KWAYA

The sound of the sun rising above the savanna

Kwaya - African Voices by Eduardo Tarilonte

Kwaya is an unrivaled choir library offering authentic African voices and chants. With Aba Taano from Uganda, Eduardo Tarilonte found the perfect choir for this long and intensely prepared project.

Kwaya is an ideal choice for every producer wanting to use distinctive and expressive African chants and vocals in their works. Kwaya stands for incomparable inspiration paired with unbeatable versatility – no matter if you work on movie- or television-soundtracks, thematic documentaries, musical compositions, atmospherical ambient themes or tribal-dance-tracks.

Kwaya allows you to create individual vocal and choir lines by arranging syllables in different pitches as well as voice effects with the typical sound of African vocalists.

The award-winning Aba Taano choir consists of four male and two female vocalists which were recorded separately for this library in Kontakt 5 Player format, allowing you to create individual vocal-ensembles to your specific needs. Being able to freely set the level and pan-positions for each voice, you are given full control over the sound of the choir, resulting in the highest possible versatility.

40 different syllables were recorded for each singer. You can switch between them in time via key-switches.  By using five “True Legato Vowels” (a, e, i, o, u), these syllables can be combined in a most natural way. In addition, there is an extra “mm” articulation that is unmistakably typical for East- and Central-African chants.

All syllables can be played as solo voices or within an ensemble. Here, you may chose between short and longer articulations for the syllables. For the short syllables in particular, the speed of each individual syllable can be fine-adjusted in the phrase arranger.

Although Kwaya uses more than 10,000 samples and 7 GB of data (lossless compressed to 5 GB), it is really straight-forward and easy to use. The library offers a set of 20 different phrases with eight syllables each. These can be changed using the keyswitches and edited in the phrase arranger. Here, you can chose between 40 different syllables, five vowels and the “mm” articulation. After selecting the syllables, you just need to choose between short and long articulations. There is full NKS support for Native Instruments’ Komplete Kontrol controller-keyboards.

A special treat is the collection of over 700 vocal effects that can be added to the syllables of the choir. Finally, Kwaya also offers a choice of soundscapes with atmospheres ranging from harmonic to sinister.

The recordings of Kwaya took place in the Spanish Eldana Studio, where Eduardo Tarilonte already worked on different instruments for Era II. This small studio offers wonderful acoustics and excellent technical equipment. The singers of Aba Taano were recorded with API preamps using a unique U47 microphone, which is perfect for voices and was carefully designed by Pablo Kahayan. Quality wise, this adds that certain something to the library.

Eduardo Tarilonte then carefully selected the best and most harmonically coherent tones out of the multitude of recordings. Because of the sensitive recording process and the excellence of the signal chain, the voices could almost be left unaltered to deliver most natural results. Thus giving you all options of post processing, to match the voices of Kwaya to your production.

Kwaya offers:

• 4 male solo voices
• 2 female solo voices
• 5 different true African style legatos (a, e, i, o, u)
• "Mmmh articulation"
• A powerful Phrase-Arranger with 20 phrases, 8 syllables each*
• 40 words can be combined with true legato playing while the corresponding vowel is automatically selected
• more than 700 voice effects*.
• 16 soundscapes,
• 10.000+ samples (mono, 44kHz, 24 bit), Library Size 7 GB uncompressed and 4.5 GB compressed
• Free Kontakt Player included (Version 5.5 or higher required)

* All syllables are fantasy. Just some of the poems and vocal fx are in Ugandan language

ABA TANOO, the singers:

Building phrases is a very easy process and, because we are dealing with vowels rather than preset phrases based upon actual words, there is no danger you might choose a phrase that’s inappropriate for the musical context. That might be something to take more care with when using some of the other content. This includes some fabulous vocal effects patches, shouts, breaths and even some spoken poems, for example, as well as the vocal ‘rhythm’ patches mentioned earlier. These can form quite useful beds to sit underneath parts created using the main choir patch. However, in a rather nice touch, Eduardo has also included a modest selection of atmospheric pad sounds. These are musical in nature; layer the choir on the top and you have a compete cue that just says ‘Africa’ as soon as you hear it.

Full KWAYA review at SOS magazine

Conclusion: So, to resume: You get a collection of high quality unique African choir, which is easy to use and fun to play with. Fifty vocal phrases to custom tailor your performance, and plus you get a bunch of great vocal effects and sound designed pads and atmospheres, and all of that under a price of 259 EUR. It’s a bargain really. I have been a fan of Tarilonte’s work since his days at Bella D Media, and I am happy to say that I will stay a fan for many years to come. I am really hoping to see more of these amazing ethnic vocal libraries.

Sampling master Eduardo Tarilonte has done it again with this intimate, realistic library of full of rich African spirit. Introducing Kwaya.

...The main target of this library is to serve various new age, score, documentary, media or stock music needs. But, as always, feel free to combine these sounds with any genre, adding a touch of African spirit to your composition. It’s ideal for making some unique backing vocal lines for your lead vocal, or even using legato syllables instead of conventional pad sounds from your classical synth arsenal....

.....If you are after fairy tales, not to listen to them but rather to create them, then this is the right solution for you. Instruments that Tarilonte make always start to whisper some stories to you, ones that will make you smile, dream or even cry. So, this time we have an African choir instrument, a fairy tale about Africa. Kwaya brings all the voices that we need in order to add some African spirit to our songs. If you asked me, that’s exactly what I was looking for.

Full Kwaya review by Aleksander Arsov

Wenn Sie lebendige, nuancenreiche und vor allem charaktervolle afrikanische Gesangsstimmen für Ihre Produktion benötigen, ist KWAYA zweifelsohne die erste Wahl. Die Chor Library punktet ferner mit einer bemerkenswerten Flexibilität und leichter Bedienung. Auch das Erstellen von Phrasen geht schnell und einfach von der Hand. KWAYA eignet sich perfekt für Fim-, TV-, und Game Musik oder Musicals, aber auch World Music, Ambient oder Tribal-Tracks können von den expressiven Stimmen profitieren.

Mir ist keine andere Library bekannt, die den besonderen Reiz afrikanischern Gesangs ethnischer Prägung mit all seiner Lebendigkeit und urwüchsigen Ausdruckskraft so authentisch in Szene setzt.

Der einfach bedienbare Chor mit 40 Silben im Wortbaukasten und echtem Legato lädt zum Erschaffen eigener Fantasielyrik ein. Phrasen, Effektstimmen, Vokal-Rhythmik und geschmackvolle Klaglandschaften ergänzen das Repertoire