Voices of War – Men of the North is a low-voiced male choir that covers all things “Vikings.” It features a wide collection of ambience, atmosphere, drone, pad, legato, word-building and texture patches recorded at the legendary MGM Scoring Stage in Los Angeles.
As the “swords and sandals / dragon” genre continues to dominate globally in television, video games, and film, composers must be continually armed with the appropriate colored samples to score these scenes.
Ancient Norse Singing At The MGM Scoring Stage
We had the assistance of a linguist fluent in Old Norse – the legendary native tongue of the Vikings. The library’s vocabulary features sets of words pertaining to war, nature, and the gods – a true departure from the faux Latin based words featured in most word builders.
The dense early reflections of the Sony Scoring Stage smooth the transients, blending the tone in its signature dark and transparent tone. A set of full spectrum “enhanced” stereo mixes are included to achieve that familiar cinematic sound without the need for third party processing. You will find Voices of War to be a very “blendy” library.
ABOUT THE LIBRARY
As the “swords and sandals / dragon” genre continues to dominate globally in television, video games, and film, composers must be continually armed with the appropriate colored samples to score these scenes.
Ancient Norse Singing At The MGM Scoring Stage
We had the assistance of a linguist fluent in Old Norse – the legendary native tongue of the Vikings. The library’s vocabulary features sets of words pertaining to war, nature, and the gods – a true departure from the faux Latin based words featured in most word builders.
The dense early reflections of the Sony Scoring Stage smooth the transients, blending the tone in its signature dark and transparent tone. A set of full spectrum “enhanced” stereo mixes are included to achieve that familiar cinematic sound without the need for third party processing. You will find Voices of War to be a very “blendy” library.
An Ambient Tribal/Cinematic Color (Not Operatic)
Contrary to Voxos, Men of the North dials in a specific style of a half-voiced (sotto/mezzo voce), reserved style of cinematic singing. Special attention was paid to getting a true blended tone, perfect for pads and drones but also capable of carrying a word-based melody at a strong mezzo forte. The library excels with the modwheel set around 50-75 where holding a simple unison or fifth provides enough color to simply be its own cue. The color of the choir never formally opens up enough to be considered classical. It maintains its carefully chosen quasi-warrior (non-professional singer) tone perfect for this style.
The ensemble was a group of extended range baritones (additional range coverage for throat “quasi Tuvan” and falsetto patches).
Morph Patches, WordBuilding and Chanting, Legato
Our morph patches utilize long and blendy vowel morphs from the ensemble – the subtle movement it provides coats the tone with the auditory version of an oil-on-water slick – a welcome departure from static whole notes, and impossible to create without actually recording it.
Men of the North’s wordbuilding engine is specifically constructed to provide Norse sounding phrases without the labor of traditional world building. Simply play and the words will automatically change for you. It’s a wordbuilder without the effort.
A staple of Viking Style is the Chant – the repeating of words on a single tone – reminiscent of a Holy Man’s Incantation or a war chant. This library features true legato unisons on chants – the modulation from one word to the next was recorded in legato intervals (unisons) and isn’t a simulation.
Traditional, smooth sounding Legato is of course included – it can double as a Gregorian Tone.
ARTICULATIONS
Select from the menu of patches on the PRESETS page to change all parameters. You may scroll through the various articulations in the center of the shield from a master patch, or use the keyswitches to change the basic articulations.
Voices of War – Men of the North has 4 essential mixes:
– Tight – a standard, straightforward, shapeable mix that allows the user to place the choir into any mix setting with simple modification.
-Dragonborne – a “finished,” dark, distant mix that lends itself to cinematic settings.
– Head – Neumann’s binaural KU100 microphone without any processing. Perfect for video game composers, this mix is especially tasty with headphones.
– Full Spectrum – a “finished,” panoramically wide mix that richly fills the stereo spectrum
