What's new

Hymn To The Fallen - Mockup (Hollywood Orch + Choirs)

Jdiggity1

Senior Member
Moderator
Some of you may remember a mockup I shared about a year ago from How To Train Your Dragon that used only products from EastWest's Composer Cloud.
It wasn't without its faults, but overall I thought it was quite impressive and demonstrated the unbeatable bang-for-buck value of CC.
While HTTYD showed off a bombastic and 'produced' sound, I thought I'd try something completely different and see how EWHO handles a softer, slower, more natural and dynamic production. And with the release of Hollywood Choirs, I thought Hymn To The Fallen by John Williams would be appropriate.

I do believe HO's strengths lie in the more bombastic writing styles, but again I was very impressed with how much you can achieve with this, especially since there is only one mic position. Though perhaps not perfect, i like to think it's perfectly adequate for the purposes of a mockup.

Nevertheless... I do look forward to replacing much of HWB with CSB. :)

The mockup starts from the brass chorale (about 2 minutes into the original recording)

If listening at loud volumes, you might hear quite a bit of noise/hiss. What do you think of this? Too much? Do you like it?
To me it was one of those annoying balancing acts, where it's too soft when listening at low volumes, and too loud when pumping up the volume. To me though, this piece is meant to be listened to at low(ish) volumes, so i tried to cater for that. (pretty poor excuse for a lack in production skills if you ask me)
 

Attachments

  • Hymn To The Fallen - EWHO Jdiggity.mp3
    8.2 MB · Views: 891
Last edited:
I haven't got headphones with me so can't listen to this at the moment. But I can say that with the HWO you can probably make a mockup as good as any out there (of course, it has limitations). Wish I could share the actual examples I have in mind, but I haven't got the composer's permission. You've probably heard the tracks I'm thinking about, and not even noticed. These things are always a good reminder that we need to learn our libraries better than we think (or at least some of us do). Me mainly.
 
That hiss is weird. There might be something wrong here because I don't notice it at all with any of the EW libraries and I use headphones often. Nice job programming this mockup though.
 
The HWB portato articulations generally have a wonderful rich tone. I use them a fair bit for more mellow passages.
 
I feel dumb not using this side of HWB more.
It's not without its shortcomings, but it's one of my favourite libraries and best purchases to this day.
achieving this with HWB's low brass and trumpets is some sort of Christmas miracle. Walkthrough when?
What would be of value to you in a walkthrough? Anything in particular?
It sounds very good! Both soft and crisp brass. The entering of the choir....wonderful.
Thanks Ole! Yeah, that bit gets me too. The choir was quite impressive, to be honest.
...But I can say that with the HWO you can probably make a mockup as good as any out there (of course, it has limitations). These things are always a good reminder that we need to learn our libraries better than we think (or at least some of us do).
Exactly. That's essentially why i limited myself to just these libraries, and focused on using stock plugins too! And I tell you, it really helps you get through the crazy sales periods unscathed.
That hiss is weird. There might be something wrong here because I don't notice it at all with any of the EW libraries and I use headphones often. Nice job programming this mockup though.
Thanks. Yes, i do think the hiss is too much. I exported this a couple months ago, probably should have given it a once-over before uploading. But hey, add it to the list of "lessons learnt"!
The HWB portato articulations generally have a wonderful rich tone. I use them a fair bit for more mellow passages.
I'll have to check what i used for this. Thanks for the tip.
 
This is absolutely remarkable! I should've picked up that EWHO Diamond when it was at 349... ugh! Good job man, would love to hear some other mockups in the future with that lib :)

EDIT: Just checked on their site and it's currently at 379 :O
 
Awesome! I was wondering if you used any of the word builder of Hollywood choirs or just the vowel patches?
 
Top Bottom