Sometimes you want nuance, but sometimes you want orchestral, big-screen bombast, and in our own experience, there's nothing that hits quite like EastWest's Hollywood Orchestra, which is currently reduced by $150 with our friends at Sweetwater, and on EastWest's website.
This newer version of EastWest Sounds' original collection of sampled orchestral instruments, peerlessly recorded by Hollywood sound engineer and industry stalwart Shawn Murphy, allows deep control, offering a wealth of playing styles, articulations and mic placements.
It's those meticulous original recordings that still provide the heart of the Opus edition, but they’ve been reconfigured for the new Opus engine. This latest version also throws 130GB of brand new recordings into the mix.
Designed by Cubase and Studio One developer Wolfgang Kundrus and Wolfgang ‘Kontakt’ Schneider, Opus is a modern and flexible route to control this massive selection of instruments. It's a good looking interface too, which modifies its colour scheme depending on your currently selected preferences.
Within the suite you'll be able to work with:
- Hollywood Strings
- Hollywood Brass
- Hollywood Orchestral Woodwinds
- Hollywood Orchestral Percussion
- Hollywood Solo Violin
- Hollywood Solo Cello
- Hollywood Harp
The Orchestrator is a key aspect of the suite, which gives users the means to build full-on symphonies by playing a few simple chords with one hand and shaping expression with the other. With over 500 presets, you're really able to get up and running without much fuss.
Further controls at your disposal include the 'Moods' section, where users can cycle between contrasting performance approaches. Classic serves up the sounds from the original Hollywood Orchestra, While Soft allows for more gentler, emotive and delicate performances. Then, Epic does exactly what it says on the tin with big-screen bombast and ready-to-go tension-type sounds.
There's a lot more to talk about - which we gushed about in our extensive review back in 2021. But if you're in the market for a quick-fire route to massive orchestral sounds with little fuss - then we recommend this suite. But just make sure you've got the hard drive space!
