east west symphonic orchestra free play edition

There's a nice variety of percussion from Congas to Tablas to a Taiko drum set and a unique selection of ethnic instruments like the Shamisen, Koto, Kora (a beautiful harp/lute-type instrument from West Africa), a Didgeridoo, and roughly twenty 'New Age Ensembles' that really have some great unique textures (think sitar mixed with flute or piano, with strings backing each note).

The acoustic piano offering (PMI Bosendorfer 290) had a nice, realistic sound, fuller and more expressively accurate in my opinion than Kontakt 3's Grand and Upright. The sounds definitely have the trademark EastWest fatness and thickness that's evident in the Symphonic Orchestra libraries and in the Quantum Leap Storm Drum sets.

For those used to some of the other samplers on the market, the sparseness may not really fit your idea of what a sampler should be able to do, but it certainly gets the job done and doesn't come with a steep learning curve. It was super easy to get up-and-running and tweaking these basic parameters right out of the box. It sports a large, graphic envelope editor (attack, hold, decay, sustain, release) an ADT (artificial double tracking) effect on/off and some tweaking for both delay and reverbs a bit of computer load measures and pan, volume and input parameters. The interface is large and sparse, with generously-proportioned, outboard-gear-looking dials that shine with a nice graphic representation of chrome. As stated, they've created a 64-bit (also fully 32-bit compatible) sampler designed to 'eliminate clutter'. They've put out a substantially-sized offering-a hefty 40 GB covering all the basics (synths, piano, orchestral, percussion, drum kits, etc.) and then some. The actual sampler application, dubbed Play, has EastWest stepping into the ring with established heavyweights like Native Instruments Kontakt 3 and MOTU's MachFive 2. With Goliath, they've taken a stab at entering the world of the 'one-stop' sampler. Its Symphonic Orchestra libraries have set a high standard and are considered a must-have by an enormous number of composers around the globe. EastWest has really made a name for itself in producing great sounds.

East west symphonic orchestra free play edition