The Sound Board

Here's a very recent example of some hollywood strings (with a little help from adachi). Still needs a fair bit of polishing, but I think this demonstrates a strong side of HWS, the togetherness and the sustains.

EW-Hollywwod Orch. OPUS (HOOPUS) was supposed to get a big new Addition during December last year, well.. that didn't materialize, so I wonder when it will be released this year.

This was something that Nick Phoenix of EW mentioned on VI-C forum a while back. But no more info about it since then.

I had to face it eventually - adding the new Opus instruments into the Cubase / VE Pro template. What could possibly go wrong?

First test - save a Play multi, then see if it opens in Opus. It does! All routing intact - the only minor issue is it makes no sound any more. Midi lights up, but no audio. Ah-ha, I thought, that's why there's separate Play and Opus patches for Hollywood Strings.

No matter, I'll leave all the old instruments on Play, and add the new ones in Opus. Everything worked until I disabled / enabled the VE Pro tracks. First attempt it crashed. 2nd and subsequent attempts it loaded but - suspiciously as before - no audio any more.

Okay, I better update Opus to the latest version as it's been nagging me to do. All done. Loaded template - crashes on attempting to load Opus. Every time. On further inspection, although the latest version of Play appears in the VE Pro scanned plugins, it is absent in the menu options to load an instrument. It is Shroedinger's plugin - both there and not there.

Okay, ditch this new fangled VST3 nonsense - VSL have only supported it for a week after all, and build it all again this time using the vst2 version. And... it seems to be working!

Moral of the story - beware Opus VST3 in VE Pro. Possibly any VST3, it's the first one I've tried.

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Jan 21, 2023 1:17 pm I had to face it eventually - adding the new Opus instruments into the Cubase / VE Pro template. What could possibly go wrong?

First test - save a Play multi, then see if it opens in Opus. It does! All routing intact - the only minor issue is it makes no sound any more. Midi lights up, but no audio. Ah-ha, I thought, that's why there's separate Play and Opus patches for Hollywood Strings.

No matter, I'll leave all the old instruments on Play, and add the new ones in Opus. Everything worked until I disabled / enabled the VE Pro tracks. First attempt it crashed. 2nd and subsequent attempts it loaded but - suspiciously as before - no audio any more.

Okay, I better update Opus to the latest version as it's been nagging me to do. All done. Loaded template - crashes on attempting to load Opus. Every time. On further inspection, although the latest version of Play appears in the VE Pro scanned plugins, it is absent in the menu options to load an instrument. It is Shroedinger's plugin - both there and not there.

Okay, ditch this new fangled VST3 nonsense - VSL have only supported it for a week after all, and build it all again this time using the vst2 version. And... it seems to be working!

Moral of the story - beware Opus VST3 in VE Pro. Possibly any VST3, it's the first one I've tried.

Bite the bullet and rebuild the template. I have become incredibly quick at doing so with articulation sets in Logic Pro to connect to VE Pro. I a, such a geek I actually enjoy it.

And you can buy the Cubase articulation sets from Art Conductor.

Ashermusic wrote: ↑Jan 21, 2023 1:28 pm Bite the bullet and rebuild the template. I have become incredibly quick at doing so with articulation sets in Logic Pro to connect to VE Pro. I a, such a geek I actually enjoy it.

And you can buy the Cubase articulation sets from Art Conductor.

Heavens no. I utterly despise Cubase's articulations, so that doesn't leave much reason to update.

Because I use the disabled template, even the RAM savings aren't terribly significant. If I used the whole orch they would be perhaps, but I don't use that many East West instruments at a time. Oh, and I definitely DON'T enjoy updating things.

Have you got the VST3 version of Opus working reliably in VE Pro Jay?

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Jan 21, 2023 1:32 pm

Ashermusic wrote: ↑Jan 21, 2023 1:28 pm Bite the bullet and rebuild the template. I have become incredibly quick at doing so with articulation sets in Logic Pro to connect to VE Pro. I a, such a geek I actually enjoy it.

And you can buy the Cubase articulation sets from Art Conductor.

Have you got the VST3 version of Opus working reliably in VE Pro Jay?

I haven’t tried yet because I use AU, not VST unless I am building templates for someone else.

EDIT: Just because I love you, Guy, I just created a new Hollywood Strings VST 3 template and connected to it with Logic Pro. Works perfectly.

Thought I better update this thread, as HOOPUS has rather taken over the VSL SDS Sordino one. Short version - thanks to Jay I discovered how lovely the fake sordinos are in HOOPUS. I've underused the library, in part because I never fully grappled with the Opus update and kept the original versions in my template, which didn't make the most of things. Here's the short example I did to show the HOOPUS sordino sound.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/lfmlvs9w ... 23vti&dl=0

I do find it a PITA to use out of the box, so if it's any use to anyone here's broadly what I did to get it into the VSL template in form I can cope with.

In Opus I've remapped CC1 to be CC11 and vice versa. That way the modwheel behaves like a normal intensity control (the playing dynamics, not the volume). In Cubase I have a midi transformer to limit the softest dynamic to be 10, I hate the ninente thing. Then in Quick Controls I have CC1 next to CC11, the later which now controls the vibrato (because I've reversed those two in HOOPUS - sorry its confusing). In the main library there are 3 vibrato layers, in the added 18v patch there is 2, and the switching between them is pretty smooth.

I then opened the Master Keyswitch patch for each instrument, and arranged the ones I wanted to use in my standard config which I trigger using an old Korg Nanokey, broadly standardised across all my instruments and root set at C-1.

Having set all that up for the 6 stringed instruments (the 6th being the alternate 18v first violins), I then duplicated the Opus instance in VE Pro and made the 2nd one sordino - nothing more clever than clicking the Soft profile and Sordino buttons. You can add the vintage mics for a bit more flavour, but tbh the main mix works pretty darn well on its own. I like having this all set as its own instruments ready to go (though you can't layer the two as you'd get phasing).

Having done all that, I then got a one-mic version working on the macbook. East West will deposit a 2nd license for HOOPUS or Fantasy Orchestra owners for free on request - doubly good is this can be machine authorised on top of the main iLok dongle license, perfect for a mobile rig. Although I had 700gb free, it wasn't enough to install it via the Installation Manager as it needs to download the entire 440gb lot AND install - I think that means almost 900gb of space for the process. So I copied just the MA sample subfolders (main mic position) from the PC to a portable drive, making sure the directory structure was identical, plus all the instrument and other files. Once copied to the Mac, Opus picked it up on a refresh right away. Everything works - it's every articulation and dynamic but just the default 1 mic position. 63gb.

*whispers* Just by reading that, I get dizzy.

Now, that daunting task... a template, articulations, routing, grouping, and having both keyboards setup correctly too.

Oh boy, where to start? What I have I got myself into.

47 hours left for the Brass. Last night I had 40-60Mbit, perhaps because of the first heavier snowfall , tonight I have about 7Mbit, in the year 2023, in heavily industrialized Germany, and there are still plenty people around with no Internet access at all. Ah well...

Had a first play with the Viola De Gamba, and I remembered "Gerhild", boy did I have a crush on her back in the school days. She played the Gamba with so much passion. Funny.

Hi @Guy Rowland,

Hmmm... So, Are you liking the EW HOOPUS Strings Sordino (fake emulation), more than the VSL Synchron Duality Strings (real) Sordino Library ?

I find that a bit hard to believe, but curious to read a bit more about how you are comparing these two libraries.

Thanks.

Muziksculp wrote: ↑Nov 30, 2023 2:38 pm Hi @Guy Rowland,

Hmmm... So, Are you liking the EW HOOPUS Strings Sordino (fake emulation), more than the VSL Synchron Duality Strings (real) Sordino Library ?

I find that a bit hard to believe, but curious to read a bit more about how you are comparing these two libraries.

Thanks.

I certainly liked it well enough to not want to spend €400 or whatever it was on VSL. It's a gorgeous sound that HOOPUS has (as does VSL), and in use I found that it was better in some regards. For example there were so many gradations of shorts to medium shorts I was able to craft a more realistic performance switching between them for one piece. There were things in VSL that were better for sure, but it felt like one of those situations where the pros and cons for each were quite evenly matched - at which point I want to save myself €400 and put it towards a new CPU and motherboard instead.

It was a very useful experience all round, and it made me spend more time with HOOPUS, setting it up as I like it.

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Nov 30, 2023 3:06 pm

Muziksculp wrote: ↑Nov 30, 2023 2:38 pm Hi @Guy Rowland,

Hmmm... So, Are you liking the EW HOOPUS Strings Sordino (fake emulation), more than the VSL Synchron Duality Strings (real) Sordino Library ?

I find that a bit hard to believe, but curious to read a bit more about how you are comparing these two libraries.

Thanks.

I certainly liked it well enough to not want to spend €400 or whatever it was on VSL. It's a gorgeous sound that HOOPUS has (as does VSL), and in use I found that it was better in some regards. For example there were so many gradations of shorts to medium shorts I was able to craft a more realistic performance switching between them for one piece. There were things in VSL that were better for sure, but it felt like one of those situations where the pros and cons for each were quite evenly matched - at which point I want to save myself €400 and put it towards a new CPU and motherboard instead.

It was a very useful experience all round, and it made me spend more time with HOOPUS, setting it up as I like it.

Thanks for the interesting and helpful feedback.

I'm in the process of installing my sample libraries on a new studio PC, I'm being selective as to what which libraries to install, and which ones to leave out, especially the ones I don't use much, so it's a long and slow process. Your comment made me decide to install EW-Hoopus on the new PC, another positive thing about using the OPUS and Synchron Players in Studio One Pro 6, is the automatic population of articulation of the Sound-Variations system of Studio One Pro. Make it much more friendly to switch articulations.

I think I will also be installing both VSL Synchron Duality Strings (Reg), and (Sord). on the new PC. I have both, but never used them, since I was was waiting for the new studio PC to be ready so I can install them.

Wait!!!!

Studio One has direct integration with OPUS? How'd I miss that? I knew about the tie-in to VSL, and I do like their libraries, but my bank account is not so fond!