“Dominus” is the latin word that stands for “Lord”. From the contraction of the female “Domina” comes “Donna”, the modern italian word for “Woman”. The same word is attested in old English Law for noble ladies who held a barony in their own right. On the other hand, “Dominoes” is the popular game, born in China, famous for its numbered tiles. Focusing on the ideas of making something both gamish and funny as well as something that is built on traditional church chants and prayers, we created Dominus Choir.
When Fluffyaudio’s adventure began and our first sample library was released, we were already dreaming of how it would have been to sample a vocal ensemble. Five years have passed since My Piano, our first domino tile. Thanks to our collaborators and friends and, moreover, our loyal supporters and fierce critics, we have gained great experience. More than as our second dominoes tile, we like to think of all those people as the vital sap, the pushing energy that helped our dominoes to keep on flowing even when it was going to stop.
When we thought to sample a choir, we had no doubt of who we wanted to conduct it. Mario Lanaro – with whom we had the pleasure of coming across during our years of study at Verona University – had all the qualities we were looking for. With more than just a solid and professional classical training, he is a renowned Choir Conductor, a great Organist, and a Composer of increasing fame. He has the right balance between leadership, authority, shine and sympathy, and the sought-after ability to put people he works with in the right mood to do their best. From one side, we wanted the mechanism to run smooth; on the other, we didn’t want to lose the freshness of the news that makes people more careful and responsive. We achieved this by choosing two choirs that had a long story of previous special commitments with Mario Lanaro – so that they already knew well each other – but that are normally held from different conductors.
Again, we wanted the right location to sample this very special instrument: something that could have been a church, a concert hall and a recording studio at the same time, without being any one of these places. This is why we chose to sample Dominus Choir at Crema, in the wonderful Sala Giardino. Its the very same place we had the pleasure to discover and to appreciate in our “Rinascimento sessions”. We started on the eleventh of July with the Female Vocal Ensemble “La Rose”. Usually conducted by Mrs. Jose Borgo, the girls came sparkling and twinkling in the morning. After an astonishing session, we were almost more confused than pleased. How could the men do such a wonderful work and how would they have sounded compared to those wondrous voices? But we were even more amazed when, after the first day with the male choir – and especially after a rich dinner, without saving wine – they kept on singing perfectly in tune and with the right mood and energy, almost resembling the natural “hellish” prosecution in the low of those angelic voices. It is amazing to notice how differently the same two things could be obtained starting for different perspectives. Just as an example, the girls were almost always waving their hands in their hair, as if they were painting or pulling magical wires, feeling somehow helped in their emission from their gestures. On the contrary, the men of the Vocal Ensemble “Novecento”, usually conducted by Mr. Maurizio Sacquegna, stood like the columns of an ancient Roman church.
One of the things we were more unsure about – even if in our preliminary meetings the Conductors reassured us – was the endurance of the singers. We thought that a voice would tire much more easily and much more quickly than any other instrument. We planned short sessions of recording with many breaks, but luckily, for once, we were wrong. Both “La Rose” and “Novecento” ensemble gave us some very intense feelings of amazement, singing not only during the session, but even just for fun after every lunch and dinner. And since we find that the human voice is one of the most moving instruments, all our meals almost ended up in tears!
FEATURES
4 Stereo Mic Positions
30 gb installed (compressed in NCW format)
24 bit / 48 kHz stereo
Innovative and smooth engine with easy to use GUI
True Legato for all vowels
Complete control over the duration of each syllable
50 initial syllables + 150 middle/end syllables
3 keyboard layouts
Sampled in a warm hall
200+ premade words
13 Reverb Presets
Velocity Lock for precise tweaking of each note
No unnecessary controls: instant fun!
Sleepless nights of editing and scripting
