Starry Court

Starry Court
General Information
Products	Synthesizer V Studio SOLARIA ASTERIAN SAROS NYL
Status	Active
Website	https://eclipsedsounds.com/pages/vocals
Additional Product Information
Founder(s)	Eclipsed Sounds, LLC
Affiliations	Dreamtonics

The Starry Court series, is a series of Synthesizer V Studio vocals created and distributed by the company Eclipsed Sounds, LLC. Currently there are four vocals released under this title: SOLARIA, ASTERIAN, SAROS, and the upcoming vocalist, NYL. The series acts as Eclipsed Sounds primary vocal series developed with the motto "Vocals Beyond Fantasy".

The series focused on "providing a suite of expressive singers with different vocal ranges, who each naturally suit a variety of genres and work well when used together." The four vocals are based on one of four respective vocal ranges, currently including Soprano (SOLARIA), Tenor (SAROS), and Bass (ASTERIAN) vocalists, with an Alto (NYL) in production to "complete the set".

History

The "Starry Court" series began with Eclipsed Sounds, LLC's first vocal SOLARIA, starting as a crowdfunded project in May of 2021, CEO Elijah Damon (a.k.a. "khanadee") met singer-songwriter Emma Rowley, the virtual vocalist's eventual voice provider, at a local recording studio they both worked at by chance, where Elijah was cited to be assisting. He had pitched the concept of voicing a database to her, to which she became interested immediately and was excited about the concept of vocal synths, but was too busy to officially sign on and begin work.

It was noted that originally, no further vocals were planned beyond SOLARIA. Dreamtonics Co., Ltd. undertook a large risk with the company, and Eclipsed Sounds determined that bringing more than just one vocalist project would be unwise "and maybe a little presumptuous" in the early stages. Eclipsed Sounds hadn’t even discussed the possibility of additional vocals beyond SOLARIA internally until September 2021, when it was discussed as a teambuilding distraction during development stress. After discussing SAROS and ASTERIAN’s concepts at that time, the team thought it best to set aside any of these thoughts for the foreseeable future. Following SOLARIA’s release however, Eclipsed Sounds desired to fill a need for more missing vocal types after all. While SAROS and ASTERIAN had been very loosely discussed in 2021 and decided on in mid 2022, NYL was suggested in September of 2022 so that SAROS could remain a dedicated tenor.

The goal with the entire Starry Court series was to provide a set of vocals that, together, would let users create any kind of song. Eclipsed Sounds sees the group of vocals as the "perfect set of tools" noting that while they may not tonally match every single genre, they should provide enough that users could draft with the vocals easily, add additional vocal layers, and write out ideas without "needing to call a friend every time to fill in your temporary vocal part." Each vocal was designed to fill a niche not currently adequately served by other voices at the time. SOLARIA's niche to fill was a solid pop-adjacent mezzo-soprano, ASTERIAN's was the desire for a true bass vocal, SAROS a power tenor that could hit high notes, and for NYL a contralto vocalist with a warm and supported voice. An important goal for each vocal was the focus on a "group fit" with each vocal, making sure that each pair of voices within the Starry Court could be used together without any issue, and that the group would blend well together when finally complete.

With SOLARIA’s voice provider already selected, the other Starry Court vocals went through a process of selection during the concept period. Audition attempts were held, however, most singers who applied did not take note of the required specifications and didn’t fit into the ranges that the team was looking for. As a result SAROS and ASTERIAN’s voice providers were scouted directly off of social media. NYL’s voice provider was directly scouted as well, but from a portfolio website. A main concern during the consideration period was if the singers were skilled enough to fit the types of genres users want to see from their vocal ranges, and if they met these range requirements plus additional flexibility. It was noted that ASTERIAN’s voice provider Eric Hollaway while being a bass vocalist bass, had the addition of being an oktavist, described as being one of the lowest voice types in the world ensuring that for a series based on covering specific ranges, ASTERIAN would fit his defined role "and then some".

The Starry Court series was first coined by Eclipsed Sounds, LLC, following the announcement of the third member, SAROS in November 2023. Up until the announcement of SAROS, the vocals SOLARIA and ASTERIAN were not listed under any type of project or series name, despite following similar productions: both illustrations being illustrated by Superstellar and both vocalists featuring an astrological theme, being based on the sun and moon respectively and having names all in capital letters. Following SAROS' release, all three vocals were grouped together under the Starry Court line.

The last vocal of the lineup was announced to be NYL, who is currently in production and is planned to be released in October 2024. Following NYL's release, Eclipsed sounds has a second second series of vocals, currently known as "Phase 2", the first vocal of which being an unnamed Spanish-capable voice database, was announced in March 2024.

Marketing

All Starry Court members up until NYL, have received various promotional artworks together such as official Eclipsed Sounds website banners illustrated by Pai (@itspaip) and Linked (@linkex92). An official illustration for the series was also illustrated by mhai (@mhaikkun).

Voice Databases

Synthesizer V AI

Voice databases developed by Eclipsed Sounds, LLC.

SOLARIA

ASTERIAN

SAROS

Announced Vocals

Voice databases developed by Eclipsed Sounds, LLC.

NYL

External links

• Official Website