Great writing for chorus, dear Curtis! What did you do to get the sound file from Cantamus App sing as a chorus and not as four single voices? I already tried to multiply sound files from Cantamus in audacity with themselves, but since it's always the same vocal colors, it doesn't lead to a real multivoice choir sound. I guess, when there is a way to change the harmonic spectrum of the file so that the vocal colors sound differently it would be possible to put different layers on top of each other in order to simulate the sound of a real choir, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do that, yet. So I really wonder what you did here.
I will make a full video on it! While I am in process of that, here's a quick written overview of what I did here: 1. Finalize everything in the music (not the score!) and then import it into cantamus. Something is always wrong the first time so I make sure to use the first run through to change anything that sounds odd (e.g. sometimes Cantamus has a hard time with the endings of certain words), so I use this to fix any weird errors like that. 2. Create 6 versions of that finalized "cantamus version" in different keys-- + and - 1, 2, and 3 semitones. I don't know if cantamus uses samples at all, but I suspect they have to as moving the music even a half step away seems to trigger totally different sound that doesn't cause phasing issues. 3. Export SATB stems for each version, resulting in 4x6, thus 24 tracks in different keys. 4. Import into the DAW and use a pitch shifting plugin to move them to the original key, and import SATB stems of the original key as well, so now 7 individual voices per Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass line. 5. Offset each track by a small amount so that you don't get all the voices hitting various consonants exactly perfectly, to mimic how a real choir doesn't have everyone hitting all consonants at exactly the same time. 6. Mix the resulting SATB stems better-- I find Cantamus generally has the SA voices much too loud and out of balance, and not nearly enough B, so I usually push the basses by at least a couple db, and tone down the Sopranos considerably. (Obviously, this is a relative measure-- with 7x4 or 28 tracks that were originally meant to be only 1/4 of a full mix I have them all down something like 10 db before I even start mixing to prevent peaking/distortion) 7. Run through reverb and other finalizing plugins to "suck it all together" like it occurred in a real space. 8. Make a version that's the actual score that has all the cantamus changes removed. I'm not sure this is the absolute *best* way to do this yet, as I'm still experimenting. It always sounds better to pitch things down as opposed to up, and in this method almost half the tracks are pitched up, and I've noticed that they tend to sound weird, so in this version I think I actually have them mixed in *extremely* lightly. I think it might be better to put together a set of tracks that's the original plus maybe 4 semitones of transposed versions instead so that everything is pitching down. Might be able to do that with, say 2 tracks that are pitched up to retain the feeling of 7 singers per part, or maybe even mess with a version where the lyrics are changed to create subtly different consonants/vowels and aren't transposed at all. (I keep forgetting to change all instances of "I" to "eye" as I've noticed cantamus doesn't do a diphthong for this and it sounds absolutely bizarre to me). Basically, its the "transposition trick" that is often used when you are working with say, a sample library that only has 1st Violins and you need a 2nd Violins part, so you sent MIDI that's maybe a whole step up from the "true" pitch to force every note to be a different sample, and then use a pitch correction plugin to pull everything back down to the correct tuning, only in this case you are sending MusicXML to cantamus that's transposed instead of using a MIDI transposition plugin. Adding a reverb plugin makes a big difference too as it tends to smooth out some of the weirdness.
@@CurtisSchweitzer Dear Curtis, thanks a lot for that detailled explanation. That's simply amazing. It might be a quite complicated process, but it seems totally worth it. I Like your rendition a lot and will try out the technique soon with one of my yet unperformed pieces. Thanks again!
Really beautiful. Love 1:00
Great writing for chorus, dear Curtis! What did you do to get the sound file from Cantamus App sing as a chorus and not as four single voices? I already tried to multiply sound files from Cantamus in audacity with themselves, but since it's always the same vocal colors, it doesn't lead to a real multivoice choir sound. I guess, when there is a way to change the harmonic spectrum of the file so that the vocal colors sound differently it would be possible to put different layers on top of each other in order to simulate the sound of a real choir, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do that, yet. So I really wonder what you did here.
I will make a full video on it! While I am in process of that, here's a quick written overview of what I did here:
1. Finalize everything in the music (not the score!) and then import it into cantamus. Something is always wrong the first time so I make sure to use the first run through to change anything that sounds odd (e.g. sometimes Cantamus has a hard time with the endings of certain words), so I use this to fix any weird errors like that.
2. Create 6 versions of that finalized "cantamus version" in different keys-- + and - 1, 2, and 3 semitones. I don't know if cantamus uses samples at all, but I suspect they have to as moving the music even a half step away seems to trigger totally different sound that doesn't cause phasing issues.
3. Export SATB stems for each version, resulting in 4x6, thus 24 tracks in different keys.
4. Import into the DAW and use a pitch shifting plugin to move them to the original key, and import SATB stems of the original key as well, so now 7 individual voices per Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass line.
5. Offset each track by a small amount so that you don't get all the voices hitting various consonants exactly perfectly, to mimic how a real choir doesn't have everyone hitting all consonants at exactly the same time.
6. Mix the resulting SATB stems better-- I find Cantamus generally has the SA voices much too loud and out of balance, and not nearly enough B, so I usually push the basses by at least a couple db, and tone down the Sopranos considerably. (Obviously, this is a relative measure-- with 7x4 or 28 tracks that were originally meant to be only 1/4 of a full mix I have them all down something like 10 db before I even start mixing to prevent peaking/distortion)
7. Run through reverb and other finalizing plugins to "suck it all together" like it occurred in a real space.
8. Make a version that's the actual score that has all the cantamus changes removed.
I'm not sure this is the absolute *best* way to do this yet, as I'm still experimenting. It always sounds better to pitch things down as opposed to up, and in this method almost half the tracks are pitched up, and I've noticed that they tend to sound weird, so in this version I think I actually have them mixed in *extremely* lightly. I think it might be better to put together a set of tracks that's the original plus maybe 4 semitones of transposed versions instead so that everything is pitching down. Might be able to do that with, say 2 tracks that are pitched up to retain the feeling of 7 singers per part, or maybe even mess with a version where the lyrics are changed to create subtly different consonants/vowels and aren't transposed at all. (I keep forgetting to change all instances of "I" to "eye" as I've noticed cantamus doesn't do a diphthong for this and it sounds absolutely bizarre to me).
Basically, its the "transposition trick" that is often used when you are working with say, a sample library that only has 1st Violins and you need a 2nd Violins part, so you sent MIDI that's maybe a whole step up from the "true" pitch to force every note to be a different sample, and then use a pitch correction plugin to pull everything back down to the correct tuning, only in this case you are sending MusicXML to cantamus that's transposed instead of using a MIDI transposition plugin. Adding a reverb plugin makes a big difference too as it tends to smooth out some of the weirdness.
@@CurtisSchweitzer Dear Curtis, thanks a lot for that detailled explanation. That's simply amazing. It might be a quite complicated process, but it seems totally worth it. I Like your rendition a lot and will try out the technique soon with one of my yet unperformed pieces. Thanks again!