Eastwest Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra (All modules released)

[ALittleNightMusic]

Wish there were more user demos of this library - it has a particular sound, but curious how flexible it is. It also reminds me of something like Celtic Era or something, so how duplicative is it of Celtic instrument collections?

 

[mducharme]

Wish there were more user demos of this library - it has a particular sound, but curious how flexible it is. It also reminds me of something like Celtic Era or something, so how duplicative is it of Celtic instrument collections?

I think they are different beasts. I was mostly interested in this for the Wagner Tubas (for which there aren't many good sampled options), but since I also wanted Forbidden Planet at some point, I grabbed this.

I've just gone through most of the patches in this and this seems to be largely geared more towards a sort of epic world (and "epic celtic") if that makes sense. It doesn't have a single Uilleann pipe, but 3 in unison, 3 lutes in unison, etc. It gives a different sound - the a2/a3 unisons on things like the lutes add a bit of body that could allow this to cut through a mix better and be audible without sounding like you're having to crank up the volume unnaturally or relying too much on things like parallel compression.

The unison winds evoke a "going into battle" type of sound, particularly the three Uilleann pipes. I find this is also the case with unison winds in an orchestral context - scores like Goldsmith's Mulan with unison oboes tend to have that martial sound. I don't think I would want to use these unison winds where I didn't want such a heavy sound. Being stuck with two tin whistles in unison would really hinder doing a mockup of something like "Concerning Hobbits".

 

[Epic Inspector]

The only thing that keeps me away from buying it (or keeps me a bit hesitated to buy it) is that I did a quick experimentation today with my Rinascimento by Fluffy Audio, ERA2/Celtic ERA by Eduardo and my usual Cinesamples/Cinematic Studio/etc.. orchestras. I did 3 layers in unison of each instrument, sent them to a huge fantasy reverb and sketched a 1-min dark fantasy orchestral piece.

And guess what?!

The sound is so close to FOOPUS. I'll export it tomorrow and share it here.

However, the orchestrator is what forces and pushes me to buy FOOPUS

 

[mducharme]

However, the orchestrator is what forces and pushes me to buy FOOPUS

The orchestrator is nice here. Particularly because these are somewhat unusual combinations, so you end up getting this really interesting sounding "orchestra" with many of the combinations that sounds like what a regular orchestra might be on a parallel universe Earth, one where some of these ethnic instruments won out over the ones we have in a standard orchestra.

I think it's less important if you are just trying to blend these instruments with a more traditional orchestra instead of trying to use them by themselves.

 

[ananmusatili]

The only thing that keeps me away from buying it (or keeps me a bit hesitated to buy it) is that I did a quick experimentation today with my Rinascimento by Fluffy Audio, ERA2/Celtic ERA by Eduardo and my usual Cinesamples/Cinematic Studio/etc.. orchestras. I did 3 layers in unison of each instrument, sent them to a huge fantasy reverb and sketched a 1-min dark fantasy orchestral piece.

And guess what?!

The sound is so close to FOOPUS. I'll export it tomorrow and share it here.

However, the orchestrator is what forces and pushes me to buy FOOPUS

I also decided to try and alleviate my GAS by going through my libraries and create a track preset list / template of instruments to try to emulate FOOPUS.

Lo and behold, I was able to patch together an instrument list that covers most of the FOOPUS range. Granted, I can't get an exact match, I'm missing the orchestrator and the articulation list is certainly shorter, but I am able to get the "sound" of it quite well using Symphobia 1, 2 & 3, Musio, LABS, Terra Incognita and Hurdy Gurdy from Sonokinetic + some other small libraries.

Alpenhorns and the lutes are pretty much the only ones I can't find, but they're certainly not a requirement.

 

[Fleer]

Wouldn’t want to miss the Orchestrator though…

 

[BeyondBoreas]

Wish there were more user demos of this library - it has a particular sound, but curious how flexible it is. It also reminds me of something like Celtic Era or something, so how duplicative is it of Celtic instrument collections?

I have some pieces made only with FO, rendered with the internal verb. I'm just gonna post links to three of them, if you want to get an idea of how this library can sound in different scenarios. They are a bit rough around the edges though, due to my lack of decent mixing skills.

Upbeat orchestral:

Adventurous:

Horror/suspense:

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[Epic Inspector]

The orchestrator is nice here. Particularly because these are somewhat unusual combinations, so you end up getting this really interesting sounding "orchestra" with many of the combinations that sounds like what a regular orchestra might be on a parallel universe Earth, one where some of these ethnic instruments won out over the ones we have in a standard orchestra.

Couldn't agree more. However, I decided to skip it this time hoping to get it for 299 this year's BF. Fingers crossed!

I think it's less important if you are just trying to blend these instruments with a more traditional orchestra instead of trying to use them by themselves.

Actually, it's the main point to blend ethnic instruments with traditional orchestra since FOOPUS is a fantasy orchestra, not just solo medieval/ethnic instruments like Fluffy Audio's or Eduardo's. Because FOOPUS also includes Vlns/Vlas/Vlcs and Basses, it was vital to blend them with my existing orchestras. In other words, it's not so hard to imitate this library. I am not against buying it but let's put in mind that it's an extremely genre-specific library with limited usage, which is just a "Fantasy" usage. Honestly, $299 would be a very good price for it but not more.

 

[RM 13]

Honestly, $299 would be a very good price for it but not more.

I totally agree. Whenever the price goes to $299 I'll get it but not for more.

For now I got the 30 day free composer cloud just to play with it and try to make some tracks. I did play with most of the patches and I'd agree that it's a different beast compared to Tarilonte's Eras or Rinascimento etc, mainly because it offers some really good string and brass sections along with the more traditional instruments, as well as a pretty usable choir and Merethe's solo voice. To my surprise the high strings legato sounds very close to Soaring Strings or MA1 High strings legato 8va which is very useful if you're going for "epic". On the other hand, Eras are easier to use in specific cases, for instance the lutes have chords articulations which are very useful to have. Obviously you can program them in FOOPUS but it just takes a bit more time. All in all is a great package if you want to add this kind of sound to your palette.