The mysticism of the choir’s deepest voices

As with the Vienna Boys Choir, the idea for this Collection was born after the production of choral recordings for the Amazon Prime fantasy series “The Rings of Power”, the prequel to “Lord of the Rings”. The essential element in Bear McCreary’s score is the use of choirs, which were recorded at Synchron Stage Vienna in 2020 and 2021. At first, we quite frankly questioned whether we could fulfill the composer’s wish for a basso profondo choir. However, working in the musical city of Vienna has its advantages and soon we were able to assemble an astounding ensemble of bass vocalists who were prepared to offer their talents in a choir, not only for the score recordings, but also for the creation of a sample library.

The enthusiasm of the artists is palpable in the recordings of this library. It was a completely new experience not only for our team, but also for the singers to be able to explore the depths of their voices together as an ensemble. The pitch range of this unique ensemble spans from a very low A1 to A#3.

Articulations include short notes, long notes, legatos and marcatos of the vowels AA (ah) and UU (oo), also sung espressivo, sforzato, as short and long crescendos, and as short and long diminuendos. There’s also humming as well as a variety of consonants in combination with short and long vowels. What’s more, the wide range of lower register effects and articulations such as “om”, “hey”, deep shouting, prayer-like performances, rises and falls, laughs, creepy sounds, clusters, and others make this unique library a treasure trove of archaic and other-worldly human sounds.

Multiple Microphone Positions

To capture the spectacular ambience of “Stage A” of Synchron Stage, our engineers employed seven separate phase-coherent microphone configurations to provide a broad range of room options. All of them are available as separate channels in the mixer section of the Vienna Synchron Player that lets you create the sound according to your needs and liking. 

Microphone Setup - Standard & Full Library

The Standard Library and the Full Library of Basso Profondo Choir both include the same set of articulations. The difference lies in the number of provided microphone positions:

The main surround microphone settings may also be used instead of the main stereo room mics in order to achieve a wider and more ambient mix. Blending surround signals with the other microphone signals creates a denser, more lush overall sound, even in stereo applications.
 
Room Mix Presets feature an excellent mix-down to stereo from the Decca tree and surround mic positions for a CPU and RAM-saving sound that’s perfectly balanced right out-of-the-box. A host of Mixer Presets is available in the categories of “Decca Tree Multi-Mic”, “Surround to Stereo Downmix”, and “Surround”.
 
The Standard Library and the upgrade to the Full Library are separate downloads.

Notation Program Integration

You’ll find Expression Maps for Cubase and Dorico as well as Soundsets for Sibelius under "Additionals" in your Vienna Assistant.