(I am very much losing my nerve with the shitty WordPress iPad app so this one is a bit of a rough mix)
First of all, the headline above does not refer to any actual revolution in VST vocal instruments and libraries. Rather it is one I have been waiting for to happen – so far in vain.
Where are we now? There are good choir libraries around, and certainly all Eduardo Tarilonte’s solo vocal libraries are top class, no doubt about it. They are anyone’s first choice if classical music – or in case of Cantus gregorian chants – is the name of the project. Shevannai and Altus are actual instruments taking advantage of vocal samples, not just collection of recored phrases.
Outside that it becomes oddly quiet. One day I was listening to the new album by Karl Hyde and Brian Eno, and I was thinking how cool it would be to add some realistic-sounding backing vocals on one’s own tracks. The result of the query? I found zero background vocal libraries, not mentioning Tarilonte-kind of instruments with phrase-forming.
Another example: Sigur Rós. The band uses imagined language – namely Hopelandic – in its songs, and the language is very much based on vowels. In fact I did mention about this to Eduardo Tarilonte on Twitter, describing how cool it would be to have a Hopelandic virtual instrument enabling one to add similar vocal parts to one’s own production.
I am aware of the existence of Vocaloid, which is often presented as a solution to this problem of missing lead vocals. However none of the examples I’ve heard have convinced me of its capability to produce anything more than true moments of awkwardness. Being a Japanese invention, most of the Vocaloid libraries sound like a drunken anime character had just stolen the karaoke mic.
Reproducing vocals is difficult, they say, and I am not opposing this view. I am however reluctant to believe that it would be impossible. If one can 3D-print human organs, there should be a way of creating decent VST vocal instruments instead of mere phrase libraries.
Missing Sample 