Is The EastWest Symphonic Orchestra a good first Orchestral Library?

[Jdiggity1]

In Logic? Care to share a project to see what a production looks like in this resource-friendly claim?

Cheers!

Here's a sketch from a few years ago. The whole project used 4GB of memory using Symphonic Orchestra Gold, made on a 2011 MBP. Perhaps not the best mock-up in the world but for a resource footprint like that, I was happy.



There were more strings tracks loaded than what is shown

EDIT: This project was updated and made for Logic Pro as well as Cubase. And now available here: https://www.synthestration.com/product/symphonic-explorations/

 

[Jeremy Spencer]

Not suggesting that EWQLSO would be the more sensible choice. I'd most certainly recommend BBCSO over EWQLSO - obviously.

It just strikes me as quite laughable that BBCSO is already being treated as the 2nd coming of Christ by some, which just is ridiculous, given the fact that absolutely noone was able to get their hands on the thing yet. And these are exactly the people who in a matter of 2 months will be back on the quest for the ultimate, no this time for real, must have thing that will totally elevate everything they do. No matter the pedigree and track record of any developer - they all have some duds and things can always turn out not that optimal. Many times bitten, in the meantime a bit more shy.

Not saying that this will be the case with BBCSO, mind you. In fact, to me it seems that it's gonna be more of the same. Which should be pretty great overall, but still not for everybody and not quite the magic bullet. I have a lot of SF stuff too, and it's been hit and miss, so I too have a reasonable basis for extrapolating that "wait and see" is a sensible approach.

I'm buying it because it's exactly what I'm after. Like @JohnG, I also shelled out a few grand for EWQL Complete many years ago (pre PLAY), and later on Hollywood Strings and Brass, so paying the intro price for this library is a total steal IMO. It's pretty much the same price as one section from the Spitfire SSO. I love the new player, the demos, and the sounds played in the walkthrough videos. If it sucks, then it's my loss, but I'm sure it will deliver.

 

[chocobitz825]

It's crazy to me how on this board BBCSO is already being touted by so many as the new standard, the best orchestral package, etc., and is wholeheartedly recommended to newcomers on several occasions. Please. That's some ridiculous brand loyalty groupthink that's going on. The damn thing is not even out yet, and even when it is, it might not be the non plus ultra for everyone and anyone.

For Christ's sake, don't pre-order something that costs 750 bucks and isn't even out yet if you're planning your first orchestral samples purchase.

Yeah it’s alarming to see people recommend this without it being out yet, and without trying the player....is it a status thing?

 

[Hanu_H]

I have also had EWQLSO for a long time, bought it before PLAY and it was my only library for years. It has some great patches(percussion and some effects mostly) but overall it's really outdated in every way. I've said it many times here as well, that I really don't think it's a good library for beginners. It's really a confusing library with a lot of different patches with difficult names to learn. If EW would update it and make it "modern" with keyswitches, etc, it would be an option, but at the moment I don't recommend it to the beginners. I did use it with 4 gigs of ram for years, but I had to do a lot of track freezing. I think you'll get a lot better and faster results with something like the VSL Synchronized SE or even with The Orchestra. You should also check out the Steinberg's Iconica if you get a student discount on it and you can try it 30 days for free.

Iconica: VST Orchestra Library

Iconica was recorded in legendary Funkhaus Berlin and brings exceptional modern orchestral expression to professional composers.

www.steinberg.net

 

[José Herring]

It was my first major library purchase and I still use some of it to this day along with Hollywood Orchestra and CS. I'm using some of the tuned percussion right now and also the double basses are really good down bellow for weight.

But......If I were starting all over again and was in a position of getting only one library, I would get BBCSO. Not that much more money than EWQLSO is today. Certainly way less than when EWQLSO was released. But, BBCSO offers so much more.

We've entered an age where before BBCSO was released I would have said and did say EWQLSO was still a good choice, but now,nah... BBCSO is the new all in one and then you can get other more boutique specialized libraries to fill in the gaps or to add to that base.

 

[Uiroo]

Of course BBCSO is the obvious consideration if you don't have anything at all. A full orchestra at that price, with legato, first chair's, all sections, etc. Is there anything like that?

And of course you should wait until it's released and check the reviews before spending all the money you have on it.

But unless it's not really disappointing it looks to me like it's the best choice for someone starting out.

 

[SergeD]

Are you so in a hurry? Keep your money for a new pc laptop, download a free library like DrumMic'a (https://en-us.sennheiser.com/drummica) which will allow you to get on sale a Kontakt crossgrade version having plenty of instruments + some free libraries available from developers.

Invest your money instead of spending it

 

[José Herring]

Are you so in a hurry? Keep your money for a new pc laptop, download a free library like DrumMic'a (https://en-us.sennheiser.com/drummica) which will allow you to get on sale a Kontakt crossgrade version having plenty of instruments + some free libraries available from developers.

Invest your money instead of spending it

Is it weird that I can understand everything he is saying in German in that video? I've watched way to many product videos at this point.

And why is Sennheiser using Nuewmann mics for their product? You think that they would stick exclusively to Sennheisers.

 

[PaulieDC]

Nevertheless, today, i would urge you (if you can), to get a better computer, most likely a desktop, and go for Spitfire's new BBC orchestra library.

I second the motion.

 

[PaulieDC]

Not suggesting that EWQLSO would be the more sensible choice. I'd most certainly recommend BBCSO over EWQLSO - obviously... No matter the pedigree and track record of any developer - they all have some duds and things can always turn out not that optimal. Many times bitten, in the meantime a bit more shy.

Not saying that this will be the case with BBCSO, mind you. In fact, to me it seems that it's gonna be more of the same. Which should be pretty great overall, but still not for everybody and not quite the magic bullet. I have a lot of SF stuff too, and it's been hit and miss, so I too have a reasonable basis for extrapolating that "wait and see" is a sensible approach.

Thing is, for a budding composer it's quite a good start regardless of what finer points are missing. It's full orchestra for under a grand that isn't recorded to be cinematic sliced bread. We already know it sounds good, certainly for an up-and-coming, and you have the whole orchestra to pick from. The goal right now is composing, not submitting a final piece to JJ Abrams.

 

[PaulieDC]

Not suggesting that EWQLSO would be the more sensible choice. I'd most certainly recommend BBCSO over EWQLSO - obviously... No matter the pedigree and track record of any developer - they all have some duds and things can always turn out not that optimal. Many times bitten, in the meantime a bit more shy.

Not saying that this will be the case with BBCSO, mind you. In fact, to me it seems that it's gonna be more of the same. Which should be pretty great overall, but still not for everybody and not quite the magic bullet. I have a lot of SF stuff too, and it's been hit and miss, so I too have a reasonable basis for extrapolating that "wait and see" is a sensible approach.

Thing is, for a budding composer it's quite a good start regardless of what finer points are missing. It's full orchestra for under a grand that isn't recorded to be cinematic sliced bread. We already know it sounds good, certainly for an up-and-coming, and you have the whole orchestra to pick from. The goal right now is composing, not submitting a final piece to JJ Abrams.

 

[José Herring]

Just to be clear though, I loved EWQLSO and still to this day think it's great. It has its pitfalls but you can learn what they are. I don't want my post to come across as slamming EWQLSO. Nick and Doug and when Jay was the rep, they've been nothing but kind to me over the years and the EW customer service has been nothing but friendly.

I still use and still plan to use Hollywood Orchestra and many other EW products.

Just that BBCSO seems like it is trying to be everything that EWQLSO was only with 15+ years of development behind it. So as ground breaking as EWQLSO was in the day, it's hard for that to compete unless they drop the price to a few hundred for the full version. But, it wouldn't make sense for EW to do that.

What I do hope they do is go back to the original recordings and not normalized the samples and not to overly srub the samples with noise reduction. If they did that I would in a heartbeat get it again even without legato samples. It's still has that big hall sound that is hard to replicate with samples recorded in studios and the engineer they used did a great job of capturing some really good recordings.

It would be worth it to me if they just undid all the editing that they did to make it "bigger than real" and to just cut the original recordings as is without normalizing the samples.

 

[chocobitz825]

Is it sad that many feel the peak options for this part of the market are a 15 year old product, or a product that hasn’t even been released yet? I have east EWQLSO, and really it was my first. It gave me enough to work with and learn, but still had me yearning for better in the end. I ordered BBCSO and I hope its as good as everyone here believes it to be. Maybe I’m just not as optimistic because after hoarding tons of libraries, I’ve found none are the holy grail and you’ll always end up wanting something else later.

i cant help but think that if I was coming out of school tryin to get my start, I’d focus on something that fits the current needs. I’ve heard a lot of praise for Nucleus, and Palette and Amadeus are great lightweight sketching tools to start. Surely one of those options would fit OPs immediate needs and system limitations. I mean, there are a lot of of libraries that are compatible with free Kontakt player and learning kontakt for the time being is an inevitable task.

 

[paularthur]

I wish I could EWQLSO on Kontakt ...

 

[chocobitz825]

I wish I could EWQLSO on Kontakt ...

Any copies of the old kontakt version around still? Does the play edition have any major changes from the old version?

 

[MauroPantin]

If EW would update it and make it "modern" with keyswitches, etc, it would be an option, but at the moment I don't recommend it to the beginners.

Just to clarify on this point, EWQLSO on Play 6 with a Composer Cloud subscription does contain patches with key switches and (simulated) legato transitions. It is still not as great by today's standards, but perfectly okay for sketching.

 

[Dex]

OP, ignore all the people recommending the BBC orchestra. It’s not even out yet, so people have no idea how it feels, how easy it is to program, what bugs are in it, etc. People on this board hype the everloving shit out of things right before they come out and for a month or so after.

If you’d asked last Christmas, you’d have had tons of people recommending Amadeus, not just to beginners, but to everyone. Nowadays people aren’t very enthusiastic about it, except as a beginner or sketching library. As for me though, I have it, I like it, and I would recommend it to you at this point in your career. It sounds a little “cheap,” but you can sound as good as most video game soundtracks (except the AAA ones recorded with real orchestras) with it. It’s also quite dry if you turn the built in reverb off, which can help with layering with other libraries later, or with mixing it in with other styles like pop or rock if you’re into that.

 

[chocobitz825]

OP, ignore all the people recommending the BBC orchestra. It’s not even out yet, so people have no idea how it feels, how easy it is to program, what bugs are in it, etc. People on this board hype the everloving shit out of things right before they come out and for a month or so after.

If you’d asked last Christmas, you’d have had tons of people recommending Amadeus, not just to beginners, but to everyone. Nowadays people aren’t very enthusiastic about it, except as a beginner or sketching library. As for me though, I have it, I like it, and I would recommend it to you at this point in your career. It sounds a little “cheap,” but you can sound as good as most video game soundtracks (except the AAA ones recorded with real orchestras) with it. It’s also quite dry if you turn the built in reverb off, which can help with layering with other libraries later, or with mixing it in with other styles like pop or rock if you’re into that.

I haven’t followed the BBCSO thread so I didn’t realize there was such a fever about it. This reminds me of when modern scoring brass came out and everyone was sure it was gonna be the next greatest thing...then there weren’t enough demos at release and when people got their hands on it reviews were mixed. It’s negligent to recommend BBCSO so highly when no one has even tried it yet. In my experience with The Hans zimmer player, it’s really not that great. I’m not totally convinced that spitfire has mastered their own player yet and i anticipate complaints will come from that.

I agree with you. Amadeus didn’t blow me out of the water, but it’s a solid starting point. I prefer palette but either one has potential for a growing composer.

 

[Jeremy Spencer]

OP, ignore all the people recommending the BBC orchestra. It’s not even out yet, so people have no idea how it feels, how easy it is to program, what bugs are in it, etc. People on this board hype the everloving shit out of things right before they come out and for a month or so after.

If you’d asked last Christmas, you’d have had tons of people recommending Amadeus, not just to beginners, but to everyone. Nowadays people aren’t very enthusiastic about it, except as a beginner or sketching library. As for me though, I have it, I like it, and I would recommend it to you at this point in your career. It sounds a little “cheap,” but you can sound as good as most video game soundtracks (except the AAA ones recorded with real orchestras) with it. It’s also quite dry if you turn the built in reverb off, which can help with layering with other libraries later, or with mixing it in with other styles like pop or rock if you’re into that.

I bought BBCSO, but I’m willing to take the risk. Spitfire is a reputable company with great products and a good track record. I agree one should wait until reviews are out there, but I’m confident this will be a gem.....and the all-in-one orchestral library I’ve personally been waiting for.

 

[José Herring]

Any copies of the old kontakt version around still? Does the play edition have any major changes from the old version?

I still use the Kontakt version. Never updated. I never will either. With the Kontakt version you can still get into the samples and edit them. I'm constantly surprised that many of the samples don't start right away, out of tune, ect... I've had to tighten up so many stacc patches because the sample start times were inconsistent.

I heard that they went in and re-edited all the samples for the Play version. I have yet to hear any real difference, but I noticed that all the demos are still the demos from the original version so I don't know. Maybe it got better when they switched to Play.

And, no it is no longer available as a Kontakt library. I still have to authorize my Kontakt version on the website and I have to do it by authorizing the fringin' Kompakt player, which I no longer have so my days of EWQLSO on Kontakt are numbered unless I can find and instal the original disk.

So, I'm looking forward to BBCSO. It's time to make the switch and Spitfires other full libraries are way too expensive for me to even consider for a moment.