Take your front‑row seat, take a seat again and revel in the display — Hollywood Strings is right here.
When it comes to preserving an viewers fascinated, los angeles‑primarily based sound company EastWest have the instincts of a showman. Their newest unlock became at first announced over a 12 months in the past, elevating expectations sky high and atmosphere cyber web forums ablaze with gossip. For months on end, visitors to the company's net web page were confronted with a set of purple theatre drapes concealing the thing of desire, so it changed into a dramatic second when show time eventually arrived and the curtains drew again to display the new famous person flip: Hollywood Strings, the world's biggest self‑contained string library, 13 months within the making and boasting round 800,000 samples.
A habitual query has been "what kind of equipment do I need to run this library?" One amazing advice from EastWest is that users looking for optimum efficiency may still use strong State Drives (SSDs) to condominium the samples. while these gadgets have an awful lot faster access speeds than typical difficult drives, they're significantly greater expensive. happily for these hit by using the current economic doom‑fest, the library runs with out issues on frequent fast drives, though some of its bigger patches do demand a pretty hefty equipment. (See below for EastWest's requirements.)
opposite to rumour, installing giant orchestral libraries from 35 DVDs is not the factor I appreciate most in lifestyles, so it was a aid to discover that HS ships pre‑installed on a hard pressure. besides the fact that children, I turned into shocked to locate that the power in query is a bare interior class, which capacity that you simply either should put it in a spare drive slot inner your computer or buy a correct external case for it. at the time of writing, EastWest's net web page states that the drive is presented for installing functions best and is "no longer supposed for day by day use (reminiscent of for storing the samples for streaming)", a caveat repeated on the product box. The business have now upgraded the drive to a 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black 7200RPM SATA model which they are saying is correct for sample streaming, and that they recommend that this warning message is now out of date.
EastWest Studios installation for a session. EastWest Studios is, of path, the studio designed by means of bill Putnam and formerly known as United Western Recorders.
The library was created by means of a quartet of Hollywood heavy hitters. EastWest supremo Doug Rogers and Nick Phoenix of Quantum jump want no introduction — having loved a knowledgeable partnership seeing that 1997, it's secure to count on they comprehend each different's names by now. For this mission, the pair enlisted proficient Norwegian composer/orchestrator Thomas Bergersen. Like Phoenix, Bergersen is an experienced movie-trailer tune producer, and having created a number of orchestral sound libraries for his own use (no, they may be no longer commercially purchasable), he shares EWQL's sampling and programming pedigree.
The fourth group member has a CV as long as your arm, and a display case full of Academy, BAFTA and Emmy awards: enter Shawn Murphy, the veteran sound engineer who has recorded and/or blended the soundtracks of over 300 characteristic movies throughout the ultimate 30 years. within the words of Doug Rogers, "Who more advantageous to reap that quintessential Hollywood sound than someone along with his credit?" An excited forum person put it extra emphatically: "DUDES!!! Shawn F‑ing MURPHY recorded it!!! it is gonna be ailing."
when you consider that early 2008, all EastWest/Quantum bounce releases have been formatted completely for their proprietary Play sound engine. Play comes in sixty four‑bit and 32‑bit flavours, both of which can be blanketed with the library. the executive abilities of the 64‑bit version is its means to access an awful lot bigger amounts of RAM, however as a way to run it, your working equipment, computer motherboard and (if you intend to use Play as a plug‑in) host sequencer also have to be 64‑bit. RAM utilization aside, there is no difference in fine or functionality between the 32‑bit and sixty four‑bit models of Play. (Full sixty four‑bit assist for Mac is not presently available — see observe within the 'device requirements' box.) The Play sound engine changed into reviewed together with EastWest's Fab 4 and Ministry of Rock libraries in SOS March 2008. read the article at /sos/mar08/articles/ewfabfourministryofrock.htm).
in the pastimes of musical expression, Hollywood Strings uses an remarkable quantity of pattern crossfading, inflicting a hike in polyphony that required some improvements to Play's utility. Play edition 2.0 (not to be confused with the drawing close Play pro) is now obtainable as a free down load to registered clients. The makers claim the update additionally improves loading instances, and whereas i used to be unable to compare Play v1 and v2 on the equal machine, I can say that on a 3.16GHz computing device the player took 25 seconds to load a 738MB instrument containing 7060 samples.
So what's not in HS? given that its selling factor is a massive‑scale, massive‑finances cinematic sound, it would not include solo contraptions or chamber sections. No chords, phrases, 'wild card' results or glissandi are blanketed both, however that you would be able to simulate the latter via enjoying a rapid chromatic run the use of a 'repetition runs script' instrument. notwithstanding it be doubtless not an issue for media composers, there aren't any real-lifestyles muted (con sordino) samples; the impact of the mute is simulated through a change that activates an EQ curve modelled on sordino recordings.
ample of the prologue: it be time for the main characteristic. Hollywood Strings become recorded in EastWest's Studio 1 with 57 of los angeles's properly string avid gamers, the use of full‑blown symphony orchestra part sizes (16/14/10/10/7). In marked distinction to EWQL Symphonic Orchestra (recorded in a reverberant concert corridor), HS has a significant‑room studio acoustic which, while by no ability dry, lends itself to clients including their personal reverb if desired. To that end, the library contains a tremendous menu of convolution reverb impulse responses, together with some derived from the corridor through which EWQLSO became recorded.
From the violins all the way down to the basses, these string sections have a gorgeous sound, texture and consider, with a rich, full symphonic sound and a luxurious first-class that comes from combining high-quality players with a wonderful sound engineer. The looped sustains are manna from heaven for pad retailers like myself, incorporating three levels of vibrato in addition to alternating up‑ and down‑bows. As one who likes to compose through enjoying, the provision of pre‑programmed, full, six‑octave strings sections is awfully helpful. which you can use Play's instrument key-range setting to construct your personal full strings setups, though you are going to locate that the presets require fewer samples.
assembly movie composers' insatiable need for driving eighth‑notice ostinatos, HS presents a generous preference of brief note deliveries ranging in length from powerful short marcatos to brisk, urgent staccatissimos on the way to do nicely for high‑octane action scenes. I favored the depth and forceful assault of the 'on‑the‑bow' staccato articulations (whose notes terminate with the bow still resting on the string) and the zing and jump of the spiccato samples — exceptional, vigorous performances. Some of those deliveries comprise as many as sixteen circular robins; a reset button means that you can force the circular-robin cycle back to the exact, and if vital which you could also add silent (zero velocity) notes earlier than a half starts, to line up the requisite RR pattern.
Following orchestral sample library optimal follow, the producers recorded absolutely different first and 2nd violin sections. This greatly raises the timbral variety — and arguably, value for money — as every violinist brings in his or her own unique, frequently helpful instrument! The 14‑piece second violin part replicate most of the articulations performed by using the 16 first violins, and also perform some gorgeous breathy flautandos (a delicate, whispering birth full of quiet anxiety) and a great set of chromatically‑mapped harmonics.
an additional articulation priceless of observe is the 'measured tremolos' performed with the aid of all sections, which time‑stretch to play their fast iterations at a person‑defined cost. The rhythmic effect is somewhat blurred, however a 16th‑word pulse will also be discerned. The same conception is applied to the observe repetitions performed by means of the violas and basses. With these, the heart beat is sharp and clear, notwithstanding its actual lifestyles pace is constantly a little slower than the tempo figure displayed through Play.
The Play engine's browser window.
To facilitate expression, HS adopts a 'double modulation' approach on some gadgets, by which MIDI expression (CC11) replaces velocity because the dynamics controller, while the vibrato depth is managed by the mod wheel (CC1), an method I first encountered in Garritan's Stradivari. It creates very lifelike, person‑controllable swells and fades and obviates the want for played crescendo and diminuendo samples: in place of fiddling round making an attempt to make fixed‑length crescendo samples fit the tempo of your association, that you may create completely‑timed crescendi of your own. starting notes and not using a vibrato, then steadily introducing it with the wheel is additionally very expressive. It takes a whereas to enhance the requisite foot/hand co‑ordination, but with observe the mixed modulation produces those dramatic, emotive surges in volume and vibrato depth we associate with strings.
The method works via crossfading between distinct layers of samples, with a decision of six, nine or 13 layers available for the vibrato sustains. Transitions between layers sound natural and extremely‑clean, however a drawback is that notwithstanding you are handiest hearing two layers at any one time, the others are taking part in silently and drinking polyphony. because of this, EastWest put the 13‑layer gadgets in 'potent device' folders, warning that they may be too taxing on hardware that falls below the informed specs. (due to the crossfading concerned, one of the most gigantic patches in HS use over 13,000 samples and require greater than 1GB of RAM. For the those with less powerful techniques EastWest created 'gentle' classes, accessible in the free HS instrument replace 1.0.1.) I find this a bit of perplexing — there's probably some technical reason why silent voices use up polyphony in Play, however changed into never an issue on my historical Akai S1000 hardwar e sampler!
I found the 'mod velocity' gadgets (which allow you to use the wheel to boost the speed of birth from very short staccatissimo to a short marcato) a very valuable programming help. Keyswitches are used during to change between semitone and tone trills, up and down runs, and so forth. additionally, every area has a single main keyswitch instrument incorporating quite a few forms of sustained be aware articulations. at the present it's not possible to create your own customized keyswitches in Play.
a realistic legato sound — a easy, unbroken, joined‑up line of notes, the hallmark of orchestral strings — isn't handy to obtain with samples. In HS, EastWest bit the bullet and, following the instance of Vienna Symphonic Library and others, painstakingly recorded legato intervals of one to 12 semitones, up and down, for each notice in the instrument's latitude. This generates gigantic amounts of sample facts and helps explain why libraries of this ilk are so big, and why they take so lengthy to create! I discovered the outcomes to be brilliant: with a little convolution reverb introduced, the cellos' legato performances sounded truly excellent.
HS offers three forms of legato: 'slur legato' (normal joined‑up notes), 'portamento' (Bollywood‑vogue slides), and 'bow alternate', where that you would be able to hear the avid gamers elongate notes by changing bow course. The legatos incorporate diverse dynamics and vibrato strengths (managed with the aid of CC11 and CC1 respectively), so you have the wonderful advantage of including precise‑sounding, expressive surges and diminuendos to legato melody traces. speed is used to handle the velocity of the intervals, including that of the portamento slides: enjoying hard triggers a brief note transition, while the 51‑60 speed latitude works top-rated for slow‑relocating performances. The quickest legato intervals talk rapidly, however they're not as much as producing a sensible trill impact. if you want a type of, use the performed trills samples.
although these legato contraptions are in fact monophonic, a MIDI CC22 command will render them polyphonic and non‑legato, for this reason fending off the trouble of having to change to a different articulation to play chords inside a legato passage. The makers also created monophonic legato and portamento simulations that can be became on and off on the front panel. The legato impact works neatly throughout the board, and the portamento sounds fairly respectable if used judiciously. unluckily, neither the scripted nor the precise legatos accommodate the historic monophonic analogue synth technique of retaining down one notice while hastily reiterating an additional, a high-quality easy means of enjoying a trill!
speaking of ease of enjoying, even one‑fingered keyboardists may be able to galvanize their family with the quickly up and down octave runs performed in numerous scales by using the primary violins, violas and cellos. even though the samples do their job neatly, I observed that the time‑stretching used on these contraptions delivered some extraneous audio artifacts. (different programming bugs in the evaluate reproduction brought about staccato on‑bow and staccato slur samples to bring to an end all of sudden at the end and a common malfunction within the basses' sluggish legato gadgets. These have now all been remedied and the fixes should be obtainable in a free Play replace.) Multi‑digit performers will savor whipping out very speedy, Flight Of The Bumblebee‑fashion traces on the 'playable runs' scripted devices, the most effective issue being that on the slur and spiccato runs, the word‑smoothing effect works only on semitone and tone intervals.
Hollywood Strings addresses the problem of 'divisi' in an idiosyncratic method. true‑existence string sections frequently divide to play diverse ingredients or the individual notes of a chord. as an example, in a 14‑violin section, eight violins might play the desirable part while the remaining six take the reduce part, or the contraptions might divide 6:four:four to play a three-note chord. ancient-faculty string libraries can't replicate this impact, as samples are usually played with the aid of all the players in a area.
The producers' solution turned into to area microphones close to the left and correct aspect of every part, shooting a pair of mono mixes labelled 'Divisi A' and 'Divisi B'. each patch in the library has a corresponding A and B 'divisi' alternative, available only in the shut‑miked position. These mono patches have a smaller sound than the other mikings and can consequently be used to simulate an orchestral divisi. One abilities is that as they are the identical performances (albeit miked otherwise), there aren't any tuning, timing or part discrepancies with the main stereo samples!
Connoisseurs of the violin family unit will comprehend that pitches performed high up close the bridge have a heat sound, while notes performed low down on the neck sound more bright and open. In HS, the alternative of string could be decided through a knob whose 4 positions (selectable manually or by the use of keyswitches) correspond to the instruments' strings: for example, picking 'place 2' on a violas patch offers you the notes played on the 2nd (G) string. in case you choose a pitch that the currently selected string cannot attain, Play will explode, creating a colossal fireball that burns down your condominium. truly, i am lying: what in fact occurs is that the utility immediately moves the be aware over to the next closest string. Finger-place control is applied on bowed long notes (not legatos) for all sections apart from the basses; there are also '4th position' contraptions wherein all notes are performed high on the neck, for a warm, romantic timbre.
there may be no doubt that the fabulous sound, musical versatility and depth of expression of HS vicinity it within the highest echelon of professional string libraries. No-one of their correct intellect would criticise the effort that went into developing it, however from time to time I felt a little less effort might had been really useful — for instance, I every now and then discovered myself hankering after some more straightforward, much less multi‑dimensional patches (for example, straight speed-managed vibrato sustains). for optimum flexibility of programming, having entry to the particular person layers used in the contraptions could be very handy. Which I wager is where Play professional is available in...
Returning to the question of what system this library wants, it be clear that the producers' laudable endeavours to make it as musically and sonically powerful as viable have created a technically stressful product. users may still make certain their programs can cope before purchasing; it's no longer simple to expect to concurrently run significant numbers of HS's 'potent equipment' devices on a standard‑to‑middling setup, notably if you want to use distinctive mic positions. identifying exactly how many contraptions that you could run at anyone time depends on how plenty RAM your equipment can entry (itself whatever thing of a vexed issue), which gadgets you want (they range in dimension from 3MB to smartly over 1GB), and how lots polyphony they eat. In a nutshell, until you have got the kind of most excellent system outlined above, expect to do extra bouncing than you could with your normal library.
in case you've already purchased this high‑conclusion, musically difficult collection, you would be daft now not to examine its superb manual (downloadable from www.soundsonline.com/static/downloads/medical doctors/Hollywood‑Strings‑guide.pdf), which explains its hidden depths with admirable readability. in case you have not yet taken the plunge, try the 'concepts' audio demos on EastWest's web page. These function the strings taking part in on their personal, enabling you to correctly experience their sound. Absolute inexperienced persons, abject paupers, technophobes and americans in whom the sound of lush orchestral strings induces psychotic episodes don't need to practice, but if you might be excited about orchestral sampling, you might not need to let this outstanding strings library move you by way of.
most effective a handful of libraries come close to matching the symphonic scale (if no longer the sample statistics dimension) of Hollywood Strings. Vienna Symphonic Library's 18GB Appassionata Strings I boasts better sections and a second volume that includes true sordinos; and LA Scoring Strings (40GB) offers flexible area sizes for divisi writing, as well as solo strings, but neither library has a separate 2d violins part. Kirk Hunter's live performance Strings II (dimension no longer published) is a helpful contender, presenting symphonic, studio, chamber and solo strings, whereas the Anglo‑Australian entry Cinematic Strings (22GB) aspects forty players (including second violins) making a lush and robust sound. of these collections, best Hollywood Strings and Cinematic Strings have assorted mic positions.
STRING part:
ARTICULATIONS: lengthy NOTES
ARTICULATIONS: brief NOTES
results & RUNS
LEGATO SUSTAINS
[x] variety of dynamic layers.
* now not basses.
** second violins handiest.
t/l = tight (trimmed) attack/unfastened (untrimmed) assault.
Some articulations are not played by means of all five sections; most of the library's patches function mixtures of the efficiency patterns listed above.
In 2003, EWQL Symphonic Orchestra raised the bar for orchestral libraries by simultaneously miking its avid gamers from three diverse positions (shut, stage and again of corridor), a godsend for these working in surround. HS u.s.the ante by using providing 5 alternative mikings plus two further 'divisi' alternate options (defined somewhere else). The mic positions are 'shut' (without delay in front of the gamers), 'mid' (lifeless centre on the front edge of the stage), 'main' (a critical miking approximating to the fifth row of a live performance hall, using the typical 'Decca tree' trio of spaced microphones) and 'surround' (high up, against the back of the room). A switch permits you to toggle between the common surround microphones and old ribbon mics (as utilized in traditional Hollywood motion pictures) within the equal positions.
The shut mics have a fine broad stereo image, contain the most element and made me suppose as though I became sitting within the core of the players, whereas the 'leading' miking (my widespread) sounds fuller and introduces a natural room ambience. though the encompass mics sound more far away, the difference between them and the main miking is truly relatively subtle. The 'mid' miking sounds just a little more disembodied, brilliant and transparent, and the 'vintage' ribbon mic setting seems like a extra mellow, much less hello‑fi edition of the different encompass samples — enjoyable ample, but now not a have to‑have. This abundance of mic positions gives a lot of alternatives for five.1 and 7.1 surround mixing, and may even have valuable functions in other multi‑speaker installations.
Hollywood Strings runs stand‑by myself and as a plug‑in on Mac (Intel machines only, OS 10.5 or later) and notebook (home windows XP SP2, Vista or windows 7). The samples are 24‑bit and require 312GB of disk space. Supported audio drivers are (home windows) ASIO, DirectSound, VST and (Mac) Audio devices, Core Audio and VST. For a full list of supported hosts, go to www.soundsonline‑europe.com/hollywood‑strings and click on on 'standards'.
The library's system requirements are:
Mac: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.1GHz or better.
computer: Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD dual Core 2.1GHz or better.
Mac: Mac professional Quad‑Core Intel Xeon 2.66GHz or better.
computing device: Intel Core 2 Quad or AMD Quad‑Core 2.66GHz or larger, sixty four‑bit windows/host sequencer.
Mac: Mac seasoned Eight‑Core Intel Xeon 2.26GHz or better.
workstation: Intel Core i7 2.66GHz or better, 64‑bit windows/host sequencer.
(* See the Play 2 often asked Questions doc at www.soundsonline.com/updates.Hypertext Preprocessor for advice on energy‑saving drives.)
EastWest propose that when running HS/Play in a sequencer host, optimum performance could be bought by way of working multiple cases of Play rather than using a single example multitimbrally here's curiously due to the way the sequencer controls core distribution to your computing device.
as with all Play‑formatted titles, an iLok protection key (no longer presented, can charge around $forty) is vital to run the library. The on‑line serial‑number authorisation deposits a license on the iLok and the key could be transferred between computers, enabling HS to be used on distinct machines (though no longer at the equal time). purchasers might also purchase one additional license at half expense, provided the common license is on the equal iLok account and both computers are linked to the same community.
The current lack of full sixty four‑bit support for Mac is as a result of tempo (who're independent of EastWest) now not yet issuing 64‑bit Mac drivers for his or her iLok. EastWest say this is anticipated within the third quarter of 2010, and in the meantime they are engaged on an period in-between answer. A partial workaround attainable now for Mac clients is the Play memory Server (built-in in Play's Mac sixty four‑bit installation utility), which runs within the historical past and enables up to 10GB of RAM to be shared between Play and the sequencer host, whereas enabling extra RAM to be used through the gadget and other utility.
A funds Gold edition is still planned however no details are available. At current there is only one, full version of the library.
prosHollywood Strings became designed for people that need the gold standard. when you are after a low-cost and cheerful fix, or need string-quartet samples to hack away within the background to your pop track, seem to be in other places. These string sections are A‑record instruments with huge and intensive musical capabilities. You may additionally must believe upgrading your device to use the library to its full expertise, but for dedicated orchestral samplists that outlay would carry immediate creative rewards and represent a sound investment for the long run.
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