January 2009

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.

For me it's not a bad idea at all, it's just something new to get used to compared to other GUI's.
The good thing is that you don't get a cluttered interface.

CPU CONSUMPTION
The first thing I did was to compare the Play edition with the old sample engine (kompakt player). I did this by building up a project with about 15 instruments playing a quite advanced orchestral piece with both sample engines, one at a time and observed the cpu and disc performance.

PLAY is a tiny bit heavier on the cpu, so I think I'll have to stick with the Kompakt edition until my next computer upgrade. But on the other hand you get access to heavy-duty features such as Convolution reverb (which in itself takes alot of CPU) and the 64-bit support of play is just something we will have to go for.

I haven't tried PLAY in a 64-bit environment yet, but in a few weeks I will try it out with Windows Vista 64-bit, and let you know the performance with about 12 GB of ram instead of 3 GB.


Computer specs for this review:
2.0ghz Core 2 duo
3 GB RAM
Windows XP SP2 32-bit OS
200 GB SATA HD (exclusively for OS)
400 GB SATA HD (exclusively for samples)

If you are a happy owner of a Yamaha EX5 synthesizer workstation (like myself).
Don't forget to check the following sites:

www.ex5tech.com

www.xfactory-librarians.com.uk

I found this splendid link with some information regarding running Audio Applications under Vista and how we can benefit from 64-bit OS and Quad Processors.
www.rainrecording.co.uk

In the tests we learn that a
2.2Ghz Duo (Laptop) handles about 115 plugins
3.0 Ghz Quad handles about 228 plugins.

That's a really good performance boost.
Though we also see that the 64-bit is just a little tiny bit better in performance, but hey 64-bit gives us all the memory we could ever dream of. So in that aspect it's a must have for all of us who work with sampled orchestral instruments etc.

Speaking of which, I've just started the installation of the latest Symphonic Orchestra (platinum) PLAY EDITION from East West. It's 16 dual-layer DVD's to install and currently I'm on disc #9 so I guess I'll be finished with the installation tonight.
The new software (sample player) has a better way of handling all the articulations. So you don't have to fiddle around loading alot of different presets on different channels, they've made it all more accessible. It also includes a new convolusion reverb (from the same halls where the original library was recorded). I'll post a song or two in a few days when it's up and running.

I'm currently working on a new theme, currently it's only piano. But it will become more of a full orchestra arrangement in the coming days.

I just received the latest East West libraries called Symphonic Orchestra PLAY Edition and StormDrum 2 (also PLAY sample engine). It will be a blast to try out the new software sampler interface PLAY. Should work in 64-bit environment too so I will be setting up a new music computer soon with Vista 64 OS.
This will give me more headroom when it comes to RAM which the 32 bit OS only allows about 2 GB per application. This sucks when you work with software samplers and need LOADS of GB.
I will keep you posted regarding the sound quality of my new libraries.

The soundquality of SD2 is in fact amazing, just take a listen to the ethnic theme I just put together called Paleolitikum in the mp3 player.

Channel setup:
4 channels of SD2.
2 acoustic guitar channels.
3 additional sound effects channels with some drones and stuff I made in earlier sound design sessions.
1 sound texture pad.

Hope you like it!