Free Native Instruments plugin enables you conduct a choir of 1,000s of Jacob Collier fans “polyphonically across many different chords, keys and soundworlds”
Enter Jacob Collier Audience Choir, an awe-inspiring, free instrument from award-winning multi-instrumentalist and Native Instrument Artist Board member Jacob Collier. Created using audience recordings from Jacob’s Djesse world tour (Djesse Vol. 4 out now!), this instrument allows you to harness the emotive power of a huge choir, and sculpt it in exciting ways.
The new free plugin captures the sound of Collier’s audience choir in a software instrument. The audience choir is a regular feature of Collier’s live shows where the Grammy-winning artist invites his audience to participate in the performance of his songs, conducting them “polyphonically across many different chords, keys and soundworlds”.
Jacob Collier Audience Choir is built on recordings of 22 concerts in different cities around the world, from Adelaide to Zurich; as notes are played, you’ll be able to see which recordings you’re hearing on the plugin’s interface. The plugin offers four different vowel sounds (Aa, Mm, Oo, and Ee) which can be blended via the XY pad on the interface’s right-hand side.
The instrument also features a chord generator, so you’ll be able to play diatonic chords with single notes, and a slider for dynamics control. A timbre knob acts like a low-pass filter, and the onboard delay and reverb do exactly what you’d expect them to do, with five reverb types onboard. You’ve also got a control for stereo width, and you’ll be able to shape your envelope with dials for attack and release.
Open up a separate panel and you’ll find more advanced controls that allow you to automatically tune the chords you’re playing to the just intonation tuning system in real-time. “One of the most amazing things about audience choirs is that people often automatically tune to each other in just intonation, because the way the piano is tuned doesn’t usually apply to groups of singers en masse”, Collier says. “It’s kind of an amazing part of this plugin that it’s able to adapt as people would in real rooms to be very much in tune.”
In addition to the choir sounds, the plugin’s equipped with percussive sounds and a number of other samples of Collier’s audience shouting various words and phrases. The plugin supports polyphonic aftertouch, so you’ll be able to get expressive with MPE-compatible controllers like the Native Instruments Kontrol S MK3.
“I’ve spent the last few years touring around the world, playing shows in every corner of the globe […] one of my favourite parts of the whole experience has been the ever-expanding evolution of the audience choir”, Collier says in the video embedded above.
“Over the course of this experience, one thing I was dreaming about was: what if I could sit in the comfort of my own home, and you could sit in the comfort of your own home, and experience the feeling of an audience choir at your fingertips? So I teamed up with the mighty Native Instruments gang and we put together this amazing instrument, built from real samples of real audiences the world over”.
Download Jacob Collier Audience Choir now at Native Instruments website.
Native Instruments has introduced Electric Keys, featuring a pair of new electric piano virtual instruments.
Electric Keys includes emulations of two classic electric pianos. Here’s what they have to say about them:
Electric Keys – Phoenix captures the sound of a true icon – one of the world’s most influential and recognised electric pianos. With a vast spectrum of sounds, from melodious, bell-like textures to rich, warming harmonies and even distorted, barking tones, Phoenix delivers diverse retro timbres.
Electric Keys – Diamond immortalizes a very rare, original electric piano from 1967. Beyond its sparkling exterior lie real felt piano hammers, producing a unique and mellow tone similar to a vibraphone.
Features:
A versatile pair of electric piano emulations
Pure, authentic tones ranging from warm and mellow to bright and barking
Customize your sound with a classic array of controls, preamps, and creative effects
