Jeremy Spencer
Senior Member
Too bad they can’t fix known bugs.
Honest thoughts on Hollywood Strings and the EastWest libraries in 2022?
- Thread starter amysteriouskeyboard
- Start date
carlc
Go Make Something
I haven’t run into any issues with Opus so far, it’s been very stable for me. Then again, I am probably not stressing it to the same level as many people here. Is there a VI-C thread that you can recommend which describes the main issues? I’d be curious to see if I can reproduce them. If yes then I will also submit my own support tickets. Can’t hurt, right?
Jeremy Spencer
Senior Member
This is a big issue for me, they’ve known about it for ages. Actually, they fixed it half-assed. The problem is resolved…until you reopen the saved project.
OPUS Hollywood Strings - Release samples issues
Hi folks / OPUS HWS users Can you please check the below issues 1-Release samples issue with all instruments (full sections or Divisis) labeled "Leg Slur MAX": Regardless which mic position is loaded, when you ride the dynamic (Expression/CC11) below 50%, the played note becomes quieter (as...
vi-control.net
I own the Eastwest collection but not Opus
Hollywood Diamond Woodwinds Brass Strings Percussion and Harp
the woodwind legatos are sublime
The brass are superb and grandiose
And the strings are Hollywood as you wish
I also have quite a few banks of Spitfire Audio
If you want chamber stringsd
I own 3 banks of Spitfire Audio
Chamber Strings but not the professional version
London Contempary Orchestra
but it's a bank rather with unconventional techniques
Then there is Albion Neo
the strings are amazing
there is a presence, clarity, precision
which I have not found on any other bank so far
Man, EW still hate on legacy play users, they keep coming with amazing sales without send upgrades paths for sale on these kind of sites where the price gets a good discount amount on top, and the value for upgrading to Opus match like a brand new license. I don't understand at all these machanism with EW. And yes for me if this help, Hollywood Orchestra sounds really good with a good reverb at your arsenal (even on play, player)
MelodicAdagio
Member
I like EW Hollywood Strings and the Opus player as well. But with string libraries (as with libraries in general) each has its own character and personality, depending on where and how it was recorded. Each has things it does well and other things it doesn't do as well.
Consequently it's nice to have more than one string library so that you can audition different ones for the task at hand. Sometimes your main go-to or favorites just won't cut it for a particular piece while something else you seldom use nails it.
Consequently it's nice to have more than one string library so that you can audition different ones for the task at hand. Sometimes your main go-to or favorites just won't cut it for a particular piece while something else you seldom use nails it.
Johnny
Senior Member
Try Layering in something new over top to get ten more years out of HW Strings and Brass? For myself, I'll overlay some Musical Sampling Soaring Strings or Vista in replacement of HW strings Legato for melodic writing- keeping the rest of your composition HW Strings. For Brass? Maybe substitute some of your horn or trumpet legatos with Legato instruments from the 8Dio Century Brass Series? Don't get too hung up on "blending" libraries or trying to make the instruments match rooms tonally. End of the day, people really do not notice or even care... If it sounds good? It is good! Rule of thumb across the majority of all pro audio disciplines within the industry. All that matters is the end result, it matters not how you got there ;p Just my two cents : P
doctoremmet
Senior Member
I wholeheartedly concur
Chris Schmidt
Active Member
It's not really possible for sample libraries to become "outdated"
If it sounds bad today, then it sounded bad when it came out.
There are people still making great music with Symphonic Orchestra Gold which is old enough to buy beer now.
For me, with these things, it's more about three questions: How many articulations does it have? Do the different articulations sound like they're coming from the same instrument/performance, and does it have good playability?
I've personally yet to encounter an orchestral library that delivers on the latter two, but East West at least delivers on articulations, so I say go for it.
mussnig
Senior Member
I'm a bit confused about OPUS in general and would be glad if somebody in this thread could help me out.
I have no EW product so far but I am interested in Hollywood Choirs. I have seen that this lib is now available in the OPUS engine as well. So when I buy Hollywood Choirs, does it automatically come in the OPUS engine or does it only come in OPUS if I also buy Hollywood Orchestra?
I have no EW product so far but I am interested in Hollywood Choirs. I have seen that this lib is now available in the OPUS engine as well. So when I buy Hollywood Choirs, does it automatically come in the OPUS engine or does it only come in OPUS if I also buy Hollywood Orchestra?
nyxl
Member
I believe all instruments that you can buy from Eastwest today will come in the Opus engine without any further cost.
You can also use all instruments that you purchased before the release of Opus in the Opus engine now without any update cost, with one exception: the Hollywood Orchestra. Since the Opus edition of Hollywood Orchestra contains significant amounts of new content, you have to pay to update your Hollywood Orchestra to the Opus edition, if you have purchased it before the release of Opus.
All other libraries (including Hollywood Choirs) have the same content in Opus as they did in Play.
mussnig
Senior Member
Thank you!
Quantum Leap
nickphoenix.com
FYI, Play was a problem for years. It took at least 3 years to even get it to a reasonable place. And we were running really big complicated libraries in Play. But PLAY was not built for the future and it was taken as far as was possible. EW spent 5 years building a replacement for PLAY. OPUS is the replacement and it is really well designed and flexible system. It is definitely built with power users in mind: One computer running massive amounts of instruments and samples, plug-ins off SSD drives. Even though the final version of PLAY is decent, EW wants to forget PLAY ever existed I think. OPUS is so much better.
Thanks Nick, always great to hear your perspective.
One area though where OPUS seems to have taken a step back is how memory is utilised between multiple samples within an instance.
In PLAY if you loaded an instance with a few horn sustain and legato patches for example, the samples common to both those patches (the sus element in this case) would only be loaded into RAM once, and then shared between the patches. But with OPUS the same samples are loaded each time.
A project of mine which took about 33GB of RAM in PLAY takes nearly double that in OPUS.
Of course, I could be doing something very wrong!
Jeremy Spencer
Senior Member
Well, EW certainly didn't have efficiency in mind (except for the purge function). I find I'm using a lot more system resources in OPUS than I was in Play.
Hmm. Feeling a bit uncertain about it all now.
I'm working on a project that I began in PLAY, I've converted it all to OPUS now, and massaged things a bit where that conversion was not straightforward, but I'm possibly slightly underwhelmed by the result.
I'm finding it uses twice as much RAM, (leaving less headroom than I was hoping for extra mics), and sounds possibly slightly worse than the PLAY version. This 'slightly worse' is probably due to insufficient massaging during the aforementioned conversion. But it does point to a seemingly increased unwieldiness of process.
One thing is I'm not happy with the legato in some of my string lines.
In PLAY you could clearly choose velocity or tempo based legato. I chose velocity and could easily control how fast each legato transition happened by inputting a velocity figure. Now with OPUS it seems Legato Slur transitions are controlled by velocity, but Legato Slur Bow change / Port patches are controlled by tempo, and some of these latter patches also involve a CC14 setting to control the legato!
I can find no mention in the manual of CC14 affecting legato (the only mention of CC14 I can find is related to repetition scripts), it only seems to be mentioned in the patch description within OPUS.
Unlike many I never had problems with PLAY, and the above observations coupled with the fact that I have no use for headline features like the Orchestrator, means I'm tempted to go back to PLAY - less RAM use and a seemingly more consistent legato control system.
I'm sure a large part of this is simply getting used to a new system, and it's very possibly I'm doing some things massively wrong. But I'm kind of wondering if getting used to a new system will be worth it in my case.
Nice quick load times though!
Ho hum. I expect this time next week my opinion will have flipped again!
I'm working on a project that I began in PLAY, I've converted it all to OPUS now, and massaged things a bit where that conversion was not straightforward, but I'm possibly slightly underwhelmed by the result.
I'm finding it uses twice as much RAM, (leaving less headroom than I was hoping for extra mics), and sounds possibly slightly worse than the PLAY version. This 'slightly worse' is probably due to insufficient massaging during the aforementioned conversion. But it does point to a seemingly increased unwieldiness of process.
One thing is I'm not happy with the legato in some of my string lines.
In PLAY you could clearly choose velocity or tempo based legato. I chose velocity and could easily control how fast each legato transition happened by inputting a velocity figure. Now with OPUS it seems Legato Slur transitions are controlled by velocity, but Legato Slur Bow change / Port patches are controlled by tempo, and some of these latter patches also involve a CC14 setting to control the legato!
I can find no mention in the manual of CC14 affecting legato (the only mention of CC14 I can find is related to repetition scripts), it only seems to be mentioned in the patch description within OPUS.
Unlike many I never had problems with PLAY, and the above observations coupled with the fact that I have no use for headline features like the Orchestrator, means I'm tempted to go back to PLAY - less RAM use and a seemingly more consistent legato control system.
I'm sure a large part of this is simply getting used to a new system, and it's very possibly I'm doing some things massively wrong. But I'm kind of wondering if getting used to a new system will be worth it in my case.
Nice quick load times though!
Ho hum. I expect this time next week my opinion will have flipped again!
Hollywood Strings 2 are much more of a chamber sound btw -- I just downloaded today and I'm really enjoying paying with the 6 mic positions and different articulations. OPUS is fabulous nowadays, though there are few things you have to know about to have a good experience (ie, disable multithreading for certain CPUs and sustain is janky in the VST3 version on Windows as of version 1.4.3).
They have a nice little demo video on youtube that walks through the sounds and a couple fully explained composition examples.
Crossroads
Senior Member
You called?
I think I am the biggest Hollywood Orchestra evangalist on this forum. I will give you a BIG and hopefully helpful response later today, okay?
syrinx
Senior Member
Seeing as they wrote that in 2022, I'm not sure you have to invest your time in that response (maybe, who knows?). This feels like a clear example of why this rule exists:You called?
I think I am the biggest Hollywood Orchestra evangalist on this forum. I will give you a BIG and hopefully helpful response later today, okay?
