Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: What would you say is the best voice? (Read 4535 times) previous topic - next topic

What would you say is the best voice?

Basically, my music coursework is for a few instruments plus an SSA choir. What would be the best voice to be used for the choir. I can't use piano as it can't be heard easily over the piano part.

It can't be

Alto sax
flute
Trumpet

It needs to be able to be heard eaily

Cheers

Re: What would you say is the best voice?

Reply #1 –
I believe that there are some mediocre choir sounds in the MIDI pallet.  (Under "Ensemble" in the instrument tree)

Re: What would you say is the best voice?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: kahman –
I believe that there are some mediocre choir sounds in the MIDI pallet.  (Under "Ensemble" in the instrument tree)

Where is this MIDI pallet?

Re: What would you say is the best voice?

Reply #3 –
G'day Tom,
by MIDI pallette Kahman was simply referring to the available sounds from MIDI synths.

If you select a staff and go to its' properties dialogue you have an instrument tab, but I'm sure you aready know this - the pallette is the list of available instruments.

As for which is best to represent a voice, that depends heavily on the sounds in your synth.  E.G. "Voice Oohs" can sound almost real on one synth and like Homer Simpson saying "d'oh" on another...

I have heard the Oboe used as a voice and it seemed to work fairly well, but I suspect it would also depend on the other instruments in the "ensemble" as to whether it would "fit".  I know you can't really use it this time, but the Flute also works fairly well too.

Ultimately though it depends on your synth - what works really well on your synth may sound dreadful on mine - and vice versa.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.
 

Re: What would you say is the best voice?

Reply #4 –
it would depend on the piece as to which voice works best.

Re: What would you say is the best voice?

Reply #5 –
   Hi, Drummer_Tom.

   I do a lot of choral music stuff (see
http://www.thehoopers.demon.co.uk).  On my Sounderblaster 64 Gold, for an SATB chorus I inevitably use piccolo, clarinet, French horn and bassoon, with my soloists (if any) being whistle, cor anglais, baritone sax (or trombone) and tuba.  If I have to double up the chorus then I usually turn the soloists into the second SATB set.  So, for SSA, I suggest piccolo, whistle and clarinet.  An alternative for a soprano voice is recorder (which can also work quite well for an alto voice).

   And you may find it worth arranging the general volume of the voices to be slightly more than the volume of the backing.  You can easily do this using the Multipoint controller, and adjusting the relative Volume or Expression values, right at the beginning of each Staff.

   Of course, once the finished Files are launched on an unsuspecting world, what it hears is, as Lawrie said, entirely dependent on what sound system it has ... but even so I reckon my choices are universally acceptable even if not always that good.

   The so-called "voices" available in the General Midi set are, on any system I've ever tried, quite awful, so I don't use them!

   Sing well!

   MusicJohn, 10/Sep/07

Re: What would you say is the best voice?

Reply #6 –
I echo MusicJohn's sentiments if you have a Soundblaster AWE.

If the accompaniment is a piano, you might try the Strings (Violin, Viola, Cello). Strings might also work with some organs.
Registered user since 1996

Re: What would you say is the best voice?

Reply #7 –
As other commenters have pointed out, the actual sound any NWC or MIDI user hears is totally dependent on the MIDI synth used by their computer.  Once you have your NWC file sounding as desired on your computer, you can be certain your choristers will hear it just that way if you render it to mp3.  The file size is, of course, much larger, but most choristers would, I think, appreciate not having to navigate through menu commands only to hear inferior sound if their computer's MIDI synth is not high quality.  Also most MIDI players can start at any point in the file, so this gets around the NWC player's limitation of only being able to play from the beginning.  

How to render NWC to mp3 has been covered extensively on other threads on this board and can be found on a search.  I like best using Audacity (audacity.soundforge.net  ?), a free audio editor.  Open both Audacity and NWC.  Open the Windows mixer and in Playback options turn the Wave slider down to about halfway.  Now click Options-Properties and click the radio button Recording.  Check the box Wave Out Mix as the recording source and turn its slider down to 1/4 or less to prevent clipping while recording.  If the waveform display in Audacity goes above or below the top of its frame while recording, record again with the Wave Out Mix slider turned lower until no clipping occurs.

In Audacity click the Record button, immediately in NWC click Play.  When the NWC file has finished playing, in Audacity click Stop.  Cut the blank few seconds off the beginning of the waveform.  Select or highlight the entire waveform then click Effect-Amplify and click OK.  When the process is finished, click File-Export as MP3.  In the dialog box select the radio button ID3v1 (more compatible), type in track info if desired and click OK.  Now you have an mp3 file that will play on virtually any Win or Mac computer and sound exactly as you intended.

Re: What would you say is the best voice?

Reply #8 –
I have tried many variations. What I do most is this:
- All voices go to the left channel, about mid-volume. That is: stereo pan = 0, volume = 70.
- Any piano accompaniment: stereo pan = 64, volume = 60.
- Instruments for voices: soprano and alto = flute, tenor = clarinet, bass = bassoon.

Then, I make individual files with the above as starting point.
Soprano:
- Stereo pan and Volume = 127
- Instrument = French horn
the rest stays on the left channel, vol = 70 (any piano remains unchanged)

Alto: Same procedure.

Tenor:
- Stereo pan and Volume = 127
- Instrument stays Clarinet

Bass:
- Stereo pan and Volume = 127
- Instrument stays Bassoon

Works like a charm. Chorists love it, whatever audio card and other equipment they have. For Mac users I save their part as Midi. Never had complaints.
@MusicJohn: Great minds think alike ;-)

cheers,
Rob.

Re: What would you say is the best voice?

Reply #9 –
   Hi, Rob.  We do indeed.

   Having said that ... I feel strongly that NWC is for looking at the Files, while Midi, via a Sequencer, is for listening to them.  So - as I've said before in this Forum - it seems better to me to key stuff in using NWC but then to take the Midi output and play with that in a simple Sequencer such as the
defunct-but-still-available Midisoft "Recording Session".  This in theory allows much greater flexibility over the sound output than does NWC, including - and for my purposes this is most important - the ability to solo, emphasise or mute staves on the fly (and save the result for later use).

   You will understand (even if you don't agree), then, why I find it hard to sympathise with such as bidderxyzzy, who in topic=6032 tells us he prepares practice aids for a choir which sings, whenever possible, from the original publisher's scores, but then that he must provide a kind of super intelligent metronome/pitch pipe which will teach the notes and basic rhythms, leaving more rehearsal time for learning performance style, dynamics, breathing and other things that turn the notes to music.  He sees NoteWorthy as a sequencer first and a printing program only for emergencies, and adds that he must distribute in .nwc form, not .midi because muting staves and slowing tempos is something his audience must be able to do.  And yet ... and yet ... how often has this Forum observed that NWC itself is not intended for that sort of playback, and that each of the two flavours of NWC Player, while good at actually playing Midi files, lack the right sort of control to make it truly useful to, say, Choral singers?  For that you need Midi and a suitable Player, of which there are zillions out there which, like Session (above) give all the control needed!

   MusicJohn, 11/Sep/07