Electronic Musician: EastWest "Hollywood Brass" Library

Following on the success of (Hollywood Strings HS), EastWest released Hollywood Brass (HB) in late 2011. The process was much the same for the latter as for the former: Hire A-list studio musicians in Los Angeles; enlist Academy- and Emmy-winning engineer Shawn Murphy to oversee the sampling sessions; and do it in EastWest Studios (formerly known as Cello, Ocean Way, and Bill Putnam's United/Western Studios). How's that for pedigree?

Having previously reviewed HS for Electronic Musician, I had high expectations for the brass library. I was not disappointed, as the level of recording and programming detail runs deep; however, HB is much easier on your system than their string library. HB's 150GB Diamond Edition (reviewed here) is delivered on a 7200rpm hard drive and features 24-bit samples with five microphone positions, while the 20GB Gold Edition features one mic position and 16-bit samples. Available articulations between the two editions are identical; only the sample rate and mic configurations differ.

I worked in both Studio 1 and Studio 2 with Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello when it was operating as Cello Studios, and I can attest to Studio 1's sound—open, but not excessively reverberant. This makes it a good choice for sounds that are both rich and spacious, and EastWest has included a number of excellent convolution reverbs in the current version of Play (the cross-platform, virtual instrument engine used by EastWest library releases) for adding actual reverb.

In the Library The Diamond Edition provides four simultaneous, phase-locked mic positions that can be mixed to taste: Close (directly in front of the instrument(s); Mid (back a bit and in front of each section); Main (a Decca tree configuration up high above the conductor position); and Surround (room mics, switchable to an alternate "vintage" set of RCA44 ribbon mics). The Gold Edition utilizes the Main mics only that, frankly, sound great and are sufficient for a lot of orchestral and film work.

Each section includes a thorough, though not exhaustive, set of articulations. Trumpets, trombones, French horn, tuba, and cimbasso are presented in solo form and in various combinations of two-, three- and six-member sections. Most of the common articulations are well represented, in addition to round-robins, true legato, and a number of effect and low brass unison and octave patches. Don't expect a lot of jazz and pop style articulations, as that's beyond HB's scope.

The well-written and detailed manual lays out the mapping of the various patches, which use a combination of mod wheel, keyswitching, velocity, and expression to shape the performance. You'll need to spend some time getting to know the various instruments and how they're controlled, which vary from patch to patch. After a couple hours you'll understand the basic library layout; however, it's not trivial to play perfect-sounding brass parts on the fly. Even now, I still have to edit various controllers, patch changes, and my playing to create realistic-sounding brass parts.

Although the EW Play engine can be demanding on resources because the complexity and depth of this library pushes technology to the edge, the current version runs much more smoothly than in the past. With patience and a sense of good orchestration, HB can produce stunning results not easily achieved until now.

SUMMARY

STRENGTHS: Meticulously-engineered brass samples recorded in a legendary studio. Extensive variety of articulations and ensemble configurations. Excellent companion to Hollywood Strings.

LIMITATIONS:

Sophisticated technology is demanding on CPU resources. Not all ensemble configurations represented.

MusicRadar.com: EastWest/Quantum Leap Hollywood Brass

EastWest's shift from straight-up sample libraries to its own ROMpler-style playback instrument (Play, now at v3) was a significant undertaking, and with teething problems resolved and 64-bit operation now in place, its grand scheme seems to have come to fruition.

The company has also started supplying its libraries on hard drives, enabling not only simple installation but also direct use from the provided disk; Hollywood Brass comes in two versions: Diamond ($995) and Gold ($595).

The main difference is that Diamond weighs in at 150GB and comes on a external hard drive, while the Gold Edition, at 20GB is downloaded. The reason for the size difference is that the Gold edition has one mic position and is 16-bit, as opposed to Diamond's 24-bit.

Diamonds are forever?

We're looking at the Diamond edition, which arrives on a hard drive. Like Hollywood Strings, it's aimed at soundtrack and mainstream musicians, and was produced in EastWest's Sunset Boulevard Studio 1.

The five mic configurations are also the same: main (Decca Tree), mid (Auditorium Front Row), close, and two rear (Surround and Vintage Ribbon) setups. You can mix and match up to four of these simultaneously (the surround mics are mutually exclusive). Instruments were recorded in standard orchestral position, the full stereo spectrum of which is captured by all but the close mics (these have matching manual panning).

The instruments comprise trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba and cimbasso. All are available in solo patches, and then in a number of instrument-specific groupings. Maximum group sizes vary, from three trumpets to six horns, and you'll find the low brass is a combination group (two tenor trombones, one bass trombone, one tuba and one cimbasso).

Articulations include sustain, staccato, mute, legato and effects patches for pretty much all instruments. The available effects vary, but you can expect to find the typical rips, shakes, trills, crescendos and combinations thereof. You also get slide-heavy jazz effects for solo trombone.

Taming the horn

The Play 3 interface is straightforward, with an AHDSR amplitude envelope, convolution reverb, stereo spread control, velocity sensitivity and the mic mixer. There are also performance scripts for implementing portamento, repetition and legato.

The key to making the most of the instrument lies in understanding the patches. Each patch generally contains one articulation, with sustained styles looped at the end. However, patch behaviour does vary - checking out the manual is essential.

Some map velocity to timbre, others map the mod wheel to timbre, andsome use both. There are also patches in which the mod wheel gradually shifts between articulations, taking you from a very short sound to a more sustained one, for example.

Beyond the basics, patch naming often indicates further functionality, such as round robin inclusion. What you won't find, though, is velocity influencing volume (MIDI expression, CC#11, handles that), or keyswitching patches.

With all those mic options, RAM usage can stack up. Thankfully, patches load and unload mics as they're selected, so everything's kept as lean as possible.

Sonically, EastWest's Studio 1's mid-sized, noninvasive ambience is the same here as it is with Hollywood Strings, adding a lovely sense of space without getting in the way. For actual reverb, the onboard convolution effect offers plenty of useful and convincing spaces.

There's really nothing significant to complain about with Hollywood Brass, apart from the lack of keyswitching patches. The sampling is accurate and consistent, the patches are well organised and labelled, and it all sounds superb.

Verdict

Hollywood Brass Diamond is quite possibly the ultimate professional solo/section brass ROMpler - hear it and weep.

Film Score Monthly: EastWest gives composers access to that Hollywood sound.

Last year, when EastWest unveiled their Hollywood Strings, I hoped that, assuming its success in the marketplace, they would continue the "Hollywood" brand in other instrument sections, with the idea of building an entire "Hollywood" orchestra. The sound of the Hollywood Strings is big and bold; there are a ton of useful articulations, dynamics and idiomatic special effects, and the EastWest PLAY engine/interface has improved markedly over time. So why not adapt this to the whole orchestra, right? Fortunately, that's what they seem to be doing, with the recent addition of the Hollywood Brass collection.

It's been said many times before: No single collection of orchestral samples covers everything. Or, at least, that hasn't happened yet, that I know of. Composers tend to mix and match sounds, then try like crazy to make them all sound like they're from the same orchestra, recorded in the same room. However, East West seems to be putting together a collection that can, at the very least, be the backbone of a great-sounding orchestra, specifically one meant for that "film music" sound. Fill in with a few special samples from other libraries here and there, sure, but with such a varied collection as this, you may, by the time the East West folks are done, find that you use this orchestra for the vast majority of your orchestral compositions.

Hollywood Brass follows faithfully in the footsteps of its string-section counterpart. Once again, the recordings were produced by Doug Rogers, Nick Phoenix and Tom Bergersen, engineered by well-known film-music mixer Shawn Murphy, and recorded in EASTWEST Studio 1, in the heart of Hollywood.

Brass Tacks

Let's talk about the quality of the samples themselves. As you might expect, they sound great, across the board. The recordings are pristine and with a presence and depth unique to this collection. The recordings are dry, and the Play engine allows you to choose among a multitude of high-quality convolution reverbs to add to your brass mix, either to each individual sample, or to the instrument group as a whole. In addition you can tweak those reverb settings a bit once you've added them in the mix.

Historically, the most troublesome part of the brass section to make sound really good and realistic in sample form— especially in exposed passages—is the trumpets. They get too bright, brittle and generally fake-sounding. Not so much with Hollywood Brass. The few that don't sound great on their own sound better in the mix. And more important, there are mod-wheel controls that can really smooth out phrasing, curb the brightness and generally make the samples lay naturally in the orchestral space.

Speaking of mod-wheel controls, holy cow, there are a ton of incredible controls that you can access via the mod wheel on your keyboard or other controller, or by control changes. For example, say you need brass crescendos, short, medium and long. With most other libraries, you'd load in three separate samples. With Hollywood Brass, just load in Cresc MOD SPEED.ewi (tuba, in this case, though all instrument crescendos are time-synched so they'll match up in your compositions), and you've got all three speeds in a single patch, each speed triggered by a control change, as you can see in the Play "player" window.

Suddenly your sample management and workflow become much more streamlined. In addition to that, most samples come with the ability to create your own timed crescendo with the mod wheel, if the three preset durations don't work for you. Still other samples that aren't labeled MOD are still controllable and changeable with the mod wheel, in addition to being velocity-sensitive. For those who are used to just loading a sound and having it play as is, you can still do that, but you'll get used to these controls very quickly. Check this one out: a legato trumpet patch, with accent. This is a single patch, controlled with mod wheel and velocity.

Next, there's the sheer number of samples available in the Hollywood Brass collection. Take a look at this list. And it's not just the number of samples, it's how useable they are, especially in film, TV, video game and commercial composition. And can we talk about the brass effects for a second? There are the usual flutter tongues, falls, rips and shakes, yes. But how about "Trumpets Rises and Oddities"? Or "Low Brass Elephants"?

So far, the only real disappointment is the lack of jazz patches in the solo trumpet department. Especially disappointing when you look at what's available from the solo trombone jazz collection…29 beautiful-sounding samples. Like this, this, and this. I'm not sure why the equivalent patches aren't available for the trumpets, but maybe we'll see them in an update sometime soon (please?!).

Lastly, this sample collection is CPU-intensive (though by varying degrees, based on which samples you load). Be sure to look at the system requirements before you buy to confirm that your system can handle the load.

So we've got Hollywood Brass and Hollywood Strings. I can't wait to hear what's next from EastWest in this collection. As for now, you should get Hollywood Brass. If you don't have the budget for the Diamond Edition, the Gold Edition is considerably less expensive and still features all the instrument sounds and articulations, etc.; it just has 16-bit (as opposed to 24-bit) versions and features just a single mic-position choice (as opposed to four in the Diamond Edition). Either way, it's a purchase you'll be immediately glad you made.

MusicTech Magazine

Sound on Sound

Pro Sound News: Getting Brassy

Part of any judgment within a software review is the level of its interaction with the user. That includes the installation and registration process, as well as how long it takes to get up and running in a useful fashion. This especially applies to orchestral libraries, which, by their very nature, are massive in size and timeconsuming to load up. However, when the 150 GB library comes pre-installed on a hard drive and takes less than five minutes to authorize, you begin the review process with a good feeling.

East West Hollywood Brass Diamond Edition is just such a product. As a follow-up to its popular Hollywood Strings, it once again brings together the production team of Doug Rogers, Nick Phoenix, Thomas Bergesen and award-winning engineer extraordinaire, Shawn Murphy. According to the company's website, the sampling session at East West's Studio 1 lasted for 21 straight days and then took a year to process and program.

After popping the hard drive into an internal bay on my computer (it can, of course, be transferred to any drive you choose), I ran the Authorization Wizard (iLok needed) and registered my code on the website. Bam! I was up and running without a drop of sweat or stress. That's worth a few extra bucks right there.

Enough on the install; the bottom line is this thing sounds fantastic. Just call up a patch, turn on the internal impulse response reverb (with various room/hall options) and get playing. You've got 24-bit/44.1 kHz samples and five mixable mic positions of a world-class Brass section at your fingertips. But there's much more to it than just static samples—the quality of sound is also directly related to the interaction with the user.

It's all about how you can actually perform parts with this software. For example, the Mod Wheel controls dynamics, and it's worth time invested to understand the small nuances. I literally spent 20 minutes playing just two notes back and forth experimenting with the touch of the wheel and its effect on the sound. Velocity also comes into play here, as that controls the intensity and dynamics of each note. Obviously with brass, the harder notes sound much more intense than soft notes, with a completely different sonic timbre.

On certain patches, the Mod wheel can also instantly switch between settings, so you could go from Staccatissimo (playing each note very distinctly), to Marcato short to Marcato Long to Marcato Long with sustain, depending on how far up you push the wheel. It's very cool to play these patches and actually perform the parts in real time. It makes such a difference in the quality and believability of the performance.

There are also some amazing patches for film work in the Effects section, such as Rip Trill, Rip Flutter, Flutter Tongue, Cres Mod Speed. I mean, few things speak, "I'm a film score," more than a ripped French horn! Another small detail is that even things like the crescendos are tempo synced, making it easy to compose to a click. Also, the reverb is extremely high quality, adding a critical realism to the overall sound.

Hollywood Brass includes samples for 2 French Horns, 2 Trombones and 1 Bass Trombone, 2 Trumpets, 3 Trumpets, 6 French Horns, Low Brass, Solo Cimbasso (an instrument in the trombone family), Solo French Horn, Solo Trombone, Solo Trumpet and Solo Tuba.

Since I've already discussed the Play engine in a previous review, I'll simply mention that next to each primary instrument category sit the various types of samples for each instrument. For example, 2 French Horns offers Long, Short, Effects, Legato and Mutes. Once you've chosen the type of sample, the third box on the right offers up the specific type of articulations within the chosen category. So 2 French Horns > Long will offer up LegRep RRX4, Portato, Sus Accent, Sus Lite, Sus Marc L and Sus. Choosing, loading and operating Play is simple and effortless.

But how's the drain on the computer? On my Intel Mac 2 X 2.26 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon, a 736 MB Brass patch with both Main and Vintage mics running peaked at no more than 5 percent of my CPU on the realtime Play meter. No problemo.

With just a touch of effort, you can create super-realistic brass parts that could fool even a golden ear. Seriously, these kinds of results speak wonders about the sampling quality and overall programming that went into making this product. At $795, it's not cheap. But how far would that money get you on a real brass session? Case closed! Not to sound like a broken record, but East West did it again with Hollywood Brass. Bravo.

Note that Hollywood Brass also comes in a lighter Gold Edition, which offers up one mic position and 16-bit resolution. You can however, upgrade to the Diamond Edition from there.