Voices of Soul

Name: Voices of Soul
Price: 69 USD
Author: EastWest

by EastWest · Instrument · Soul vocal library

Not rated yet

Voices of Soul samples singer C.C. White, with sustains, true legato, chords and over 600 ad-lib phrases in all 12 keys.

It costs $69 on sale (regular $199) and runs in EastWest's Opus player.

Best for: Vocals, Sound Design. Genres: R&B & Soul, Pop.

Keywords: monophonic, electric piano, perpetual licence, preset-driven, round-robin, sample-based, simple, sound design, subscription.

What it does

Voices of Soul is a solo vocal library built around soul singer C.C. White. EastWest aims it at "soulful vocal sustains, trills, and phrases" for R&B, soul and funk.

Phrases: 600+ melodic ad-lib phrases, recorded in all 12 keys so they fit the song without pitch-shifting.
Sustains: sustained vowels and syllables (Ah, Doo, Ee, Hm, La, Mm, Oh, Oo, Wo and more, 17 in all), including Expressive variants of several.
True legato: recorded legato transitions for intervals up to an octave up or down.
Combination patches: Combo Mod and Combo round-robin presets, mod-wheel crossfaded chord instruments, and keyswitched patches that combine articulations.
Three mic positions: Close (Josephson 257 and Neumann U47), Rear (a pair of Coles 4038s) and Room (AKG C24), mixable for more or less ambience.
FX presets: ready-made chains using the player's SSL channel strip, bus compressor, Ohmicide distortion, EP-1 delay, ADT, amp simulator and convolution reverb.
Content: 24-bit/44.1 kHz samples in 70+ presets, according to Sound On Sound.

It runs in EastWest's Opus player (it shipped for PLAY 6). Purchase gives a perpetual licence, and the library is also part of the ComposerCloud+ subscription, which has a 14-day free trial.

Source: EastWest product page

When to use it

Voices of Soul is the pick when a track needs one soul singer's ad-libs, hooks and held notes rather than a choir. Unlike Eric Whitacre Choir and Augmented VOICES, which are built for choral parts and vocal textures, it gives you a single lead voice with ready-made melodic phrases in every key. Compared with EastWest's Hollywood Backup Singers, it has no typed-lyrics engine, so for worded backing parts that library goes further. Its phrases are tied to the soul and blues idiom, which makes it less flexible outside those styles than a vowel choir. Its sustain patches double as a quick way to build backing harmonies.

Best for: soul ad-libs, hooks, vocal chops and stacked "ooh" and "ah" backing harmonies.
Genres: R&B, soul, funk, blues, gospel-tinged pop.
Look elsewhere if: you need choir or ensemble textures (Eric Whitacre Choir, Augmented VOICES) or backing vocals singing your own words (Hollywood Backup Singers).
Tip: stack the single-vowel sustain patches in triads to build backing vocals, and use the phrases rather than the legato patches when realism matters most.

What producers say

Reviewers rate the singing and recording highly and see it as excellent within its genre, with the price and the narrow style focus as the main reservations.

Sound On Sound praised C.C. White's voice, the three mic positions and the EP-1 delay, and said the simple vowel presets "can produce some very realistic harmony backing vocals."
MusicTech liked the phrase variety and the cross-faded chord patches, and found stacking the sustains "immensely satisfying and effective."
Criticisms: MusicTech found the legato patches less convincing, with occasional triggering lag on consonant-heavy samples; Sound On Sound noted the phrases need care with key and tempo, keyswitched presets use up to about 1 GB of RAM, and the full price is steep.

Where to buy

Best Service: $69
EastWest: $69 (regular $199)
Plugin Boutique: $69 (regular $149)
PluginFox: $69 (regular $149)
AudioDeluxe: $69 (regular $149)

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