The Sound Board

"Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition is the highly anticipated expansion to Hollywood Orchestra, the best-selling and most awarded orchestral virtual instrument ever produced. It includes brand new pristine recordings, reimagined original content, and powerful new features, all housed in our new revolutionary OPUS software engine. Produced by Doug Rogers and Nick Phoenix, recipients of over 100 international industry Awards, and sound engineered by multiple Academy Award and BAFTA winner Shawn Murphy, Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition is the culmination of years of recording and programming and will set a new industry standard for achieving professional sounding orchestral soundtracks. Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition is released with the new Opus software and a companion product Hollywood Orchestrator, a must-have tool for composers of every skill level who want to achieve that Hollywood blockbuster sound quickly."





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I like that they spend the first 2 minutes in the walkthrough going over the instrument order and say 'it's exactly how you'll find it in a typical orchestral score' only to show a concert and layout that is definitely not an orchestral score layout

I have yet to decide whether I would find it useful. The Orchestra seemed intriguing the first couple of weeks it was out but I struggle to see if I wouldn't tend to write all the roles out myself and do a customized orchestration/arrangement.

Well this looks and sounds bloody brilliant to me. I'll be curious to hear real world reports.

Ditto that, Guy. Both the sound and the one finger composer, which you can customize and use in your own way.
Haven't ever considered Composer Cloud, might now, although it's hard to trust EW to make a user friendly interface.

Are some solo instruments missing? Or did I see it incorrectly and it's actually ALL ensembles?

Lawrence, the trailer begins with solo wws, and on towards the very end a photo of the Solo Cello library pops up.
It seems as if there are, given their trailer.
The cloud is a good way to test drive everything they have, then cancel the cloud and wait for sales.
I don't think this is a nefarious thing, as they (EW) will get monies anyway with the individual purchases I make.
But I think they have only one plan that allows you to cancel on the spot.
Back to work.
g.c.

I might have missed it, but as they were clicking through horns on the walkthrough, I didn't see a solo. Might have just missed it.

EW has made major money from me over the years, but nothing recently. They may have hooked me back in.

Not that I'm seriously considering this, honest, but it says this in the FAQ:

To qualify for an upgrade you must have 4 of these 7 sections: Brass, Percussion, Strings, Woodwinds, Solo Violin, Solo Cello, and Harp.

The Gold version is $695, while the upgrade price is $395. I own Brass and Strings, so would need 2 more of these products to qualify. AudioDeluxe currently have the two solo libraries and harp for $99 each.

I actually looked at VI-C for the first time in months to see what was going on. These seems to be the initial summary:

Downloading / activating all over the place (no surprise there - give it a few days)

Opus can stream DFD and it works as well as Kontakt (this is huge)

Most of the original content sounds the same, some fixes but a lot not fixed esp woodwinds (I did think they said they'd re-recorded much of this but I might be misremembering)

Few comments yet on the new content or orchestrator. Give it a day and there'll likely be videos and first demos.

I'm very keen to hear how the the orchestrator works in practice. As many know, I've been banging this drum for over a decade now, ever since I got Symphobia - I love playable patches to get a whole mood going. It took a long time for any other companies to join in, but finally everyone is doing it now. On paper this looks like a very good implementation, I'm particularly interested in the patches that can have a legato top line with an orchestrated everything else, but stealing that top line from playing the chords. The Symphobia series always has the legato element as separate, so it would be a different way of playing - I can't quite figure out if I'd get on with it, but I always found those patches in Symphobia a little clumsy so interested in their take.

I have been beta testing it for quite a while, (though not as much as I would have liked as I have been dealing with the mishigoss about my Dad. Don't ask.)

Opus is definitely an upgrade from Play, in terms of CPU efficiency, and allows you to build your own key switches and audition sounds. As for content, the woodwinds are definitely improved, and now have more than just solo choices. In fact, it feels like legato transitions are improved throughout the Hollywood Orchestra.

Instruments (patches) have been simplified and many eliminated but you can still copy them over from Play and they work with Opus. (In each library I created a "legacy" instruments folder.)

Orchestrator is not something I spent much time with, seems to work as expected, and I will probably hardly ever use it. If I had a robust career with tough deadlines I might feel differently, admittedly.

That's all good to hear Jay, thanks. Does Opus simply replace Play for all the existing libraries?

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 12:12 pm That's all good to hear Jay, thanks. Does Opus simply replace Play for all the existing libraries?

No, you can still use Play if you want. But Play will not be further updated to work on Silicon chip Macs, or new OS versions.

OK, thanks - but you don't actually require it, Opus will run all the old stuff too?

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 1:18 pm OK, thanks - but you don't actually require it, Opus will run all the old stuff too?

Yes.

Subjective question I know, but for someone like myself who spent $500 on the original Hollywood Orchestra platinum, is the extra content worth the $500 upgrade price?

Or, perhaps phrased slightly differently. Where is the extra $500 worth for you? Better programming? Extra content? Orchestrator?

For some background, I only tend to reach for Hollywood orchestra when I can’t do something with my existing libraries. Mostly that’s because I found the nomenclature and workflow of the original too high a barrier to use regularly. The lack of keyswitches was also a high bar given I like to minimize my track count in my DAW

I really think the only way I'd do this deal is by renting a few months of Composer Cloud. At the present sale price of $20 per month, a two or three month subscription seems like a no brainer to me. Biggest drawbacks would be the time it takes to download, install and learn-plus yet another SSD.

Brett wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 5:29 pm Subjective question I know, but for someone like myself who spent $500 on the original Hollywood Orchestra platinum, is the extra content worth the $500 upgrade price?

Or, perhaps phrased slightly differently. Where is the extra $500 worth for you? Better programming? Extra content? Orchestrator?

For some background, I only tend to reach for Hollywood orchestra when I can’t do something with my existing libraries. Mostly that’s because I found the nomenclature and workflow of the original too high a barrier to use regularly. The lack of keyswitches was also a high bar given I like to minimize my track count in my DAW

Well you could always make de facto keyswitches in a multi if you knew how, but now it’s really easy in Opus.

Definitely better programming and. better woodwinds now but worth $500 is a subjective call. Because it has always been my main library my view might well be different than yours.

Thanks Jay. I think you’ve answered my question

Lawrence wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 5:48 pm I really think the only way I'd do this deal is by renting a few months of Composer Cloud. At the present sale price of $20 per month, a two or three month subscription seems like a no brainer to me. Biggest drawbacks would be the time it takes to download, install and learn-plus yet another SSD.

Yes, if its Diamond then most of us have to factor in another SSD. I've maxed out, so in practice it means swapping a 1TB drive for 2TB one or bigger.

That, helpfully, is enough of a buzzkill to dampen my own enthusiasm. I think it looks and sounds great but (of course) I don't need it as such, and knowing EastWest's policy for prices always dropping I'm very happy to wait til I next upgrade the computer.

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Apr 22, 2021 3:21 am

Lawrence wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 5:48 pm I really think the only way I'd do this deal is by renting a few months of Composer Cloud. At the present sale price of $20 per month, a two or three month subscription seems like a no brainer to me. Biggest drawbacks would be the time it takes to download, install and learn-plus yet another SSD.

Yes, if its Diamond then most of us have to factor in another SSD. I've maxed out, so in practice it means swapping a 1TB drive for 2TB one or bigger.

That, helpfully, is enough of a buzzkill to dampen my own enthusiasm. I think it looks and sounds great but (of course) I don't need it as such, and knowing EastWest's policy for prices always dropping I'm very happy to wait til I next upgrade the computer.

In my case, drives are essential purchases. I’m frugal in other areas, but $180 or so for a two TB drive-well, whether Opus stays or goes, the drive space can always be utilized.

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Apr 22, 2021 3:21 am

Lawrence wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 5:48 pm I really think the only way I'd do this deal is by renting a few months of Composer Cloud. At the present sale price of $20 per month, a two or three month subscription seems like a no brainer to me. Biggest drawbacks would be the time it takes to download, install and learn-plus yet another SSD.

Yes, if its Diamond then most of us have to factor in another SSD. I've maxed out, so in practice it means swapping a 1TB drive for 2TB one or bigger.

That, helpfully, is enough of a buzzkill to dampen my own enthusiasm. I think it looks and sounds great but (of course) I don't need it as such, and knowing EastWest's policy for prices always dropping I'm very happy to wait til I next upgrade the computer.

One thing to be aware of. When you install the new samples folder for e.g. Hollywood Strings, you can delete the old one, and the new one is not that much larger.

I only have Gold strings and Brass, so they're pretty small in size. If I decided to go for Diamond this time around, it's jump from about 65gb to 900gb! (also there's the issue of keeping old sessions compatible I presume).

It's been a year or two since I added an SSD, and I still have a fair bit of space. Just not that much.

Having read more feedback, I'm very happy to wait. I'm sure gremlins will be ironed out, and its definitely in the nice-to-have-not-essential category for me.

Ashermusic wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 1:59 pm

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 1:18 pm OK, thanks - but you don't actually require it, Opus will run all the old stuff too?

Yes.

Is it possible to download the Opus engine without buying a new instrument/bundle? I looked around the website a bit and couldn't find any download links.

soundbylaura wrote: ↑Apr 22, 2021 10:55 am

Ashermusic wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 1:59 pm

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 1:18 pm OK, thanks - but you don't actually require it, Opus will run all the old stuff too?

Yes.

Is it possible to download the Opus engine without buying a new instrument/bundle? I looked around the website a bit and couldn't find any download links.

I don't think so.

Ashermusic wrote: ↑Apr 22, 2021 10:59 am

soundbylaura wrote: ↑Apr 22, 2021 10:55 am

Ashermusic wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 1:59 pm

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 1:18 pm OK, thanks - but you don't actually require it, Opus will run all the old stuff too?

Yes.

Is it possible to download the Opus engine without buying a new instrument/bundle? I looked around the website a bit and couldn't find any download links.

I don't think so.

Duh, I remembered the EW Installation Center software and it's in there. Downloading now, we shall see what happens.

soundbylaura wrote: ↑Apr 22, 2021 11:04 am

Ashermusic wrote: ↑Apr 22, 2021 10:59 am

soundbylaura wrote: ↑Apr 22, 2021 10:55 am

Ashermusic wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 1:59 pm

Guy Rowland wrote: ↑Apr 21, 2021 1:18 pm OK, thanks - but you don't actually require it, Opus will run all the old stuff too?

Yes.

Is it possible to download the Opus engine without buying a new instrument/bundle? I looked around the website a bit and couldn't find any download links.

I don't think so.

Duh, I remembered the EW Installation Center software and it's in there. Downloading now, we shall see what happens.

Oh, good, that surprises me pleasantly.