Ableton Forum

Ease West has an option to subscribe to the entire library on-line. I wonder if anybody had a chance to use it, test it etc. I wonder how well this service works. It seems to be quite interesting option to be able to access entire library and just pay monthly instead spending several thousand dollars. Would like to hear opinions how well this works ?

Arthur

aklisiewicz wrote:Ease West has an option to subscribe to the entire library on-line. I wonder if anybody had a chance to use it, test it etc. I wonder how well this service works. It seems to be quite interesting option to be able to access entire library and just pay monthly instead spending several thousand dollars. Would like to hear opinions how well this works ?

Arthur

Hey mate - there was a post similar to this a few weeks ago actually. Yup, I subscribed for about 6 months. Some of the libraries are excellent. I cancelled my sub because EW doesn't use Kontakt anymore, they use their own proprietary sample player and it's terrible. Samples randomly drop out on playback, and I ended up getting so frustrated I canceled.

Oh. I thought this was going to be able Entertainment Weekly. Carry on.

I would agree with Shift Gorden but they have recently updated the sampler to Play version 5. I can say its a lot better and patches load way faster especially with SSDs. I bought the Hollywood Orchestra Diamond I while back and was kind of disappointed because of the problems with the Play sampler. However, I have recently become a lot more satisfied with my purchase.

rhythmhead wrote:I would agree with Shift Gorden but they have recently updated the sampler to Play version 5. I can say its a lot better and patches load way faster especially with SSDs. I bought the Hollywood Orchestra Diamond I while back and was kind of disappointed because of the problems with the Play sampler. However, I have recently become a lot more satisfied with my purchase.

That's great to hear, mate! I REALLY dug their choir package - I had a lot of fun with the vocal engine.

I may give it another go then

So what is so terrible about EW player ?
Yesterday I used KONTAKT5 with Live and Ilya Efimov "Eastern Winds" instruments and had very wired behavior when instruments (after playing few notes) dropped the volume by around 90% so I was almost not able to hear it. When I reloaded particular instrument everything was coming back to normal but then when I started playing again same thing happened. The instruments and samples and interface are awesome but now I cannot figure out what is causing the problem - samples, interface, Kointakt or Live ?

Never used any instruments from EW so far although I was going to purchase STORM DRUMS 3, so perhaps I should wait a while. I'm going to check if there is any trial period to see how it works.

Can you please share what were the main issues with EW subscription (more in detail) ?

Thank - Arthur

East West get a bad rap, I've never experienced the drop out issue with the Play engine, but I only last year started buying some EW kit.
Play 5 is solid for me anyway.

I will say they really handled a difficult situation with a lot of class. An old employee of theirs in Europe was selling boxed versions of their software for years after he quit working for them as if he was still an employee. Most people weren't screwed by him and got amazing deals. I bought Symphonic Orchestra Platinum and The Dark Side from him. Problem was this guy sold me a copy of Symphonic Orchestra that had a used unlock code. EW took the blame since he was their european distributer for years, and sent me free codes.

Personally I think they're great, just need a few more usability improvements to Play and I'm good. Bought Stormdrum 2 off them recently. My income is too varied for subscriptions, when I'm out of work I have time to write, and wouldn't want my subscription running out or overloading a credit card, food and rent can do that alone.

I forgot they had choirs, definitely looking into that when they have their next sale!

aklisiewicz wrote:So what is so terrible about EW player ?
Yesterday I used KONTAKT5 with Live and Ilya Efimov "Eastern Winds" instruments and had very wired behavior when instruments (after playing few notes) dropped the volume by around 90% so I was almost not able to hear it. When I reloaded particular instrument everything was coming back to normal but then when I started playing again same thing happened. The instruments and samples and interface are awesome but now I cannot figure out what is causing the problem - samples, interface, Kointakt or Live ?

Never used any instruments from EW so far although I was going to purchase STORM DRUMS 3, so perhaps I should wait a while. I'm going to check if there is any trial period to see how it works.

Can you please share what were the main issues with EW subscription (more in detail) ?

Thank - Arthur

Take this with a pinch of salt since I think I was using an older version of their sample player (maybe 4).

The actual sound quality was amazing - don't get me wrong. I mean, absolutely fantastic (and I tried pretty much everything they had to offer in the subscription).

For me, and several other folk I know (including a university professor who teaches recording) the problem was with actual playback. Randomly the play engine would drop samples. For example, I could play through a track and it would sound perfect. 2 mins later I could play it again, and notes would be missing. It was really bizarre. It made mastering one of my media projects a nightmare as I had to literally bounce it about 5 times until everything played back.

It was really weird. Now, I will say I did not have my library installed on a solid state drive...so that could be a lot of the problem there.

But, if those guys have sorted it out, it's worth going for.

Machinesworking wrote:East West get a bad rap, I've never experienced the drop out issue with the Play engine, but I only last year started buying some EW kit.
Play 5 is solid for me anyway.

I will say they really handled a difficult situation with a lot of class. An old employee of theirs in Europe was selling boxed versions of their software for years after he quit working for them as if he was still an employee. Most people weren't screwed by him and got amazing deals. I bought Symphonic Orchestra Platinum and The Dark Side from him. Problem was this guy sold me a copy of Symphonic Orchestra that had a used unlock code. EW took the blame since he was their european distributer for years, and sent me free codes.

Personally I think they're great, just need a few more usability improvements to Play and I'm good. Bought Stormdrum 2 off them recently. My income is too varied for subscriptions, when I'm out of work I have time to write, and wouldn't want my subscription running out or overloading a credit card, food and rent can do that alone.

I forgot they had choirs, definitely looking into that when they have their next sale!

Mate, I don't think I've ever had so much fun with something. I was producing for a "theoretical" ad - the video was all Christmassy so I was using bells, EW violins (so nice) and the EW choir. At one point a character lobs a snowball at another, so I programmed the choir to sing "snowball in the face" - it sounded so awesome. I was chuckling for ages.

OK so let's say I have subscribed and then after few months I decided to quit. What happens then to my projects? No sound anymore from EW instruments ? Do I need to convert all midi tracks to audio first (before cancelling subscription) ?

ART

i think once you bounce you're all set... just get it mostly dialed in within EQ/Compressor range

having said that, i don't have the software(s)/subscription; however, i'm interested in this conversation... *bookmark*

Shift Gorden wrote: At one point a character lobs a snowball at another, so I programmed the choir to sing "snowball in the face" - it sounded so awesome. I was chuckling for ages.

Would love to hear that!

Been a Composer Cloud subscriber for around a year. The latest version on Play is very stable. The only issue I have had is with the Spaces plug-in being temperamental. Besides that, the whole subscription process is relatively straightforward; I can't say I've had any major issues.

aklisiewicz wrote:OK so let's say I have subscribed and then after few months I decided to quit. What happens then to my projects? No sound anymore from EW instruments ? Do I need to convert all midi tracks to audio first (before cancelling subscription) ?

ART

Just bounce it all to audio before unsubscribing