EWQL Choirs Manual

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EastWest/Quantum LeapSymphonic ChoirsVirtual Instrument

Users Manual


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EAST/WEST QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT

ii

The in ormation in this document is subject to change without notice and does not rep-resent a commitment on the part o East West Sounds, Inc. The so tware and soundsdescribed in this document are subject to License Agreements and may not be copiedto other media. No part o this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwisetransmitted or recorded, or any purpose, without prior written permission by East WestSounds, Inc. All product and company names are or trademarks o their respectiveowners.

PLAY is a trademark o East West Sounds, Inc.

East West Sounds, Inc., 2010. All rights reserved.

East West Sounds, Inc.6000 Sunset Blvd.Hollywood, CA 90028USA

1-323-957-6969 voice1-323-957-6966 ax

For questions about licensing o products: [email protected]

For more general in ormation about products: in [email protected]

http://support.soundsonline.com

Version o September 2010
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2Chapter 1: Welcome

WelcomeAbout EastWest

EastWest ( www.soundsonline.com ) has been dedicated to perpetual innovation and un-compromising quality, setting the industry standard as the most critically acclaimedproducer o Sample CDs and Virtual (so tware) Instruments.

Founder and producer Doug Rogers has over 30 years experience in the audio industryand is the recipient o many recording industry awards including Recording Engineer othe Year. In 2005, The Art o Digital Music named him one o 56 Visionary Artists &Insiders in the book o the same name. In 1988, he ounded EastWest, the most criti-cally acclaimed sound developer in the world, and recipient o over 50 industry awards,more than any other sound developer. His uncompromising approach to quality, andinnovative ideas have enabled EastWest to lead the sound-ware business or 20 years.

In 1997 Rogers partnered with producer/composer Nick Phoenix and set up QuantumLeap, a wholly owned division o EastWest, to produce high-quality, no-compromisesample libraries and virtual instruments. Quantum Leap virtual instruments are mostlyproduced by Nick Phoenix. Some o the larger productions, such as Symphonic Orches-tra, Symphonic Choirs and Quantum Leap Pianos are co-produced by Doug Rogers andNick Phoenix. As a composer, Phoenix began scoring lm trailers and television com-mercials in 1994. To date, he has either scored or licensed music or the ad campaigns

o over 1000 major motion pictures including Terminator 3, Lord o the Rings Return othe King, Harry Potter 5, Wall-E, Star Wars Episode 2, Spiderman 3, Pirates o the Carib-bean 3, Blood Diamond, Night at the Museum, 300, and The Da Vinci Code. QuantumLeap has now rmly established itsel as one o the worlds top producers o high-endsample libraries and virtual instruments.
http://www.soundsonline.com/http://www.soundsonline.com/


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3Chapter 1: Welcome

Producer: Doug RogersWith over 30 years experience in the audio industry, ounder and producer Doug Rogersis the recipient o over 60 industry awards, more than any other sound developer. Hisuncompromising approach to quality, and innovative ideas have enabled EastWest to

lead the sound-ware business or more than 22 years. The Art o Digital Music namedhim one o 56 Visionary Artists & Insiders in the book o the same name.

He released the very rst commercial Drum Samples CD in 1988, and ollowed it withthe multiple award-winning Bob Clearmountain Drums sample collection which he co-produced. In the years that ollowed he practically reinvented the sound-ware industry.EastWest introduced loop sample libraries to the market in the early nineties, ollowedclosely by the rst midi driven loops collection (Dance/Industrial). He released the rst

library to include multiple dynamics, ollowed by the rst sample library to stream romhard disk, an innovation that led to the detailed collections users expect today.

His recent productions are Symphonic Orchestra (awarded a Keyboard Magazine Key BuyAward, EQ Magazine Exceptional Quality Award, Computer Music Magazine Per or-mance Award, and G.A.N.G. [Game Audio Network Guild] Best Sound Library Award);and Symphonic Choirs (awarded Electronic Musician 2006 Editors Choice Award,G.A.N.G. Best Sound Library Award, and Keyboard Magazine Key Buy Award). Most

recently, his productions include Quantum Leap Pianos, the most detailed virtual pianocollection ever produced; and Fab Four, inspired by the sounds o the Beatles, a M.I.P.AWinner and judged the most innovative instrument by 100 music magazines.

Over the last decade he has partnered with producer/composer Nick Phoenix and set upthe Quantum Leap imprint, a subsidiary o EastWest, to produce high-quality, no-com-promise virtual instruments. EastWest/Quantum Leap virtual instruments are consideredthe best available and are in daily use by the whos who o the industry.


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4Chapter 1: Welcome

Producer: Nick PhoenixNick began scoring lm trailers in 1994. To date, he has scored or licensed music orthe ad campaigns o over 1000 major motion pictures. Star Trek, Tron, Percy Jack-son, Twilight, 2012, WALL-E, Indiana Jones 4, Harry Potter 6, Inkheart,

Tales O Despereaux, 300, A Christmas Carol, Watchmen, Angels and Demons,Night at the Museum, and Young Victoria are a ew recent examples. Nick oundedTwo Steps From Hell with Thomas Bergersen in 2006. www.twostepsfromhell.com

The journey as a composer has inspired Nick to record and program his own soundsand samples. Nick ounded Quantum Leap Productions in 1997 and Quantum leap hassince grown to be the worlds top producer o high-end virtual instruments. A 13-yearpartnership with Doug Rogers and EastWest has yielded award winning so tware titles

such as Stormdrum 1 and 2, Symphonic Orchestra, Symphonic Choirs, Silk, RA, VoicesO Passion, Ministry O Rock, Gypsy, Quantum Leap Pianos, Goliath, Hollywood Strings,and many others.

Hollywood Strings is the culmination o years o experience and the input o a reallystrong and diverse team. It is, by ar, the best virtual instrument I have been involvedwith.
http://www.twostepsfromhell.com/http://www.twostepsfromhell.com/


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5Chapter 1: Welcome

Recording Engineer: Prof. Keith O. JohnsonPro . Keith O. Johnson has spent over 30 years developing a reputation or innovativethinking, technical achievement and musicianship which has elevated him to a positionin the audio industry occupied by only a hand ul o visionaries. His intensive investigation

o electronic behavior and acoustic perception have led most recently to his development(with digital engineer Michael Pfaumer) o the revolutionary High De nition CompatibleDigital encoding process, produced and marketed by Paci c Microsonics (and acquiredby Microso t). HDCD is widely considered to be the most accurate recording process everinvented. His 90-plus recordings have long been considered the standard or high del-ity, and include three Grammy award-winners and eight additional Grammy nominations.

SOME REVIEWS OF HIS RECORDINGS:How Johnson got that huge climax at the end o the Dances cleanly onto tape tran-scends engineering and goes into the realm o magic. -- Harry Pearson, THE ABSOLUTESOUND.

Keith Johnsons engineering, mastering and production have, in this case, produced the

nest orchestral recording I have ever heard -- Russell Lichter, SOUNDSTAGE


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6Chapter 1: Welcome

Credits

ProducersDoug Rogers and Nick Phoenix

Recorded byPro . Keith O. Johnson

Custom recording equipment built and designed byPro . Keith O. Johnson

Assistant Recording EngineerRhys Moody

Engineering and MasteringNick Phoenix

EditingNick Phoenix, Jared Selter, Justin Harris, Jonathan Marmor,

Pierre Martin, and Arne Schulze

Art DirectionSteven Gilmore and Doug Rogers

WordBuilder concept byNick Phoenix and Nuno Fonseca

WordBuilder software byNuno Fonseca

SoftwareDoug Rogers, Nick Phoenix, Klaus Voltmer, Klaus Lebkucher, Patrick Stinson,

Ste an Kersten, Toine Diepstraten, Thomas Merkle, Ezra Buchla,David Kendall, Nick Cardinal, and Jonathan Kranz, and Justin Harris

ManualJohn Philpit


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7Chapter 1: Welcome

How to Use This and the Other ManualsAll documentation or the EastWest PLAY Advanced Sample System and its libraries isprovided as a collection o Adobe Acrobat les, also called PDFs. They can be viewed onthe computer screen or printed to paper.

Each time you install one o the PLAY System libraries, two manuals are copied to thele system on your computer:

The manual that describes the whole PLAY System. This, the largest o the manuals,addresses how to install and use all aspects o the so tware that are common to alllibraries.

The library-speci c manual, such as the one you are currently reading. This smallerdocument describes aspects that di er rom one library to the next, such as the list

o included instruments and articulations.

Using the Adobe Acrobat FeaturesBy opening the Bookmarks pane along the le t edge o the Adobe Acrobat Reader, theuser can jump directly to a topic rom the section names. Note that some older versionso Acrobat Reader might not support all these eatures. The latest Acrobat Reader canbe downloaded and installed at no cost rom the Adobe web site . (As an example o ahyperlink, you can click on the last word o the previous sentence to be taken directly tothe Adobe site.)

When reading this and other manuals on the computer screen, you can zoom in to seemore detail in the images or zoom out to see more o the page at once. I an includedpicture o the user inter ace, or a diagram, seems uzzy or illegible, then zoom in usingone o several means provided in the Acrobat Reader so tware. Note that images areclearest and screen shots most legible at 200% and next best at 100%.

The Master Navigation DocumentBecause the EastWest PLAY System is a collection o components, each with its ownUsers Manual, a Master Navigation Document (MND) is provided to allow users to jumpquickly between these PDFs when being read on the computer screen. This MND is aone-page le with hyperlinks to the PLAY System documentation and to all the librarymanuals. Hyperlinks to this Master Navigation Document are ound on the title page oeach chapter in each document. From there, you can open any other document in thecollection.

For example, i youre reading something in this documentation or the Quantum LeapGypsy library, and need to open the manual or the PLAY System as well, go to any chap-ter title page and click on the link that says, Click on this text to open the Master Navi-gation Document. It will open in a new window on the screen. In that document, clickon the icon or the PLAY System and its manual will open in the same window (hidingthe MND). You now have both the Gypsy library manual and the PLAY System manualopen in separate windows so you can re er to them both.
http://www.adobe.com/http://www.adobe.com/


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9

Click on this text to open theMaster Navigation Document

2. EWQL Symphonic Choirs, An Overview

10 The Design Point For the Symphonic Choirs Library 11 Recording Notes 13 Two Revolutionary Concepts 13 The Instruments in EWQL Symphonic Choirs 14 WordBuilder

15 Whats Included 15 Hardware Requirements
http://mnd.pdf/http://mnd.pdf/http://mnd.pdf/


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10Chapter 2: EWQL Symphonic Choirs, An Overview

EWQL Symphonic Choirs, An OverviewThe Design Point For the Symphonic Choirs Library

The EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs virtual instrument is the result o yearso planning, scoring, recording, editing, and programming by over 100 creative pro es-sionals. Our goal was to create a Symphonic Choirs virtual instrument that would blendper ectly with the multiple-award-winning EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orches-traand could be reproduced in surround soundrecorded where choirs and orchestrassound most natural, in a state o the art concert hall.

First, we had to nd the right team to execute the plan. To capture the sounds, weneeded someone with an impressive history o recording choirs and orchestras live. Theanswer was Pro . Keith O. Johnson. His 90-plus recordings have long been consideredthe standard or high delity, and include two Grammy award winners and eight ad-ditional Grammy nominations. All o the recording equipment used in the project waseither hand-built or extensively modi ed by him to optimize delity. Pro . Keith O. John-son had previously recorded EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra, so it was anobvious choice.

Next, we had to nd the right concert hall in which to record EWQLSC. Fortunately, hisexperience was invaluable here as well. He had recorded in most o the critically ac-claimed concert halls throughout the world, and had a short list o avorites. A ter thesuccess o EWQLSO we decided to use the same concert hall to record EWQLSC.

Once the recording was completed, the post-production team was put to work, whichincluded some o the nest sound designers and programmers in the business. Specialso tware was developed to edit the multiple tracks simultaneously, and keep them inphase. An advanced version o our revolutionary WordBuilder so tware or both PC andMac was developed specially or EWQLSC. Nearly a year o post-production was neces-sary to achieve the nal resulta result we are all extremely proud o .

We hope you enjoy EWQLSC as much as we doand we would love to hear what youcreate with it. Explore the many sections o this Guide, especially the sections on theWordBuilder so tware where we expect you will spend most o your time, and use it tospark the endless creative possibilities o this ground-breaking virtual instrument!

Producers Doug Rogers and Nick Phoenix



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Recording NotesEWQLSC is a sample library that can produce ull multi-channel sound like that rom agood recording session in a concert hall. The user can manipulate multi-channel leswithin each sample to move a section o the choir, create ully di used or highly ocused

sound, as well as o stage e ects that have the same acoustic character as having mi-crophones on stage and mixing them.

Each choir sample contains high-resolution components recorded in a state o the artconcert hall rom microphone groups placed to achieve close, ull, and ambient sound.Microphone placement is modeled a ter traditional Decca setups. The choir and solo-ists are placed on stage as they would per orm, so that signals rom these microphonegroups can be mixed and have the general technical eel and acoustic properties o a

live session.

In addition, the placement o the choir correlates with the orchestral instruments re-corded or EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra, achieving a uni ed choral andorchestral mix when the two libraries are used together. Consistent microphone place-ment or the two sets o samples allows them to work together per ectly whether buildingstereo or surround sound recordings.

AdVANCEd : A Decca tree or those interest-edis an arrangement o three microphonesoriginally designed at the English Decca Re-cords, and still used or orchestra recordings,especially when recording movie scores. Themics are arranged as in the diagram at the right.Because o the 2-meter spacing between thele t and right mics, the audio provides the inten-sity cues necessary or detailed stereo imagingwhile including su cient phase in ormation toproduce an open and spacious sound. In addi-tion, the middle microphone generates a solidcentral image.

Much post-production work and active DSP is mandatory to align the multiple time-

phase paths rom all o the sample groups. In addition, a large concert space was re-quired to avoid claustrophobic wall sounds and to capture the choir sound we hear at anappropriate distance. These ultimately achieve overall mix clarity.

To provide process headroom or this work, a super resolution recording chain was used.FM microphone responses extended to at least 26 kHz, all signal paths had minimaldiscrete circuit electronics, and conversions and les were at least 24-bit, 88.2kHz.(We also recorded everything at 176.4kHz or uture updates). Hence the Gigabytes o

data needed to access the sounds o instruments rom di erent angles, placements anddistances. The six-channel high-resolution les containing close, ull and reverberanteeds can produce a real 3D orchestral sense like that rom a good recording. To do this,



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simpli ed user commands or pre-setable instrument placements replace outmoded panand gain controls unctions. The new controls make complex adjustment o direct-to-refected sound, time-phase relationships, and equalizations to track a sections place-ment. In this manner, a section can be accented within the whole choir, brought orwardin the mix, or moved o stage and the acoustic sound will correlate.

Recording PracticeA good recording setup o ten requires a close mic accent pickup to assist the ear in

ocusing on an important phrase in the polyphonic mix. Once used, the accent is o -ten removed, as only a ew o these spots are e ective at any one time. Sometimes, areverberation pickup is added or increased to restore a correct sense o hall responseto instrumental and choral power. Generally, a good recording setup or a concert hall

has accent capability and will be much like early big sound Decca setups: omni- ornon-directional pickups at ront; a center tree, o ten o directional microphones; sev-eral close placed accents; and a hall sound microphone group. Combinations o phaseinter erences, sonic bleeds to microphones, time arrivals, and special energy convey a

best seat perceptual experience even though the microphones are much closer to theper ormers than is the listener in the hall. The sense o vocal directionality and its e ecton stage and hall sound is evident.

Post ProductionThe EWQLSO and EWQLSC samples originate rom this Decca setup. The user can ma-nipulate or mix le perspectives to work a composing project with the same mix capabili-ty available in most soundstage and classical recordings. Microphone pickups are select-able, allowing the user to mix and create a complex ull sounding per ormance. Externalequalization adjustments can make soloists be very so t yet have pinpoint resolution ina lush ull ensemble. O stage singers can sound di use and merge into 5-channel sur-

rounds without creating distraction. Stereo accents with time-phase control can extendnear eld images beyond the speakers, a use ul e ect or computers and gaming.

Three-Dimensional SamplesThree le groups operate in conjunction or each choral section, soloist, or sample. Theyprovide: a ull soundstage a close, ocused sound the hall responseAll three pickup signals are synchronized to the choirs position or correct time-phasearrival, as well as pre-equalized so they will t into a traditional large-scale mix, withboth other sections and instruments rom EWQLSO. In this manner, other preset syn-chronization and mix variations can be made to modi y the placement o a section orsoloist within the ull sound o all choral parts and instruments. Such automatic optionsare not only convenient but they per orm very well and reduce processing requirements

to help allocate computer resources to create the complex real sound o a good recording.



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One-Dimensional SamplesNote that a one-dimensional sample, even with extensive electronic support, doesnt cre-ate the varying spatial energy relationships that occur when singers sing di erent notes.The refected sounds rom all the sur aces o a concert hall mix audibly in a good spaceto provide the whole listening experience. Small room and anechoic samples lack thiscomplexity, a serious problem when attempting concert hall reality. Convincingly com-plexand there ore, realisticsound radiation cannot be achieved with current soundprocessing so tware; the EWQLSC sample library was made in a big space, where mul-tiple paths or refections achieve the sense o space appropriate to a concert hall.

Recording Engineer Pro . Keith O. Johnson

Two Revolutionary ConceptsThe rst o these revolutions actually began with the companion library, EastWest/Quan-tum Leap Symphonic Orchestra, but bears repeating here: the recording o 3 microphonepositions to achieve concert hall realism unparalleled in sampled orchestras. This ea-ture is described in detail starting on page 69 .

The second revolution, unveiled with EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs, isWordBuilder, an application that lets the composer type sentences that the choirs sing.A large part o this manual is devoted to various aspect o WordBuilder, with an in-depthlook at how to use the application starting on page 29 .

The Instruments in EWQL Symphonic ChoirsIMPORTANT NOTE: This manual applies to both the basic Symphonic Choirs library and theChoirs Expansion add-on. The in ormation that applies only to those who bought thelicense or the add-on is clearly marked as being Expansion only.

Symphonic Choirs contains two basic types o patches, which are grouped into 2 sepa-rate olders called Instruments and Multis. The latter is short or multi-instruments.

The Instruments folder contains the patches that do not use WordBuilder to create pat-terns o sung speech. Each patch is a single sound per instrument (usually). Examplesare oo and ah sounds, as well as individual consonants and vowels. There are alsosome shouts, whispered words, and other e ects. See the list o instruments starting onpage 84 or more details.

These patches are grouped in 7 sub olders (8 i you have a license or the Choirs Ex-pansion). The image on the next page shows these 7 sub olders as they appear in theBrowser.



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These 7 groups include: the 4 standard choral sections (Sopranos, Altos, Tenors, Basses) a Boys choir a Full Chorus (men and women together) Soloists (a Soprano, an Alto, a Boy)

The Multis foldercontains the patches that Use (and require) WordBuilder to create sungspeech. The patches are not really use ul on their own; the notes within these patchesare designed to be called rom WordBuilder, as speci ed by the WB in the name.

These patches are grouped in 6 sub olders (7 i you have a license or the Choirs Expan-sion). The image below shows these 6 sub olders as they appear in the Browser.

These 6 groups include: the 4 standard choral sections (Sopranos, Altos, Tenors, Basses) a Boys choir separate Womens Choir and Mens Choir*

* The Women voice type creates a single range o emale voices using the Alto samples

at the bottom and Soprano samples at the top. Likewise, the Men voice type combinesBass and Tenor samples to create a single range o male voices.

For speci c in ormation about these patches, see the chapter called Instruments, Articu-lations, and Keyswitches later in this manual, starting on page 80 . (Or click on thepage number to jump there, i reading this on a screen.)

WordBuilderThis so tware tool is the primary inter ace or constructing a choral per ormance. It ishere that the composer or orchestrator literally spells out the words that the choir singsand speci es the ne details o the per ormance. The user is given complete controlover how long the choir holds each consonant and vowel within a syllable as well as theconstantly changing dynamics that can give a choral track added realism (i thats thegoal). Or the user can accept the de ault settings and get less polished but aster results,perhaps or a preliminary mock-up.



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Q


When setting English words, one has a choice o typing the text with any o the ollowingalphabets: standard English spelling an easy-to-learn phonetic alphabet Votox, a phonetic alphabet that EastWest/Quantum Leap created speci cally to match

WordBuilders sung speech capabilities

WordBuilder includes a 100,000-word dictionary ( rom Carnegie-Mellon University) ortranslating American English spelling to a phonetic spelling. When typing with one o thephonetic alphabets listed in the second or third items above, the symbols are listed onthe screen to assist the memory. When setting text in languages other than English, orwith pseudo-words, like be-bop-a-doo, one must speci y the sounds in one o the twophonetic alphabets listed above.

WordBuilder appears in a separate screen within thePLAY windowwhether youre working in the plug-in orin the standalone version. The Player view ( or the Choirs UI only) includes a button nearthe top that can take you to the WordBuilder page. WordBuilder is describes in moredetail later in this manual.

Whats IncludedThis EastWest/Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs Virtual Instrument you purchased in-cludes all the ollowing: a complete set o sample-based instruments, enumerated later in this manual approximately 38.5 Gigabytes o 24-bit, 44.1 kHz samples the EastWest PLAY Advanced Sample Engine the unique authorization code that identi es the license you bought manuals in Adobe Acrobat ormat or both the EastWest PLAY System and the East-

West/Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs Virtual Instrument an installation program to set up the library, so tware, and documentation on your

computer an Authorization Wizard or registering your license in an online database

For those users who install The Symphonic Choirs Expansion instruments this size o thesamples on the hard drive grows rom 38.5 GB to 40 GB.

One required item not usually included is an iLok security key. I you already have onerom an earlier purchase o so tware, you can use it. Otherwise, you need to acquire one.

They are available rom many retailers that sell EastWest and Quantum Leap products, oryou can buy one online at www.soundsonline.com.

Hardware RequirementsSee the Play System manual or a complete list o the Hardware and So tware Require-ments or installing and running any PLAY System library. In addition, the available



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space on the hard drive required or a ull installation o EastWest/Quantum Leap Choirsis approximately 39 GB (Gigabytes), or 40 GB i the Expansion instruments are installed.



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17

Click on this text to open the Master Navigation Document

3. The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Interface

19 Important Note for the Multi Choirs 19 Master Controls 22 Microphones Controls 22 Performance Controls 24 Stereo Double Controls

24 Reverb Master 24 Voice Limit Control 25 Articulations Control 27 The Graphical Representation of the Envelope and the Curve Knob 27 The Browser View



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18Chapter 3: The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User Inter ace

The EWQL Symphonic Choirs User InterfaceEach library presents its own inter ace when one o its instruments is the current one,as speci ed in the Instruments drop-down in the upper right corner. The image at thebottom o this page provides an overview o the entire window in Player View when thecurrent instrument is rom the Symphonic Choirs library.

Much o this inter ace is shared by all PLAY System libraries, and the common eatures

are described in the PLAY System manual. The Choirs-speci c controls described laterin this section are those listed on the next page. I you dont see a control described inthis chapter, look at the PLAY System manual; thats the other manual installed on yourhard drive during program setup.



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The controls described in this manual are: Channel Source Tune Master Pan, Volume, Mute, Solo, and Audio Channel Output Microphones Per ormance (Portamento, Repetition, Legato, and Round Robin Reset) Stereo Double Reverb Master Voice Limit Articulations the graphical representation o the Envelope

Important Note for the Multi ChoirsAnytime you open an instrument rom the Multi older in the Symphonic Choirs browser,PLAY opens more than oneup to 6 or even 12instruments. I you open the Instru-ment drop-down in the upper right corner, you will see all the currently open instruments.They work together to play all the phonetic sounds it takes to generate sung words.

When you make any change to one o the instruments in the controls described below, it

is important that you make the same change to all the other instruments in the multi. Forexample, i you pan le t the instrument on MIDI channel 1 and do not repeat that changeon the other instruments in the multi, when you play a phrase in WordBuilder, you mayhear some o the phonetic letters sung in the center and others sung rom the le t.

Master ControlsThe Master controls are presented in a strip along the right side o theEWQLSC inter ace. They a ect the overall output or the selected voices.

Channel SourceIn the upper right corner is the Channel Source drop-down list. Use this listto choose how you want to use the two stereo channels o the output:

Stereo uses the two stereo channels as they were originally recorded, with noadded processing.

Mono (Sum)combines the le t and right channels into an output that is identi-cal in both channels, approximating the sound o a single microphone at thecenter o the stage.

Mono From Leftcopies the le t channel o the audio to the right output chan-nel, discarding the audio rom the right channel.

Mono From Rightcopies the right channel o the audio to the le t output chan-nel, discarding the audio rom the le t channel.



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Stereo (Swapped) uses both stereo channels but reverses the le t and right audio. Becauseo the natural positioning o the choirs on the concert stage in Symphonic Choirs, thischoice appears to reverse the natural layout in e ect when these Choirs were originallyrecorded.

Most applications will use the Stereo setting to achieve the natural stereo ambience. Oneo the Mono settings might be used to bring a single voice to center-stage, to create theeel o a pre-stereo recording, or or other special e ects.

The Tune ControlsThese controls include two buttons to select between Coarse tuning and Fine tuning aswell as a knob and two digital readouts that allow the user to change the Coarse and Finetuning settings. When set at 0,0 the instruments play at concert pitch. Coarse tuningadjusts the pitch up or down in semitone increments. Fine tuning, measured in cents,moves the pitch up or down in increments o 1/100 th o a semitone. One possible use isto move Symphonic Orchestra up or down to the same pitch as live recordings or othersample libraries.

Adjustments can be made by turning the knob (moving up or down with the mouse but-ton held down) or by selecting one o the two digital readouts and entering a new value(by typing a number or by using the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys on the computer key-board). Double-clicking the knob returns the value to 0 or whichever mode is selected,Coarse or Fine.

AdVANCEd : In PLAY, there are two ways to transpose a musical phrasethe Transpose con-trol and the Tune controlbut they work very di erently. (1) The Transpose control canonly move notes up or down in semitone increments, nothing smaller. It does not changethe audio data; instead, it replaces the incoming MIDI note with a higher or lower value.

For example, i the Transpose control is set to +2, playing MIDI note 60 (Middle C) willcause PLAY to play back the audio or note 62. (2) The Tune control allows adjustmentsas small as 1/100 th o a semitone. The audio data is stretched over time (to lower thepitch) or compressed (to raise the pitch). For small changes o less than a quarter tone,the e ect on the timbre is negligible; the larger the change in pitch, the more noticeablethe distortion. Note that only the Tune control can let an instrument play above or belowthe range o provided samples. Finally, transposing has almost no e ect on CPU usage;adjustments in tuning require signi cant CPU processing.

Pan ControlThe Pan knob moves the apparent position o the sound source le t or right in the audio

eld by adjusting the relative loudness o the signal in the le t and right output channels.It preserves the relative panning or the individual panning knobs in the Microphonescontrol.

The choir voices are already located in their correct position on stage as captured in theStage and Surround mics. The Close mics were recorded with the singers directly in



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ront o the stereo microphones (so in the center), but the Close instruments have theirPan control adjusted to sound in the same location as the other mic positions. It is notnecessary to adjust the Pan control o individual singers or sections, but you can use thiscontrol to achieve a more personal sound or special e ects.

Master Volume Control and MetersThis vertical slider adjusts the volume o the nal output. It preserves the relative mix ovolumes speci ed in the individual sliders within the Microphones control.

The two vertical volume meters or the le t and right audio channelsdisplay the real-time volume o the output signal.

Mute and Solo ButtonsThe Mute button temporarily silences the output or the selected articulation

le without a ecting other open articulation les. (Note that the Mute but-tonlike all the Mute buttons in PLAYdoes not stop PLAY rom processingthe MIDI and audio data or received note data; there ore, using the Mutebutton does not reduce the load on the computers CPU. I you want to tem-porarily turn o the processing or this articulation le, uncheck the Activecheckboxes or all loaded entries in the Articulations control.)

The Solo button temporarily silences the output or all articulation les thatare not currently soloed. (The same note about CPU load rom the previous paragraphapplies here, as well.) Use this button to listen to the sound o one voiceor just a ewwithout the distraction o others playing at the same time.

Output Channels ControlThis drop-down list at the bottom o the Master controls (as show in the image at theright, above) allows the user to select the pair o stereo audio channels to which theoutput will be sent. This control can be used to send the audio output rom each loadedinstrument to separate audio tracks in the systems sound cards (when in standalonemode) or in the host sequencer (when in plug-in mode).

In the case o Symphonic Choirs, you should not separate the audio output or the 6instruments that PLAY loads or the WordBuilder voices (or the 12 instruments or theMen and Women instrument types). The 6 (or 12) instruments are acting as a singleinstrument and need to have their audio directed to a single output.

I two or more voices within the same instance o PLAY share the same output channels,then their audio signals will be mixed into a single stereo pair o audio channels.



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Microphones ControlsWhen EastWest/Quantum Leap recorded the voices in Symphonic Choirs, it used threesets o microphones in di erent parts o the concert hall: Close: directly in ront o each choral section

Stage: centered at the ront o the stage Surround: high above the back o the houseDetails about the three microphone positions are provided starting on page 69 .

The Microphones controls, shown at the right with an Outputdrop-down list open, allow the user to select the microphones

rom which to use the recorded audio and how to mix them whengenerating audio tracks. The knobs at the top can pan the audio

separately within the sound space. The volume sliders can adjustthe individual loudness o each microphone in the mix.

The three lights above the word Loaded indicate whether thesamples or that microphone position have been loaded. Clicking

on any o the lights toggles it, loading or unload-ing the indicated samples rom memory. Notethat when you click on a light to load samples or

a new microphone position, a small window, likethe one at the le t, appears to show you the prog-

ress and let you abort the loading o samples i you change yourmind.

At the bottom is a Mute button (with the letter M) and an outputbutton (with three dots on it). The Mute button temporarily si-lences the output or that microphone. The Output button allows

the user to speci y the stereo track to receive the audio output rom this microphone.Note that De ault sends the output to whichever output pair is selected in the mainOutput button in the lower right corner o the user inter ace.

In the case o the WordBuilder voice types, each multi loads either 6 or 12 instrumentsat once. I you plan to send, or example, the Close and the Stage mics to separate audiochannels, you need to change that setting individually in all 6 (or 12) o the instrumentswithin the multi.

Performance ControlsThere are our buttons grouped together in the Per ormancesection. They include three buttons or turning on and oscripts speci c to Symphonic Choirs that control per ormanceparameters,

Portamento

Repetition Legato


d b tt tti g th R d R bi t S th ti P


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and one button or resetting the Round Robin counters. See the section on Per ormanceScripts, starting on page 63 , or in ormation on how to use these scripts.

When you rst open an articulation, all three scripts are in the de ault state set by East-West. I you want them to open with a di erent de ault, you will need to save the .ewi

le that way and load your new version.

Portamento ButtonPortamento, also sometimes called glissando, is the technique o a continuous slide inpitch rom one note to the next note in the phrase. Portamento, as used in this virtual in-strument, is usually a short, anticipatory movement between the pitches o two adjacentnotes. This technique is most common in strings, the trombone, the human voice, andseveral other instruments that are not restricted to playing notes o the diatonic scale.The e ect o turning on portamento in a phrase is a subtle way to increase a sense orealistic singing.

Repetition ButtonRepetition, in this context, re ers to the playing o a single pitch more than once with nodi erent notes played between them in the same phrase. Turning on this button causesrepeating notes to sound slightly di erent, avoiding the sense o mechanical repetition.

Legato ButtonLegato is the style o playing notes in a phrase with no signi cant silence between themin order to produce a smooth and fowing melodic line. Use this button to turn on a legatoe ect or the articulation.

Round Robin Reset ButtonA round robin articulation is one in which several di erent samples are recorded with allparameters, such as volume, speed o attack, and so on, being essentially constant. ThePLAY Engine then knows to alternate between the two or more samples during playback.The goal is to avoid whats o ten called the machine gun e ect, in which playing thesame sampled note repeatedly causes the unnatural sound o consecutive notes beingmechanically identical.

Any articulation with RR in its name uses round robin technology. Those with an x3,

x4, or the like in the name, use 3, 4, or more di erent samples or each noteTheres one potential problem with round robin technology, and the way to solve it is theRound Robin Reset button. The PLAY Engine remembers which sample should be playedthe next time the note sounds. I , or example, a round-robin patch contains two samples,A and B, and a piece uses that note 7 times, the PLAY Engine plays A B A B A B A. I thepiece is played again rom the beginning, the engine will play starting with B, becausethats next in order. The second rendition will be subtly di erent. Being able to reset all

round-robin articulations to the beginning o the cycle allows or consistent playback.


You can use this button to reset all round robin articulations on demand Or use your


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You can use this button to reset all round robin articulations on demand. Or use yourchoice o a MIDI note or MIDI control code to reset them one instrument at a time rom aMIDI keyboard or the data stored in a sequencer project. See the description o the Set-tings dialog (in the PLAY System manual) or more in ormation about this articulation-speci c approach.

Stereo Double ControlsThis knob, with its three buttons, gives the user the option o using ex-clusively the le t stereo signal or right when Stereo is selected rom theChannel Source drop-down. For any other setting, this control has no e ect.

The knob lets the user determine the spread o the signals, how ar apart the ear per-ceives the stereo channels to be. Turning it all the way to the le t brings the two channelstogether at the center (unless the Pan knob positions the output di erently), and is theequivalent o turning o the controls with the On/O button. Turning it all the way to theright calls or the maximum spread available. Select between the le t and right signalwith the buttons on either side o the On button.

Reverb MasterThe Reverb control is described in the main PLAY System manual,but Symphonic Choirsand a small number o other EastWest virtu-al instrumentsinclude a Master button as part o the group. Whenthe button is pressed and the On light is illuminated, the Reverb orthis instrument applies to all the other instruments in this instanceo PLAY, including instruments rom libraries that do not include a Master button.

I the Master button is already engaged in another instrument in the current instanceo PLAY, and the Master button is pressed in a new instrument, then the settings in theUI o the new instrument become the settings or all instruments in this PLAY instance.

The processing o high-quality reverb can be very CPU-intensive and it is o ten the casethat you want to use the same reverb on all the instruments in an audio track. Engagingthe Master Reverb button allows you to run a single instance o the reverb processor andhave the e ect apply to multiple instruments.

Voice Limit ControlThe Voice Limit control allows the user to speci y the maximum number o voices to re-serve space or in the computers RAM. Note that a voice in this context is the numbero samples being played at once. Some EWQLSC instruments routinely play more thanone sample at a time. And the release trail or each note also uses its own voice. It isnot uncommon or a monophonic line to require 10 to 20 voices, especially when play-ing rapidly (so that multiple release trails are playing simultaneously). The best way tosee how many voices are required is to play the piece and watch the Voices display (justabove the right side o the keyboard). The voice limit can be set to any whole number


rom 1 to 999 The de ault value is set by EastWest or each instrument and can vary


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rom 1 to 999. The de ault value is set by EastWest or each instrument and can varyby library and instrument.

Setting the Voice Limit too low causes notes to end too soon when PLAY is orced to stopalready playing notes in order to start a new note. I you hear notes being clipped, check

to see whether you need to raise this setting (as described in the previous paragraph).Setting the Voice Limit too high reserves unnecessary data bu ers in RAM. The totalnumber o voice bu ers that can be reserved is limited by the amount o computer mem-ory (RAM). The larger the project, the more likely it is you will run out o RAM; in suchcases, you may want to check the Voice Limit o each instrument to determine whetheryou can reduce the value.

The image at the le t shows the Voice Limitspin control in the PLAY user inter ace set to32 simultaneous voices. It is also possible to

modi y this value in the Current Instrument Propertiesdialog box, which can be opened rom the main menuand selecting Current Instrument > Advanced Properties.The image at the right shows part o that dialog with the Voice Limit set to 40.

Articulations ControlThis control is much larger and more prominent than in someother EastWest and Quantum Leap virtual instruments. Whereothers show a maximum o 4 articulations at a time, EWQLSCshows up to 16 at once.

The rst 3 columns within the Articulations control allow youto do the ollowing tasks: Activate and De-activate an articulation: Click in the rst col-

umn; a visible check mark means that the articulationwill sound when played.

Load and Unload samples: Click in the second column torelease the samples rom computer memory and click again to reload them intomemory. Use this acility to unload any samples you will not be using to save CPUresources. A visible check means the samples are loaded.

Change the loudness of the individual articulations: Click and drag up or down to makethat articulation louder or so ter (without a ecting the other articulations).

The ourth column lists the name o the articulations or other components o the play-back, such as release trails.

Be sure to read the discussion on page 70 about using the Articulations control tomanage the release trails.



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Changing Keyswitch Notes in the Articulations ControlWhen viewing a keyswitch le, the ourth column includesthe keyswitch note as a pre x. The C#0 at the beginningo the QLeg name in the second slot in the image at thele t indicates that the note C#0 can be used to initiate thatarticulation. The control lists the de ault keyswitch note oreach articulation, but these notes can be changed.

I within the list o articula-tions you right-click (on a PC) or Control-click (on a Mac),you will open a context menu listing all the availablenotes to which you can move a keyswitch. The image tothe le t show part o the context menu that opens orthe articulation G#0-Exp Fst. The check mark next toG#0 shows the current keyswitch note. Select any di er-ent note to change the keyswitch. The image at the rightshows how the D1 keyswitch can be moved to A1.

This eature provides very ew restriction on which note you select, so be aware o theollowing:

I you assign an articulation to a note that is already a keyswitch (and dont movethe other keyswitch) then that note will trigger both the old and the new articulation,e ectively playing two articulations at once. That might sometimes be use ul and atother times a problem.

I you assign an articulation to a playable note (in white on the onscreen keyboard)then playing that note will also change the articulation. (The articulation will be

changed a ter the start o the note, so the note itsel will not be in the new articula-tion; it only starts with the next note.)

I you change the keyswitch note or the currently selected articulation, then all thenotes temporarily stop being playable until you select a new articulation by selectinga keyswitch note. Visually, this means all the white keys on the onscreen keyboardturn the darker tan color. (Remember that the lowest keyswitch noteusually C0isthe de ault keyswitch, so it is considered currently selected until another keyswitch

note is selected.) I you open the context menu on a slot that does not contain a keyswitch, the value

None will be selected and you will not be able to assign a keyswitch note.

This eature does work on the older keyswitches in the older 6 Old Keysw, butbecause these les are included to provide compatibility to projects begun in earlierversions o EWQLSO, there are probably ewer reasons to do so than with the Master

keyswitches.


Note that changing the keyswitch note or any given slot in the list does not change the


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g g y y g gname in the list. For example, i you change the D#0 keyswitch to F1, a D#0- will stillappear in the name. The only way to know the currently assigned keyswitch note is toopen the context menu and see which note is checked.

I you use this eature o ten, you might consider creating your own detailed mapping owhat notes have been moved and to where. And you might want to save the .ewi le un-der a new name so you can recall your customized mapping or this and uture projects.

The Graphical Representation of the Envelope and the Curve KnobThe Envelope Controls are described in the main PLAYSystem manual because they are common to all PLAYSystem libraries. Only some libraries include the graph,as shown here, so it is included in the manuals or thoselibraries only.

The Envelope has an extra knob compared to the samecontrol in the UIs o other libraries: the Curve knob. It a -

ects the curve o the attack (but is not displayed in thegraph just above). Turn the knob to the le t (toward 0%) to have the attack start slowly,with most o the rise late; turn it to the right (toward 100%) to have most o the risein volume near the beginning. This di erence can be heard most distinctly with longer,slower attacks.

Note that the total width o the graph represents the total length o all phases o the en-velope. There ore, when you change something in one part o the graph, or example, thedecay, you may see the slopes o other components, the attack and the release, changeas well because those phases become a larger or smaller percent o the whole; this is as

expected.

The Browser ViewThe Browser behaves identically among all PLAY System libraries. Read the main PLAYSystem manual or in ormation about how to use that view.



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28

Click on this text to open theMaster Navigation Document

4. WordBuilder

30 Running in Legacy Mode 30 WordBuilder Runs Within the PLAY Window 31 How WordBuilder Interacts with PLAY 31 Voices in Symphonic Choirs and WordBuilder 32 Starting a New WordBuilder Voice

34 The Text Editor 40 Adding New Words and New Pronunciations 41 The Time Editor 44 How WordBuilder Learns Timings 49 Using Cross-Fade Instruments 51 The Tools

51 Using a Library of Phrases 53 Notes from the Producers



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29Chapter 4: WordBuilder

WordBuilderWordBuilder is a tool or approximating the sound o sung speech. Its e ectiveness inreaching that goal depends on your cra t in shaping a series o phonetic material intorealistic patterns that the listener perceives as language. Where some projects requireintelligibility, others may need only the perception that people are singing, without theneed or conveyed meaning. The care you need to take with WordBuilder depends onwhere your project alls in that spectrum.

The success o WordBuilder in creating recognizable words and meaning ul phrases re-lies on the programming o phonetic cues. Consonants o ten require the most care; theirduration and their volume relative to the nearby vowels are o ten the keys to clearly enun-ciated and understandable words. The use o small gaps between phonetic elementsespecially be ore an initial consonantcan sometimes make consonants stand out moreclearly. Or the opposite techniqueoverlapping the end o one segment with the start othe nextcan integrate the sounds into more recognizable patters.

The duration and loudness o a consonant are interdependent. O ten the longer the con-sonant lasts, the louder it will seem, and vice versa. You should experiment to see howthis works on real words. Also, the type o attack chosen or a vowel a ter a consonantwill have a noticeable e ect on the sound o a word.

There is no xed rule except always to listen to the words spoken and then emulate whatyou hear. Be prepared to adjust any aspect o each phonetic component, especiallyi intelligibility is one o your requirements. You will soon learn many tricks that willimprove realism. Also, look or hints in the Symphonic Choirs/WordBuilder orum at:

http://www.soundsonline- orums.com.

Although WordBuilder eatures automatic translation rom English to phonetic alphabets,it is possible to create an approximation o the sound o other languages using the pho-netic alphabets directly. The more similarity there is between the sounds o the vowelsand consonants o English and o your intended language, the more realistic the possiblespeech can be. And note that WordBuilder comes with a set o pre-packaged Latin phras-es with many uses, including the recreation o the sound o traditional liturgical scores.

This section o the manual describes how to use the various eatures o WordBuilder inpursuit o those goals, including how to set the parameters that control its operation.A ter reading this chapter when learning the program, you should consider the section asa re erence guide any time you need to delve more deeply into a technique.


Running in Legacy Mode


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g g yBe ore describing the eatures o WordBuilder, its important to mention that this manualdocuments the eatures o the WordBuilder that comes with PLAY versions released inSeptember 2010 and later. Older versions o WordBuilder always ran in a separate win-dow rom PLAY, and that was true whether running standalone on the desktop or insidea sequencer.

This newer WordBuilder can run inside the PLAY window, and it is recommended thatyou take the newer approach. But note that it is still possible to run this WordBuilder inthe old way, that is, in a separate window. Here are some reasons you might want to takethis earlier approach:

Youll need to run in Legacy Mode i you have data in choir les (with extension .cho),because they are not supported when running WordBuilder integrated inside PLAY. Achoir le stores the WordBuilder data o more than one concurrent voice, or example,the sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses in a our-part choir. When WordBuilder runsinside PLAY, it can only a ect one voice at a time so choir le no longer work. I youneed to open a choir le, you have to run in Legacy Mode. You can import the data rom a choir le while running in Legacy Mode and export

the individual voice les (with extension .voi). Then, when running WordBuilder

inside PLAY, you can import each voice le into a separate instance o PLAY. Or, you can work on your existing project inde nitely in Legacy Mode and continueto use the choir les.

I you have a project that you do not want to convert to the new architecture ( or anyreason), you can work in Legacy Mode. You are not losing an unctionality this way,but you will not be able to use the tighter integration available with this newer archi-tecture.

When you run the WordBuilder application in its own window in whats called LegacyMode, it is exactly the same program that runs when you open WordBuilder inside PLAY.To do so, open PLAY and WordBuilder as you used to and use the same means to connectthe two programs as you used to. Do not click on the WordBuilder button in PLAYs userinter ace. You can run WordBuilder in Legacy Mode or both standalone and sequencerprojects.

For documentation about running in Legacy Mode, continue to use the manual youreceived with the original version o Symphonic Choirs, or contact EastWest customersupport to receive the older manual.

WordBuilder Runs Within the PLAY WindowStarting with PLAY version released in September 2010, the WordBuilder user inter aceand the Symphonic Choirs user inter ace both run in the same window. You can moveback and orth between these two UIs with the WordBuilder and Player buttons near thetop o the window, as shown below.



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I you do not see the WordBuilder button in the Symphonic Choirs UI, go to the Updates

page on the www.SoundsOnline.com website to acquire the latest version o the PLAYso tware.

The rst time in any given PLAY session that you click on the Word-Builder button, you may see a small menu open directly below thebutton with the single option Insert. I that appears, click on theword Insert to load WordBuilder into PLAY and open the WordBuilder inter ace.

It does not matter whether PLAY is running in standalone mode on the desktop, or insidea sequencer; either way, whenever the Symphonic Choirs inter ace is visible, you canopen WordBuilder with the WordBuilder button.

How WordBuilder Interacts with PLAYYou can think o WordBuilder as a module that inserts itsel into PLAY and captures theincoming MIDI data be ore it gets to the main PLAY engine and the instrument you haveopened. Once WordBuilder has been inserted, it modi es the incoming data in a majorway. There ore, you need to remember the ollowing important restrictions every time youinsert WordBuilder:

An instance o PLAY that runs WordBuilder should not have open an instrument romany other PLAY library. All data directed to this instance o PLAYon every MIDIchannelwill be processed by WordBuilder. Instruments rom other libraries do notknow how to interpret data rom WordBuilder.

Any one instance o PLAY should have open only one WordBuilder multi. That multiwill open 6 or more instrument les, which is OK. But do not then attempt to opena second multi. I youre building a choir using several multis, put each voice in itsown instance o PLAY. And thats true even i you want them to sing exactly the sametext as each other.

WordBuilder should not be used with the patches in the Instruments older. They arenot designed to work with WordBuilder.

All these restrictions apply whether you are running PLAY as a standalone program oras a plug-in inside a host.

Voices in Symphonic Choirs and WordBuilderA voice is the text to be sung by one vocal part and all the other timing and dynamicin ormation the user enters in WordBuilder. These various components create together

what you can think o as a single vocal part in the ull choir. For example, i youre creat-


ing a project or an SATB choir, there will likely be our Voice les, each with its own textand with its own user-controlled programming
http://www.soundsonline.com/updates.phphttp://www.soundsonline.com/updates.php


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and with its own user-controlled programming.

It is required that you open each voicein its own instance o PLAY. This is true

whether youre running PLAY stand-alone or in a host. Each PLAY windowcan run a single instance o WordBuild-er. The image at the right shows twostandalone instances open on the desk-top, one with a Sopranos voice openand the other with an Altos voice.

All this WordBuilder data or a voicecan be stored on the hard drive as avoice le, with a .voi extension. This

le can be created by clicking on the EXPORT text in the WordBuilder UI. And a savedvoice le can be opened by clicking on the IMPORT text. Those buttons are shown inthe image above.

Note that importing a saved voice le overwrites anything currently in WordBuilder, and

it does so without asking whether you want to lose the previous in ormation.When using PLAY and WordBuilder inside a sequencer, saving the project saves the voicedata along with the instruments. While it is not required that you export the voice dataseparately to the le system, you can do so. One possible reason to export a voice le isso that you can reuse it in a di erent project.

Starting a New WordBuilder VoiceThe design o WordBuilder, when it runs within the PLAY window, requires you to use aseparate instance o PLAY or each voice. In the PLAY window, load the multi rom theBrowser or the Main Menu, and in the WordBuilder UI add the text the voice will sing.

Note that everything in this chapter applies whether youre running PLAY standalone orin a host. Everything works the same in both environments.

The rst task to do within WordBuilderwhen creating a new voice (whichyou can think o as a new part with-in a choir, or example, the Alto part)is to set the voice parameters. In theupper-le t corner o the WordBuilder

UI, where its labeled Voice, click on the columnlabelled at the right. This will open the VoiceProperties dialog box, as shown in the image at theright.


Name the Voice with any text that tells you which voice youre looking at when you havemore than one instance o WordBuilder open at once. For example, i you have two sepa-


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more than one instance o WordBuilder open at once. For example, i you have two separate Alto parts, you might want to call one First Altos and the other Second Altos.

The Voice Type and Midi Out controls are not used when WordBuilder runs within thePLAY window. They are disabled as a reminder that both settings are now controlled with-in PLAY (though they used to be set here in older versions o WordBuilder, and still arewhen WordBuilder runs in Legacy Mode). Voice Type, which you can see in the imageat the le t above is one o : Sopranos, Altos, Tenors, Basses, or Boys. When WordBuilderruns inside PLAY, this parameter is determined by the multi you have opened.

The section o the dialog called Consonants Volume allows you to raise or lower the loud-ness o all consonants relative to the vowels. For example, i you nd that the words are

hard to understand because the consonants are getting lost among the vowels, try boost-ing one or both o these values. Or lower the settings i you want a smoother, more vowel-emphasizing sound. Pitched consonants are those that are supported by the breath, sothey can be sung at any given pitch: b, m, and z are examples. Non-pitched consonantsuse no breath to activate the voice box: p, t, and s are examples.

Data Flow Into and Out of WordBuilderWhen you play a note on a keyboard, or a sequencer plays a note, and that note is di-rected to PLAY running WordBuilder, heres the path that the MIDI data takes:

1. The original noteor Control Code dataenters PLAY and is immediately routedto WordBuilder.

2. WordBuilder looks at the next syllable in the text to be sung. For each phoneticelement in that syllable ( i.e. , or each Votox symbol), WordBuilder generates a newMIDI note, and it determines when to send each o these new MIDI notes back toPLAY. For example, i the next syllable is the word sly, which in Votox is spelled,

SlaE, WordBuilder creates 4 MIDI notes, one or each Votox letter. And it de-termines how many milliseconds to wait be ore sending each o these new notes.Understand that all 4 notes in this case have the same pitch.

3. The MIDI data or the new multiple notes are sent rom WordBuilder back to PLAY,which generates the audio output corresponding to each Votox symbol at the timespeci ed in the WordBuilder UI.

In general, many more MIDI events fow out o WordBuilder than fow in.

The ollowing sections describe how WordBuilder gives you control over the various as-pects o the outbound MIDI data so that you can shape the per ormance. For the mostpart you are working in terms o words, syllables, and letters, leaving it up to WordBuilderto translate your intentions into MIDI data the PLAY sample player can understand.


The Text EditorN h h PLAY i d i l l k h T Edi Thi i h


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Near the top o the PLAY window is a large control known as the Text Editor. This is whereyou enter the text you want sung. The ollowing sections describe the many ways you can

ne tune how this text will be sung.

The Text ModesTo the le t o the Text Editor are three buttons labeled English, Pho-netics, and Votox. The button lit in bright blue (the Phonetics but-ton in the image) indicates which o the three text layers appears inthe Text Editor. Click on one o the other two buttons to change thetext display to that mode. (These are called layers because all three versions o the textare always available, but only one layer at a time is brought to the top in the Text Editorwindow where it becomes visible.)

When you type English words in the English layer, WordBuilder automatically translatesany word it nds in its 100,000-word dictionary into the other two layers (though theyremain hidden until revealed by clicking on the button or that layer). When you typecorrectly ormatted text into either the Phonetics or Votox layer, it gets translated into theother o those two, but not into English.

Typing EnglishWhen English words are typed into the Text Editor, they are color coded to indicate theirstatus.

medium blue: the word was ound in the dictionary

dark blue: the word has more than one entry in the dictionary; this happens when theword can be pronounced in two or more ways

dark red: the word was not ound in the dictionary; i it is misspelled, correct it; or i it isnot a common word, you will need to enter the word phonetically

light blue: the word was typed into the Phonetics or Votox layer, and is displayed herephonetically, even in the English layer


dark red: there is an error in syllable separation, or WordBuilder cannot nd the word inthe dictionary. For example, i you separate an English word into syllables, WordBuilder


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may have to set the word in red to indicate it cannot make good automatic phoneticseparations. In this case, make the syllable separations in the Phonetics layer.

gray: a comment; the number sign, #, and all text a ter it on a line are considered com-ments and not sung

The screen shot above shows many o these colors. I youre reading this in black and

white only, then try typing it yoursel .The proper name Gerri is not in the dictionary, so its in dark red. The words must fyand me were ound, so theyre in medium blue.

When WordBuilder looked or with in the dictionary, itound two possible pronunciations. Although the word

is usually pronounced with the same th sound as inthigh, in certain phonotactic situations, it can be pro-nounced with the voiced th sound in thy. Decidehow you want it to sound in your piece, and make yourchoice by right-clicking (in Windows) or control-clicking(on a Mac). Youll see the context menu you see here.The choices at the bottom are the two possible pronun-ciations: wid! or the voiced th-sound in thy

wit! or the unvoiced th-sound in thighI the one with the check is not the one you want, click on another choice.

In the example text above, because the scat syllables she-bop are not in the dictionary,they were entered by changing to the Phonetics layer and typing them in phonetically.Returning to the English layer, they appear in light blue, as in the image above. Whenwriting in languages other than English, all text is entered this way.

Finally, the text # sung at entrance is a comment. It is not sung. It appears in gray.Note that you can also insert the #-symbol to remove text temporarily rom whats beingsung. Then delete the # and WordBuilder will sing that text again. The e ect o the #ends at the end o the current line, i.e., until the next carriage return (which may be di -

erent rom where the phrase automatically wraps to the next line).

The last color you might see is bright red or soloed words (described on page 41 ). The

image below shows the word fy soloed.



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Typing PhoneticallyIt is also possible to enter text using one o the phonetic alphabets. You have a choice oeither traditional Phonetics or WordBuilders own Votox symbols.

Many users at the beginning may nd it easier to use the traditional Phonet-ics alphabet, partly because the UI provides examples o English words thatcontain each symbol in the Phonetics alphabet. Next to each symbol is anEnglish word; the capitalized letter in the word spells the sound o the pho-

netic symbol. As shown in the 3 images at the le t, you can open the list oletters by clicking on the plus sign when working in those modes.

Note that some symbols are two characters long; or example, Au is thevowel sound in the English word brown. These two-part vowel sounds arecalled diphthongs. The in ormation in these on-screen listsand moreisrepeated starting on page 75 in this guide.

To type using the Phonetics (or Votox) symbols, click on the Phonetics (or Vo-tox) button at the le t. Whichever language has the highlighted button is whatyoure typing in.

At the right is an example o a word typed in Phonetics. It de nes the sounds oa Latin word common in liturgical music: lacrimosa, which means, weep-ing. Note that the syllables are separated with spaces.

And when you click on the Votox button, you can seethe same Latin word spelled in Votox, as shown inthe second image (on the next page).

You are most likely to start a project in the Phoneticsor Votox layer i you are writing lyrics in another language, orhave lots o extra syllables in the setting, such as, I love you-hoo when the moo-hoon is bri- i- i- ight, be-bops-a-doodle.

You might also start in English, let WordBuilder translate the text to one o the phoneticalphabets, then make adjustments phonetically to get the exact per ormance you want.I you plan to use WordBuilder a lot, then learning to work entirely in Votox is stronglyrecommended; that will give you much more control, and its easier than it might seemat rst.



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Component ControlsThere are three levels o phonetic components, as shown in the image above: Word Syllable Letter

When you place the cursor in the Text Editor, in ormation about the selectedword, syllable, and letter appears in the three controls across the middle o thewindow, as shown above, where the word English word with was selected. At thesame time, in the lower le t corner the Phonetics and Votox symbols are stackedone above the other, creating horizontal lanes (in this case 3 symbols, 3 lanes).Because WordBuilder uses the Votox layer when dividing a syllable into its sungsounds, its the Votox symbols that are mapped to the colored bands to the right

o the letters; each band represent the duration o a sampled sound.The user controls in this section o the inter ace are discussed in much more de-tail in the section on the Time Editor, starting on page 41 .

Setting Velocities for LettersThe incoming note rom the sequencer or keyboard has a MIDI velocity parameter, andthat velocity will be passed through to the sample the PLAY Engine plays or each Votox

letter; that is, unless you ask WordBuilder to change some or all o them. I the Englishword un is being sung on a single note, there are three letters being played to enunci-ate the syllable; WordBuilder gives you the control to adjust the velocities on the Votox

F and u and n separately.

Set the velocity or a Votox letter by ollowing the steps below:

Select the word by clicking anywhere in the word in the Time Editor;

the fashing cursor indicates the word has been selected as seen at theright. This step displays parts o the un in the Word, Syllable, andLetter controls across the middle o the window, as shown on the next page.



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Select the letter you want to work on by clicking anywhere in the horizontal lane or thatletter in the Time Editor. That will cause the lane to appear a little lighter than the oth-

ers. Make sure the letter also appears in the Letter display at the rightend o the image above. The image at the le t shows the Votox letter Fselected in the Time Editor.

As you can see in the Letter control at the rightin the image above, there are two numerical set-tings you can modi y, labeled ks: and v: or

keyswitch and velocity, respectively. For now,we are looking at the velocity, so click on the 3 dots (ellipsis) in-side the small square to the right o the v: name. This will openthe small dialog box you see at the right. The top hal is shown here with the drop-downlist o 6 possible operations open.

Selecting Nothing leaves the notes velocity unchanged, that is, leaves it the same asthe velocity o the original MIDI note sent rom the sequencer or keyboard. Selectingthe equal sign sets the velocity to the exact value speci ed in the box at the right. Forexample, selecting = 85 sets the velocity o the F segment to 85, no matter what thevelocity o the played note is. Remember that values or velocity range rom 0 (silent) to127 (played with maximum orce).

The other 4 symbols are the arithmetic operations plus, minus, times, and divided by.Consider an incoming note with velocity o 50. Here are examples o how the settings inthis dialog a ect the outgoing velocity or the individual segment.

VELOCITY ARITHMETICSetting in Dialog Box Result

+ 12 62

- 30 20

* 2 100* 1.2 60

/ 3 17

All results are rounded to the nearest whole number between 1 and 127, inclusive. Iyou use these relative settings (instead o absolute instructions, such as = 60), it al-lows you to change the velocity o notes in the sequencer or at the keyboard and have

WordBuilder adjust the segments velocities proportionately.


Controlling Segment Transitions with ArticulationsWhen setting lyrics, it is important to speci y how the sounds fow into each otheror


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dont. Singing the word alone might need to be noticeably di erent than singing thephrase a loan (to make the meaning clear), even though the sounds o the letters arethe same, and even though the notes on the sta are identical. As in all musical linesinstrumental or vocalthe per ormers need to make choices about how connected, ordisconnected, the consecutive notes should be. WordBuilder distinguishes betweenstaccato and legato, as well as other styles.

Not only was each sung note recorded with all the various phonetic sounds, but also withour di erent attacks or each vowel:

Normal Legato Staccato Slurred, Sliding

WordBuilder uses the concept o a keyswitch to move among these our articulations.Instead o writing extra notes in your score (as in most other PLAY virtual instruments)keyswitching can be managed with per-segment settings in WordBuilder.

There are two ways to speci y articulations: in a dialog box, or directly in the Text Editor.

AdVANCEd : Actually, there is a third way, more consistent with other PLAY libraries: Youcan send the keyswitch notes directly, instead o having WordBuilder translate your in-structions into MIDI note events. The note numbers are 24, 25, 26, and 27 respectively,or think o them as note names C0 to D#0.

To open the dialog, select the letter whose articulation you want to

speci y. This is done in the same way as in the previous section onVelocities. Then click on the 3 dots (ellipsis) to the right o ks:in the Letter control at the right o the WordBuilder user inter ace.

In the image at the right, you can see its the same dialog box asor velocities, but here we use the bottom hal . That means you

can change both parameters at once, i you choose to. There are5 options available or keyswitches. Based on what you choose

here, WordBuilder will send the appropriate keyswitch automati-cally and at the right time. The choices are: [Text Syntax], use symbols in the text to speci y the articulation o this segment. This

is the de ault. (Look or more on this option below.) Normal Attack , the natural articulation o sung speech Legato, smoothly connected to the ollowing segment Staccato , disconnected rom the ollowing segment

Slurred, Sliding Legato,a transition between segments in which the voices slide upwardinto the note


Click OK to save your selection.

When the articulation in the dialog is set to [Text Syntax], which is the de ault, Word-


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g [ y ], ,Builder looks to symbols in the Text Editor to know which articulation to use. There are4 symbols that can be typed anywhere in the text to a ect the transitions:

TRANSITIONSSymbol Articulation

= Normal

( Legato

> Staccato

< Slurred, Sliding

Here is an example o text whose articulation is speci ed with the Text Syntax symbols:>the why and (where- ore >o the


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able, so you will have to use approximations or many non English sounds.

Soloing a WordSometimes when youre making changes to the sounds o a word, you would like to hearit over and over while you tweak the settings. You can do that with the operation knownas soloing.

In the Word control at the le t side o the WordBuilderwindow is a button named Solo. Click on that buttonwhile the cursor is within the word in question. Theword will turn to red to indicate it is soloed, and thebutton will turn light blue.

Now every time you send notes into WordBuilder it will cycle through only this one word.I playing the word with a sequencer, you can set the sequencer to loop through only theappropriate note(s).

Click on the same Solo button to turn o soloing.

The Time EditorIn the same way the Text Editor gives you total control over the sounds within each o thewords, the Time Editor allows you to ne-tune how these sounds move rom one to thenext during the playback o each note in the melody.

Consider a syllable like sweet. Vocalists may move rom the s to the w quickly orslowly or at any rate in between. A care ul choral director may give the chorus directionto hold the w or to get into the long e as soon as possible. With the Time Editor, youhave control over such decisions.

Some o the long e may need to continue a ter the end o the MIDI note because hu-man singers take a nite amount o time to get the tongue in position to close the t.With the Time Editor, you have control o that, too.


The Time editor looks like the ollowing image when the syllable sweet is selected inthe Text Editor:


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Note that the 5 Votox letters have been arranged down the le t side, one per row.Across the top is a time line with a marker every 50 milliseconds. The heavier verticallines just be ore the word O divide the display into the sounds that take place duringthe note itsel and the sounds heard during the release trail (that is, a ter the MIDI noteends). The ve colored bars represent the duration o each Votox symbol: three duringthe note and two at the end o the note. From this display, it looks as i the s will be

heard or about 90 ms; the w will start a little be ore the s ends, at about the 80 mspoint; the long E sound will start about 175 ms into the melody note.

The E bar may look as i it ends at 360 ms, but i you drag the heavy vertical separatorto the right (with the mouse) youll see that it continues inde nitely. That is, it continuesuntil the MIDI note-o event. You do not need to speci y in WordBuilder the duration othe note in the melody. The MIDI notes in the sequencer speci y that. Or the keyboardplayer speci es that, when playing in real time.

The two horizontal bars (light and dark orange in the image) a ter the vertical separatorare the sound o the syllable being closed, so they are triggered by the note-o event.The E persists until the tongue can move into position to pronounce the T sound.

When you enter text in the Text Editor, WordBuilder uses de ault setting or how long tomake each bar. You can use the mouse to drag the ends o the bars and change the starttime and duration o each sound in the syllable.

Even though the melody in the sequenceror the keyboardplayed only one note,WordBuilder triggered 5 samples in the PLAY engine. And you are given total controlover when each sample begins and ends as well as how much they overlap.

Dynamic and MIDI EnvelopesWhen people sing words, they do not always keep the volume exactly constant throughthe duration o each syllable. They may get a little louder or so ter in order to be expres-sive, or maybe just because the common pronunciation causes one sound to die out


while another grows in loudness. The Time Editor gives you control over continuous loud-ness changes and all MIDI Control Codes.

h h h h


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In the image at the right, one o thehorizontal lanes ( or the Votox letter

u) has been opened to show 2 ex-tra bars that allow you to adjust pa-rameters or continuous control. Thesmall plus signs next to the Votoxsymbols are used to open one bar ata time. The upper bar showed thevolume, as indicated by the abbre-viation Vol. Clicking the plus sign

again opens a bar or a Control Code,which can be done as many times asyou need new Control Codes.

In the image, the Control Code barwas originally labeled CC 0 whenit opened. Click on the yellow text

CC 0 to open the Control Change

dialog shown in the image. Thedrop-down control originally said 0 Bank Select MSB, but was changed to 11 Ex-pression by selecting one o the items. Once you click OK, the label changes to CC 11.You can likewise set the Control Code to 10 to control the pan or to any other standardMIDI CC value. But do be aware that the Symphonic Choirs instruments do not respondto all Control Codes.

To speci y volume as the parameter being a ected, select

x - Note Volume in the Control Change dialog box, asshown in the image at the le t.

The thin lines within the colored bars control the valueo the speci ed MIDI control code. You can double-clickanywhere along the line to create a new node, shown as a

small square. (You can also delete nodes by double clicking with the right mouse buttonin Windows, or double-clicking with the Command button held down on the Mac.) Then

drag the node with the mouse to create increases and decreases in the value. The imageat the right shows Volume doing a sudden dip and then rising, while CC 11 rises rom0 to about 70% o the maximum where itstays. The line is a visual representation oan envelope or either the volume or aMIDI Control Code.

When dragging a node, a small Tool Tip rectangle opens to show

its exact location. This eature allows you to control both the time


in milliseconds (x-coordinate) and value (y-coordinate on a scale rom 0 to 127) o eachnode as you position it.

T hid th b d th l li k th i ig i t d


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To hide any o these bars and remove the envelope, click on the minus sign associatedwith the bar you want to remove.

Note that these envelopes are interpreted by the PLAY sample engine in the same waythat envelopes in a sequencer get processed in PLAYexcept that the duration o theseWordBuilder envelopes is usually very short, sometimes lasting only 100 to 300 milli-seconds. But they can be very e ective in increasing the expressiveness and realism othe output.

Cross-Fades Between Phonetic Letters

Sometimes the sounds o a syllable dont exactly ollow one another in sequence; in-stead, one sound ades out as the next one ades in. This is known as a cross- ade. Iyou consider the ending o the

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