November 2008

I just thought I should write a short review of the East west symphonic orchestra Play Edition library and also give my viewpoint on the cons and pros of the new interface and workflow.

I've been living with the original EWSO platinum edition for quite some time now and have grown used to the sounds and how they work together in different setups. It's an amazing box when it comes to quality and usefullness, and the new PLAY edition which has the same core-sounds but with a new GUI (graphical user interface) and totally new sample-engine, PLAY also feels like a solid product.

The keyfeatures of EWSO PLAY EDITION is:
° 64-bit compatibility - which means we can get access to much more RAM than 2 GB per application.
° Convolution reverb - many impulses from the original recording halls of the EWSO library.
° On screen mic position mixing - much easier to access and mix the different mic positions
° Improved sound quality of the audio engine
° Hi fidelity one pole filter for natural cross-fades
° Performance section - portamento, repetition, legato and round rabin reset
° Improved articulation window and controls for easy keyswitch assignment

The first glance of the GUI is that it's more modern and sleek, candy for the eyes.

To access instrument-patches you press the "browser" icon on the top right side of the interface. In the browser you manage your instruments and East West have added something called favourites, where you can drag-n-drop the patches you use the most into your own folder for easy access.

This was the first weird bug I came across.
I created a favourite folder called "New folder 1", but I wanted to delete it...which was impossible, even in the latest version of PLAY. I hope they will fix this in the next update.

After loading up an instrument patch "Platinum Strings->10 Violas->Short->VAS Pizz RR.ewi" I head back into the player (by pressing the PLAYER icon).
In the middle of the player you see a big window which shows which articulations you have loaded, you can also adjust their separate levels and which articulations you want active (loaded).

To the top left of the screen you can also see which MIDI channel the instrument responds to.
After each instrument you load in the player they automatically get routed to midi-channel 0, which means omni-connection and the patch will play on every midi channel. Almost all other vsti instruments have a unique midi-channel set for each instrument you load. It would have been great if they at least made them pre-set to a unique channel and that you can change it afterwards if that is your intention. But for MOST cases you want them pre-set to a unique channel number, and that isn't the case with PLAY. For each instrument I loaded up I had to set the midi-channel every time manually (which is time consuming and an uneccessary feature).

Another thing I noticed is that you don't have a patch-list of your loaded instruments like in other programs, the patch-list in in PLAY is kind of "hidden" from the user at first. The developer have chosen to put them in a sub-menu, so if you want to see all the instruments you have loaded you click on the instrument name on the top-right of the player. This brings up a window like in (picture 3) which shows the loaded patches and also their connected midi-channel in the brackets ie. (2).

If you want to switch between the instruments you select a patch in this sub-menu.

I just finished writing and recording the piano edition of Skippy Symphony. It is a variation of the Skippy Symphony #1 but with some colorful additions. I wanted it to sound kind of "bare bone" on some of the parts, but still with some added dynamics to the stronger sections (main theme/chorus). The piano sound I used is from the East West series.

I will also make an alternative mix of this song with the new Quantum Lean Pianos (I received a 7 day trial version when I got the Symphonic Orchestra Play edition some months back), it's supposed to be a killer sound. =)

Some of the dynamics in the song got carried away since my master keyboard is the Yamaha EX5 which has synth type keys and not the weighted kind of action you get with a real piano.

Well, I hope you enjoy the song!

I've had my trustful Ibanez RG570 for about 10 years now and a few years back the tone started sounding dull, and due to other projects at the moment I didn't take my time to look at it.
I've recorded a bunch of songs since then but always thought the tone lacked "life" and the "sound" I had grown fond of.

Then I bought a Ibanez SAS36FM and thought I could replace my old RG570 but oh I was so wrong.
The SAS can't handle the "low" string height I'm used to (yes, I play alot of tapping since I'm the worst plectrum player ever...hehe). The neck is also alot fatter and isn't really comfortable. The only good think about it, is the look. It has a real nice finish.

So yesterday I took my Ibanez RG570 and started to see if I could find the root of the problem with the "dull" sound.
After a quick search on the internet I found the coupling-scheme (wiring diagram) for the electronic 5-way switch and the mic system of the RG. After doing a quick comparison with my guitar and the scheme I realized that Ronnie (one of the former guitarplayers in my band Embracing) had manage to connect a few wires at the wrong inputs of the switch when he was mounting a new volume pot in my guitar.

So I got my solder-gear out and rewired the switch at the correct positions according to the diagram.
Plugged the guitar to my soundcard and into Revalver Mk3 in Cubase 4...and guess what? Yes, my good old sound is back.

The guitar now sound as good as it did 10 years ago.

Now I just have to replace the pivot-studs for the tremolo (since one of them broke, and it's impossible to change the string-height without adjusting these. Maybe I'll go for one of these.

Now I have to re-record all guitars for my latest songs (like Shape of another soul etc.).