 3 ans pra 16 Record Enable all MIDI tracks as in the image above and you re ready to play Remember to save this as a template for future use f your keyboard is not an option under MIDI input you can create it as a MIDI Device within the Studio menu under Bundles MIDI Devices For the rest of the Choirs sections repeat the steps above for Sopranos Altos and Basses respectively You can skip Step 6 as that is already set up for you the
125. s in the WordBuilder forum at http www soundsonline forums com This section of the manual describes how to use the various features of WordBuilder in pursuit of those goals including how to set the parameters that control its operation After reading this section when learning the program you should consider the section as a reference guide any time you need to delve more deeply into a technique Starting the Program in Standalone Mode When WordBuilder is not running inside a sequencer or other host program you are opening the program in standalone mode In this mode WordBuilder is accepting MIDI data directly trom a MIDI generator such as a keyboard or breath controller And Word Builder is communicating directly with a Symphonic Choirs virtual instrument running in a PLAY engine Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 49 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Open the WordBuilder executable as you would any other program If you installed a copy of WordBuilder on the desktop then you can start it quickly from that location Each time you start WordBuilder in standalone ES x mode without first choosing a file to work on the Voice Name Boys Chair splash screen appears for a few seconds followed Voice Type wot Symphonic Choirs Boys by a Voice Properties dialog box like the image man displayed at the right If you do not want to create Midi Port In USB Keystation x a new voice but to ope
126. see that section of the manual starting on page 99 The soloist samples are not designed to work with WordBuilder Instead they are provided as expressive voices Such usage is common in film scores and ambient music Three soloist voices are provided e Soprano e Alto e Boy Soprano There is no Tenor or Bass soloist because those solo voices are less popular and rarely appear in film scores Each of these three voices is provided as a keyswitched articulation file SOLOISTS SOP Solo KS C0 F 0 ALTO Solo KS C0 A 0 BOY Solo KS C0 A0 Chapter 10 Instruments Articulations and Keyswitches 105 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Soloist Files Each of the soloist files uses keyswitches to control the syllable that is sung and the style of singing The following tables describe the effect of each keyswitch SOPRANO SOLO KS CO F 0 Keyswitch note Sound Description DO fmm Expressive vibrato O foo Non vibrato o F 0 foo Expressive vibrato ALTO SOLO KS CO A 0 Keyswitch note Sound Description Do fah Expressive vibrato slur D40 Eo fee bres vibrato i AO Jo qNnvirao MO oo Expressive vibrato Chapter 10 Instruments Articulations and Keyswitches 106 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT BOY SOLO KS CO A0 Keyswitch note Sound Description DO ah Surred up non vibrato o Jo Non vibrato HO Random syllab
127. sk you questions about your system The image below shows that you must make sure the line WordBuilder for PLAY is checked when you get to that page if you want WordBuilder installed Custom Install on Tiger Package Mame Location Action Size Introduction M EWQL Choirs Library EWOLCh Upgrade 39 1GB vi Standalone Upgrade 4 0KE Eoaea ma MI Audio Unit Upgrade 4 0KB t License M VST Upgrade B OKB I RTAS Upgrade 4 0KB Select Destination J i WordBuilder for PLAY Upgrade amp Installation Type M Authorization Wizard Upgrade O bytes I el Lir Space Required 39 1GB Remaining 23 3GB T eri WordBuilder standalone application and VST plugin for use with EWQL Symphonic Choirs PLAY edition GoBack Upgrade Ona PC When installing the Symphonic Choirs on Windows you need to Install Symphonic Choirs for PLAY as described in the main PLAY System manual Once you finish the main in stallation process it is necessary to follow the following steps in order 1 reboot the computer 2 load the valid license into your iLok key as described in the PLAY System manual and insert the iLok key in a USB port on the computer where WordBuilder is being installed 3 run the separate WordBuilder installer Users on a 64 bit operating system must run the 64 bit Wordbuilder installer Likewise 32 bit Windows users must run the 32 bit WordBuilder installer For users using 32 bit applications in a 64 bit OS they can acc
128. software where we expect you will spend most of your time and use it to spark the endless creative possibilities of this ground breaking virtual instrument Producers Doug Rogers and Nick Phoenix Chapter 2 EWQL Symphonic Choirs An Overview 11 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Recording Notes EWQLSC Is a sample library that can produce full multi channel sound like that from a good recording session in a concert hall The user can manipulate multi channel files within each sample to move a section of the choir create fully diffused or highly focused sound as well as offstage effects that have the same acoustic character as having mi crophones on stage and mixing them Each choir sample contains high resolution components recorded in a state of the art concert hall from microphone groups placed to achieve close full and ambient sound Microphone placement is modeled after traditional Decca setups The choir and solo ists are placed on stage as they would perform so that signals from these microphone groups can be mixed and have the general technical feel and acoustic properties of a live session In addition the placement of the choir correlates with the orchestral instruments re corded for EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra achieving a unified choral and orchestral mix when the two libraries are used together Consistent microphone place ment for the two sets of samples allows them to work toget
129. st of the rise in volume near the beginning This difference can be heard most distinctly with longer slower attacks Pri L Note that the total width of the graph represents the total length of all phases of the en velope Therefore when you change something in one part of the graph for example the decay you may see the slopes of other components the attack and the release change as well because those phases become a larger or smaller percent of the whole this is as expected The Browser View The Browser behaves identically among all PLAY System libraries Read the main PLAY System manual for information about how to use that view Chapter 3 The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface 31 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 33 Choirs and Voices 35 Voice Settings 3o The Text Modes 38 The Time Editor 40 The Tools Click on this text to open the Master Navigation Document 32 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT A Quick Tour of WordBuilder This chapter introduces a few of the important concepts about WordBuilder by briefly describing the user interface and how to perform some basic operations Each of the topics in this overview is covered in much more detail later in the manual Choirs and Voices When started as a stand alone module WordBuilder Opens Voice windows File Edit View Voice Tools Window Help gt Second Sopranos fi ok of A FUE a
130. start the program The screen shot at the left shows these values entered into the Default Voice dialog box And this dialog filled in the same way is exactly what then appears each time you start WordBuilder Important you must save the current choir file before these choices become the working defaults Chapter 7 The WordBuilder Options Dialog Z9 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Default Voice Advanced Midi In Clicking on the button with this name opens a dialog al Limit notes Low D3 62 High ES 88 E Transpose no Transpose n MEME 2 octaves Up 1 ackave E Mo Transpase Down 1 octave Down z octaves where you can set values for the current voice Changes made here will become the default values once you save the choir file The two Limit Notes controls specify the bottom and top notes that can be accepted Change these values if you expect to generate notes in the normal vocal range that you want to exclude from EWQLSC Making the range wider has no effect on the generated track because there are no samples recorded for notes outside the original range Note that these values are not based on the currently selected voice type You are set ting the default value for the default voice Sopranos When you create a new voice file Sopranos always appears as the default in the dialog box and the range you set here is the default range for the Sopranos The origina
131. t it can play only one note at a time whenever the script is turned on If a note is still playing when a new note starts the first note will end at that moment This behavior allows for no ambiguity in how the notes form a phrase One consequence of this behavior is that if you want two concurrent legato lines or one legato and one non legato line sung with the same voice you need to open the same voice type more than once and turn on the Legato script where appropriate Of course the same rule holds for the Portamento script Release Trails with Legato and Portamento Scripts When either of these two scripts is turned On release trails for that articulation are automatically turned off To leave them on might interfere with the portamento and or legato effect Because the release trails will be turned off you may then want to turn on some reverb the choice of one of the EW Hall convolution reverbs in the PLAY engine will most closely match the natural reverb of the rest of the library Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 84 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Repetition Script When singing consecutive notes of the same pitch the use of a single sample over and over In quick Succession can sound mechanically identical which is called the ma chine gun effect The Repetition script solves this problem For any voice file this script uses one or more of three randomly selected options to ke
132. t of 4 loopback connectors that are known to work e Maple Virtual MIDI Cables e MIDI Yoke Chapter 2 EWQL Symphonic Choirs An Overview 17 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT e Musiclab s MidiOverLan commercial software also works between separate comput ers including PCs to from Macs e Hubi s MIDI Driver Make sure you obtain virtual MIDI cables that work within the operating system you intend to use Windows XP Windows Vista Mac OS X and the correct 32 bit or 64 bit version Midi Gut With the MapleMIDI installed for example the choices for a MIDI Out connection might look something like the drop down list at the left The four choices with Maple in them are the output ends of four virtual cables Midi Part one S None Start in Midi Ch Microsoft 5 Wavetable SW Synth Out USE KevsEakian Maple Midi Qut Port 1 o voluma Maple Midi Qut Part 2 Maple Midi Qut Part 3 Mone mr oue Port 4 If you select Out Port 3 in WordBuilder for example then you should select In Port 3 in PLAY to make the connec tion The next two diagrams shows how to do that in PLAY First open the Settings dialog and click on the MIDI tab Make sure ixi that all the listed ports you might want to use for MIDI input are checked at Network Overload r Available MIDI Input Parts the right By leaving unchecked those 7 ports you will never use you will pre E
133. ter that describes all these instruments and multis starting on page 99 Full SATB Choirs 2 Approaches There are 2 standard ways to create a full choral sound with EWQLSC They trade off the speed with which you can achieve your results against the realism of the final recording Another deciding factor may be how demanding each approach is in its use of computer resources One For the most realistic results use one of the complete multis for each part Sopra nos Altos Tenors Basses and Boy Sopranos As with live singers the five ranges over lap This gives you the flexibility to create vocal lines in which for example Sopranos maintain their distinctive timbre in every part of their range even below the top of the Altos range Chapter 8 Using Symphonic Choirs in PLAY 80 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT This approach can use so many computer resources that It s unlikely you can record all 4 lines at once on a single machine you may have to split your parts across two or more computers or else freeze some lines to audio while playing the samples for other lines Two For a more homogenous sound EWQLSC provides Full Men s and Full Women s Choruses The voices in these multis are range limited meaning there is no overlap be tween the Sopranos and Altos and also none between the Tenors and Basses If a single vocal line passes the split point the samples change from for examp
134. the first note can commtzn A i y in your sequencer in all channels connected to WordBuilder voices That way WordBuilder always knows when the sequencer starts over If you need to check the documentation for your sequencer to find out how to add such a message to the event list In this dialog you can reset the default to any CC code but if you do change it it is recommended that you use one of the unused codes The drop down shows you not only the numbers of the codes Chapter 7 The WordBuilder Options Dialog 77 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT but their usual meaning as well Those with names that include General Purpose or Control are unassigned and good choices The lower half of the tab allows you to specify CC codes and values whose meaning to WordBuilder is to start holding the syllable and stop holding the syllable If you want the ee sound of the word sweet to hold over five notes send the Hold On event from the sequencer before the ee has started on Its first note and send the Hold Off event after the start of its fifth note The sweet sound Chapter 7 The WordBuilder Options Dialog 78 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 80 82 85 87 88 88 90 91 Playing Music with Symphonic Choirs Performance Scripts Volume Velocity and Expression Release Trails in Symphonic Choirs Panning The 3 Mic Positions
135. ther articulations em Fi ooEspuib Gi The fourth column lists the name of the articulations or other components of the play back such as release trails Be sure to read the discussion on page 90 about using the Articulations control to manage the release trails Chapter 3 The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface 29 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Qn Siem C3 ledb iem EERI E Tremol FA Trill hit F 4 Trillu GH Exp Le GHB EHF Changing Keyswitch Notes in the Articulations Control A When viewing a keyswitch file the fourth column includes the keyswitch note as a prefix The C 0 at the beginning BE of the QLeg name in the second slot in the image at the left indicates that the note C O can be used to initiate that wa articulation The control lists the default keyswitch note for each articulation but these notes can be changed If within the list of articula tions you right click on a PC or Control click on a Mac you will open a context menu listing all the available notes to which you can move a keyswitch The image to the left show part of the context menu that opens for the articulation G O Exp Fst The check mark next to G O shows the current keyswitch note Select any differ ent note to change the keyswitch The image at the right shows how the D1 keyswitch can be moved to A1 This feature provides very few restriction on
136. tically wraps to the next line The last color you might see is bright red for soloed words described on page 62 The im age below shows the word fly soloed Gerri must with me slu balp sung at entrance Typing Phonetically It is also possible to enter text using one of the phonetic alphabets You have a choice of either traditional Phonetics or WordBuilder s own Votox symbols Most users at the beginning will find it easier to use the traditional Phonetics 3 alphabet partly because the UI provides examples of English words that con tain each symbol in the Phonetics alphabet Next to each symbol is an Eng a amp lish word the capitalized letter in the word spells the sound of the phonetic symbol As shown in the 3 images at the left you can open the list of letters by clicking on the plus sign when working in those modes You can also click on Tools Phonemes in the WordBuilder menu but only when in that mode Note that some symbols are two characters long for example Au is the vowel sound in the English word brown These two part vowel sounds are called diphthongs The information in these on screen lists and more is repeated starting on page 94 in this guide Chapter 4 A Quick Tour of WordBuilder 37 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT To type using the Phonetics or Votox symbols click on the Phonetics or Votox button at the left Whichever language has the high
137. to hold the w or to get into the long e as soon as possible With the Time Editor you have control over such decisions some of the long e may need to continue after the end of the MIDI note because hu man singers take a finite amount of time to get the tongue in position to close the t With the Time Editor you have control of that too The Time editor looks like the following image when the syllable sweet is selected in the Text Editor Chapter 4 A Quick Tour of WordBuilder 38 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT 100m Note that the 5 Votox letters have been arranged down the left side one per row Across the top Is a time line with a marker every 50 milliseconds The heavier vertical line just before the word Off divides the display into the sounds that take place during the note itself and the sounds heard during the release trail that is after the MIDI note ends The five colored bars represent the duration of each Votox symbol three during the note and two at the end of the note From this display it looks as if the s will be heard for about 90 ms the w will start a little before the s ends at about the 80 ms point the long E sound will start about 175 ms into the melody note The E bar may look as If it ends at 360 ms but if you drag the heavy vertical separator to the right with the mouse you ll see that it continues indefinitely That is it continues until the MIDI
138. trol The image at the right shows the level of the release i trails lowered by 2 5 dB relative to their original loudness Just be sure to make the same adjustment in all the 6 to 12 instrument files when you load a multi ARTICULATIONS Some Sound Advice Generally in our opinion the Stage mic has the best overall sound if you will be using only one mic position but a combination of the three mics usually creates the most impressive sound Although it may vary with the type of choral music being recorded the sections often sound best with the Close mics turned down in volume leaving only enough of the close mics to add definition Try this Boost the Close mics up to 6db bell shape with a fairly wide Q between 5K and 10K Then roll off the frequencies below 800Hz so you are down about 10db at 5OHz Then mix the Close track into the Stage track at a low volume to add clarity and sheen to the stage mics Be careful not to use too much of the close mics with this EQ curve Other styles may sound just right using an equal blend of all ambiences The idea is to experiment until you find a combination that works Various Ways to Combine the Samples Using Close and Surround Mics Sparingly One possible approach when using EWQLSC to create a stereo mix is to use primarily the Stage mics and then blend in just enough of the Close samples to provide more imme diacy plus enough of the Surround samples to create a more natural reverb to th
139. ts such as shouts whis pers and falls Sopranos gt Altos gt Tenors gt Basses gt Boys e Soloists in 3 voice types These are vowels and other open sustained phonetic sounds controlled with keyswitches Sopranos Altos gt Boys For specific information about these instruments see the chapter called Instruments Articulations and Keyswitches later in this manual starting on page 99 Or click on the page number to jump there if reading this on a screen The Women voice type creates a single range of female voices using the Alto samples at the bottom and Soprano samples at the top Likewise the Men voice type combines Bass and Tenor samples to create a single range of male voices Chapter 2 EWQL Symphonic Choirs An Overview 15 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT WordBuilder This software tool is the primary interface for constructing a choral performance It Is here that the composer or recording engineer literally spells out the words that the choir sings and specifies the fine details of the performance The user is given complete con trol over how long the choir holds each consonant and vowel as well as the constantly changing dynamics that can give a choral track added realism if that s the goal Or the user can accept the default settings and get less polished but faster results perhaps for a preliminary mock up When setting English words one has a choice of t
140. tten to a single file with a cho extension If you want to write a single voice to the file system for example to copy it into a different choir then you need to Export it from one and Import it into the other iBl xi h WordBuilder First Sopranos a File Edit View Voice Tools Window Help kal New Mew Choir Open Choir Save Choir English Phonetics Yokox Properties Reset Learn Bypass Options tach First 5 opr anos HRE A cam uf PE CT UEA A ERACE UNDO RESET POSITION BYPASS PANIC PHONETICS VOTOX OPTIONS PHRASES i ms E SPSS For Help press F1 When a project is first created it looks like the image above It contains no text in the Text Editor control it is ready to receive its own text and other parameters In the upper left corner of each voice is various information about the voice being man aged with this window The large rectangle in the top center of the window called the Text Editor displays the text to be sung In the upper right corner are various tools that provide instant access to several frequently used operations Horizontally across the middle of the window is displayed detailed information about the principal units of pho netic speech the word the syllable and the letter At the bottom is a grid in which you can fine tune the timing and dynamics of each phonetic segment of the text Chapter 4 A Quick Tour of WordBuilder 34 EAST WEST QUANTU
141. turning on portamento in a phrase is a subtle way to increase a sense of realistic singing Repetition Button Repetition in this context refers to the playing of a single pitch more than once with no different notes played between them in the same phrase Turning on this button causes repeating notes to sound slightly different avoiding the sense of mechanical repetition Legato Button Legato is the style of playing notes in a phrase with no significant silence between them in order to produce a smooth and flowing melodic line Use this button to turn on a legato effect for the articulation Round Robin Reset Button A round robin articulation is one in which several different samples are recorded with all parameters such as volume speed of attack and so on being essentially constant The PLAY Engine then knows to alternate between the two or more samples during playback The goal is to avoid what s often called the machine gun effect in which playing the same sampled note repeatedly causes the unnatural sound of consecutive notes being mechanically identical Any articulation with RR in its name uses round robin technology Those with an x3 X4 or the like in the name use 3 4 or more different samples for each note There s one potential problem with round robin technology and the way to solve it is the Round Robin Reset button The PLAY Engine remembers which sample should be played the next time the note sounds I
142. u can insert the Word Builder plug in m S Play 01 If you have installed the Word Builder plug in correctly you can T select WordBuilder VST IT emm No Object Selected MIDI Inserts Inserts Equalizers MIDI Inserts I A3im siPlay 01 mo e RIU Sends v No Effect Channel Arpache 5 Arpache SX AutoPan Chorder Then choose VST Instruments from the Devices menu In Notepad Quick Controls Compres pe eae _ the VST Instruments dialog click on an instrument slot and Density choose PLAY Then select PLAY as your MIDI Output Micro Tuner MidiControl MidiEcho Note 2 CC Quantizer StepDesigner Track Control Track FX Transformer WordBuilder VST PLAY Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder ol EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Digital Performer 6 These steps start by opening a Tenor voice type as an ex ample but you can choose any voice type you like as long as you are consistent through all the steps 1 Launch Digital Performer 6 and create a new project for Symphonic Choirs Create a new stereo PLAY Instrument track Set the output of the PLAY track to your preferred sound card output 4 Click on the Browser button in PLAY then find EWQL Symphonic Choirs in favorites Select a Ten ors patch from the Multis folder 5 Go to your Setup menu in DP and go down to the Interapplication MIDI
143. uivalent of turning off the controls with the On Off button Turning it all the way to the right calls for the maximum spread available Select between the left and right signal with the buttons on either side of the On button Reverb Master The Reverb control is described in the main PLAY System manual E2 but Symphonic Choirs and a small number of other EastWest virtu Heisman al instruments include a Master button as part of the group When EN f 28 the button is pressed and the On light is illuminated the Reverb for MESEEVIEEEVEENI this instrument applies to all the other instruments in this instance of PLAY including instruments from libraries that do not include a Master button If the Master button is already engaged in another instrument in the current instance of PLAY and the Master button is pressed in a new instrument then the settings in the UI of the new instrument become the settings for all instruments in this PLAY instance The processing of high quality reverb can be very CPU intensive and it is often the case that you want to use the same reverb on all the instruments in an audio track Engaging the Master Reverb button allows you to run a single instance of the reverb processor and have the effect apply to multiple instruments Voice Limit Control The Voice Limit control allows the user to specify the maximum number of voices to re serve space for in the computer s RAM Note that a voice in this context is
144. ume Master Channel i Stereo Transpose 0 Vel Min Vel Max 1 ak 4k ak ak ak Voice Limit 80 Ker formate fe A m f bb cies rotor re TN on ON ON RESET dm o fw fe VW d TN Portamento Repetition Legato Round Robin mm Oe oe DE 2 Ir ow eu Attack Curve Hold Decay Sustain Release TE saan mgr H UY OC i e SY 2s c E L 3 Y T I Loaded py Chow 4 EASTWES T t a n CT M LE YOICES TT Chapter 3 The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface 22 The controls described in this manual are e Channel Source e une e Master Pan Volume Mute Solo and Audio Channel Output e Microphones e Performance Portamento Repetition Legato and Round Robin Reset e Stereo Double e Reverb Master e Voice Limit e Articulations e the graphical representation of the Envelope Important Note for the Multi Choirs EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Anytime you open an instrument from the Multi folder in the Symphonic Choirs browser PLAY opens more than one up to 12 instruments If you open the Instrument drop down in the upper right corner you will see all the currently open instruments They work together to play all the phonetic sounds it takes to generate sung words When you make any change to one of the instruments it is important that you make the same change to all the other instruments in the multi For example if you pan left the i
145. ut Buttons The dialogs that open from these two buttons are described in detail as part of the De fault Voice setup Rather than repeat the descriptions here go to page 6 and read about them there The only difference between there and here is that in this case you are mak ing choices for the current voice As described on page 6 you are setting a default that applies to all voices until changed here Starting the Program as a Plug in It is also possible to start WordBuilder within a host program such as Sonar Cubase or Logic Open the host you plan to use and then follow the directions below Make sure you read the directions below that apply to your sequencer or other host Chapter 6 Using WordBuilder 90 EAST WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT Note that WordBuilder does not work properly in hosts that do not support poly after touch such as Ableton Live In order the descriptions for creating a WordBuilder instance inside of the host are pro vided for each of the following The number on each line is the page number Click on the number to be taken directly to that description e Cubase Nuendo 51 e Digital Performer 52 e Pro Tools 53 e Sonar 59 e Logic D6 Cubase Nuendo In the MIDI Instrument track f Qu Cubase4l where you want to run Word lem amp tB UT Ka 2 oO gt Builder click on MIDI Inserts to Start 7 Length bring up the drop down menu Jo ET mul where yo
146. ute of the Note On message it can only be transmitted at the onset of a note Volume in contrast is a control change CC7 it can be transmit ted at any time Likewise the parameter called Expression is represented by another MIDI control change CC11 In EWQLSC CC11 is used to control dynamics It is pos sible to shape the dynamics of a line either by playing a CC11 controller in real time or by drawing an envelope in a sequencer Most MIDI keyboards and control surfaces have programmable knobs and or sliders that can be set to send CC11 messages to a specific MIDI channel Sliders are generally more sensitive for real time control If your sequencer supports automation it can record your movements of the knob or slider and save them as part of the project Such manual control over the shape of a vocal line is usually more efficient than drawing in an envelope and often achieves more convincing results EastWest s and Quantum Leap s choice to use CC11 allows CC volume to be used in other ways For example you can use the volume slider in your sequencer to adjust the overall volume level of each track in the mix The ability to do this is especially helpful when using more than one mic position If you want to experiment with how much Close Stage and Surround mics for a given choral section or soloist to include record them in different audio tracks and then use CC to do ad just relative overall volumes CC11 is somewhat in d
147. yping the text with any of the following alphabets e standard spelling e an easy to learn phonetic alphabet e Votox a phonetic alphabet that EastWest Quantum Leap created specifically to match WordBuilder s sung speech capabilities WordBuilder includes a 100 000 word dictionary from CMU for translating American English spelling to a phonetic spelling When typing with one of the phonetic alphabets listed in the second or third items above the symbols are listed on the screen to assist the memory When setting text in languages other than English or with pseudo words like be bop a doo one must specify the sounds in one of the two phonetic alphabets listed above WordBuilder runs in either of two modes As a plug in it is hosted in another program usually a sequencer As a stand alone module it runs on its own having equal status with the other programs with which it communicates The choice of which mode to use depends on factors discussed later in this manual What s Included This EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs Virtual Instrument you purchased in cludes all the following e a complete set of sample based instruments enumerated later in this manual e approximately 38 5 Gigabytes of 24 bit 44 1 kHz samples e the EastWest PLAY Advanced Sample Engine e the unique authorization code that identifies the license you bought e manuals in Adobe Acrobat format for both the EastWest PLAY System and the East West Quantum

EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs Virtual Instrument Manual

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents