The Sound Board

HOLLYWOOD ORCHESTRA OPUS EDITION

Brand new recordings include a new 18 violin string section for Hollywood Strings, new ensembles for Hollywood Brass and Hollywood Orchestral Woodwinds, plus new string, brass, and wind multi ensembles. "The new 18 violins are an alternate to the first 16 violins of the original library. They have a different sound," says producer Nick Phoenix, "the players are different. The vibrato is different. The legato is the best we have ever recorded. They work well with the existing collection or as a replacement for the original 1st violins. The new 2 tenor trombones have a completely different sound from the 3 trombones in the original collection. The new trombones are warm, full, and extremely precise. 2 trumpets were recorded again using two of the best players in the Hollywood film score scene. The legato is blazing at high velocities and sounds like a live performance."

The programming of the original content from Hollywood Orchestra has been updated to take advantage of the features included in the new Opus software engine, as well as the Hollywood Solo Instrument Series (now included in this expansion). Particular focus was placed on Hollywood Orchestral Woodwinds. After improving the original woodwinds, new ensembles were recorded, including 3 bassoons, 3 clarinets, and 3 flutes. "Once again, this was a huge success because of the quality of the players," says Phoenix, "Each woodwind ensemble works together on a regular basis and the tuning and timing are immaculate. These new recordings are unmatched in the virtual instruments world. The Opus Edition also includes new string, brass and wind multi ensembles that have a unique fat sound that captures the tuning of a large orchestra playing together in a live setting."

Powerful new control features include Master key-switches where all articulations can be fully customized in the new OPUS articulation palette. You can also customize the sound of each instrument using the new MOODS feature. Classic Mood is the original Hollywood Orchestra sound. Soft Mood modifies the sound for slower, more emotional passages. Epic Mood does the opposite, giving you a sound perfectly suited for your next Action Adventure score. Each mood changes the settings and the look of the interface, which has been completely redesigned and stylized for Hollywood Strings, Hollywood Brass, Hollywood Orchestral Woodwinds, Hollywood Orchestral Percussion, Hollywood Solo Violin, Hollywood Solo Cello, and Hollywood Harp. In addition, we simplified all instrument versions down to LITE and MAX, making Hollywood Strings in particular much easier to navigate. MOODS works best in the Diamond editions that include all mic positions mixed by Shawn Murphy. We strongly encourage our Gold users to upgrade to Diamond, and ComposerCloud and ComposerCloud X subscribers to upgrade to ComposerCloud Plus while the 50% off offer is available during our Black Friday special. ComposerCloud X subscribers will also receive a credit for the remainder of your current plan towards the upgrade price.

NEW OPUS ENGINE TO REPLACE PLAY

Our brand new OPUS software engine replaces PLAY and has been years in development. "Many improvements were made to the PLAY software engine over the last decade but we suddenly had a unique opportunity," says producer Doug Rogers, "we were able to bring Wolfgang Kundrus in as head of software development. He was the mastermind behind the creation of Cubase, Nuendo, and Studio One. Then we were able to bring in Wolfgang Schneider, the creator of Kontakt. With these two titans of the music software development now on the team, we decided it was time to develop a brand new software engine from the ground up. The OPUS software engine is the realization of this effort. Not only is it faster, more powerful, more flexible, and better looking than PLAY, it comes with some incredible new features such as individual instrument downloads, the ability to start playing instruments while they're loading, customized key-switches, new effects for the mixer page, scaleable retina GUI upgrades for legacy products, a powerful new script language, and many more features that allow you to completely customize the sound of each instrument. It's one of the most exciting developments in the history of our company and will be the launching pad for many exciting new products of the future."

HOLLYWOOD ORCHESTRATOR

At the same time as the release of Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition, we are releasing an additional expansion product Hollywood Orchestrator. Developed in collaboration with Sonuscore, Hollywood Orchestrator uses all the instruments in Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition to create realtime arrangements based on your MIDI input with our innovative Scoring Engine. Build your own rhythms and scores with the StepEditor. Create Patterns with a length up to 4 bars. Get started quickly with more than 400 Presets in different categories and moods. There's playable full orchestral articulations and MIDI record and export. It's the whole Hollywood Orchestra right at your fingertips with up to 16 Patches across all instrument sections. Hollywood Orchestrator is the perfect tool both for new composers who want to get that Hollywood blockbuster sound within seconds and for professional composers who need to produce large amounts of compositions on a deadline. Hollywood Orchestrator is an optional add-on that requires Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition. All ComposerCloud members will get instant access to Hollywood Orchestrator as well as the OPUS software engine.

Linos wrote: ↑Nov 29, 2020 3:52 am The one thing that interests me is the ability to configure keyswitches. Together with the streamlining of Hollywood Strings, it should make the library much easier to use. I like the sound, and the depth of articulations sampled is almost unparalleled. But currently I never use the library because I can not set it up to suit my workflow. I hope HOOPUS will solve these issues for me.

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Nov 29, 2020 4:47 am I set up a template with HS configured in Cubase to respond how I want it, using CC1 for velocity, getting rid of niente etc. It's the only way I can use it really. Opus looks like that will be a breeze (as it always should have been in Play), but since I have a workaround I won't be clamouring to get Opus for this alone.

Muziksculp wrote: ↑Jan 21, 2021 6:04 pm So, when will EW : H.O. Opus Edition be officially released ?