Just make sure you’ve got the hard drive space! It’s hard to envision how a package of this magnitude could be improved. Though EastWest’s emphasis is on achieving cinema-grade orchestral power instantly, there’s simply mountains of creative scope within the Hollywood Orchestra Opus toolkit.
The best method of performing these types of patches is to, with one hand, hold down the chord shape, while the other hand controls the volume via the mod wheel, this might seem alien to those used to delicately performing their samples in a pianistic way, but it’s the most logical way to control the countless mini-movements, and intensity, of an orchestra. Ostinatos add pulses and tension to proceedings, while within Scores you can toy with all hues of blockbuster-level might.
Orchestrator’s Preset browser conveniently organises by Ensembles, Ostinatos, Scores and User.Įnsemble presets, in particular, are generally glorious showcases of just how astounding sounding these recordings are, and the degree of masterful control you can have over the huge sound, with wide sounding legato, sustains, crescendos and nuanced articulations being triggered by a single press, and each key activating different elements of the ensemble.įull Ensemble Movie Apocalypse is a great example of the levels of bombast you can instantly summon up.
Once you’ve got to grips with instrument and patch loading, performing the full Opus orchestra via Hollywood Orchestrator is remarkable fun, with certain presets providing complex, epic-sounding scope with the hold of a simple chord. Recorded at Berlin’s Teldex Studio, OT’s first in the four-part Metropolis Ark series is a flagship suite of massive-sounding orchestral heft. Spitfire’s BBC package offers similar levels of dynamic control and excellent sample recording quality.
A useful series of windows asks questions which allow the software to fine-tune itself to your creative and technical requirements. Once installed, it’s easy to get started as either a standalone program, or as an AU, AAX or VST plugin within your DAW of choice. Installation of the full product requires a significant investment of both cash and digital real estate, with the full Diamond version of the suite requiring nearly 1TB of free space – so make sure you’ve got significant hard drive capacity (though it’s possible to save library files to multiple drives). The aim of Opus is to weave these instruments together, as crucial elements of the full orchestra. The major components comprise packages which span Brass, Orchestral Percussion, Orchestral Woodwinds, Solo Cello, Solo Violin, Harp and Strings, though they’re richly playable instruments in their own right. The recordings therefore are at turns majestic, nuanced, bombastic and utterly soul-tickling. (Image credit: EastWest) Performance and verdictĪll the instruments that make up the numerous sub-suites of the collection were recorded at the EastWest Studio 1, and produced by Doug Rogers and Nick Phoenix, alongside the aforementioned Shawn Murphy, all of whom are luminaries in the professional scoring world. Professional software scorers facing tight deadlines will find it invaluable. The program encourages you to craft your own intricate movement within an orchestral patch. Though its 500 mouth-watering presets are tantalisingly waiting to be fired up and explored, Orchestrator is no virtual cheat-sheet. Orchestrator is a new orchestral arrangement-shaping tool, and is the secret weapon to work up huge sounding scores at a super-fast rate, with real-time melodic line-adjustment presented in a DAW-like view. Though these are the key advancements on paper, the package’s relationship with EastWest’s new ambidextrous Hollywood Orchestrator elevates the whole experience into something far richer. Of particular note is the slick colour switch when adjusting between the new Mood choices per instrument (scalable between the intimate Soft, the mid-range Classic and the full-frontal Epic).
The redesign of the UI has significantly simplified the suite, with a strikingly pretty central visual providing easy-to-understand access to every parameter you need. Of particular note is a robust 18 violin section within Hollywood Strings, which has an '80s childhood fantasy vibe as well as the ability to define key switches to switch between every instrument articulation.
There’s a whole heap of freshly recorded instruments and effects in the mix, too, across the string, brass and woodwind libraries.