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EastWest must haves (beyond HO)?

5Lives

Senior Member
Hi all - as expected EW is doing a 50% off sale. I know many people recommend grabbing the Hollywood Orchestra, but beyond that, what are the must haves?

I have Hollywood Brass Gold (though underused compared to CSB), testing Hollywood Strings (but once again hard to beat CSS and even LASS for usability for me), and Spaces II. I have Berlin Woodwinds, Spitfire Harp, CineWinds and CinePerc, and Chris Hein Solo Violin and Cello as well.

Thanks!
 
Hi all - as expected EW is doing a 50% off sale. I know many people recommend grabbing the Hollywood Orchestra, but beyond that, what are the must haves?

I have Hollywood Brass Gold (though underused compared to CSB), testing Hollywood Strings (but once again hard to beat CSS and even LASS for usability for me), and Spaces II. I have Berlin Woodwinds, Spitfire Harp, CineWinds and CinePerc, and Chris Hein Solo Violin and Cello as well.

Thanks!
If you're writing pop or funk-themed music for any reason their new pop brass sounds nice and imo better than NI session horns. If you're more of an orchestral guy like me, it sounds like you have most of their best orchestral stuff anyways. I quite like their pianos, though. Very well recorded and deeply sampled to capture the nuance. You might want to check out Ra, Silk, and Stormdrum. There's a lot of useful stuff in there and in my experience Silk has the best sampled versions of a few ethnic/world instruments such as erhu, which I believe is the best erhu on the market ATM. Hollywood perc has been a trusty workhorse for me and you might want to check it out. I'm not sure how redundant it is with cineperc because I don't have cineperc, but worth considering.
 
I use HS and HB Gold religiously. Not a fan of the rest of the Hollywood Orchestra. I also still use a ton of stuff from SO Gold, Silk, RA, the Stormdrum's, Hollywood/Symphonic Choirs, and many others.
 
No such thing as a must have, but outside of the entire HO (because they blend together so well) and Hollywood Choir my favorites are Silk and RA, Stormdrum 2 and Ghostwriter. And I think for when I need it the new Hollywood Pop Brass, but I just don't need it that often.

I also like the Joe Chiccarelli kits in Pro Drummer for when I want an aggressive sound.
 
I don’t have any choirs at the moment really apart from olympus elements. How are Hollywood Choirs and the other vocal libraries?

Forgot to mention, I also have RA but find it harder to use / not as nice compared to NI’s India and Middle East collections and dedicated Celtic libraries. Maybe need to revisit.

I’ve always thought about SD2 and maybe SD3 - which is better? I need more percussion, but was thinking about something like Strikeforce or something - is that much better / broader?
 
From libraries, Silk and Ra. Especially Silk.

Kind of sad though, that the ultimate flagship of their products is Spaces II.
 
Honestly nothing is must have from EW. And for percussion you're better off with something else (like strike force or Heavyocity... even NI).

Also choirs, I would look elsewhere.
 
I know not many people suggest Fab Four and Ghostwriter. But there’s something special about getting that Beatles sound right and coming close to Steven Wilson’s prog world.
 
Spaces II has some wonderful impulse responses that I use on almost every orchestral project. Big +1 to that one.
 
Kind of sad though, that the ultimate flagship of their products is Spaces II.

100% Agree. I have Composer Cloud plus which is the whole package with all the mics....and at the end of the day Spaces II is the best thing they have going. It is an amazing reverb. It has something perfect for every situation...so easy to use too.

Strangely enough I actually quite like VOP (Voices of Passion). It has a few niche things that I really like. Then I got Clara (Zero-g) and use that way more.
Voices of Empire has a half dozen niche things that I find interesting....but I wouldn't pay 200$ for either of them....

I use the harps...they are decent, but I don't own much else in the way of harps to compare it to.

I own both Genesis children choir and Olympus Full Venus and Mars which are both phenomenal....with that said....I rarely use either of the HW or EW choirs....plus 8dio Studio Sopranos is another one I reach for when looking for niche choir at the higher notes.

I tried with everything in me to make the HW solo strings work, but then I got the solo emotional violin and solo emotional cello from Harmonic Subtones and that put a real quick end to ever using HW solo strings for anything ever again. Again....I do use the harp though.

I wanted Voices of Opera to be good, but I just can't grasp it...Voices of Rapture is way easier to use.....and sounds better..and the legato of Voices of Opera just isn't what it should be. Unless you want to make tracks full of prebuilt phrases....it is too limited.

Pop brass seems pretty good....but not my style of music....others may really like it.
I think Gypsy is really good....but again....not my style of music.
Ra and Silk get a bad rap.....they have their issues but there is some really cool stuff in their that works well.

The dark side and ghostwriter...….I'd feel so ripped off if I bought them outside of the composer cloud...not sure how even at 50% off these are a fair deal.

But yes.....the HW orchestra is pretty good....other than the Woodwinds. The percussion is really nice, but then I got Rhapsody Orchestral Percussion from Impact Soundworks….and use that most of the time.

The old EW Symphony Orchestra has some good stuff too....but its really getting outdated....but sounds good.

And last but absolutely the worst....do NOT waste your money on the Pianos.....possibly the worst virtual pianos ever....

All in all, I'm on the fence about renewing my subscription come January. Most of the stuff I like I use for a niche thing here and there....and now that I have CSS.....well....I find that I'm using HW strings less and less....but there are some cool articulations in there that CSS doesn't have....but 95% of the time CSS takes care of what I need....and the sound of CSS is another class completely.
Making music with CSS is like someone slowly spooning creamy chocolate pudding down my throat. Its just so silky smooth....

I would make a similar comparison of CSB to HW brass too.

Finally....even though it is expensive...I'll probably by Spaces II outright.
 
I grabbed Spaces II during the recent 60% off sale because I didn't have a convolution reverb (apart from Logic's Space Designer, but you're paying for the IRs, not the player really). I don't see myself needing another one, ever. I imagine the case should be the case if you already have Altiverb?

Thanks for the feedback all! I don't see myself buying Hollywood Strings given my usage of Hollywood Brass and the fact that I already have CSS, Spitfire Chamber Strings, and LASS.

For $199 (sales price), I'm wondering if I can get better percussion elsewhere than SD2 (or SD3 - $400 for the both of them, which seems quite steep). Already have Action Strikes.
 
And for percussion you're better off with something else (like strike force or Heavyocity... even NI).
You mean for “epic” music, right? I find HOP to be excellent for orchestral stuff. Master Sessions/Damage and StrikeForce are way more geared toward epic trailer stuff, so not a great comparison IMO.
 
I can get Spaces II as an upgrade for $149. But I already have Altiverb 7. Would I use Spaces II?
I have personally found the new IRs to be ok to meh for the most part. I still use mostly the same ones I used when spaces I was out. If I were not on the composer cloud I doubt I'd have upgraded. Especially if I had altiverb.
 
You mean for “epic” music, right? I find HOP to be excellent for orchestral stuff. Master Sessions/Damage and StrikeForce are way more geared toward epic trailer stuff, so not a great comparison IMO.
Yes, mostly. But even NI Symphony series percussion could be a contender. I'm a composer cloud subscriber (for now) but I wouldn't recommend the EW line in most cases. I just think there is better value and options out there... and I happen to prefer Kontakt over Play.
 
I can get Spaces II as an upgrade for $149. But I already have Altiverb 7. Would I use Spaces II?
Altiverb is great, it comes with so much.
Spaces II has some of my favorite IR's for orchestra (all ones that were in Spaces 1 as well). There's a lot of unlabeled-as-we-know-them LA scoring stages in there and they sound great.

But chances are you're probably already plenty covered by AV7. It's a monster package.
 
Dude...just stick with Composer Cloud. If you do this for a living it's a must have. Even if you just do it for some side $$...it's a must have. I have found a (good) use for just about every library they make aside from their older, more obscure and dated stuff and even then I can find sounds work well for what I need.

Of course, I use some more (much more) than others. Besides HO--which I use extensively--I would have to say that their ethnic instrument collections are absolutely essential (Silk, Ra, and Voices of the Empire). After that, the Stormdrums.
 
I am trying CC for 1 month - have downloaded HS, SD2, and SD3. Honestly, I'm glad I tried it this way - I don't think I'll be getting any of those. Saga and Strikeforce sound and look much more appealing to me.
 
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