Symphonic Orchestra Silver

You mention that you bought the Silver edition and spent $300. Did you mean the Gold Edition? The silver Edition is currently selling for less than $100 (Cyber Week sales). And though I was already aware of the "negative" points you stated - IMO all of which are valid - personally I'm willing to jump through some hoops to save 50% off on a great library.

(The sale goes on through the end of the year, so I plan to pick up either Gold or Platinum before then). :)

Hey flugel - I made the brilliant choice to buy it about a week before the EastWest sale :). Hate to see EastWest get any more business but I can imagine 50% off is tempting.

EastWest has some bizarre issue with the concept of mixing instruments and software. They never, ever seem to get the software part right, nor do they seem to care (though I hear good things about the instrument part). I avoid them like the plague.

Same experience I have had. Eastwest BLOWS when it comes to they way they have their installation and support stuff setup. Just god-awful really. The play software sucks as well.

I've had my issues with EastWest over the years, but I think a little balance is needed here.

On the Play engine -- it certainly is different from Kontakt, but in some ways its relatively simplicity is refreshing and quicker. Certainly moving sample libraries around your disks is much more straightforward with Play than with Kontakt. I also have found Play to be pretty darn stable on my Mac Pro. And I like many of the aspects of the GUI relative to Kontakt -- some of Kontakt still betrays the old NI "Reaktor" school of inscrutable under-the-hood stuff.

EWQLSO is kind of showing its age, but it is still a superb sounding library. But I think the criticism of EastWest would miss the point that their more recent products are absolutely incredible sounding. Hollywood Strings and Hollywood Brass is an AWFUL lot to give up if you've adopted an "avoid EastWest" policy. They're amazing. Now, again, EastWest is a bit quirky -- to get the hard disc (diamond) versions, you have to live with an internal SATA drive (which really makes sense when you consider the size of these libraries) and many will find that a pain in the ass. Although with Thunderbolt and external drive enclosures its really not that bad. (I've gotten an internal SSD for these libraries and I could never live without it now).

Another great EastWest product you'd be missing is the QL Pianos. The best sampled Piano library I've heard anywhere.

Plus when you actually call EastWest they have good and helpful people there.

So yes, EastWest has its issues and isn't always the most "user friendly" company. But I wouldn't totally give up on them, you're missing out on some stunning-sounding products that really have no equal.

I couldn't disagree more wankwinkel. The reason libraries running on Kontakt sound so much better isn't just the quality of recording - it's the tools / scripting available in Kontakt for the developers. It is generations beyond what East West is using with the Play Engine, making libraries from LASS, 8Dio etc. much more versatile and sophisticated. (more on this below).

Kontakt is also far more user friendly. It allows multiple manufacturer's libraries within the same interface. For example, I have all my Project Sam, Audiobro, Old East West libraries, 8Dio, Native Instruments, Cinesamples all availabe in the same Kontakt library window - all accessible at the same time. This is a HUGE plus. Combined with the fact that Kontakt allows the user to completely detach each individual instance of an instrument from each other - running multiple buses with endless scripting, effects, automation, routing - all in one GUI just makes Play seem like an application from the 1980s.

I'm not sure why you think Play has a better Library reallocation than Kontakt. That is absolutely NOT the case. Try reinstalling OS from scratch. 1) Download iLok driver. 2) Download iLok client. 3) Download Play. 4) Install Play and choose which libraries you bought so it can install the right interfaces for each. 5) Hope that this actually worked, which it rarely does on the first attempt - and hopefully you didn't forget to add a library, cause redoing the install will cause problems with other libraries that you did install. 6) Right click on "favorites" to add each library path - which is pointless cause you pick anywhere on your harddrive and it has no idea if it's the right path or not.

Whereas with Kontakt: 1) Download Kontakt latest version. 2) Install it and authorize through the Service Center simultaneously. 3) Open Kontakt 4) Add library, point to folder & simultaneously authorize through your online account. No dongle, no drivers, no hassles. 10x easier. And moving a library is as simple as removing it, adding it and pointing it to the new location. What's so difficult about that?

East West made a massive mistake ditching Kontakt - and an even larger mistake going with iLok (can't believe that company is still in business). It would have been fine had the Play Engine been a great application that could compete with Kontakt. But it really is a dud, sitting well below the competition.

I'll agree with you though - East West has some great sounding libraries. I'm a big fan of Silk & Ra. But I actually avoid Silk like the plague cause of the Play engine and still use the dated "Ra" cause I have the original version that still loads into Kontakt. :)

A little "easter egg" - on the quieter (low-velocity) layer of C3 in "4 trombones mute sustained" you hear the recording engineer saying "good.".