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Hi, guy, I suspect the problem is that an octave above middle C really is quite high for most tenors. Counter tenors can sing that, or higher, but they are an exceedingly rare voice type. The samples you bought may be giving you a more realistic idea of what you would get from a group of vocalists than your composition software. It's not that men who can sing that high don't exist. That is technically a range some tenors can sing in, but only a tiny number. Take a look at some standard choral repertoire and you can start to get an idea of the more commonly used parts of the range for different voice types. And remember that it is only in modern times that we have started using the "modern" tuning. Historic pieces look like they are written higher than they actually were, because the composers and singers were using a different tuning standard when they were written, and they are still performed down at that historically accurate tuning today.

Update: Live Performance + Score of this piece:

Ah ha! That would explain it!

Thanks very much, Pate. Yes, I'm pretty sure that's where I went wrong - I didn't realise that their part was meant to be read an octave lower, so it all makes more sense now. They were actually singing an octave lower than I'd though.

I think this insight offers an opportunity for a discussion on how academically trained composers approach/think about composing; and how others who compose with less of an academic training/background approach their projects. Mark

Thanks for the shout out, Henry. I actually record all the parts myself instead of using samples, which may be the difference. As an alto, I generally have the range to also record soprano and tenor parts. The lowest bass parts are too low for me, so I sing them up a few steps and use Garageband's "transpose" feature to shift them back down to where they are supposed to be. It sounds like I've been dropped down a well, but it works well enough.

Hi @guy500, You may check out @pateceramics’s vocal works, she makes great use of vocal samples there. Henry