We previewed it bin August and now Soundiron has officially released the Mars Epic Male Choir library. Mars features a full 30-voice male chorus + 3 soloists, singing in both Slavonic (Russian) and Latin, as well as a massive range of standard vowels and syllables, in a wide range of flavors and dynamics. This 18 GB library includes 16000 samples and 290 Kontakt 4 open-format presets.
Here's all the details in Soundiron's own words...
We've included 2 masterfully mixed wide microphone positions (stage and hall), that we carefully blended from an array of 12 large-diaphragm Neumanns, captured in 48kHz/24bit. The 2-position configuration allows the best balance between placement, flexibility and performance and delivers a truly stunningly robust and full-bodied sound that cuts straight through the mix.
Mars is all about power, from the thunderous low-end to the prisitine highs. We captured 42 individual Marcatos and 26 Staccatos for the chorus, and over 20 each for the Bass and Tenor solo sections, along with dozens of sustains, spanning the 7 primary vowel types (Ah, Ee, Eh, Ih, Oh, Oo and Mm).
For our Marcato Builder, we expanded word-building functionality that allows you to combine a variety of attack and release syllables to each of our sustaining vowels, all fully automatable, allowing you to create an incredible variety of short and long sustains and syllables. We've also expanded the Phrase Builder tool to allow instant switching between sustaining Marcatos and single Staccatos, with up to 16 independent user-configurable 16-step patterns, with on-the-fly switching between marcattos and staccatos.
There are 22 Slow Poly-sustains (100 bpm), 17 Fast Poly-sustains (140 bpm), as well as 9 extended gregorian chant poly-sustains in 3/4-time (130 bpm). All poly-sustains include 3-part legato, start offset, release shaping and easy real-time blending between multiple passages.
Along with our 5 true legato vowel intervals (ah, oh, oo forte, oo piano, and mm) with 3-part polyphonic legato, all sustaining articulations in the library include our special polyphonic pseudo-legato, simulating legato in realtime for up to thee simultanous counter-melodies. You'll find the system in all marcatos, all vowel sustains, fast, slow and long gregorian polysustains, soloist slow & melodic poly-sustains and vowel sustains.
You'll also find powerful percussive and shouts, effects sweeps, 12 terrifying whisper chants and 8 spoken/murmur poly-sustians (for all of your exorcism needs) and tons of special FX, ambiences, soundscapes, custom convolution effects and other awesome bonus features.
We also captured 3 world-class soloists, with a powerfully rich bass singing both Russian and Latin, and a dedicated unique tenor voice for each language. For both the Tenor and Bass Solo sections, we cover over 20 individual Soloist vowel sustains and long staccatos (with adjustable hold), all w/ round-robin & release, along with 10 Standard Slow Polysustains, 8 extended gregorian chanting sustains and a deep collection of dramatic and emotional melodic phrases.
You'll also enjoy a range of automatatable built-in effects, EQ and total control over a wide array of performance parameters. This standard unlocked open-format Kontakt library that requires the full retail version of Kontakt 4.2.3 or later to use. Also be warned that many of the presets require significant resources to use, due to the shear size and scope of this library, but we've provided companion "Lite" presets with disk-streaming for all of them to allow efficient use on 32bit systems. Pricing and Availability:
This library is available for download for an intro price of $369, but the price returns to $469 on October 1st, 2011. More information:

• Mars

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