[Snail]

Well, kinda. Not really chanting. Might not even be Latin either.

In FS2_Cinema2.wav, from the original FS2 soundtrack, there were some vocals which were quite obviously not in English. I don't think would just throw any old random words in that sounded cool (though that's a possibility), so I figured they might mean something.

Anyone know what they mean?


(Also worthy of note, the vocals seem to repeat themselves in the ending cutscene of FS2 where Capella blows up.)

EDIT - here also pointed me to this video of some random video game that uses the same choir sample.

EDIT2 - Yeah so I learned on IRC that everyone uses it and it's a stock sound.

Still would be interesting to know what they mean though.

[lostllama]

I'm not sure about those particular tracks, but I remember long ago that someone on HLP said it was Gregorian chant or something like that. The chant during the end cutscene was taken from the Agnus Dei liturgy, IIRC.

I think I can hear an "alleluia/hallelujah", which is a Hebrew word, in the Cinema2 chant though (it means "praise to God" or something along those lines).

[Flipside]

Agnus Dei  (Lamb of God)
Hallejulah
Agnus Dei...

Most of the choir based stuff is probably other generic latin phrases


Edit: In other tracks you can also hear Agnus Dei quite clearly, but I can't make out some of the other latin phrases

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qiWAgQeAVY

[Snail]

HerraTohtori told me something similar on IRC. Apparently there are a lot of other indiscernible Latin words/phrases.

[Solatar]

Sounds a lot (at least in the beginning) like they're saying "Agnus Dei" and then "Lamb of God" (in English). In the final cutscene.

The logical thing to follow Agnus Dei would be qui tollis peccata mundi miserere nobis, but it's obvious they aren't saying that.

[Flipside]

Probably if you translated to English, it would be complete garbage to be honest, most of those sample banks are more about the vocal effect than any real meaning to the words, wouldn't be surprised to find phrases such as 'Requiem Aeternia' and such in there.

[Kosh]

Probably if you translated to English, it would be complete garbage to be honest, most of those sample banks are more about the vocal effect than any real meaning to the words, wouldn't be surprised to find phrases such as 'Requiem Aeternia' and such in there.

Yeah, music sounds better in mysterious dead languages doesn't it?

[headdie]

Probably if you translated to English, it would be complete garbage to be honest, most of those sample banks are more about the vocal effect than any real meaning to the words, wouldn't be surprised to find phrases such as 'Requiem Aeternia' and such in there.

Yeah, music sounds better in mysterious dead languages doesn't it?

gives everything a sense of foreboding

[Flipside]

Our minds are keyed to automatic responses to the human voice, so including a human voice to a track automatically creates a new set of emotions within the listener, that cannot be created using Strings etc. A person singing in a minor key will bring a note of much more personal tragedy than, say, Strings in a minor key, because it's a sound from a human perspective, whereas Strings would give a much more expansive feel to the sound, an air of sorrow, rather than a stab of it, if that makes any sense

[Kolgena]

I just know that it sounds like a boy that sings those words.

[Flipside]

Probably is, quite a lot of choirs do work for things such as sample disks, virtual synths or simple recording work for artists. Good Catholic church choirs in particular are popular because of the latin element, and Gregorian choirs are often doing stuff like this, there's also a growing demand for solo female vocalists, partially inspired by the Gladiators soundtrack.

[nvsblmnc]

The samples in FS2 are from Symphony of Voices.  It's also used a lot by the BBC, and I've notices the same samples in Baten Kaitos on the GC and Ergo Proxy.