SonicCouture Crowd Choir MULTiFORMAT DVDR

The 'Crowd-choir' was an idea for a crowd-sourced sampled instrument, partly inspired by the 10cc track 'I'm not in love', which famously featured a vocal pad sound created by painstakingly over-dubbing a single vocal note over and over again. We wondered if we could get hundreds of people all around the world to sing one note each from a 3 octave range - then layer these recordings in a sampler to create a unique vocal sound - a wash of different voices in different rooms in different countries.

Over 1000 people contributed over a 3 month period - a fantastic success for the project, since when we started it we really had no idea if anyone would contribute at all.

Most of those 1000 people recorded more than one note ( and some contributed a lot more), meaning that we ended up with slightly over 4000 different notes to build an instrument from. Most of the notes occured in the middle of the C1 - C4 range, since people tended to sing the notes they found easiest. For example, while E2 has 206 voices, C4 only has 28.

How it worked
We put up a web page which displayed a single note name - C1, B3, etc - and also played a guide tone to sing to, if required. Each user was provided with instructions on how best to record their note - which format, sample rate etc - and a web form by which they could upload the audio file along with their name and email address. Each participant was entered into a competition to win a desirable musical instrument, an Array Mbira, as well as offered a free downoad of the resulting instrument.

Kontakt Library Specs
500 MB core library
24 bit 44.1khz sampling (converted from multiple sources)
4000 individual crowd-sourced recorded notes from 1000 vocalists
KSP polyphonic legato function
5 alternate round-robin layers for natural attack
Custom convolution reverbs

EXS24 Library Specs
500 MB core library
24 bit 44.1khz sampling (converted from multiple sources)
4000 individual crowd-sourced recorded notes from 1000 vocalists
Requires Apple Logic Studio 9 or later

Ableton Live Pack Specs
500 MB core library
24 bit 44.1khz sampling (converted from multiple sources)
4000 individual crowd-sourced recorded notes from 1000 vocalists
Requires Live 8.3 or later