Best Free VSTs: Voices & Choirs

Posted November 9, 2021

I don’t have a witty introduction for this one.

*tap dances*

Choirs

General choir: bigcat Instruments Mihai Sorohan Vowel Choir has men and women singing 5 basic vowels (“ah”, “ee”, “eh”, “oh”, “oo”). The sound is more pop-like. NKISFZ; XPERIMENTA Choir has the “ah” syllable. NKI (FastSpring); ProjectSAM The Free Orchestra‘s “Luminous Choir” patch is an ensemble vocal swell with various altos, tenors, and basses on an “ah” syllable (though the “Vowel” formant control lets you shift it to sound more like an “oh”… sort of) from F2-C5. NICNT (account); The Meyer Choir is a 4-person choir made up of Jon Meyer and his family. It’s not a “pitch perfect” instrument, but it is very intimate and textured. NKIEXS (account)
Female choir: Spitfire Labs Gaelic Voices includes various creative flavors of “ah” “eh,” “ooh-ah,” and “ee-ah.” VSTAUAAX (Spitfire); FluffyAudio Haunted Choir has legato humming and “oo” patches. It’s a good sound, if a bit mellow and pad-like. NKI (FastSpring)
Male choir: Spitfire Labs Micah’s Choir is an ethereal ensemble version of its Pianobook namesake (listed under Solo / Male below). VSTAUAAX (Spitfire); Embertone Ancient Voices features an “awh” (“oh”?) syllable with (gasp!) true legato. NKI (Cartloom); decent|SAMPLES Dave Choir is a kind of pop-sounding set of “oh” and “ah” sustains. NKISFZdspreset (newsletter)

Solo vocals

Beatboxing

See percussion § beatboxing kits.

Cat

Soundiron Snack the Cat NKI (Shopify OR account)

Chicken toy

twinkledisc Chicken NKI

Child

Embertone Arcane‘s bonus “Prize” patch is various silly recordings of kids, including a short “doo” syllable from C4-C6. NICNT (Cartloom)

The Meyer Choir contains two child voices which can each be soloed. They sing on a breathy, sometimes slightly out-of-tune “oh” syllable. dspresetNKIEXS (account)

Dog

Atom Hub Barking Buddy NKI (account)

Female

Auddict Celestial Voices Ceres features legato, slides, crescendos, mordents, and turns on the “ah,” “oh,” “eh,” and “mm” syllables (G3-C#5). There are also little ornaments and whispers. NKI (FastSpring)

Ivy Audio Clare Solo includes legato and sustains on the “oh” syllable (B3-F5). NKI (account or torrent)

Sonixinema Sirens Freebie has a decent “mm” sound. NICNT (Shopify)

Male

Rossignol-Studio Choris features a man singing on a “hah” syllable (G2-C5) with three velocity layers.

Micah’s Choir features a professional tenor (G2-E5) on an “ah” syllable which modulates to “uh” and “ooh” depending on the pitch and dynamic, the latter of which can be increased using the “Ache” meter (the mod wheel). I had to do some tweaking to get the Kontakt instrument to behave the way I liked, but the samples themselves are very good, so you could easily pop them into another sampler if you don’t own/know how to mess with Kontakt. NKIdspresetWAV (account)

Comic panel of a teen girl listening to some kind of jazz? Her dad in the background is covering his ears and saying, "Listen to that infernal racket!"

S. Christian Collins Boy Band is a young man singing “doo.” I am almost 100% certain this is not the real Temmie Village sound¹, but some armchair detectives decided it was, inspiring a slew of Boy Band-powered Temmie covers, so you can use it for that now, I guess. (If you have Mixcraft, it’s already included in Acoustica Expanded Instruments — patch 21.) SF2

stgiga’s Acapella Group XG(S)MT88* has a lot of… uh… syllables, I guess, is what could be said for it? If you like cheesy voice-based SoundFonts, you may find some use from this collection, which includes such patches as “Ping pong impression,” “Haaeaaahahaeheah,” and of course, “Gay!” SF2

Male throat singing: Quilcom Sim-Throat is a decent simulated version. Win VST

Vocaloid/vocal synth

VoxWave ALYS for Alter/Ego sings in French and Japanese. VSTAUAAX

tora ouji’s Bones for Alter/Ego sings in English and Japanese. VSTAUAAX

Aquestone speaks Japanese. Win VST

Whispers

Wavesfactory Whispers generates various whispered syllables. As a heads up to my more sensitive readers: as a Halloween instrument, the interface is a bit spooky. NKI (newsletter OR account)

Whistling

Rwi’s Booth KonKon Whistle NKI (account)

Comic ad clipping that reads, "Without knowing a single note of music, you play instantly on sight!"

Free virtual instrument series

View the main page or learn more about 📕 plug-in formats. licenses and download requirements.

🎹 Pianos, organs, & keyboards
🎤 Solo vocals, choirs
🎻 Orchestral strings
🎸 Guitars, harps, lutes, & zithers
🎷 Woodwinds & free reeds
🎺 Brass & horns
🔔 Idiophones
🥁 Drums, percussion
Synths & drum machines – Coming soon! (❛◡˂̵ ̑̑✧)
DAWs, samplers, & FX – Coming soon! (❛◡˂̵ ̑̑✧)

Footnotes

…which is pretty obvious if you compare them side by side, though more damningly, Boy Band used to only be available as a bundled sound for Mixcraft, a notoriously unpopular DAW used only by world-famous plasterbrain, me.