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The Virtual Choir Project
An anonymous reader writes "Conductor and composer Eric Whitacre has successfully created a virtual choir using the voices of 185 people who posted their performance on YouTube. The piece that's performed is called 'Sleep,' composed by the conductor himself in 2000. Anyone can join in — all you need is a webcam and a microphone."
one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. Coming from a guy with a music degree.)
It's not cool. It's entirely not original. Can someone explain in what way they think it is?
I think niconico would take offense... oh wait, "made with youtube", yeah, that's probably a first.
I would not have thought of to do it that way. What an elegant way to compose all the videos. Bravo!
I can tell you why *I* think it's cool:
Unlike something like, say, what Kutiman does, this uses willing participants, knowing beforehand the part they'll be playing in the overall scheme. These aren't "found" sounds.
And it has nice production value, too.
Pro musicians have been recording tracks asynchronously for ages. The difference is that instead of having a tiny video likeness of themselves put on a YouTube video, they got paid.
If you're into music at all check out some of his compositions. I'm a band person (director), but his choral stuff is amazing. He's also transcribed many of his pieces (including this one) into band works and written a number of orchestral pieces. (October is by far my favorite)
Normally I flinch at new choral / orchestral music from the past 100 years or so, because it's struck me as avante gard and distonal compared to Beethoven et al.
But this performance is just beautiful. I love it.
The piece in the video is called Lux Aurumque, not Sleep. I've actually performed a wind ensemble version of this piece -- it's extremely difficult due to the very delicate and exposed parts, but Whitacre's music is just gorgeous.
"Before criticizing someone, first walk a mile in his shoes. Then, you'll be a mile away... and you'll have his shoes."
I'd like to know how much the audio was manipulated. There's no way you could get that many YouTube videos together and not hear air conditioners running, dogs yapping, babies crying, TVs playing, dishes clanging, microphone hits, etc. whether incidental or not. Add to that the differing audio quality between each person's rig and you'd expect a lot more of a cacophonous result.
This is an old trick, just record in studio (people's homes) and then put it all together for the final mix.
But still, there is something brilliant and beautiful about this. Not that it reinvents anything, but it does a great job of demonstrating this trick to a new generation of people who can take interest and see what else they can achieve with it.
Our senators will communicate this way one day
...for multitracking.
it woulda been quicker to just go down to the local University and have the choir do a sight read.
being a roadie will either be the worst job in history ... or one of the easiest.
The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
Very cool but tons of post effects and editing. If this can happen in real-time that'll be awesome.
Actually, the 185 voice composition is "Lux Aurumque", which is the second (and more polished) accomplishment of Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir. And Lux is a much more beautiful song... breathtaking!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs&fmt=22
Whiteacre uses a VSTi called Spectrasonics Symphony of Voices, he was just looking for people to lip sync. This video is the Milli Vanilli of choirs.
...also you need good voice
be part of something that can not die
Cool story bro, me too! So where do you wait tables at?