Struggling Voice Samples

Hi @guy500,

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

Henry

On 4/18/2025 at 6:14 AM, guy500 said:

I want to write some simple choral music and I see that very often the tenor part plays easily and comfortably at least an octave above middle C.  I've bought some high quality Solo Voice samples from VSL. The problem is that when they go anywhere near that sort of range the tenor sounds strained and struggling and it doesn't sound very natural. Other voices also seem to struggle in their upper registers. 

 

 

 

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.  

On 4/24/2025 at 8:02 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @guy500,

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

Henry

 

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.  

12 hours ago, pateceramics said:

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.  

 

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.

Ah ha!  That would explain it!