East West?

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:01 pm

Last year I was all about the cheapness of softsyths. I have a shit ton of them and am no longer excited about any new releases. If I can't get the sound out of the ones I have it's because I suck and/or am lazy.

Then a friend recently pointed me to East West and holy shit do their examples and samples sound great, but the price tag is pretty high for most of their offerings.

So is anybody using their products? Are they worth the price? How stable is their player and customer service? Are they like Atmosphere and Reason, meaning everybody knows their sound and are overly used?

ironwill2000 · Post by **ironwill2000** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:19 pm

Gypsy is unbelievable. I love the guitars, by far the best I personally have ever used. Never used anything else of theirs. Uses iLok btw so you have to have an account.

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:42 pm

I'm interested in Voices of Passion. The voices and the way you can manipulate them sounds amazing. It also saves you the trouble of trying to find and nail down a female vocalist for ambient vocal effects. Storm Drum also sounds great for epic soundtrack music. I've also heard their built in convolution reverbs are top notch.

What's the big deal about iLok I keep hearing about? Is it really that much of a pain to have yet another thing plugged into a USB port?

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:46 pm

I really like collossus. Great package, that.

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:24 pm

Machinate wrote:I really like collossus. Great package, that.

My friend has that and says it rocks. How is it on the CPU?

He also said they are running some deal this month that if you buy one you get one for the same or lesser value for free.

ThetaState · Post by **ThetaState** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:54 pm

What's the big deal about iLok I keep hearing about? Is it really that much of a pain to have yet another thing plugged into a USB port?

It's a pain if you lose it (or forget it before a gig) and not everyone has enough USB ports to spare one for a stupid license key. In fact, it's such a PITA, I run a "demo" version of software that I legally purchased just so I don't have to deal with it.

Are they like Atmosphere and Reason, meaning everybody knows their sound and are overly used?

If I can't get the sound out of the ones I have it's because I suck and/or am lazy.

ironwill2000 · Post by **ironwill2000** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 9:29 am

beats me wrote:I'm interested in Voices of Passion. The voices and the way you can manipulate them sounds amazing.

...

What's the big deal about iLok I keep hearing about? Is it really that much of a pain to have yet another thing plugged into a USB port?

I hear you, and I am tempted to use VOP also. I just don't want people saying.. "Wow, yet ANOTHER Voices of Passion chorus....." But I have not even downloaded the demo and there may be much more content there than I am thinking.

iLok is ok, except sometimes it just doesn't work and I have to pull it out and replug it several times. I think as long as you plug it into the same USB port all the time you are ok. Problem is I use USB hubs since a bunch of my MIDI and peripherals are USB so I am constantly having to remember what was plugged in where and what order to plug it in because of some inherant Windows logic that wont recognize my stuff, or asks me to reinstall drivers even though they should already be installed.

Plus there is also the possibility of some jackass coming along and snatching it when you arent looking. I am amazed what people will steal, even if they have no use for it. Just here at work, they have stolen cooking pots, USB thumb drives, a whole motorcycle racing engine, tools TONS OF TOOLS, etc.. It is funny having to walk into a pawn shop and rebuy my own 2" end wrench that I bought a month ago and spraypainted red so I could identify it.

WTF I went tangent huh?

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 5:16 pm

If you watch the VOP tutorials on their site there's a lot of ways to make the voices your own sound.

I'm so beyond needing yet another usb port for something that one more device doesn't phase me, but I know what you mean about hubs not always connecting properly. I have 3 external drives and sometimes they show up and sometimes they don't and I have to unplug them and plug them back in. Nature of the beast I guess.

ironwill2000 · Post by **ironwill2000** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 6:05 pm

Well I think they actually went with an unlock serial code that you manually enter on one of their packages recently. Might have been just a test, but then again might be something that is a precursor of things to come.

chewywater · Post by **chewywater** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 6:56 pm

I've been very happy with the platinum orchestra. It sounds real (provided you use the samples tastefully).

I've actually used live to compose large orchestral pieces.
The only probs I have is that live only allows me to access 16 channels of the kontakt plugin which drives the samples.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 9:18 pm

beats me wrote:
Machinate wrote:I really like collossus. Great package, that.
My friend has that and says it rocks. How is it on the CPU?

He also said they are running some deal this month that if you buy one you get one for the same or lesser value for free.

It's the standard Kontakt lite player, intakt or whatever. Very lite on the cpu, hits you hard on the ram and hdd reads. Same as every rompler, only this one sounds real nice.

I did a full Norah Jones type track, slide guitar and everything with it once. Killer.

sparklepuff · Post by **sparklepuff** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 9:47 pm

Wow, the Complete Composeres Collection is only $995 (US), and comes with shitloads. 130 gigs!

I can has tax return?

rbro · Post by **rbro** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:08 pm

beats me wrote:I'm interested in Voices of Passion. The voices and the way you can manipulate them sounds amazing. It also saves you the trouble of trying to find and nail down a female vocalist for ambient vocal effects. Storm Drum also sounds great for epic soundtrack music. I've also heard their built in convolution reverbs are top notch.

What's the big deal about iLok I keep hearing about? Is it really that much of a pain to have yet another thing plugged into a USB port?

Just bought it NIB on Ebay for $225. Now I have to get an iLok key though. Can I get one anywhere online or does it need to be like a specific Eastwest one or something?

sparklepuff · Post by **sparklepuff** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:11 pm

rbro wrote:
beats me wrote:I'm interested in Voices of Passion. The voices and the way you can manipulate them sounds amazing. It also saves you the trouble of trying to find and nail down a female vocalist for ambient vocal effects. Storm Drum also sounds great for epic soundtrack music. I've also heard their built in convolution reverbs are top notch.

What's the big deal about iLok I keep hearing about? Is it really that much of a pain to have yet another thing plugged into a USB port?
Just bought it NIB on Ebay for $225. Now I have to get an iLok key though. Can I get one anywhere online or does it need to be like a specific Eastwest one or something?

You can get any iLok key, does not need to be from East West. Grab one from Sweetwater, anywhere.

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 2:44 am

rbro wrote:
beats me wrote:I'm interested in Voices of Passion. The voices and the way you can manipulate them sounds amazing. It also saves you the trouble of trying to find and nail down a female vocalist for ambient vocal effects. Storm Drum also sounds great for epic soundtrack music. I've also heard their built in convolution reverbs are top notch.

What's the big deal about iLok I keep hearing about? Is it really that much of a pain to have yet another thing plugged into a USB port?
Just bought it NIB on Ebay for $225. Now I have to get an iLok key though. Can I get one anywhere online or does it need to be like a specific Eastwest one or something?

You lucky bastard. I just checked ebay and the going rate is still $445. Damnit, why do I always miss the drug addict auction.

East West?

East West?

I have platinum Quantum leap orchestra