VIRGIN CHOIR

By ANGLE Studios

Version 1.0

User Manual
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Table of content

Legal Statement........................................................................................................................................... 4
Guarantee ................................................................................................................................................. 4
Terms of commercial use...................................................................................................................... 4
Copyright ................................................................................................................................................... 4
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 5
1.1 What is Virgin Choir? .................................................................................................................. 5
1.2 How does it work?....................................................................................................................... 6
1.3 What to use it for? ....................................................................................................................... 6
1.4 What not to use it for? ................................................................................................................ 6
2. Installation ............................................................................................................................................ 7
3. How to use............................................................................................................................................ 8
3.1 Interface overview....................................................................................................................... 8
3.2 Envelope section ......................................................................................................................... 8
3.3 Engine section .......................................................................................................................... 11
3.3.1 Main tab ............................................................................................................................. 11
3.3.2 Sequencer tab .................................................................................................................. 12
3.3.3 Effect tab ........................................................................................................................... 15
3.4 Keyboard section ..................................................................................................................... 15

Figures
Figure 1 – Virgin Choir’s user interface ................................................................................................... 8
Figure 2 – The envelope section .............................................................................................................. 9
Figure 3 – Envelope section: the attack controls .................................................................................. 9
Figure 4 – Envelope section: the release control ............................................................................... 10
Figure 5 – Envelope section: the sustain controls ............................................................................. 10
Figure 6 – Engine section: the main tab............................................................................................... 12
Figure 7 – Engine section: choosing the main articulation .............................................................. 12
Figure 8 – Engine section: the sequencer tab ..................................................................................... 13
Figure 9 – Engine section: the sequence container ........................................................................... 13
Figure 10 – Engine section: the sequence moves on its pointer .................................................... 14
Figure 11 – Engine section: the sequencer tools ............................................................................... 14
Figure 12 – Engine section: the articulation buttons ......................................................................... 14
Figure 13 – Engine section: the effect tab ........................................................................................... 15
Figure 14 – The keyboard section......................................................................................................... 16

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Legal Statement

This legal statement presents the terms and conditions that will apply from the moment you
install Virgin Choir on any of your devices. It corresponds to an agreement between you (or
“end user”), ANGLE and ANGLE Studios.

By installing the plugin, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the following
terms of this agreement, and agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. If you do not
agree with this agreement, do not install, copy, access or use the plugin.

Guarantee
Virgin Choir does not come with any guarantee regarding the consequences of its use. Hence,
the end user endorses the full responsibility of installing and using the plugin on his or her
devices, thus exposing the latter to possible damage. Neither ANGLE nor ANGLE Studios can
be held responsible in any way for these damages.

Terms of commercial use

Virgin Choir’s audio output cannot be commercially used1. Any use of the visual interface as
is, including screenshots and mute video recording, is however not restricted on non-
commercial use.

Copyright
Virgin Choir is protected by the French copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction or
distribution of the plugin or its documentation is subject to civil and criminal penalties.

ANGLE owns full copyright to Virgin Choir’s input compositions2, but neither ANGLE nor
ANGLE Studios do own any copyright to the compositions the end user makes with Virgin
Choir.

1
That is, Virgin Choir's audio output cannot be used in the context of a process that generates revenue,
no matter how it does, and even if Virgin Choir’s audio output is not the main feature of that process.
This is because the raw samples that were processed and used by ANGLE Studios for Virgin Choir still
belong to the MAGIX label.
2
These are pre-processed compositions used internally for the computation of Virgin Choir’s audio
output.

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 1. Introduction

1.1 What is Virgin Choir?

Virgin Choir is an audio plugin that reproduces the singing of a female choir. It falls into the
category of romplers, since it uses pre-fabricated samples to generate its output. It is based
on the Virtual Studio Technology (VST) interface, thus also making it a Virtual Studio
Technology instrument (VSTi).

Using Virgin Choir for composing or producing music has a number of advantages:

It is free: yes, Virgin Choir is a freeware;

It is light: Virgin Choir does not use too much CPU and has a low RAM footprint, even
when multiple instances of the plugin are loaded;

It is versatile: Virgin Choir can be tweaked to sound like a realistic choir, but it can also
be manipulated to create ambient sounds.

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 1.2 How does it work?

Virgin Choir uses pre-composed samples to generate its output, which originally come from
some pre-recorded choir songs from the MAGIX series3. The latter were all cut and pre-
processed by ANGLE Studios, to then become samples that can be looped, to give the illusion
of a continuous singing. This way, the user can play infinitely long notes.

1.3 What to use it for?

Virgin Choir is perfect for exploring sound design and composing, especially for (but not
limited to) movie scores and epic music genres.

It was optimized to be as light as possible, so it can be used to layer multiple choirs at the
same time. One technique used to improve performance regarding that matter was to make
Virgin Choir load its samples only once in memory, no matter how many instances of the
plugin are opened, thereby saving space when new choirs are loaded.

1.4 What not to use it for?

The plugin’s choice of design comes with some limitations: in addition to legal restrictions4
inherited from the original recordings, the algorithmic loops on its internal samples can
sometimes be heard when playing with the plugin. The EE and EH articulations particularly
suffer from this flaw when played by themselves, without any other instrument on top. The AA
articulation doesn’t suffer from this.

This is why it is recommended not to use the plugin by itself, especially when using other
articulations than AA, and to instead complete the mix with other instruments.

This last recommendation actually reveals something important about Virgin Choir: even if
that advice should help to create more genuine compositions, one should understand that the
purpose of this plugin is not to replace the singing of a real choir, but to rather help the
limited-budget composers around the world in their creative phase.

3
This is the reason why Virgin Choir cannot be commercially used. See the Legal Statement section for
more details.
4
See the Legal Statement section for more details.

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 2. Installation

Before entering any step of installation, be sure to have read the Legal Statement at the
beginning of this document, and that your targeted device and host software both fulfill the
following requirements:

System requirements

OS must be Windows 7, 8, 10 or higher

System must have at least 50 MB RAM and 20 MB of disk space; any CPU that
supports SSE (such as Intel Pentium III and above, and AMD XP and above) or that
have at least multiple cores should provide a significant boost in performance
Host software must be compatible with VSTi plugins
Host software must be able to run either 32-bit or 64-bit plugins, depending on the
plugin version you downloaded

Please refer to the manual of your host software for more information on how to install, open
and use VSTi plug-ins with it. You may need to add the VST Plugins folder to your host
software’s VST folder preferences.

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 3. How to use

3.1 Interface overview

Virgin Choir’s user interface is horizontally split into three sections, as illustrated in the
following figure:

Figure 1 – Virgin Choir’s user interface

The three sections labeled 1, 2 and 3 respectively correspond to the following components:

1. The envelope section, where the envelope of each singing voice can be fine-tuned,

2. The engine section, where the articulation selection and sound design occurs,

3. The keyboard section, which displays the notes that are received by the instrument.

The following paragraphs details a bit more what can be done in each section.

3.2 Envelope section

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The envelope section enables you to shape the volume envelope of every note that the choir
will sing.

The shape of the envelope can be modified using three parameters: an attack time, a release
time and a sustain level. Two of them can be automated using the note’s velocity. This feature
is called velocity sensitivity.

In terms of user interface, this section consists of three rotary knobs and two toggle buttons,
as illustrated in the next figure:

Figure 2 – The envelope section

The three knobs can be used to manually define the attack duration, release duration, and
sustain level of every note, whereas the two buttons enables the choir to bypass these knobs,
and to automatically compute a specific shape for each note, depending on its velocity (the “V”
on each button stands for “Velocity”). These buttons both turn red whenever they are
activated.

The following paragraphs explain more in depth how these controls shape the note’s
envelope.

Attack

Figure 3 – Envelope section: the attack controls

The attack can be shaped using the two widgets represented above, right below the “Attack”
label: a rotary knob, and a toggle button.

The rotary knob defines an attack time that the choir may later apply on every note, if
instructed to. The knob can scroll through values between 0 and 4 seconds5. The toggle
button right below controls whether the attack time of each note should be defined by its own
velocity, or by that knob.

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Actually there is a minimal duration on both attack and release, to prevent the sound from being too
abruptly cut in or out. The “zero” value is not really a zero, it is slightly smoothed out.

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When the toggle button is not activated, the choir uses the same attack time for every note,
and simply ignores the velocity for that matter. The value for this common attack time is
determined by the rotary knob above.

When it is activated, it instructs the choir to compute the attack time of each note separately,
using its velocity. The knob above is therefore ignored, and a simple computation occurs
instead. The latter consists in a simple linear transform, which converts a 0-127 velocity into a
0-4 seconds duration, thus ending up in the same range as the knob. Consequently, in this
situation, two notes with a different velocity will have a different attack time, and logically, the
lower the velocity, the higher the attack time. In particular, a null velocity will be transformed
into a full 4-seconds attack, and a maximum velocity into a null attack time.

This feature can be used to inject more dynamics into the choir, especially when playing live:
when activated, the user can easily change the composition’s intensity by simply playing the
keyboard harder or softer. And the harder the user presses a key, the more it sounds like a
staccato.

Keep in mind that the attack fade-in comes in with some limitations: there is neither
equalization nor any additional effect to make the rise up sound more realistic, so if played by
itself, the instrument will sound like performing a simple volume automation, which it exactly
what it does behind the scenes.

Release

Figure 4 – Envelope section: the release control

The release can be shaped using the rotary knob represented above, right below the “Release”
label.

This knob defines a release time which the choir will then apply on every note. The knob can
scroll through values between 0 and 2 seconds. Unlike the other two envelope parameters,
this one cannot be controlled by velocity, which is why it does not have any dedicated toggle
button.

Sustain

Figure 5 – Envelope section: the sustain controls

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The sustain level can be shaped using the two widgets represented above, right below the
“Volume” label: a rotary knob, and a toggle button. These two widgets behave exactly like the
attack ones, except that they deal with another stage of the envelope.

The rotary knob controls a volume percentage, which corresponds to a normalized sustain
level that the choir may use for every note, if instructed to. The knob can scroll through any
percentage between 0% (no audio) and 100% (full volume). The toggle button right below
controls whether the sustain level of each note should be defined by its own velocity, or by
that knob.

When the toggle button is not activated, the choir sings every note with the same volume, and
simply ignores the velocity for that matter. The value for this common volume is determined
by the rotary knob above.

When it is activated, it instructs the choir to compute the volume of each note separately,
using its velocity. The knob above is therefore ignored, and as for the attack time, a simple
computation occurs instead. The latter consists in a simple linear transform, which converts a
0-127 velocity into a 0%-100% volume level, thus ending up in the same range as the knob.
Consequently, in this situation, two notes with a different velocity will have a different volume,
and logically, the lower the velocity, the lower the volume. In particular, a null velocity will be
transformed into a null volume, and a 127 velocity into a 100% volume.

This feature can be used to inject more dynamics into the choir, especially when playing live:
when activated, the user can easily change the composition’s intensity by simply playing the
keyboard harder or softer. And the harder the user presses a key, the louder it is sung by the
choir.

Again, there is neither equalization nor any additional effect to make the singing sound more
realistic when played on low volumes, so if played by itself, the instrument will sound like
applying a simple gain, which it exactly what it does behind the scenes.

3.3 Engine section

The engine section controls the core of the instrument’s engine. This is where to instruct the
choir what to sing and when. This is also where you can add some reverb to the singing, using
a convolution reverb effect.

The engine section consists of three tabs named ”Main”, “Sequencer” and ”Effects”. The
following paragraphs describe their use in more detail.

3.3.1 Main tab

The “Main” tab is the main page of the engine section:

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 Figure 6 – Engine section: the main tab

This is where to tell the choir which articulation to sing in the default mode, when the
sequencer is off. This articulation is called the main articulation.

This tab only contains a single widget labeled “Main Articulation”, as shown below:

Figure 7 – Engine section: choosing the main articulation

This widget opens a list of all possible articulations when clicked on. This enables you to pick
a new main articulation on a simple click.

Note that the main articulation can also be changed using some keyswitches, see the chapter
3.4 Keyboard section for more details.

3.3.2 Sequencer tab

The “Sequencer” tab is dedicated to a special feature, called the sequencer. This feature can
be turned on and off at any time using the button right next to the tab’s title.

The sequencer is an interesting tool to automate the switch between different articulations.
The mechanism behind it is pretty simple: given a sequence of several articulations, the
sequencer automatically moves on from one articulation to the next as soon as all the keys
from the keyboard are released. When it reaches the end of the sequence, it jumps back to the
beginning and starts a new loop.

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The “Sequencer” tab is arranged in three areas, as illustrated in the figure below:

Figure 8 – Engine section: the sequencer tab

The three areas labeled 1, 2 and 3 respectively correspond to the following components:

1. The sequence container, which displays the sequence of articulations being looped on,

2. The sequencer tools, which provide some interactions with the sequencer,

3. The articulation buttons, which fill up the sequence container when clicked on.

The following paragraphs present in more details the behavior of each of these components.

Sequence container

The sequence container consists of a horizontal box of eight slots with an arrow right below,
as illustrated in the next figure:

Figure 9 – Engine section: the sequence container

The box displays the sequence that the sequencer is currently looping on. As shown in the
figure above, it can handle up to eight articulations, which should cover all the needs since the
plugin only features three articulations in its current version. The sequence within the
container can be edited using the articulation buttons and the sequencer tools. See the
corresponding paragraphs to learn more on how to do this.

When the sequence is less than eight articulations long, some dashes mark the empty spots.
In the figure above, the sequence is only composed of three articulations, AA, EE and EH.
Assuming the sequencer will start on AA, then after three increments, it will get back to AA
where it started, skipping the empty spots.

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The arrow right below the box points to the next articulation to come. This means that, if no
key is currently being pressed, then the next time the player presses a key, the choir will sing
the articulation pointed by the arrow. For example, in Figure 9 above, the choir is instructed to
sing AA next.

This small arrow moves on according to the sequencer’s internal mechanism. To see an
example, let us reuse the previous figure, and assume that the choir is currently silent. Then
when the user presses one or more keys, the choir starts to sing an AA articulation. As long as
there is at least one key being pressed, the articulation will remain an AA, no matter what the
user is playing. But as soon as the user takes his or her hands off the keyboard, and all the
keys are released, then the sequencer moves on its pointer, indicating that the choir is now
ready to sing the next articulation, which is EE. The sequence container then looks like this:

Figure 10 – Engine section: the sequence moves on its pointer

Sequencer tools

The sequencer tools consist of the three buttons represented in the next figure:

Figure 11 – Engine section: the sequencer tools

The first button clears the sequencer when clicked on. It removes every articulation from the
sequence container, and reinitializes the cursor’s position to the first articulation.

The second button restarts the sequencer’s mechanism by resetting the reading position back
to the first articulation.

The third button forces the sequencer to move on to the next articulation.

Articulation buttons

The articulations buttons consist of one button per articulation, as illustrated below:

Figure 12 – Engine section: the articulation buttons

These buttons are meant to build the sequence that the sequencer will be looping on.
Whenever one of them is clicked, it adds the corresponding articulation to the end of the

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current sequence, if there is room for it. If the sequence is already eight-articulations long, it
will replace instead the last articulation by the one that has just been clicked on.

3.3.3 Effect tab

The “Effects” tab contains a convolution reverb effect6, as illustrated below:

Figure 13 – Engine section: the effect tab

The reverb effect can be turned on or off using the white button right below the label “Reverb”.
It can be tweaked using the three widgets below, labeled “Room”, “Dry” and “Wet”.

The “Room” widget is a clickable image that defines the impulse response to use for the
convolution. Three impulse responses are available: a church, the German Teufelsberg tower,
and a swimming pool. Each of those brings a distinctive sound and color into the mix.

The “Dry” and “Wet” widgets are nothing different from the usual dry and wet controls in
common reverb effects: the “Wet” knob controls the volume of the reverberation sound,
whereas the “Dry” knob controls the volume of the original singing. These knobs can be
operated independently.

3.4 Keyboard section

The keyboard section displays a virtual keyboard, which shows in real time which keys are
being pressed or released. It also features a transposition control, to either add or subtract one
or more octaves to the generated singing.

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The current version of the plugin only features one effect.

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 Figure 14 – The keyboard section

From left to right, this section consists of two orange display screens, a virtual keyboard, and a
view of ANGLE Studios’ logo with the plugin’s version underneath.

Display screens

The first orange viewport, labeled “Voices”, shows the number of keys being pressed on the
keyboard in real time. It is meant to be used mostly as a debugging tool, as it helps visualize
the information that the plugin captures from its environment. It is therefore convenient for
troubleshooting, to assess whether the plugin receives anything when no sound is coming out
for instance. It is also particularly handy when using the sequencer, as it helps visualize the
silence gaps between two notes (when no key is pressed) that will make the sequencer jump
to its next articulation.

The second orange viewport, labeled “Transp.” – short for “Transposition” – controls a
transposition level, which can be set to any number of octaves between -2 octaves and +2
octaves using the little arrows around.

Virtual keyboard

The central keyboard view shows in real time the keys that are being pressed or released on
the keyboard, as seen by the plugin. It is topped by a color indicator, which contains two
colors: red for keyswitches, and white for sampled notes.

The red keys mark the active plugin’s keyswitches. They can be used any time, but will have
different effects depending on the sequencer’s activation status. When the sequencer is off,
the red keys change the main articulation. Every key from this set switches to the articulation
that is in the same position within the set as it is in the “Main” tab’s articulation list (the first
keyswitch on the left will load the AA articulation, the second will load the EH, etc.). It follows
that when the sequencer is off, there are as many keyswitches as there are articulations, so
three in the current version (do not forget to count black keys in the keyswitches). When the
sequencer is turned on, the keyboard view automatically updates itself and loads two
keyswitches for manipulating the sequencer. These keyswitches trigger the same effect as
the last two sequencer tools from “Sequencer” tab – see the paragraph on Sequencer tab –
except they are accessible through the keyboard: the first keyswitch restarts the sequencer to
its first articulation and the second makes it jump to the next one.

The white keys indicate a recommended key range to play into for the output to sound good.
It roughly corresponds to the notes from the initial recordings, which therefore will alter the
pre-recorded sampled the least. Depending on the articulation being played, and on the
chosen transposition level, this indicator automatically updates itself.

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 Learn more about Virgin Choir on ANGLE YouTube channel

User manual written by ANGLE (2019) – Property of ANGLE and ANGLE Studios

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