Voices of War Men of the North

Voices of War - Men of the North is a low-voiced male choir that covers all things "Vikings." It features a wide collection of ambience, atmosphere, drone, pad, legato, word-building and texture patches recorded at the legendary MGM Scoring Stage in Los Angeles.

About the Library

As the “swords and sandals / dragon” genre continues to dominate globally in television, video games, and film, composers must be continually armed with the appropriate colored samples to score these scenes.

Ancient Norse Singing At The MGM Scoring Stage

We had the assistance of a linguist fluent in Old Norse - the legendary native tongue of the Vikings.  The library’s vocabulary features sets of words pertaining to war, nature, and the gods - a true departure from the faux Latin based words featured in most word builders.

The dense early reflections of the Sony Scoring Stage smooth the transients, blending the tone in its signature dark and transparent tone.  A set of full spectrum “enhanced” stereo mixes are included to achieve that familiar cinematic sound without the need for third party processing. You will find Voices of War to be a very "blendy" library.

An Ambient Tribal/Cinematic Color (Not Operatic)

Contrary to Voxos, Men of the North dials in a specific style of a half-voiced (sotto/mezzo voce), reserved style of cinematic singing.  Special attention was paid to getting a true blended tone, perfect for pads and drones but also capable of carrying a word-based melody at a strong mezzo forte.  The library excels with the modwheel set around 50-75 where holding a simple unison or fifth provides enough color to simply be its own cue.  The color of the choir never formally opens up enough to be considered classical.  It maintains its carefully chosen quasi-warrior (non-professional singer) tone perfect for this style.   

The ensemble was a group of extended range baritones (additional range coverage for throat “quasi Tuvan” and falsetto patches).

Neumann KU100 “Fritz” Mixing Preset Specifically For Video Game/Headphone Use

Men of The North is a must have for video game composers.  We set up the unique KU100 head-shaped microphone, affectionately known as "Fritz," directly in the middle of the choir with singers set around it in a semicircle.  The unique binaural capabilities of the KU100 combined with a set of headphones immerses the listener in a true 360º perspective that simulates the human listening experience.  Perfect for interactive video game audio engines and perspective/distance based listening.

Morph Patches, WordBuilding and Chanting, Legato

Our morph patches utilize long and blendy vowel morphs from the ensemble - the subtle movement it provides coats the tone with the auditory version of an oil-on-water slick - a welcome departure from static whole notes, and impossible to create without actually recording it.

Men of the North’s wordbuilding engine is specifically constructed to provide Norse sounding phrases without the labor of traditional world building. Simply play and the words will automatically change for you.  It’s a wordbuilder without the effort.

A staple of Viking Style is the Chant - the repeating of words on a single tone - reminiscent of a Holy Man’s Incantation or a war chant.  This library features true legato unisons on chants - the modulation from one word to the next was recorded in legato intervals (unisons) and isn’t a simulation.

Traditional, smooth sounding Legato is of course included - it can double as a Gregorian Tone.