As I mentioned in my opening post:
I'm looking for the original source of this sound used in early trance.

@Swatch Thanks for the link! Will check it later.

 

I didn't say ALL Trance producers uses NEXUS ALL the time, obviously not, I was referring to these two video. Life Is Too Short (Energy Mix) released 2011 well within timeframe of Vengeance/reFX (Nexus 2 was released in 2008)

 

I had the Arturia CMI, and it includes the original presets, including this exact vocal "chop", so Nexus can't be the original source.

 

Except Kai Tracid - Life Is Too Short (Energy Mix) was released in 2001! Nexus is obviously not the origin of this sound, besides reFX and Vengeance are known to just rip sounds straight from songs, so they could never be the origin of anything.

 

I should have been more precise with my starting post ;)
I think this was the first time I've heard this kind of vocal 'chop' and it was 1994
Btw: The vocal part is from the song 'Talk About Your Life' by Mike Oldfield and sung by an angel named Maggie Reilly.

 

Yeah, but not the one posted in the video. One that is from 2001 don't have this "Oh" part, It's from 2011 release.

 

if the first one is the style you want, almost every major 90s synth manufacturer had nearly these exact styled voice sounds as part of their onboard presets library. A lot of them had preset names like "Oohs and Ahhs", and Chorals.

The one from 1994 had to have been from hardware synths, at some point. So to find the original, narrow it down to the few digital synths from 1994 or prior.

I'm not typing all this:

Spoiler

90s synths with patch names from factory like "oohs and aahs"
ChatGPT said:



Below are some well‑known 1990s synths (and sound‑modules) that shipped with factory presets literally called “Oohs,” “Aahs,” “Voice Oohs,” “Choir Aahs,” or very close variations.
Where possible I note the year and show the exact preset name as it appears in the manufacturer’s voice list.

Year Instrument Where you see it in the factory voice list
1991 Kurzweil K2000 Expansion voice set Moans & Groans includes multiple programs such as “Steamy Oohs” and *“Hot Aahs.” patchmanmusic.com
1992 Roland JV‑/GM family (JV‑30/35, SC‑55, etc.) Because all General‑MIDI synths had Program #53 “Choir Aahs” and Program #54 “Voice Oohs,” every GM‑compliant Roland box of the era contains them. fr.scribd.com
1995 Roland XP‑50 (and sibling JV‑1080/2080, XP‑60/80) Preset list shows “Choir Aahs,” “Voice Oohs,” “SynVox,” etc. scribd.com
1995 Korg Trinity / Trinity Pro Voice‑name list entry explicitly labelled “Choir ‘OOH’ and ‘AAH’” (velocity layers cross‑fade between the two). cdn.korg.com
1999 Korg Triton / Triton Le / Triton Extreme Multiple patches, e.g. “Choir Aahs 1,” “Choir Aahs 2,” “Voice Oohs.” cdn.korg.comcdn.korg.com
Any other 1990s GM/GM2 work‑station (Korg 05R/W, Yamaha MU80, Alesis NanoSynth, etc.) They inherit the same GM patch numbers 53/54 for Aahs/Oohs, so you’ll see those names (or very slight variants) in every factory bank. fr.scribd.com
Why the name keeps turning up

• General MIDI standardisation (1991): GM fixed 128 program names so that sequences would play back predictably on any synth. #53 and #54 were reserved for choral “Aah” and “Ooh” samples, so manufacturers simply copied those labels into their preset banks.
  
  
• ROMpler era fashion: 90‑s workstations relied on short vocal multisamples to give productions an instant “film score” sheen; “Ooh”/“Aah” layers were cheap to market and sounded impressive through on‑board effects.
  
  
• Patch compatibility: Roland’s JV/XP line and Korg’s Trinity/Triton families reused the same PCM wave‑ROM across several products, so once the name appeared it propagated to later models.

Hunting for that sound today
If you’re after those nostalgic choir pads but don’t own the original hardware, you can:

1. Grab the software reissues – Korg Collection Triton, Roland Cloud JV‑1080, or Kurzweil’s ‘Take 5’ VAST library all include the original samples and patch names.
   
   
2. Use any GM‑compatible soft‑synth (e.g. Sforzando with the free Merlin GM2 bank) and call up programs 53/54.
   
   
3. Layer modern choir libraries (e.g. Spitfire LABS Choir) with a gentle low‑pass filter to mimic the 16‑bit ROMpler sheen.

That should give you all the classic “Oohs and Aahs” you remember from the 90s, whether you’re digging through vintage racks or working entirely in‑the‑box today.

 

except its definitely in 2001 release.

 

Kawai K1 "ahh"
https://archive.org/details/KawaiK1PresetBanks1internalBans

VST:
https://www.nilsschneider.de/wp/nils-k1v/

 

new info, " Yamaha W7 "

 

DSK ChoirZ - Free - www.dskmusic.com/dsk-choirz/

Features

– 3 Layers with 32 Choir & Pad sounds
– ADSR, Finetuning and Pan control
– 3 Advanced Filters
– 3 LFO routing to Cut, Pan, Level and Pitch
– Chorus effect
– Reverb Effect
– Velocity response
– Midi automation

 

from roland zenology, this one looks a lot like this

 

Definitely not

 

I've listened to Zero G Datalife Vol. 1, 2, 3 and this is all I found. If you try them, some sound similar. Adjust cutoff/resonance with Env and Adsr and try a different initial sample position. With a little reverb/delay.
https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/fcc8e16e-65af-49cd-a81b-f6dec74c489d

 

Various "choir ohs" from "eLAB - X-Static Goldmine" As in the previous one, they look similar, try them. Depending on how you adjust the cutoff,env/adsr helps.
https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/3b98d626-569e-45bc-9b3a-bf0c12afd223

 

sound like a korg M1 to me too but indeed lots of late 80's/early 90's romplers got this "oh-ah" stuff

 

hehe, this is from 2001 and of course it is all hardware what was used.

most of these vocal hits are coming from technox, raven, and eventually korg or roland romplers, but of course you can basically do it yourself with any sampler, especially older ones like S-950 or the E III mentioned by the OP.

 

Last edited: Jun 26, 2025

the iconic ahs of 10cc