East West Quantum Leap UPDATE

[Chinagraf]

Anyone using any of the quantum leap libraries? They have a pretty good deal on atm for about 7 of them for around $800.
Demos...well ya never can really tell from demos hey? Looking at things like QL Pianos and QL Silk, Symphonic Orch etc...
Cheer.

[SteveL]

Andy, I use the EWQLSO Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Play Plus or whatever it's called (the top line one with the 24-bit samples), but that's the only EW library I have. I'm very happy with it (Strings/Brass/Perc/Woodwinds). Particularly like the solo cello, french horns, orchestral percussion, but there is a ton of useful stuff in that library that I've found works equally well in pop and classical stuff. That current deal is a pretty good deal! You'll have to buy a few new hard drives to cram all those gigs of samples in!

Steve

[Chinagraf]

Hi Steve, the deal they've got going ships on it's own sata drive which is cool, saves all that installing. I really like a couple of the pianos and the Silk library from what I've heard.
It just seems like almost too good a deal to pass up.
Thanks.

[chrisjw]

Hi Andy

Ive got Symphonic Choirs and Stormdrum 1. I got them before they made their PLAY version but it looks a little easier to use than Kontakt. The choirs sound good but can take a bit of tweaking to sound natural. Stormdrum has some huge sounds which I love but can too big to use, but theres quite a range in the library. I keep seeing those deals they do and wanting to pull the trigger and get the complete composers collection... one day.

Heres some music that has both in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-wAg4v9s1w

Cheers

Chris

[Chinagraf]

Cool track Chris. I love drums that are too big to use...
Cheers.

[jkhuri44]

EWQL is brilliant stuff...i use RA and stormdrum...also choirs occasionally.

however, with those ethnic sounds, they get a bit tired pretty quick...as in, use the articulations on 1 track, and thats it, you'll feel like you're repeating yourself on the next

the percussion lasts a bit longer, however the tone of the recordings will be the same for every project you do...(ie. epic film score sound)

[chrisjw]

You can do it! ...

[Chinagraf]

I must say those Hollywood Strings Diamond have me pretty impressed.

[Chinagraf]

UPDATE - I ended up getting the composer collection, but I also got Hollywood Strings. I only got the gold edition, which is cheaper. It only has one set of mic, a mid tree setup. The Diamond edition has close mics, Decca tree, spot mics, 2 sets of ambience mics and divisi mics, but I need a new computer to run it, and buying it in 2 bits avoids import duties and taxes yet only costs another 10 bucks or something.
Been playing with it this morning for a couple of hours. I know it's not recording gear, but the other composer nerds here might be interested. This is a short thing I did while I was mucking around. I've been praying for something that does legato with slurs like this for a long time. It's a piece called "The empty Fridge" that encapsulates the emotion I feel when I go out to the kitchen and see there is no beer left. These are the powerful system patches, but I have to write them one part at a time and print them, then do the next part. Boring, but getting a new system next week or so. Tiny bit of Fatso on the mix buss and Bricasti Rich Plate A reverb. No eq, although I do find the mid tree mics to sound a little pokey in the lower mids.I would eq them a bit if I was doing something for real, but I wanted to hear it straight out of the player. Pretty standard string setup.

https://files.me.com/strictlove/y2xqx5.mp3

[vanderlae]

Cool Andy, I'm only hearing it on my iPhone at the moment thanks to the move, but I guess so is half the populous! Slurs are where it's at, I find they take a bit of massaging to get 'em sounding legit but like you say, one by one helps too given the variances in performance of each. VSL does it well, too. I've not tried any east west stuff so thanks for posting the sample.

[harry]

Hey Andy,

what did the hollywood strings end up costing? i couldn't seem to find any info online about the sale...

cheers


h.a.r.r.y.a.r.v.a.n.i.t.i.s

[Chinagraf]

Dave! Iphone! How dare you...
I was thinking of you when I mentioned the 'other composer nerds'. Yeah spending a bit of time on the articulations and also actually knowing the whole library , you could get some nice results.
Won't replace real players but should be sweet for behind a horrible voice over and being played over crappy plasma tv speakers.
Harry, just under $795 for the strings. They weren't on sale. The complete composer collection was but only till NYE I think.
The Diamond version with all the extra mics, divisi sections and bow change legato for all strings is $1495 US. I plan to upgrade to Diamond as soon as I get the new PC.

[DwaneHollands]

Hey Andy,

They sound great. Listened on the moniitors. Nice and Lush. Double bass is nice. Nice portamento! know that was a big thing in Hollywood Strings. I agonised over whether to purchase Hollywoood Strings. I couldnn't afford the space on mmy ssd. The hardware requiremennts bothered me too. I couldn't afford to purchase new PC hardware. Ended up getting LA Scoring Strings.

I'm interested in your writing process. What do you write first? How do you decide what to add next?

[Chinagraf]

Hey Dwayne, yeah SS drives are still so expensive. I'd need at least a 500 gig one. Ouch.
The way I write is usually have some sort of melody in mind, like in this case I'd give it to the first violins, then work my way down. I like doing the it this way because the 2nd violins and violas pretty much dictate the key/tonality more than the melody.In particular the 2nd's so once I have the melody I'll just kinda free form play but record everything (midi). Some of the best changes come from going to the wrong note on the 2nds or violas and it suddenly creates this cool change that
you never would have thought of intentionally. Then Celli then basses last. I'm pretty boring with my basses, pretty much root notes reinforcing the chords the celli are making.
I think it's really important that although a lot of the time you hear parts as full chords, you should work on each section individually because you work a lot more vertically than you would if you were to play the piece on a piano.
You also tend to do a lot less counter rythm/melody work if you write on a keyboard. Once I do all that I just listen a bunch of times and then I'll start hear the odd ghost note (like a resultant note that comes out of some of the other parts blending that you didn't actually record) and I will go back and work out which section it's closest to in pitch and I'll split that section into 2 notes for that spot so I can add that extra note. This really helps get some good clusters and odd suspensions which I like to do a bit. If I'm doing an orchestra I'll use that method to work out a lot of other parts too, like horns and woodwinds. If you listen long enough, even though the notes aren't there you hear them.

[DwaneHollands]

Hey Andy,

Thanks for the insight on how you write. (this wireless kebboard is playiing up with the ipad, forgive the typinng)

I'm always interested in how people put their music together. I remember reading Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov talk about starrting with the melody and then work out from there. Instead of starting witth a chord progression and then writing the melody which is common for pop/rock songs etc.

I often do the rriffing/experimenting onn the keyboard to find the pparts, but I'm starting to learn to just step back andd let my imagination do the writing, then find the part in my headd on the keyboard. I find I write bbetter stuff from my imagination than from my ffingers. (but sometimes tthe fingers find some cool stuff....haha)

Yeah my 256GB SSD cosst me $800 a year or so ago. I found one the other day foor $569. So it's come down a bit,, but still aint cheap. Man it makes a difference though!

(Sorry again about the typing)

Hey Dwayne, yeah SS drives are still so expensive. I'd need at least a 500 gig one. Ouch.
The way I write is usually have some sort of melody in mind, like in this case I'd give it to the first violins, then work my way down. I like doing the it this way because the 2nd violins and violas pretty much dictate the key/tonality more than the melody.In particular the 2nd's so once I have the melody I'll just kinda free form play but record everything (midi). Some of the best changes come from going to the wrong note on the 2nds or violas and it suddenly creates this cool change that
you never would have thought of intentionally. Then Celli then basses last. I'm pretty boring with my basses, pretty much root notes reinforcing the chords the celli are making.
I think it's really important that although a lot of the time you hear parts as full chords, you should work on each section individually because you work a lot more vertically than you would if you were to play the piece on a piano.
You also tend to do a lot less counter rythm/melody work if you write on a keyboard. Once I do all that I just listen a bunch of times and then I'll start hear the odd ghost note (like a resultant note that comes out of some of the other parts blending that you didn't actually record) and I will go back and work out which section it's closest to in pitch and I'll split that section into 2 notes for that spot so I can add that extra note. This really helps get some good clusters and odd suspensions which I like to do a bit. If I'm doing an orchestra I'll use that method to work out a lot of other parts too, like horns and woodwinds. If you listen long enough, even though the notes aren't there you hear them.

[Kurt]

OT I know, but related...

For my next PC, hopefully not too far away, I will be running a small SSD (maybe 64GB) for the OS drive, another for a working drive, then a decent fast drive for storage. A velociraptor should certainly be fast enough for sample libraries and much cheaper than SSD.

[vanderlae]

Agree with Andy. I think melody is king, and with a good melody the rest typically falls into place. And a good melody is good even when you throw it in a completely different context. For example take a melody from a classical song, speed it up and play it on a vulgar dance patch on a synth & add some beats - it still works. I find melody will tell you where the counter-melodies and supportive work need to go, makes it (the rest) obvious really, with the chords or movements underneath having the ability to suddenly change the way the melody sounds just by changing those - the fun stuff really! Playing chords or movements then waiting for a melody seems counter-intuitive to me. I don't imagine Abba spending hours rehearsing chords. I know, Abba.

[chrisjw]

A truly devastating event


I shed a tear...


Sounds good tho makes me think of black and white images of Melbourne with a lady in a white dress running down the street looking back...
I hope shes running to the bottleO to get more beer.



Ive only got the VSL that comes with Kontakt which is great if you have nothing else and dont want to do anything other than slow static stuff. Id really like something smaller, solo instruments, smaller room sounding. How easy is it to do the slides?

Cheers

Chris

[Chinagraf]

Hi Chris, really easy to do the slurs. There are a few different patches in case you need really fast legato or slow, but then within the patches the speed of the slur is controlled via key velocity, so the harder you play the faster it slurs.
I've only spent a couple of hours with it, I'm sure with time learning to use it properly you could do almost anything. It's no good for small intimate stuff though. It's all big sections, like 14 violins etc. There is no solo stuff in the library.
There are solo ones in the QL Symphonic orchestra but to me they sound a little too wet though, like the close mics were on omni in a hall when they sampled them. The solo pizz patches sound great , except for the ambience on them.
I also have the Miroslav library, and the quartet stuff in that is great, nice and dry/raw sound, but no slur/portamento.