so i'm thinking about picking up the ewqlso. most likely the gold version as there's a HUGE price difference in gold to platnium and this is mainly for home use, etc.
main questions are:
* what are you're thoughts on the product? as all i've ever heard were the "demos" etc.
* is the gold version "good enough" or would you just "bite the bullet" and get the platnium?
* how is the piano in the set? the wife is a keyboardist (me...more a guitarist that has a guitar synth) and she's always searching for "the" piano. eastwest has the PMI Bosendorfer 290 sampler as well...how do these compare? night and day or is the symphonic orchestra just as good. (side note: i'm looking into getting a receptor and there's a deal getting a receptor and ew colossus at the same time as well--and there's a piano in that too...any info anyone?)
any info is greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance!
eastwest quantum leap symphonic orchestra "prePurchase" Qs
-
- KVRer
- 10 posts since 6 Feb, 2006 from LA/NY
here's my 2 cents....the gold is actually good enough, BUT if you need all the mic ambiences and want all the release trials, then bite the bullet and go platinum. Also, if you have ambitions about getting the XP update (which has a real nice piano) you should bite said bullet because the update (another 70 gigs) will only work with the platinum version.
btw, how is using a guitar controller to write midi orchestra parts? been wanting to try that for years.
btw, how is using a guitar controller to write midi orchestra parts? been wanting to try that for years.
-
- KVRist
- 145 posts since 19 May, 2005 from London UK
There are plenty of opinions about EWQLSO if you use the search. And I'll agree and disagree with smoothjay above, yes gold is probably all you'll need (comparing to platinum) but you can buy an XP upgrade for gold (currently $995) and I wouldn't focus on the piano in teh XP upgrade, it's an added extra, not the main point of the library. Plus the standard gold doesn't contain a piano anyway.
As you said it will be mostly for home use, so what will you lose over platinum? Firstly a few articulations unless you go for the upgrade as well, 24 bit samples and close & surround mic positions. My thoughts, 24 bits will only be a small difference, the surround mic sound can be obtained through a convolution reverb and if you really need close up instruments, perhaps look at adding another library (you would have saved enough by not going for platinum). One other thing to consider is that platinum will require much more computer resources to get the best out of it.
I went for gold, am very happy with the sound quality and the performance on my pc (3.4 GHz HT P4 with 1.5 Gig ram) and am now wondering how to get the money together for the XP upgrade.
As you said it will be mostly for home use, so what will you lose over platinum? Firstly a few articulations unless you go for the upgrade as well, 24 bit samples and close & surround mic positions. My thoughts, 24 bits will only be a small difference, the surround mic sound can be obtained through a convolution reverb and if you really need close up instruments, perhaps look at adding another library (you would have saved enough by not going for platinum). One other thing to consider is that platinum will require much more computer resources to get the best out of it.
I went for gold, am very happy with the sound quality and the performance on my pc (3.4 GHz HT P4 with 1.5 Gig ram) and am now wondering how to get the money together for the XP upgrade.
-
- KVRist
- 256 posts since 1 Jun, 2003 from USA
go with Gold Pro. Also ask this question on Soundsonline forum 
In the midst of life
what shall I compare it to
Daybreak, emptiness left behind a rowing boat.
"Sami Mansei"
what shall I compare it to
Daybreak, emptiness left behind a rowing boat.
"Sami Mansei"
-
- KVRist
- 68 posts since 31 Jul, 2004 from la, california
I use Gold professionally and have only missed the Platinum close mics in one or two instances, so for the home user Gold should be plenty. Plus, as has been mentioned, you can get great results with just one computer, where you'd need at least 2 or 3 for Platinum.
Personally I love the sound of EWQL. I may not be ideal for EVERY use (chamber music not being its forte), but it really sounds quite wonderful out of the box. Most other packages will require quite a bit of post processing to get a similar sound.
If you have extra money, get the Gold Pro XP uprade too, plus maybe a different, complementary library such as Opus 1 or Kirk Hunter Emerald. This will give you more flexibility than getting Platinum, imho.
The pianos in Gold XP and Colossus are very good, but imo not at the level of Sampletekk's Black Grand or Post's Emperor, for example.
matto
Personally I love the sound of EWQL. I may not be ideal for EVERY use (chamber music not being its forte), but it really sounds quite wonderful out of the box. Most other packages will require quite a bit of post processing to get a similar sound.
If you have extra money, get the Gold Pro XP uprade too, plus maybe a different, complementary library such as Opus 1 or Kirk Hunter Emerald. This will give you more flexibility than getting Platinum, imho.
The pianos in Gold XP and Colossus are very good, but imo not at the level of Sampletekk's Black Grand or Post's Emperor, for example.
matto
-
- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 38 posts since 10 Mar, 2006
thanks for the replies all! sounds like gold will be fine, but i'll look into getting the pro xp (tho maybe i'll pick that up "later." -- but i know me...i always buy something then think...damn...i shoulda just got the "big one" right away!
heh.
and smoothjay...as for the guitar synth: it works for me as i'm NOT a keyboard player...you'll never get the fingerings as a pianist of course, but for me, it feels natural enough. i will say that you DO have to really make sure you play/ finger cleanly...as the tracking can be a bit "finnicky" at times. if you play with the expressiveness of the instrument tone you're using it can be amazing (and it's great when you play live and people just stare in awe when the guitarist is doing all kinds of strange string and piano stuff). i've had a guitar synth from the roland gr01, then the 09, then the 33 (the 33 is by far my fav)...the only thing i DON'T like is the midi pickup...tho the newest version from roland looked nice (i don't have one of those myself).
a suggestion: if you are looking into a guitar synth (13 pin midi), look into the RMC Fanout Box http://www.rmcpickup.com/fanoutbox.html it's awesome to have around.
heh.
and smoothjay...as for the guitar synth: it works for me as i'm NOT a keyboard player...you'll never get the fingerings as a pianist of course, but for me, it feels natural enough. i will say that you DO have to really make sure you play/ finger cleanly...as the tracking can be a bit "finnicky" at times. if you play with the expressiveness of the instrument tone you're using it can be amazing (and it's great when you play live and people just stare in awe when the guitarist is doing all kinds of strange string and piano stuff). i've had a guitar synth from the roland gr01, then the 09, then the 33 (the 33 is by far my fav)...the only thing i DON'T like is the midi pickup...tho the newest version from roland looked nice (i don't have one of those myself).
a suggestion: if you are looking into a guitar synth (13 pin midi), look into the RMC Fanout Box http://www.rmcpickup.com/fanoutbox.html it's awesome to have around.
-
- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 38 posts since 10 Mar, 2006
alright, thanks for the replies, but i've got one last question:
so, looks like i'm about to pull the trigger and pick up ewqlso gold pro xp, colossus, AND the piano package that has the PMI Bosendorfer 290 and the Galaxy Steinway 5.1 (good deal-figured i might as well). but i'm wondering about "close solo strings" i heard a demo on the soundsOnline site:
http://www.soundsonline.com/sophtml/dem ... =EW-160PRO
the String Quartet by Ron James (http://www.soundsonline.com/cd_mp3_demos/229780.mp3)
just wondering if i'll be able to come close to that sound? (granted i don't always want that sound...i'll want a good mix of everything
one thing to note: is this is actually my first sample set (i do have DFHS tho, but that's drums only)--i have NOTHING...have always just had hardware before, figured it's time to do the sample thing now too since i've been using the computer for recording for years.
or maybe you guys could point me at something else i should look at?!
thanks in advance!
so, looks like i'm about to pull the trigger and pick up ewqlso gold pro xp, colossus, AND the piano package that has the PMI Bosendorfer 290 and the Galaxy Steinway 5.1 (good deal-figured i might as well). but i'm wondering about "close solo strings" i heard a demo on the soundsOnline site:
http://www.soundsonline.com/sophtml/dem ... =EW-160PRO
the String Quartet by Ron James (http://www.soundsonline.com/cd_mp3_demos/229780.mp3)
just wondering if i'll be able to come close to that sound? (granted i don't always want that sound...i'll want a good mix of everything
one thing to note: is this is actually my first sample set (i do have DFHS tho, but that's drums only)--i have NOTHING...have always just had hardware before, figured it's time to do the sample thing now too since i've been using the computer for recording for years.
or maybe you guys could point me at something else i should look at?!
thanks in advance!
-
- KVRist
- 145 posts since 19 May, 2005 from London UK
No, Gold Pro XP will not give as dry a sound as that demo, it will obviously sound like you were a few rows further back in the Hall.
You can look at other libraries instead of the whole Platinum package (and just to note Gold Pro XP, as advertised on soundsonline at $895, is just the upgrade, you need to have the standard Gold package as well). VSL solo strings would easily provide strings on a par with that demo, and surpass it if you put the work in.
I would opt for slightly different combination. Get Gold and the XP upgrade (if that's what you want) and Colossus but then get the crossgrade version of Kompakt 2. This would mean you would have access to the sounds in Gold and Colossus within the one plugin and K2 comes with 7.5Gb of VSL orchestral sounds, adding those close instruments. Then head to PMI's website and download a few pianos there for $50 each.
This is pretty much what I have now, although I'm putting off the XP upgrade until I can divert the necessary funds.
You can look at other libraries instead of the whole Platinum package (and just to note Gold Pro XP, as advertised on soundsonline at $895, is just the upgrade, you need to have the standard Gold package as well). VSL solo strings would easily provide strings on a par with that demo, and surpass it if you put the work in.
I would opt for slightly different combination. Get Gold and the XP upgrade (if that's what you want) and Colossus but then get the crossgrade version of Kompakt 2. This would mean you would have access to the sounds in Gold and Colossus within the one plugin and K2 comes with 7.5Gb of VSL orchestral sounds, adding those close instruments. Then head to PMI's website and download a few pianos there for $50 each.
This is pretty much what I have now, although I'm putting off the XP upgrade until I can divert the necessary funds.
-
stephen talbott stephen talbott https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=20648
- KVRer
- 6 posts since 10 Apr, 2004
I own the Gold standard edition and have found it to be a mixed bag. With the Platinum edition you have a choice of how loud you want the close, middle, and far mic positions to be, and with the Gold the three mic positions are already mixed to simulate what sounds like a middle row center position in the concert hall. At the time I bought it, I was thinking that if I wanted to decrease the amount of room sound, I could cancel the release tails and the sound of the instrument dying out in the hall would then be gone.
Immediately after I tried it out, I realized that the sound of the hall is an important part not only of the release of the sound, but also profoundly affects the body of the sound as well, making it sound very big and full at all times, which is not an effect I always want. In addition to this, the release tails also contain the sound of the instrument itself dying out (like the ring of a violin string right after the bow stops moving) and found that the loss of these sounds mattered a lot more to me than I thought it would, so now to somewhat dry out the sound I apply an envelope with a shorter release time to end the tail faster, but leave at least a part of the release of the instrument.
To sum up, the gold library is not very versitile imho, however, as far as being a big, cinematic flavored (think Danny Elfman or Jerry Goldsmith) orchestra, it is superb. Like was mentioned before, it sounds great out of the box, each of the instruments is already spacially positioned the way an orchestra is laid out and it sounds like a high quality, conventional recording of an orchestra in a large concert hall.
I think that ozinexile gave some excellent advice about the PMI pianos (all excellent and at their recent price reduction from $100 to $200 each to $50 each an insanely good value), as well as the Kontakt 2 crossgrade. In addition to getting the VSL instruments, which complement the Gold library as they are drier and somehow more intimate sounding, but when you install the Gold library with its kompakt player, all the samples will be "locked" in a format that you cannot copy or control very deeply, and Kotakt 2 will give you access to many more effects and mixing possibilities, as well as making it easier to customize the sounds to your liking.
I hope these words are helpful, because I went through the same process myself a couple of years ago and the learning curve is pretty brutal and we ain't talkin' chump change, either. One thing I wish I had done was slow down. I felt like now that I was going into the soft-sampler world I needed to buy all the cool siht right away so I could start doing what I wanted to do, when I was still a long way from understanding what my work-flow would be like, and what was REALLY important to me.
So, I know everything is a third off at sounds-online right now, but sounds-online has those type of sales a few times a year (I bought my copy of Gold in a group buy for $400) and I really do think it's better to buy something, devote the time to understand it, figure out what you do and donot like about it, then use that knowledge to make your next purchase a more informed one.
Immediately after I tried it out, I realized that the sound of the hall is an important part not only of the release of the sound, but also profoundly affects the body of the sound as well, making it sound very big and full at all times, which is not an effect I always want. In addition to this, the release tails also contain the sound of the instrument itself dying out (like the ring of a violin string right after the bow stops moving) and found that the loss of these sounds mattered a lot more to me than I thought it would, so now to somewhat dry out the sound I apply an envelope with a shorter release time to end the tail faster, but leave at least a part of the release of the instrument.
To sum up, the gold library is not very versitile imho, however, as far as being a big, cinematic flavored (think Danny Elfman or Jerry Goldsmith) orchestra, it is superb. Like was mentioned before, it sounds great out of the box, each of the instruments is already spacially positioned the way an orchestra is laid out and it sounds like a high quality, conventional recording of an orchestra in a large concert hall.
I think that ozinexile gave some excellent advice about the PMI pianos (all excellent and at their recent price reduction from $100 to $200 each to $50 each an insanely good value), as well as the Kontakt 2 crossgrade. In addition to getting the VSL instruments, which complement the Gold library as they are drier and somehow more intimate sounding, but when you install the Gold library with its kompakt player, all the samples will be "locked" in a format that you cannot copy or control very deeply, and Kotakt 2 will give you access to many more effects and mixing possibilities, as well as making it easier to customize the sounds to your liking.
I hope these words are helpful, because I went through the same process myself a couple of years ago and the learning curve is pretty brutal and we ain't talkin' chump change, either. One thing I wish I had done was slow down. I felt like now that I was going into the soft-sampler world I needed to buy all the cool siht right away so I could start doing what I wanted to do, when I was still a long way from understanding what my work-flow would be like, and what was REALLY important to me.
So, I know everything is a third off at sounds-online right now, but sounds-online has those type of sales a few times a year (I bought my copy of Gold in a group buy for $400) and I really do think it's better to buy something, devote the time to understand it, figure out what you do and donot like about it, then use that knowledge to make your next purchase a more informed one.
-
- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 38 posts since 10 Mar, 2006
alright, so i pulled the trigger and bought something!
colossus seems to have a great "starter" set, but i figured eventually i'd start getting/ using specific sample sets and stop using colossus all together.
so thanx to your insight and comments: kontakt 2 was the path i choose!
on top of that i picked up ivory 1.5 as well. that choice came from doing lots of research on the piano samples and since this one is mainly for the wife--whom will NEVER tweak anything other than turning it on--i figured that was a better route--and all the reviews/ comments seemed to say that this was the "best."
so thanx again for all your replies everyone! i'm off to go install all this stuff (which will no doubt take "4 days!" hehe)
so now a NEW question, now that i have kontakt 2 and it comes with some of the vsl string ensembles, what is a good library choice for SOLO strings? i've liked what i've heard from the vsl solo set, but i just dropped a pretty penny on this stuff...so i'd rather not buy another $500+ package at the moment. so maybe something that'll just tide me over for a few with some decent solo violins and cellos, etc? ...any ideas?
colossus seems to have a great "starter" set, but i figured eventually i'd start getting/ using specific sample sets and stop using colossus all together.
so thanx to your insight and comments: kontakt 2 was the path i choose!
on top of that i picked up ivory 1.5 as well. that choice came from doing lots of research on the piano samples and since this one is mainly for the wife--whom will NEVER tweak anything other than turning it on--i figured that was a better route--and all the reviews/ comments seemed to say that this was the "best."
so thanx again for all your replies everyone! i'm off to go install all this stuff (which will no doubt take "4 days!" hehe)
so now a NEW question, now that i have kontakt 2 and it comes with some of the vsl string ensembles, what is a good library choice for SOLO strings? i've liked what i've heard from the vsl solo set, but i just dropped a pretty penny on this stuff...so i'd rather not buy another $500+ package at the moment. so maybe something that'll just tide me over for a few with some decent solo violins and cellos, etc? ...any ideas?
-
- KVRist
- 256 posts since 1 Jun, 2003 from USA
OK I better answer this because this is the true answer LOL! there is nothing better the new VSL VI for solo strings that's right nothing! Now there are others in the works for the new GIGA VST but right now there isn't anything that compete with the usablity of VSL VI. If you have Platinum then you have very nice solo strings already.
Check out solo strings on VSL's page read the forum on those posting there works and how they did using the new engine.
Check out solo strings on VSL's page read the forum on those posting there works and how they did using the new engine.
In the midst of life
what shall I compare it to
Daybreak, emptiness left behind a rowing boat.
"Sami Mansei"
what shall I compare it to
Daybreak, emptiness left behind a rowing boat.
"Sami Mansei"
-
- KVRist
- 189 posts since 5 Oct, 2005
I have Gold, and I'm pretty happy with what I got, for a mere 495$!!!!! The next step is Gold xp Pro, for me.
Everything in this thread, is true imho. I don't have much to add.
And Ivory is just perfect for a piano, if you can spear 40 GB (!!!!!) of disk space only for a piano!
Other than that, the Sonic Implants ensembles (strings, brass ,woods and perc), are also very good, maybe even better than platinum ,though I'm not sure if they have all the techniques, like Platinum xp Pro does...
Of course Vienna is the ultimate solution, but from 500$ to 5000$, it is quite a gap... hmm.... maybe some other day...
The only comment I would add, to the Gold idea is that you are rather restricted to a ver yspecific style. That of the Big sound! Ver ydifficult to get away with it, but it is possible, with a little audio twicking...
Everything in this thread, is true imho. I don't have much to add.
And Ivory is just perfect for a piano, if you can spear 40 GB (!!!!!) of disk space only for a piano!
Other than that, the Sonic Implants ensembles (strings, brass ,woods and perc), are also very good, maybe even better than platinum ,though I'm not sure if they have all the techniques, like Platinum xp Pro does...
Of course Vienna is the ultimate solution, but from 500$ to 5000$, it is quite a gap... hmm.... maybe some other day...
The only comment I would add, to the Gold idea is that you are rather restricted to a ver yspecific style. That of the Big sound! Ver ydifficult to get away with it, but it is possible, with a little audio twicking...
www.nikolas-sideris.com
CGEmpire is no more...
CGEmpire is no more...