Do you need a good-quality choir plugin that doesn’t sound too fake?
In this article, you will find the ideal choir plugin, no matter what music genre you need it for!
Because below, you will find the top choir VST plugins on the market for 2021!
But before we dive deep into it, let’s take a look at what choir VST plugins offer.
First of all, if you have ever been present in a choir recording, you know that it is an extremely complex thing to do: it involves rehearsals, many people being on time for the recording, as well as many microphones and experienced sound engineers.
I don’t even want to get into the details of the cost of recording a choir for a single song…
Luckily, once choir plugins were available, we have been hearing them in more and more tracks.
Demand for them by music producers has led to the production of more and more choir plugins, raising both their quality and availability.
The 16 Best Choir VST Plugins of 2020 include:
If you thought that recreating a symphonic choir is undoable, you’re wrong!
Symphonic Choirs by EastWest lets you easily type the words you want the choir to sing, and then tune them musically using just your MIDI keyboard! Plus, the interface is very intuitive, so it is not at all hard to do.
The performance section includes portamento, repetition, legato, and round-robin reset that allow you to tweak the expression of the choir.
Plus, this plugin includes samples that have been recorded using three mic positions: close, stage (conductor‘s position), and hall. The interface permits you to easily mix between them to achieve the optimal result for each case.
Another great feature of this plugin is convolution reverb: it lets you add reverb that mimics certain places like halls, for maximum realism.
In short, Symphonic Choirs by EastWest offers great flexibility and is highly recommended to demanding composers.
Hollywood Choirs by EastWest has been made by the creators of Symphonic Choirs, but this time it is mostly addressed to media composers.
Just like Symphonic Choirs, this plugin includes the Wordbuilder software that lets you type and hear your words sung by a choir of your choice (both male and female are included).
If you want to use ready-made phrases, it comes with 781 phrase presets in English, German, Italian, Spanish, and Latin. You can use them as they are, or edit them to create custom phrases.
But what makes this plugin especially suitable for the media?
Well, the Diamond edition includes a 13 microphone user-controllable setup designed for surround sound and virtual reality, which is an absolute must-have if you work with film, TV, and games.
All in all, if you need a choir plugin that allows you to create custom phrases and move the sounds around for surround sound, you’ll be really pleased with the Hollywood Choirs by East-West!
Sometimes you don’t need a huge choir with large hall reverb, but you want to actually keep it more unique and intimate.
If that sounds familiar to you, you’ll certainly appreciate Interval Les Femmes by Cinematique Instruments.
This plugin has been based on the voices of three women (Insa, Mel, and Basia) with different musical backgrounds.
Each voice has been recorded with a number of variations such as regular intimate notes, chanting, and breathing to provide you with maximum flexibility.
I know what you are thinking…. “But how do you actually create a choir out of three voices?”
The secret is called “layering of tonal intervals”. In fact, this plugin lets you stack up to seven intervals of the same type on top of each other, creating harmonies and chord structures that are unique!
To sum up, Interval Les Femmes is not a regular choir plugin, but that is what makes it so unique and desirable.
Is there any plugin that specializes in Gregorian chanting?
If you believe that the answer is no, you’re wrong! Because here, we’ll take a look at two of them: Mystica and Cantus by Best Service!
Mystica is a Female Choir that includes eight different vocalists. It features a phrase-arranger with 24 words and three different articulations. The words can be separated into 120 short words/syllables and combined with five true-legato vowels.
Moreover, it comes with 100 Gregorian vocal phrases, 12 soundscapes as well as additional vocal effects!
Cantus, on the other hand, complements Mystica, as it features a real Gregorian Monk Ensemble so that you can have male and female choirs together.
Both words and the phrase-arranger work just like with Mystica, but Cantus also features a special “mmmh” articulation.
Recording a children's choir is no easy thing. But what if you could have a boys’ choir right at your fingertips with a VST?
This is exactly what the Mercury Symphonic Boys’ Choir offers! In fact, this choir is sampled out of a chorus of 25 singers from the Pacific Boychoir, along with two soloists: one young (soprano) and one older (alto).
The way it was recorded provides you with multiple options in the mix: you can choose between two room positions (close and far), created from a blend of 12 large-diaphragm Neumann microphones!
Note that this plugin has been made with easy surround sound mixing, mix customization, and resource efficiency in mind…
The word master system lets you easily select one of the words as well as add articulation for better expression.
In short, the Mercury Symphonic Boys’ Choir is a high-quality solution for a children's’ choir VST.
What about a high-quality female choir plugin?
You have to look no further than the Venus Symphonic Women’s Choir!
This plugin features a chorus of 33 professional singers from Volti, the SF Symphony Chorus, and the SF Choral Society, along with 2 soprano and 3 alto soloists!
They have been recorded in a church using multiple mic positions that you can mix between! Surround sound mixing is also possible, as it comes with 120 additional combo close/far mic nkm presets.
Additionally, the plugin offers a variety of choral effects that you can use, such as shouts, sweeps, clusters, drones, and whispers.
Do you want to know the best thing?
Although you might have guessed that this plugin includes Latin, it doesn’t stop there! Slavonic has also been featured, along with all the articulations in this language as well!
All in all, this plugin is among the best for reproducing a female choir.
The Mars Symphonic Men’s Choir is the male counterpart of the previous plugin. It comes again from Soundiron and it features a full 30-voice male chorus as well as 3 soloists.
Just like Venus Symphonic Women’s Choir, it includes both Latin and Slavonic, along with pure vowel content, as well as a bunch of articulations such as sustains, marcatos, staccatos, true legato, clusters, falls, and swells!
What makes it stand out is the marcato builder that lets you choose between 7 major vowel sustain types, each with multiple variants and a combined total of 42 independently selectable attack syllables and the same number of release sounds.
Plus, each one of them comes with independent round-robin and automation-ready controls!
A collection of choral shouts, effects, drones, and war chants/yells is also available, providing sound designers with all the tools they need.
To conclude, if you need a flexible men’s choir, you should certainly consider this plugin.
What if you don’t want a huge choir, but would rather use a 4-voice ensemble to create your musical phrases?
If that sounds like a familiar situation to you, you are probably looking for the Voices Of Rapture by Soundiron.
This VST plugin comes with four soloists that cover the classical soprano, alto, tenor, and bass ranges.
The plugin features fundamental chromatic articulations like true legato vowel sustains, single and multi-syllable staccatos and Latin chanting sustains, with individual solo and combined ensemble quartet presets.
What is more, there are live performance phrases that are pre-made and include pure vowel, French and Latin phrases for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, whistled phrases for soprano, alto & bass as well as hummed phrases for tenor & bass.
Last but not least, it comes with extra features such as offset, release, legato, vibrato, auto-panning, phrase cross-fading, pitch shifting, tempo-sync/time-stretch, unused sample purging, articulation key-switching, and pitch shift key-switching.
In case most choir VST plugins seem conventional to you, I present you with the Aeris: Hybrid Choir Designer by Big Fish Audio.
As its name suggests it is a hybrid choir: it combines recorded samples from real choirs, along with the ability to creatively tweak them using the modulation tools it offers.
But let’s take it from the beginning: this plugin comes with male and female choirs, as well as four solo performers including bass, tenor, alto, and soprano. All the performances have been recorded with true legato for maximum realism.
The user can use up to four LFOs to modulate their choice of volume, pan, low pass, high pass, bandpass, and pitch.
Plus, dual sequencers are provided for complex pattern creation. To top it off, there are eight additional effects that include a compressor, delay, chorus, flanger, distortion, and stereo spread!
In fact, this is exactly what its name describes, thus it’s highly recommended to advanced users.
Mosaic Voices by Heavyocity is part of the Mosaic instrument series of this company, which has been made to combine unique elements to form VST instruments.
That is the case with mosaic voices, which is actually a three-channel plugin with synthesized voices, organic elements, and synthesizer sounds.
This instrument comes with 100 snapshots that you can use to create your own choir.
Both hybrid and organic vocal sets are included, so it’s up to you to make the combination that pleases you the most.
In fact, they are broken down into four categories: human voices, clone voices, hybrid voices, and synth beds, to make it easier to choose.
An effects palette is also part of the Mosaic Voices, including delay, reverb, EQ as well as sequencers and arpeggiators.
In short, if you want a choir that features synth elements, this plugin is highly recommended.
The Choir Series by Strezov Sampling comes with many interesting options to cover everyone’s needs and tastes.
This series includes the Storm Choir Ultimate VST plugin that features samples from a 20-piece chamber choir recorded with three microphone positions. Plus, it comes with the Syllabuilder Engine that allows you to create the words you need by combining syllables and morphing vowels.
The Wotan Male Choir comes with a high-quality male choir that comprises ten tenors and ten basses and includes the Agile Legato feature that easily lets you transition between syllables.
Additionally, the Freyja Female Choir that comes with ten altos and ten sopranos is the female counterpart of the Wotan Male Choir.
Finally, there is also the Arva Children’s Choir that completes the package. However, note that the Arva Children’s Choir is in fact two choirs: this plugin comes with boys' and girls' choirs recorded separately and in divisi sections.
As I have mentioned before, children’s choir plugins are among the most useful VSTs ever made.
The Genesis Children’s Choir by Audiobro comes with a 64 piece multi-ensemble that has been recorded separately. In fact, it’s like having 4 choirs in a single package: there are 16 soprano girls, 16 alto girls, 16 soprano boys, and 16 alto boys.
The plugin allows you to choose between 4 microphone mixes: close, stage, far, and full mix.
Plus, the phrase section lets you build Latin inspired phrases and save them to 20 presets that can be key switched in real-time.
What’s more, you can quantize your phrases using the “Look Ahead” feature, and save yourself from tedious MIDI editing. The Switcher enables more advanced features such as layering and CC switching.
The Genesis Children’s Choir by Audiobro is greatly recommended to those who are looking for high-quality and flexible children’s choir.
What about a choir that is crafted and conducted by a Grammy winner?
The Eric Whitacre Choir by Spitfire Audio comes with top-quality samples of an existing ensemble, conducted by Eric Whitacre.
The plugin features 22 singers in total: six soprano, five alto, five tenor and six bass.
But what really makes this plugin stand out is the Evo Grid technology. This instrument arranges samples that change over time on the keyboard, allowing you to compose music in a unique and innovative way.
Of course, this VST doesn’t lack the indispensable features of selecting which mics and mixes you want to use. In fact, you can choose between 6 mics and 3 different mixes.
All in all, if you want a plugin with samples from an acclaimed choir, the Eric Whitacre Choir by Spitfire Audio is exactly what you are looking for.
Note that they have won the Grammy award for Best Choral Performance for their debut album!
For those of you who want various choirs to satisfy their needs, I would suggest taking a look at the Choir Series by 8DIO.
This series includes Silka Choir, Insolidus Choir, Liberis Angelic Choir, and Lacrimosa Epic Choir.
First of all, Silka Choir provides you with an orchestral choir that has been carefully sampled and selected, along with all the essential articulations.
In addition to Silka which is mostly targeted to emotion expression, Insolidus Choir features 40 males and 25 females that create a lyrical orchestral choir.
The Liberis Angelic Choir comes with a 45-piece ensemble of an awarded children's choir so that you can also have children’s choir at hand.
Finally, the Lacrimosa Choir which is essentially a 200-person choir consists of 70 Basses, 60 Tenors, 40 Altos, and 30 Sopranos.
As you have probably realized, this choir series can cover all your needs.
Realitone has brought to us two excellent choir VST plugins: Realivox Ladies and Realivox Blue.
Realivox Ladies features five different female voices from five individual singers. Each one specializes in a different musical genre, in order to actually combine everything you might need.
In terms of legato, this plugin comes with polyphonic legato, true legato, and variable speed legato. 58 different articulations allow you to create the sounds you want!
Moving on to Realivox Blue, this plugin takes the same principle one step further, as it comes with a wordbuilder that permits you to combine different consonants and vowels to create the words you want to hear.
Realivox Blue features a single voice that you can easily create an ensemble from! A bunch of effects such as volume, pan, tuning, and timbre settings, as well as delay offset, lets you achieve that in a realistic way!
Realitone has brought to us two excellent choir VST plugins: Realivox Ladies and Realivox Blue.
Realivox Ladies features five different female voices from five individual singers. Each one specializes in a different musical genre, in order to actually combine everything you might need.
In terms of legato, this plugin comes with polyphonic legato, true legato, and variable speed legato. 58 different articulations allow you to create the sounds you want!
Moving on to Realivox Blue, this plugin takes the same principle one step further, as it comes with a wordbuilder that permits you to combine different consonants and vowels to create the words you want to hear.
Realivox Blue features a single voice that you can easily create an ensemble from! A bunch of effects such as volume, pan, tuning, and timbre settings, as well as delay offset, lets you achieve that in a realistic way!
Up to this point, we have presented you with many outstanding choir plugins.
Each one comes with different features, allowing you to choose between a variety of plugins, as they have various things to offer.
Now it’s your turn! Take a look at them once more, and find the one that meets your needs!