Jeremy Spencer
Senior Member
Yes, EW Hollywood orchestral Woodwinds. I highly recommend these, I personally love them for big symphonic stuff. All personal taste, of course.
That's funny I know folks whom make orchestral scores for cash that still use EW Hollywood WWs... including me. There are naff instruments and patches in that library, some just plain lame. There are others, like the bassoon, flute, piccolo, and low instruments and patches, that are excellent imo. I'm also a big fan of the Cor Anglais though that doesn't get a lot of fanfare here. More than worth the going price, but be sure to get Diamond or nothing... I hate the default Hollywood mic. I'm first to agree it's the weakest in the series. . but then again the rest of the series is pretty badass imo. And BTW you can be as contrary as you want on this issue but there are plenty of paid composers who will teach from experience.Do you mean EW Hollywood Orchestral Woodwinds? Or Cinesamples' Hollywoodwinds?
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To be a contrarian regarding the last few recent posts about the East West library, I'm going to say do not buy Hollywood
Yes, I'd definitely scoop the HW now, especially the Diamond. It's a serious steal, and you can build ensembles yourself with that library all day money.
Thank you for the rebuttal. My opinion is what it is -- just an opinion.That's funny I know folks whom make orchestral scores for cash that still use EW Hollywood WWs... including me. There are naff instruments and patches in that library, some just plain lame. There are others, like the bassoon, flute, piccolo, and low instruments and patches, that are excellent imo. I'm also a big fan of the Co Anglais though that doesn't get a lot of fanfare here. More than worth the going price, but be sure to get Diamond or nothing... I hate the default Hollywood mic. I'm first to agree it's the weakest in the series. . but then again the rest of the series is pretty badass imo. And BTW you can be as contrary as you want on this issue but there are plenty of paid composers who will teach from experience.
I heard that Infinite Woodwinds was coming out any day. I think the price-point will be quite good, too. Caught a demo somehow and was very impressed with what I heard.
If you can wait a tiny little bit, it wouldn't heard to hear what you make of it!
Aaron Venture has a demo of the flute on his soundcloud page:
While I was always being a fan of EW Hollywood series, there is no doubt that WW was the weakest part. Lots of complaints and programming issues. It was partially solved by the updates but still, I think that WW although its quite complexity and huge instrument count is not as good sounding as some other ww but for the price... its awesomeThat's funny I know folks whom make orchestral scores for cash that still use EW Hollywood WWs... including me. There are naff instruments and patches in that library, some just plain lame. There are others, like the bassoon, flute, piccolo, and low instruments and patches, that are excellent imo. I'm also a big fan of the Cor Anglais though that doesn't get a lot of fanfare here. More than worth the going price, but be sure to get Diamond or nothing... I hate the default Hollywood mic. I'm first to agree it's the weakest in the series. . but then again the rest of the series is pretty badass imo. And BTW you can be as contrary as you want on this issue but there are plenty of paid composers who will teach from experience.
That's a good point. I like when people post audio examples and I myself try to post them when I can. But it's true that they can be varying degrees of helpful or unhelpful, depending on how well programmed they are, and whether they were made in good faith, or made to confirm a point of view that a person wants to reinforce.I never trust those types of examples, as recently demonstrated in the Spitfire Studio series threads. Some libraries are just plain bad, but too many are brushed off because of improper programming.
If you have the full version of kontakt the legacy orchestral instruments are real find. There are number of woodwinds in there that sound very very good. Plus you can add SIPS and WIPS scripts to make them sound even better.Hi everyone,
I can't wait any longer for Cinematic Studio Woodwinds so I'm going to bite the bullet and buy some 'temporary' woodwinds this week! I know this has kind of been covered with various other threads, but always good to hear any more opinions on these....
Having gone around in circles in my search, it's come down to:
- Spitfire Studio Woodwinds
- VSL woodwinds vol 1 SE
- Cinesamples Woodwinds
As I have educational discount they all come in at around the same price (£100 + a bit)
Which would you go for for a classic John Williams sound?
Thanks,
J
Hollywood WW have so many more patches and long articulations than shown in these (not good sounding) examples - and one doesn't need to rely for every single line ever played with WW 110% on legato by the way. Sometimes an expressive sustain - played the right way - does the trick with WW a lot better (less phasing)I never trust those types of examples, as recently demonstrated in the Spitfire Studio series threads. Some libraries are just plain bad, but too many are brushed off because of improper programming.
I never trust those types of examples, as recently demonstrated in the Spitfire Studio series threads. Some libraries are just plain bad, but too many are brushed off because of improper programming.
That's a good point. I like when people post audio examples and I myself try to post them when I can. But it's true that they can be varying degrees of helpful or unhelpful, depending on how well programmed they are, and whether they were made in good faith, or made to confirm a point of view that a person wants to reinforce.
What do you trust then? If someone is playing around with it on a walkthrough they could just be sloppy too. Official walkthrough and demo examples can be massaged to death to sound good.I never trust those types of examples, as recently demonstrated in the Spitfire Studio series threads. Some libraries are just plain bad, but too many are brushed off because of improper programming.
If you’re referring to the examples I posted — and I have a feeling you both are —, allow me to underline again that every single one of them was as good as I or anyone else could make them given the time constraints imposed by the discussion and the quality of those libraries. Apart from the examples which were intended specifically to show the presence of bad samples or faulty programming, everything I posted gave a very honest and accurate idea of what the Studio Woodwinds & Brass sound and behave like in the hands of a pretty experienced musician — and one who has always had great sympathy and a strong sense of loyalty towards Spitfire — trying to make music with this product.
The proof is in the fact that … no one has posted anything better since (or before). I mean, think about it: not a single soul has been able to post a single minute of good-sounding Studio Series music. You’d think that, with all the outrage, offense and indignation which my remarks caused, people would jump at the chance to be able to silence me and stamp me into the ground by posting a really good-sounding Studio Series example, but … no one has.
And no one ever will either, I’m sure of it. You don’t think, surely, that I was prepared to go to all that trouble and effort AND allowed an avalanche of viciousness and infantile mockery to be poured over me, if I wasn’t absolutely, totally and utterly convinced of what I have been saying?
It’s been three weeks since those spirited discussions, and I understand that quite a number of people purchased part or all of the Studio Series — some of them actually did so after hearing my audio examples — and yet for some reason, not one of these people has posted anything that refutes anything I wrote. Isn’t that telling? They all claim how pleased they are with these products and how absolutely wonderful these things sound, and they rarely fail to imply how ridiculously wrong I was about the whole thing, but for some reason, no one seems to be able or willing to go the extra step and post anything that confirms any of that. There is, to this day, not a single minute of SStWW music online (and the Brass and Strings aren't exactly celebrated with many audible examples of user enthusiasm either) that forces me to rethink any of my opinions on these libraries.
I am sorry, but I happen to recognise a problematic library when I have one under my fingers and, this side of Kirk Hunter's stuff, few are as problematic as the ones that make up the Studio Series.
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