Spitfire Audio released choral voice VSTi, Eric Whitacre Contrast

Spitfire Audio has released a choral voice virtual instrument, Eric Whitacre Contrast, and is accepting pre-orders.

Transcending the boundaries of choral performance, experience the human voice in a completely new light. 245 all-new emotive, dynamic techniques performed by 19 world-class singers, captured at AIR Studios with 11 pristine signals — pushed to breathtaking new extremes in our inspiring Evo Grid and game-changing synth engine.

Curated by Grammy-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre, Contrast allows you to build evocative, evolving atmospheres — from visceral human vibrations to otherworldly shimmering beauty — with texture, tone and pitch evolving beneath your fingertips in subtle and dramatic shifts, subject to your own curation. The Evo Grid offers instant inspiration, creating rich, dissonant, multi-layered textures, while our eDNA synth engine transports the organic material into the electronic realm. Recombine techniques to create new hybrid vocal textures, and explore our bespoke range of warps and editable presets — plus a stunning set of bespoke presets from three acclaimed sound artists (Ryan Lott, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Clark), with a sophisticated range of in-built controls and FX.

A living, breathing machine of sonic metamorphosis opening the door to limitless sound design possibilities for any genre or setting — from media composition to contemporary electronic music.

• Pre-order Contrast before October 26th 2023 and save 20%. Eric Whitacre Choir owners save 40% until October 26th 2023, followed by a crossgrade discount of 20%.

A new world of choral expression

Contrast transcends choral cliches to offer exciting new creative opportunities, showcasing the human voice as an instrument of boundless innovation, range and emotive power, whilst expanding on the sonic palette of Eric Whitacre Choir.

At the heart of the library are 245 experimental techniques performed by 19 members of the Eric Whitacre Singers (Soprano 5, Alto 5, Tenor 4, Bass 5) recorded with a comprehensive range of mic positions in the stunning acoustics of AIR Studios, home of countless blockbuster scores. Each technique, curated with the awe-inspiring expertise and precision of Eric Whitacre, is presented with two contrasting tones — ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’ — Light created with an open vowel shape, and Dark with a closed vowel shape. This seemingly subtle change creates a completely different tone and timbre. The techniques themselves — aptly named fragments, shards, divergences, murmuring, prisms — have been carefully curated to subtly (and sometimes dramatically) dance and move beneath your fingertips, moving at different intervals and through varying shifts in dynamic, tone, and pitch.

Scale Mode & Evo Grid Technology

On our Fragments techniques, which move in varying intervals, our Scale Mode technology allows you to select from any of the seven diatonic modes, or build your own scale. From there, it intelligently selects the samples that conform to that scale, split by velocity, developing these intervallic techniques and triggering wider intervals at higher velocities. All techniques can also be recombined and layered in our stunning Evo Grid, mappable across the keyboard in endless combinations, either manually or in pre-made configurations of rich, evolving textures. Click ‘Feeling Lucky’ to randomise these combinations for instant inspiration, breathing new life into your music.

Pushed to breathtaking extremes

The eDNA synth engine moves these stunning choral performances into the electronic sphere to create rich, multi-tonal synth textures that haunt and glisten, offering limitless inspiration whether you’re a pop producer, beat maker, sound designer, or composer writing your next sci-fi, horror or game score.  

Harnessing sophisticated technology and innovative processing techniques, it features 24 warps and 92 synth presets created from the organic material, as well as a huge range of in-built controls and FX for maximum creative control and endless sound design possibilities within the plugin. The synth engine also features bespoke presets from three outstanding guest sound artists — Oscar-nominated composer Ryan Lott (Son Lux), Clark, and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith.

The engine contains two sound bays much like a mixer, with individual and independent modulators, control of trim, bend, glide, cloning, tuning, ADSR, LPFs, HPFs and wobbles that modulate pitch, volume and filters. The onboard gate sequencer allows independent gating between these two bays and unified control of amount, shape, speed and length of sequence. These two signals are then unified with a x-fader.

Discover Eric Whitacre

The Grammy award-winning composer and conductor has had works programmed worldwide, and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united 100,000 singers from more than 145 countries. To date, the Virtual Choirs have registered over 60 million views and have been seen on global TV. Born in Nevada in 1970, Whitacre spent his formative years writing electronica and listening to Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode, then went to study at The Juilliard School, and in Las Vegas and – on a whim – joined a choir. “I thought, that’s the sound that’s been in my heart my whole life. It was a singular moment and it absolutely transformed me.”

His compositions have been widely recorded and his debut album as a conductor on Universal, Light and Gold, featuring the Eric Whitacre Singers, went straight to the top of the charts, earning him a Grammy. His most recent album, Home, is a collaboration with VOCES8 on Universal Decca featuring compositions spanning his thirty-year composition career. A sought-after guest conductor, Eric has conducted choral and instrumental concerts around the globe, including concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra. In addition to several collaborations with Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer and John Powell, he has worked with British pop icons Laura Mvula, Imogen Heap and Annie Lennox.

His composition for symphony orchestra and chorus, Deep Field, was inspired by the achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope and became the foundation for a collaboration with NASA, the Space Telescope Science Institute and 59 Productions, seen at arts and science festivals across the world. A charismatic speaker, Eric Whitacre has given keynote addresses for many Fortune 500 companies, from Apple and Google to the World Economic Forum in Davos and the United Nations Speaker’s Program. His mainstage talks at the influential TED conference received standing ovations. His first collaboration with Spitfire Audio became an instant bestseller and is used by composers the world over.

You can find out more information from Spitfire Audio website.