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Hollywood Choirs vs Symphonic Choirs

I can only tell that getting SC to sing acceptably with WB is very much work. If you only need short phrases, or staccato vocals, things are a lot easier (though, as always: perfection requires effort).
 
Hollywood Choirs only have two sections - women and men - while Symphonic Choirs have SATB sections, boys and soloists (soprano, alto and boy)
The wordbuilder is much more convincing and easier to use in HC and it's also more modern sounding in general.
 
I also have both. HC sounds wonderful, and it's nice and lush. I never had much luck with creating phrases in Wordbuilder (both HC and SC), I just use the included phrases. In big epic pieces, it's all gibberish anyways, but sounds awesome.

I still use SC quite a bit, it has so many other sections as others have mentioned, and I really like the soloist patches.
 
Anyone have both of these Libraries or either and can give me an opinion of quality and use. Especially interested in the Wordbuilder feature. Seems complicated but powerful.

Thanks
Joe


Thanks for the responses. I appreciate your feedback. I am reading the Symphonic and Hollywood Choir manuals and trying to understand Wordbuilder.
 
The Wordbuilder is actually really easy to grasp once you get the basics. They had a video with Nick Phoenix explaining it which gave you a good, quick overview to get you started. (This was probably the link - "EW/QL Symphonic Choirs Wordbuilder Tutorial - Nick Phoenix introduces the PLAY version of WordBuilder. Topics include Time Editor Overview, Optimizing Phrases, and Keyswitching Vowel Sounds.)

https://web.archive.org/web/20110716112629/https://www.soundsonline.com/Hollywood-Strings
https://web.archive.org/web/20110620163216/https://www.soundsonline.com/symphonic-choirs

It seems they've pulled the old ones. Bummer... Same for the Hollywood ones. I recall watching them. They've replaced everything with the new "Overview" ones, which they seem to also have re-uploaded quite a few times. They were also up for download on their site as you can see. https://media.soundsonline.com/tutorials/EW-182/EWQLSC-WB-Tutorial-Part-1-v2.m4v (They could still have them hidden somewhere). In general, they used to have a lot of outdated hidden pages. Should've saved them. :/

Edit: Yep, the old videos work, you can take them from the links above but I've also compiled them here if anyone's interested and missed them:
[High Quality]
https://media.soundsonline.com/tutorials/EW-182/EWQLSC-WB-Tutorial-Part-1.mov
https://media.soundsonline.com/tutorials/EW-182/EWQLSC-WB-Tutorial-Part-2.mov
https://media.soundsonline.com/tutorials/EW-182/EWQLSC-WB-Tutorial-Part-3.mov

[Lower Quality]
https://media.soundsonline.com/tutorials/EW-182/EWQLSC-WB-Tutorial-Part-1.mp4
https://media.soundsonline.com/tutorials/EW-182/EWQLSC-WB-Tutorial-Part-2.mp4
https://media.soundsonline.com/tutorials/EW-182/EWQLSC-WB-Tutorial-Part-3.mp4
 
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I have a couple posts in a older thread comparing Symphonic Choirs to Hollywood Choirs -- basic comparison here, detailed comparison with audio here.

The wordbulder functions in basically the same way for both libraries, but it's easier to get good results in Hollywood Choirs, and Hollywood Choirs' default wordbuilder output sounds better with no tweaking than Symphonic Choirs' does.

For both, if you intend to get into the wordbuilder, you should be prepared to devote some substantial time to it. It's basically a mini multirack editor that you use to program crossfades among the various phonetic sounds. For the best results, you have to be patient, good at audio editing, and familiar with how a real choir sounds. If you want realistic words, particularly in English, there may be a lot of blending of multiple vowels involved, and it's very easy to go astray with this if you aren't already familiar with how choirs actually pronounce words.
 
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I have the Composer Cloud X subscription so I have used both choirs. HW is clearly better on all counts (except for the more limited content as noted above). The word builder is quite useable in my opinion. Hollywood Choirs is probably the only thing I will buy (heavily discounted, of course) when my subscription ends (I already own HWO and Spaces I).
 
I have the Composer Cloud X subscription so I have used both choirs. HW is clearly better on all counts (except for the more limited content as noted above). The word builder is quite useable in my opinion. Hollywood Choirs is probably the only thing I will buy (heavily discounted, of course) when my subscription ends (I already own HWO and Spaces I).



Thanks for all the information.
 
I'd say HC is much easier - I did a quick demo track with it (very little editing of crossfades, etc) of a Latin Sanctus, and it sounded pretty good. If I had spent time futzing with some of the curves, I'm sure it would have been even better. Have a listen if you like:
 
I didn't find the SC word builder to be difficult, it just requires tweaking everytime to get a phrase to work.

the HC didn't feel a single ounce better in that regard, and doesn't have separate sections so I wasnt interested. Sonically I have VOTA as well, can write SATB, and I might very well throw it out the window for dominus 2 if Paolo strikes gold twice in row.
 
Honestly, i´ve tried them both and using the wordbuilder is not really different.
The Symphonic Choir has more flexibility and a beautiful boys choir which is the best I've ever heard. The wordbuilder works best with the boys choir, as it is the most clearly understandable.
But I rarely use the phraebuilder as a general, because the effort to build understandable phrases is high.
 
They are both good, Wordbuuilder is indeed similar in both, I just prefer the sound of HC.
yeah I think the sound is different and its men women vs SATB, but the word builders aren't noticeably different

think people just feel like its newer, maybe it has more premade phrases, but I wouldn't use either out of the box - and both can get convincing diction just requires tweaking
 
Sorry to resume this old thread, I'm thinking about buying HC or SC or maybe both, do you have any advice on what to choose?

I already read all the posts above and I'm more into HC but I fear I could miss a SATB setup, this is why I'm on the edge.

Another question that is bothering me (I'm not able to find an answer anywhere apparently) is: can I choose where to start a phrase? I mean maybe I'd like to reuse only a part of a phrase or maybe only some syllables and I don't want to write a lot. Is there a way to cycle through a phrase from specific points or the only thing I can do is restart from the beginning?

If I can restart only from beginning do I have to write down all the text for all the track I want to write? For example if a choir start with a simple "uuu" and then it start singing something, than again some aahs and oohs and sing again do I have to write everything in the right order?

Thank you.
 
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Hollywood Choirs Gold is currently $249 and Diamond $299. Do you guys think the extra microphones are worth $50?

I think the lowest price Gold went was $225 (AudioDeluxe 6 months ago).
 
The wordbulder functions in basically the same way for both libraries, but it's easier to get good results in Hollywood Choirs, and Hollywood Choirs' default wordbuilder output sounds better with no tweaking than Symphonic Choirs' does.
I agree with @pmcrockett Hollywood Choirs' word builder generates far better results out of the box -- no tweaking required in many cases. Not true of SC, which I remember requires a lot more work.

Mind you, the more time you spend, the better it is, but the wordbuilder in HC is a big improvement.
 
If I can restart only from beginning do I have to write down all the text for all the track I want to write? For example if a choir start with a simple "uuu" and then it start singing something, than again some aahs and oohs and sing again do I have to write everything in the right order?
Not necessarily @DANIELE

To bring off what you described, I'd suggest that you load three patches -- an "ooh" patch, an "aah" patch, and then a third instance of a word builder patch. (each on its own midi channel).

That way you can keep your lyrics on one and maybe it's less fiddling. However, if you have a long piece with four voices and a lot of text, you will have work cut out. Restarting lyrics only goes to the beginning, ( controller cc20 at 127).
 
Sorry to resume this old thread, I'm thinking about buying HC or SC or maybe both, do you have any advice on what to choose?

I already read all the posts above and I'm more into HC but I fear I could miss a SATB setup, this is why I'm on the edge.

Another question that is bothering me (I'm not able to find an answer anywhere apparently) is: can I choose where to start a phrase? I mean maybe I'd like to reuse only a part of a phrase or maybe only some syllabes and I don't want to write a lot. Is there a way to cycle through a phrase from specific points or the only thing I can do is restart from the beginning?

If I can restart only from beginning do I have to write down all the text for all the track I want to write? For example if a choir start with a simple "uuu" and then it start singing something, than again some aahs and oohs and sing again do I have to write everything in the right order?

Thank you.
I'm not familiar with HC, but having separate S, A and T, B is actually a headache when then notes are out of the vocal range. Often times the S part goes below the range, and will need a fix/workaround using a separate track using the A voice. Likewise, the B goes above the range, and and a separate track fix will be required. Having women and men voices covering the entire range would be quite useful.
 
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