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EastWest Hollywood Woodwinds?

I think there's a lot previous comment on here, just FYI.

Overall it's a bit synthetic, in an unappetitizing way. The snarly, slightly digital-y sound of Hollywood Brass that sounds forceful and cinematic is replaced here by a lumpy, mid-range heavy sound that isn't terribly sympathetic to most of the instruments, but especially the double-reeds. The contrabassoon sounds pretty odd. The legatos on any one mic position get a lot of phasing problems that need to be hidden by reverb or mixing positions to mask it.

Is it worth it? Hard to say. For one thing - I wouldn't get a copy that wasn't Diamond, because those legatos are going to be very frustrating with just the one mic position. I haven't used HWOW for ages, and whenever I do I find it far too meh to want to commit time or effort to making it sound good. So - I don't think I could recommend something sincerely that I don't myself bother using.
 
I have the Gold version. Flute 2 is fine (although I wouldn't say great), and maybe one or two others, but really it's better to look elsewhere even for that price.

They work OK in an orchestral context with other instruments, if hidden a bit in the mix. That's it.

And even then, its probably better to go for something like VSCO2 from Versilian Studios at this price. The woods in VSCO2 can do better, even though they only have scripted legato and fewer layers. The flutes especially in VSCO2 have a much better tone and usability. Plus you get some reasonable (albeit basic) percussion with it too.

VSL is the other better choice here.
 
They're very good, I especially love the English horn (though some here are dead set against it) and the clarinets. Like the Hein WWs (which are overall better imo) you have to apply judicious reverb and eq to get them sounding great, however HWWs is easily worth the regular price. And I know several pros whom still incorporate them.

But again, I typically default to the Hein for solo WWs.
 
How would you rank Cinewinds compared to EWHW?

I honestly wouldn't know, though I've heard some good things about Cinewinds.

I use only the Hein and EWHW for solo woodwinds. Don't see the need for anything else there, though a wet library might be interesting for a change.
 
I'm using that library through the ComposerCloud X subscription. It hardly ever gets used though since I'm using VSL woodwinds most of the time. The oboe and bassoon seem to sound the best from that library to me so far. The rest is ok, though the clarinet? Not so much.
 
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