aka 24 DVDS of fun. Each DVD took 10-15 min. to install, so I was back-and-forth while accomplishing other tasks and the night grew from a slender, supple thing into a fierce maelstrom of expressive sound.
The sale for the stock Complete Composers Collection @ $1,000 (this is a bargain for musical mavens, I've read how the Symphonic Orchestra portion alone cost ~$6,000 years ago) lured me in like a galley of sonic succubae, and I was bitten + smitten like a sack of kittens, only to swap out the piano module with Fab Four, which raised the price closer to $1,100.
In the past couple months (June and July 2009), the CCC cost almost $1,500, but they offered a 2-for-1 special on single PLAY instruments. Being a bogey for BOGOs, I hesitated… then pounced on this 7-pack WHICH ENDS AUGUST 31, so they claim. Yes, I'll cry if the price drops to like $750 in Sept., but this is still an excellent price for a forest of aural lushness. And it may be my analogue of Imelda Marcos being marooned on a planet of shoe-people.
Obligatory big banner of "THESE ARE THE SAME SOUNDS USED BY THE PROS!" followed by videos showing off "a few" sounds from the enormous treasury from me:
Retrospective errata: I later discovered the existence of black-note keyswitching. Always, what a joy to approach a tool sans manual and come to revelatory experiences.
Summary:
- Sampled instruments as uncompromising as Tetragrammaton clerics.
- Hours and hours of playtime discovering each and every instrument's nuances.
- PLAY interface is easy-to-use, instruments load in seconds at most on my Mac Pro. (And I started using them on a real track hours after install.)
- Keyswitched articulations are amazing and greatly add to expressivity.
- Where the heck is tempo-sync on the built-in Delay effect?
- The ADT (Automatic Double Tracking) and stereo thickener are great for phattening up sounds. Wish I could apply ADT to my other soft synths.
- Occasional crashes and clicks if I try to play while loading.
- Some UI oddities, including: some knobs (nice chrome) don't show numerical values as you spin them, I wish I could default to Replace instead of Add, and I haven't found a keyboard split option yet.
Blurb:
The Complete Composers Collection PLAY Edition is the most inexpensive way to obtain our award-winning Virtual Instruments, and includes seven of our most popular collections for composers which can only be customized here.
Official East West Quantum Leap – Complete Composers Collection info
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey! Sorry to respond in a sort of unrelated comment, but I've been meaning to get in touch with you and found no other way.
As a fellow virtual world writer and enthusiast, I wanted to reach out and say hello. I've recently opened a blog called Pixels and Policy (www.pixelsandpolicy.com), which serves as a base for my writing and research on the real-world political, policy, and cultural impact of virtual worlds. Our first article, a study of how Iranian protesters used Second Life to continue their rallies long after real-world protest was made deadly, will be featured in Georgetown University's Foreign Policy in Focus within the next few days.
I'd love if you'd consider checking it out!
Congratz! /me turns green with envy
EWQL possibly is a better choice than VSL …
btw, it's real handy to have all other related videos together in the same entry.
@PixelPolicy There's an About & Contact link at the very top of these pages. Thanks for the heads-up!
@Afterthought VSL is a lot more expensive, I'm a bargain hunter, and I feel the same way about the videos!
Some absolutely great videos, thank you so much. I imagine you are going to do more to sell EWQL products than ALL of their salesman!! GREAT stuff, and what incredible chops you've got! I already have the Silver and Gold SO and tomorrow, yes tomorrow I am going to buy the CCC. With Silk to replace the Gold SO.
Now its YOU to blame, for this, you have to take ALL the blame for making me spend my money! PAH!
What master keyboard and which sound card are you using please?
Great stuff, brilliant vids.
Thanks,
SysExJohn.
@SysExJohn Golly, thanks! I should tell Nick Phoenix + Doug Rogers this. ;D
I'm on M-Audio Keystation 88ES + recording sound directly from my Mac via Screenflow. Mic is Zoom H4n. More gearlistyness here: http://torley.com/answers-to-musical-questions
Great job on the videos. Thanks for the efforts.
I'm presently salivating over the EW collection, so I found the demos very informative.
I've composed ( the word "wrote" isn't fancy enough) music using an early version of Sibelius. I was classically trained in music using staves, notes, articulation and dynamic marks, and other squiggly little lines.
I want to write and produce music using EW but what would be a good software to actually write the music with? I was leaning towards the updated Sibelius but then I read a comment by Jonathan Loving who said Sib + EW wasn't the best combination even though he is mentioned on both company's websites.
You used a midi but I've never composed using an instrument.
Would something like, say, Cubase Esentials be a good method of delivering the music to EW?
It is hard to articluate my needs but you're more knowledgable than me at this point.
Oh, yeah, I forgot, I'm trying to keep my costs down.
thx