Dominic Diola – Composer, Arranger, Choirmaster, Avid Synthesizer V User

“I’ve been using Synthesizer V since the release of the Choir Voice Collections. As a composer and SATB choir arranger, it is incredibly useful for creating demos to check whether or not everything checks out before finalizing a piece. For the vocal guides that I distribute, I also use Synthesizer V because the singing sounds so natural, even for a language that isn’t officially supported yet, like mine (Filipino).

The phoneme and library editor is really helpful for adjusting the phonemes of a word. By using the Spanish main library, I am able to replicate Filipino accents very well about 90% of the time, adjusting the phonemes and adding glottal stops and rolling Rs (rr) wherever necessary. You see, the Philippines has over 170 distinct native languages. The main ones are Tagalog, Visayan, Bicolano, Kapampangan, Waray, and Hiligaynon (although I can only understand and speak the first two). So a Filipino language really could be any of the 170.

As a Catholic nation, we are rich with congregational hymns, with each region having its own. Choir people and arrangers from these regions ask me to make demos of their SATB arrangements or create vocal guides for their choir practice. So far, Synthesizer V almost always gets the accent right for any Filipino language, again, by using Spanish as the main and adjusting the phonemes for each note, either individually or through automation by creating a dictionary library for each language.”