SON ZINE

Media composer trade magazine

SPRING 2015 | #004

Features

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Tutorial

NAMM 2015: Best in show

Session singer insights

Track techniques:

Russ Landau Q&A

Title design in film and TV

Adding sampled vocals

Top 3 title tracks

Kontakt 101: Analysing script

2015
#04

TRACK TECHNIQUES

An ethnic phrase can quickly set the

scene, either geographically or spiritually.
Non-Western vocals are much harder
to emulate using legato libraries, so an
alternative option is to use sampled
improvisations and songs. Sonokinetic
have a wide range of these on offer,
from Jewish (Yiddish and Desert Voice)
to Greek (Delphi) and others. Using a
combination of many sampled snippets to
create longer phrases can sound utterly
convincing as long as youre mindful of
timing and timbre.
When constructing phrases from short
samples of actual vocabulary, be careful:
You might not be able to understand your
singers language but, obviously, other
people will, so make sure that whats
being sung actually makes sense and isnt
just a jumble of nonsensical words.

ADDING SAMPLED VOCALS TO

ORCHESTRAL TRACKS
First, some words of warning: Be very
careful when using vocals in your
orchestral music, because nothing that
can ruin a cue quite like the unexpected
appearance of an overwrought diva. Sung
elements are all too easy to misuse, so
tread them with caution. Vocals should
ideally be used as aural seasoning to
complement your cues.
Lets start with a couple of examples,
both good and bad. The stunning Lilys
Theme, by Alexandre Desplat, kicks off
the score of the final Harry Potter movie
perfectly, with its ethereal vocal effectively
setting the mood and melodic theme for
the whole soundtrack a delicate female
solo deftly woven into the orchestral
instruments. Contrast this with James
Horners otherwise impressive score for
Wolfgang Petersens 2004 epic, Troy, in

Processing solo vocals effectively

is important. Ideally, they should
compliment your orchestral instruments
and exist in the same virtual space. Dry
vocal samples may need de-essing to
soften the sibilance from close miking.
Then, use two reverbs: the first a plate or
studio convolution model with a short tail;
the second with a much longer tail and
similar settings to your orchestral reverb,
but wetter. For a really wide wash of
vocals, consider using an echo/ping-pong
delay effect with the high frequencies
rolled off. Tape delay also works well for
vocals, as it sounds more organic then
overtly digital processing.

Of course, effective soundtrack

which the ethnic warbling on tracks like
The Temple Of Poseidon serves only to
distract rather than enhance.
Solo vocals are great for evoking a
particular mood. For example, a solo
choirboy conjures a sense of innocence
and solitude, while a lone female vocal
can suggest sadness and longing.
Legato solo vocal sample libraries are
now quite common, enabling automatic
legato transitions from one note or
vowel sound to another, mimicking the
way a real singer would perform. Vocal
libraries from Soundiron and Realitone
can do a particularly great job here,
and when simple melodies are skillfully
programmed and processed, they can
be indistinguishable from the real thing.

vocals dont necessarily have to

be shrinking violets
Consider the heady chants of Goldsmiths
The Omen score, which perfectly amp
up the drama. Using a sampled choir
be it male, female or mixed brings
another level of fullness to a score. There
are plenty of libraries suited to this kind
of use, mostly containing ooos, ahhs
and other syllables that can be bolted
together within your sampler to create
longer phrases. Often, these are themed
around Latin or Slavic languages, and my
personal favorites include Cinesamples
Voxos, Soundiron Mars and Venus, and

various choirs from Eduardo Tarilonte.

One notable inclusion, which still sounds
great ten years after release, is EastWest
Symphonic Choirs. In theory, its possible
to make this choir sing any phrase at
all, as the Wordbuilder engine can be
deployed to link sampled phonemes
together. However, in practise its very
tricky and time consuming to pull off a
convincing phrase, so I tend to use this
choir as backing for a solo vocal, which
hides the fakery.
Choirs can be orchestrated in three main
ways. The first is to provide additional
color in slower, more melodic cues
with sung chords, or by doubling or
harmonizing the melody. Use your legato
patches for this. The second use is
singing loudly in staccato or marcato to
punctuate and emphasize action or chase
cues. Lastly, more unusual choir samples
(whispers, shouts, etc) can be utilized for
unnerving sounds in horror and thriller
scores. In fact, unsettling scores of that ilk
allow you to get really creative with your
choir samples, as you can stretch, reverse
and twist them to put your audience on
edge. Give iZotope Iris a try it excels at
vocal mangling.
When it comes to mixing the choir, ideally
you want to start with the librarys own
realistically sampled space, then use
the aforementioned reverb techniques
and spatial processing to push the
sound to the back of your virtual hall,
placing the choir in position behind the
orchestra. IRCAM Spat and Parallax Audio
VirtualSoundStage are both great plugins
for this sort of thing.
A final note on comedy. Vocals can be
used in glaringly obvious ways to signify
a comic moment or deliver a punchline
a descending glissando to accompany
a cartoon characters fall from a cliff,
say. My favorite example is the ending
of Airplane, where Elmer Bernsteins
choir really lets rip with some oversung
Hollywood cheesiness. Makes me laugh
every time.

Reuben Cornell
@reutunes