Vocalisa: Slavic Women's Choir
The electrifying, formidable sound of Bulgarian-style singing with female voices.
$129
Audio Demos
- The Storm Within Andrew Aversa 1:26
- Million Years Andrew Aversa 0:51
- Clap! Dmitry Selipanov 1:28
- Sea of Flames Blake Ewing 1:16
- Slavic Rising Dov Waterman 1:36
- Daughters of Illyria Henning Nugel 2:05
- Making of Cyborg Kenji Kawai (arr. Will Roget, II) 1:26
- Sea of Flames (Full) Blake Ewing 1:51
- Clap! (Full) Dmitry Selipanov 2:03
- Slavic Rising (Full) Dov Waterman 2:47
Overview
Discover the powerful sound of Slavic (Bulgarian-style) singing as performed by an all-female chorus: sopranos, mezzos, altos, soloist, and full choir. Vocalisa features many important syllables and consonants idiomatic to this style, plus useful pitch articulations (mordents, turns) and FX (breaths, claps, clusters).
Product Info
Detailed recordings for a versatile sound with air
Recorded in a treated studio space, pre-mixed and ready to be used in any composition.
Traditional Slavic choral singing
The unique timbre and exquisite voices for which this style of singing is so admired.
Seven core syllables plus ornaments
Eh, mah, yah, ree, shteh, svah, and oh syllables; “eh” and “yik” ornaments, as well as mordents, turns, and breaths.
Four separately recorded sections
Altos, mezzos, mezzo-sopranos, and full choir, each with a master patch and FX patch (shouts, yells).
Bonus soprano soloist
Recorded with eh, shteh, mah, svah, yah, and ree syllables, ornaments, breaths, and separate FX patch.
Features
Two modes: grid sequencer and keyswitch
Trigger ornaments with a single note
Four built-in FX modules
Per-syllable editing and tweaks
Save, load, and copy syllable patterns
Requirements
3GB of disk space
7200 RPM hard drive or solid state drive recommended.
3GB of RAM
Higher amounts of memory let you load more instruments.
Kontakt 4.2.4+ Full Version
This library is NOT compatible with the free Kontakt Player.
Kontakt Requirements - Mac OS
Intel Macs (i5 or higher): macOS 10.14, 10.15, 11 or 12 (latest update).
Apple Silicon Macs (via Rosetta 2 & natively on ARM in Standalone or in hosts that support it): macOS 11 or 12 (latest update)
Kontakt Requirements - Windows
Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 (latest Service Pack, 32/64-bit). Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU. Graphics hardware support for OpenGL 2.1 or higher. Windows 10 strongly recommended.
Tutorials
Introduction & Overview
Library Demo & Tips
Featured Artists & Composers
Mike Reagan
Invincible Fight Girl, Powerpuff Girls, Trials Evolution, God of War, Twisted Metal
"A big thanks to the team at Impact Soundworks for putting inspiration at my fingertips! Your sample libraries are in heavy use in my Orchestral, Rock and Pop templates, and always visible in my top-tier Cue-specific Kontakt. Layering your Shreddage libraries on top of my live guitar tracks creates so much depth, and I get so much out of so many of your other libraries - too many to name. A+ programming and sonic goodness gang!"
Richard Jacques
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Mass Effect, Overwatch 2, James Bond 007: Blood Stone
"I'm a huge fan of the Ventus Winds series. They feature rare instruments deep-sampled to an incredibly high level of detail. It's so liberating to have such a wide range of articulations & phrases that perfectly capture the nuances and performance style of these instruments... from beautiful to haunting, celebratory to sorrowful. Each is expertly recorded and the sound quality is superb, sitting in the mix with ease. If you want to add authentic world winds to your palette, then look no further."
Jeff Broadbent
Assassin’s Creed Identity, Call of Duty Mobile, Resident Evil, Diablo Immortal, Transformers: Dark of the Moon
"ISW creates amazing, creative, and intuitive virtual instruments! I’ve enjoyed using them for over a decade, and they have found their way into many of my music scores. Their wonderfully realistic world instruments showed up in a recent Nexon video game, Shreddage 3 Stratus on the score for Grid, and Super Audio Boy is a favorite for retro sounds, effects, and fun nostalgia. Highly recommended!"
The traditional vocal ensembles of Bulgaria and other Slavic regions differ from a traditional Western Classical choir in the use of of tight harmonies, piercing vowels, and extensive ornamentation to produce a haunting, ethereal sound. Internationally, this sound has been popularized on albums such as the acclaimed Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares, as well as on soundtracks such as Xena: Warrior Princess, Ghost in the Shell, Alone in the Dark, and others.
With such nuance and unusual performance methods, sampling this vocal ensemble in a traditional way would have been a missed opportunity. Instead, we did months of research on this style of music, carefully taking note of the most frequently-used syllables, ornaments, and vocal effects. Similarly, because there is such a wide range of choral sizes in this tradition, we also made sure to record in sections as well as the full choir; this allows users full control of the performing forces. We also included whole-tone and semitone clusters, which adventurous users can use to replicate the natural change in timbre when performing the tight dissonances endemic to Slavic music. And lastly, to allow for impressive dynamics as well as stylistic versatility, we made sure to record a full range from the quietest sotto voce pianissimo to the loud brassy fortissimo that Slavic choirs are known for.
The interface of Vocalisa allows for full control over the performance and sound of each section. Articulations and syllables can be triggered via keyswitch, or sequenced using the “Grid Mode.”
Each syllable and ornament can be tweaked individually using knobs for volume, offset, and brightness. For example, using offset on the “mah” syllable can create a simple “ah” vowel, or “shteh” can be shortened to “teh.” The brightness knob is also a highly useful tool for shaping the timbre and tonality of the performance.
Other global effects are available as well! We’ve included handy tools such as a compressor, stereo width control (for widening or collapsing to mono), release noise mixer, EQ, and convolution reverb.
Reviews
Vocalisa – Film and Game Composers
“After playing for just a little, it starts to sound good. Real good. This choir has energy, and lots of it… When playing the Full Choir Master patch you can almost see them standing outside and singing into the blowing winds. It sounds strong, brave and beautiful. I have nothing [else] that conjures the same feeling… [it] lends a whole new tone or vibe to what I already have and you can go with a full choir or a more intimate one. Vocalisa has a filled a spot in my palette of sounds that I didn’t know was missing. It has a safe place in my template from now on.”
Thomas Mavian (Film and Game Composers)
