Audiogrocery is excited to announce Vox De Bulgaria vocal pack for Stylus RMX.

Vox De Bulgaria is the very first massive (1.2Gb) vocal pack containing solo, duo, trio and choir grooves turning the standard Stylus RMX rhythm machine into an impressive musical instrument. The bundle is remarkable fore its brilliant high quality performances of a third generation young professional female folk singers. The well-known Bulgarian Voices included in this collection bring authentic Balkan ambience into any style of music compositions, film scoring, game music and mixing. An awesome variety of up to 25 natively recorded elements per suite (E2-E4) are available for some choir grooves, giving the users the unique possibility to compose live harmony choir tracks using the RMX "Groove Menu" mode in a musical way.

You can find a detail Demo Video in the home page link shown below.

[size="4"] www.audiogrocery.com

Thanks for sharing this! I do have a few questions for you:

How does your product plan to compete with other choir VST/AU instruments, especially the ones that allow for you to customize syllables or type in text for the choir to sing? While some of the product's patches sound alright, working with pre-baked loops or segments can limit composers to certain keys, modes or tempos (or at least more static tempos). I realize one selling point of your product is the lower price point for some composers may consider paying a bit more for more functionality.

What about updates and expansions? Any plans to add on to expansions (either paid or free) which would be released at a later time? I understand if you cannot publicly discuss this just yet.

It would be nice to hear dry (or naked) versions of your demos to get an idea what you're truly purchasing. (Note: the video is VERY slow to buffer. You really need to address this as most potential customers will not wait too long for just a 8 minute video to buffer.) Perhaps providing some audio-only demos would be a good solution.

Many of the demos (that I've been able to hear so far) seem to focus on younger or female voices. This doesn't seem to be a true representation of a mixed choir and at the very least limits how these samples/loops can be used. Honestly, many of the patches sound... thin to my ears and other products offer a great deal more flexibility.

So, not to be too forward or repetitious but what can your product offer that other products don't already offer?

Thanks,

Nate

So, not to be too forward or repetitious but what can your product offer that other products don't already offer?

1. It is the very first vocal pack 100% offering Bulgarian Voices (some other "Ethno World" packs have included 3-4 Bulgarian samples by now).
2. It is the very first vocal pack which offers Choir samples (up to 24 chromatic elements) so you can compose "musically" with the choir grooves. The Demo Video beginning and ending are example of this way of composing.
3. It is the very first vocal pack where the famous Bulgarian rubato singing offers special "Q" versions where the singer syllables (speech) can sync to the host tempo of your project.
4. It is the very first vocal pack for Stylus at all. This S.A.G.E format is very suitable with Bulgarian Voice grooves giving you the possibilities to work in ANY tempo keeping the high quality and the native vibrato of the voices. Any time stretching technologies do not handle well with the Bulgarian voices (regarding the dissonance, phrases, native vibrato speed etc).
There are much more unique features that I'm probably missing right now...

Regarding the up coming projects and versions Audio Grocery plan to announce them after each release.
There are different reports about the web site video streaming (some say it is very fast, other say slow etc - which depends on the world wide local providers). For that reason Audio Grocery offers a video download version (there is a Quick Time video download button) at the bottom of the video player window.

Regards,

A.G

1. It is the very first vocal pack 100% offering Bulgarian Voices (some other "Ethno World" packs have included 3-4 Bulgarian samples by now).

Okay, granted. Offering the first 100% of a certain type of samples is legit. I'll give you that.

2. It is the very first vocal pack which offers Choir samples (up to 24 chromatic elements) so you can compose "musically" with the choir grooves. The Demo Video beginning and ending are example of this way of composing.

As I said before, though, working with pre-baked loops can limit what a composer can do. For example, if I'm writing a piece that changes meters - your loops may not fit. Or if I change to different modes (just for example from dorian into locrian) then your loops may not work there either. Simply offering chromatic loops doesn't really compete against other choir virtual instruments that allow you to truly PLAY IN whatever you hear in your head. This is where your product really falls short.

3. It is the very first vocal pack where the famous Bulgarian rubato singing offers special "Q" versions where the singer syllables (speech) can sync to the host tempo of your project.

Alright.

4. It is the very first vocal pack for Stylus at all. This S.A.G.E format is very suitable with Bulgarian Voice grooves giving you the possibilities to work in ANY tempo keeping the high quality and the native vibrato of the voices. Any time stretching technologies do not handle well with the Bulgarian voices (regarding the dissonance, phrases, native vibrato speed etc).
There are much more unique features that I'm probably missing right now...

That may be true and does present some value to this collection but when I do an A/B comparison of the sound of this choir virtual instrument to other choir virtual instruments, it just doesn't sound as good to my ears. Also given what I know about the limitations of loop-based instruments vs. truly virtual instruments... this doesn't look like a good solution for my needs. But those are just MY needs. Perhaps this is a perfect fit for other composers.

You didn't respond, from what I read, to my comment about the thin sound of this library - how it basically only seemed to be young(er) and/or female voices.

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if I'm writing a piece that changes meters - your loops may not fit.[/quote]
[color="#1C2837"]These loops can fit with any material! If you have noted (in the demo video) I use "Groove" mode in the Stylus which loads the all 24 chromatic loops into the system RAM. In this scenario you use the RMX like any other sampler - you play the notes and release the notes at any place you what - the advantage here is that S.A.G.E can be used in ANY tempo. Look very carefully in the last part of the video where I compose live with the massive choir loop "Dingi dingi" - ( after my live composing I play the tune ones more time as Acappella showing the Piano Roll and the Score editor, so you can have full idea about the different midi note duration, pitches etc.
[color="#1C2837"]Here I guess you are not quite familiar with the Stylus "Groove" mode - probably you have used to the default "Slice" mode arranging drums only.

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Or if I change to different modes (just for example from dorian into locrian) then your loops may not work there either. Simply offering chromatic loops doesn't really compete against other choir virtual instruments that allow you to truly PLAY IN whatever you hear in your head. [/quote]

[color="#1C2837"]Nope, the Vox De Bulgaria choir loops are designed to work exactly "[color="#1C2837"]to truly PLAY IN whatever you hear in your head" ! I did not mentioned that the choir sings same note pitch in each chromatic loop - using some ethnic specific syllables. So if you play note E2 the choir will sing Dingi E2 - Dingi E2, - Dingi E2. If you play a chord E2,G2,B2 (Em) all the syllables are in sync and the result is Dingi (Em), - Dingi (Em) - Dingi (Em) etc. Here you can even trigger the chords notes with a bit little out of sync so the result will be the way you have triggered the midi notes.
[color="#1C2837"]Another trick is to make different rhythm patterns by your taste. Cause you are in "Groove" mode you can hit a chord and hold it very short time just to produce the first syllable (or hold the note/chord for the 1st and 2dn syllables).
[color="#1C2837"]One more time - watch carefully the last part of the video and look at the notation or in the piano roll or the Virtual Keyboard, where I compose 100% free playing chords, melodic parts, different note duration etc !
[color="#1C2837"]By the way Vox De Bulgaria and the up-coming "Bulgarian Voices" Multi format pack was originally designed as one bundle. Lately I decided to separate the Loops from the "Layering" project (though the "Bulgarian Voices" pack will offer some Apple, Rex etc loops as well). The main idea was to give the possibility to the user to use some powerful instrument like the RMX to be able to play and compose music using loops in a high MUSICAL way - as you see I could find a way how to design that to work in the RMX. Many top Pro Audio sites announced that as the first vocal pack for Stylus and admirated the idea.
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but when I do an A/B comparison of the sound of this choir virtual instrument to other choir virtual instruments, it just doesn't sound as good to my ears.[/quote]

[color="#1C2837"]Your problem is - you can not A/B compare Bulgarian Voices (specific ethno vocals, way of vocal producing, singing etc) with any other ! What I can say I'm more than 30 years in the Bulgarian Voices business working as a composer and a "Specialized BG Voices Studio", so I have worked with almost the all choirs and singers as well as I have recorded these vocals for some other Grand International compositions and trust me - all the produces are more than happy with these voices. But if you have your own taste just stay at your Vocal collections n/p.
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You didn't respond, from what I read, to my comment about the thin sound of this library - how it basically only seemed to be young(er) and/or female voices.[/quote]
[color="#1C2837"]Yes I did not cause I have announced that in the site if you had a look at the text there. According to the long time recording and mixing of BG Voices, me and many other worldwide famous producers, arrangers, composer etc discovered that the "Young Bulgarian Voices" are the better choice for mixing into any style of music. As an example we did some detailed "blind" tests with some very famous "Old BG Voices" samples and the same samples performed from the [color="#1C2837"] "Young Bulgarian Voices". The result was just - BRILLIANT MIX thanks to the "Young Bulgarian Voices" rich overtones, fresh/bright breathing etc !
[color="#1C2837"]For this reason I invited the best Third Generation Bulgarian singers for my projects and still prefer (not me only) to keep that strategy for the future projects.

[color="#1C2837"]A.G

Fair enough. You have your points and I have mine. I do appreciate that you entered into a dialog with me on this product and wish you nothing but the best in the future! If I have a project in the future that needs this particular type of chorale sound, I'll definitely consider Vox.

Thanks Nathan, be welcome !

Ivan