ON TEST EWQL Hollywood Orchestral Percussion Sample Library The final instalment of an ambitious orchestral sampling project sees the completion of EastWest’s five-year master plan. DAVE STEWART o every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose ‘T under the heaven’ (Ecclesiastes 3:1). And so, as autumn shades gracefully into winter in the UK, EastWest’s Hollywood orchestral series reaches fruition in the shape of Hollywood Orchestral Percussion. Following the was performed by a single musician Featuring a five-channel microphone mixer earlier Hollywood Strings, Hollywood (the percussionist in a major American and onboard convolution reverb, Hollywood Brass and Hollywood Orchestral orchestra, apparently) and features his Orchestral Percussion’s user interface uses the Woodwinds releases (more details on arsenal of instruments. In that respect, same design as EastWest’s other Hollywood libraries. White keys show the position of which below), this completes a production HOP bears comparison to Quantum mapped samples, with keyswitches marked cycle spanning five years, during which Leap’s Stormdrum 3 (an enjoyable romp in blue. time over a million samples were recorded through the personal percussion collection and 90-odd musicians were forced to play of drummer and ethnomusicologist Bergersen) are also present and correct, the same notes over and over again until Mickey Hart), but the difference is that unity and harmony restored as the difficult the ‘Sample Nirvana’ of the perfect take HOP maintains a strict focus on orchestral birth pangs of Hollywood Orchestral had been attained. percussion: it contains no taiko drums or Woodwinds are consigned to the past. We can only guess at the cost of tablas, but there are timpani, orchestral Like the rest of the EWQL Hollywood such an undertaking; it’s rumoured the snare and bass drums, cymbals and releases, HOP is formatted exclusively studio coffee bill alone would buy you gongs, hand percussion and a range of for EastWest’s Play sound engine, which a desirable semi-detached property in tuned percussion instruments, including runs stand-alone and as a plug-in on Ipswich, but then Hollywood never did do a celeste. In short, everything you need to Mac and PC. HOP requires Play v4.2.2, things by halves. In any case, as a result program convincing orchestral percussion supplied with the library and available to of these protracted efforts and (no doubt) arrangements, with the samples played existing Play users as a free update from mind-boggling expenditure, buyers can and recorded in a style which ticks the EastWest’s site. New users will need an at last get their hands on the complete requisite ‘cinematic’ boxes. iLok security key, which costs around £30. EastWest/Quantum Leap Hollywood For the recording quality we once Orchestra, which combines the four again have to thank Shawn Murphy, Timp Bang Alley individual sections into a bumper package a peerless movie soundtrack veteran An orchestral percussion sample library weighing in at over 660GB. with a knack of making instruments must live or die by the quality of its Hollywood Orchestral Percussion sound like they’re in the room with you. timpani, and I must admit I’ve been (which we’ll call HOP for short) has The other production team members disappointed a few times in the past the benefit of relative simplicity: it (Doug Rogers, Nick Phoenix and Thomas by the absence of the ear-rending 30 February 2015 / www.soundonsound.com ON TEST EWQL HollYwooD ORCHESTRAL PERCUSSION ‘bang’ I expect to hear from fortissimo timp hits. Happily, HOP’s timpani don’t disappoint at all, and bang away with the best of them. Spanning the best part of two octaves from C2 to A3 (Middle C being C4), the timps (played with a choice of hard and felt mallets) are presented in handy all-in-one programs which allow instant switching between long, short, flam, roll and crescendo roll performances. In addition, each style has its own dedicated patch. Another potential pitfall with timpani is the tendency for higher notes to lack the energy of the lower-pitched drums. That ‘falling away’ doesn’t happen here: the timps’ long notes (sampled at eight or so dynamics) maintain force and penetration at the top end, sounding fat, clean and Hollywood Orchestral Percussion’s drum section features (front row) concert toms, (middle row) resonant right across their range. Whereas orchestral snare and field drums, (back row L-R) orchestral bass drum and timpani. the dynamic response of the straight tailored for the big screen, and HOP’s the large sizzle cymbal being a good hits and flams is governed by keyboard Marching Drums ensemble underlines candidate for experimental, jazzy or film velocity, the timpani rolls’ volume is the point. These sub-woofer-shaking noir-ish styles. Unfortunately there are controlled by the mod wheel, so you can unison bass drums are classic blockbuster no straight suspended cymbal hits, but program dramatic swells and diminuendos material. The group only plays four hits, I guess you can’t have everything. The to fit the tempo of your music. If you’re but they’ll blow your head off. Although most dramatic sonority in this section happy to take pot luck with the timing, less thunderous, Gretsch and Ludwig comes courtesy of three great tam tam there’s also a set of very effective short, orchestral bass drums also pack a stunning gongs, the largest of which supplements medium and long played crescendo low-end wallop. its massive, portentous beater hits with timpani rolls, the longest of which lasts Bridging the gap between the a mysterious selection of bowed and around two seconds. orchestral and rock worlds is a fine set scraped samples — subtle and spooky. of eight concert toms. I’d love to have If you’re up for a bit of industrial Martial Art heard mallet rolls on these toms, but their A squad of lantern-jawed marines, outsize performances are limited to straight hits machine guns at the ready, storm the and flams played with sticks. HOP’s drum EWQL Hollywood steps of a moody-looking building, intent collection is rounded off by a few strikes Orchestral Percussion on blasting the occupants (whether they on a Native American Taos drum, the sole $499 be aliens, bearded terrorists or giant ethnic drum in the library. This has a deep PROS spiders) to kingdom come. As any media and resonant tone, and its distinctive composer will tell you, such inspirational splatty attack suggests it was played with • A comprehensive menu of great-sounding orchestral percussion instruments. scenes demand an underscore peppered ‘hot rods’ (a type of drum stick consisting • Beautifully recorded from five mic with orchestral snare and bass drums... of several thin sticks bound together). positions by a massively experienced, and as luck would have it, both are found award-winning engineer. in abundance in HOP. Cymbals, Gongs & Metals • Surround-ready and 100 percent compatible with the EWQL Hollywood- Five superbly crisp and bouncy Piatti (clashed pairs of cymbals), ranging series strings, brass and woodwinds. snare drums snap, rattle and roll in the in size from 12 to 22 inches, are a strong lively acoustic of EastWest’s Studio 1, point. To my ears the 19-inch is the CONS performing a good spread of articulations minimum required for the ‘big symphonic • The celeste and vibraphone are awkward which includes left- and right-hand splash’ effect, but the lesser sizes to play, and the vibraphone has no tremolo effect. hits, flams, rolls and rim shots. I liked provide a nice contrast and would work the sharp incisiveness of the Ludwig well in smaller orchestrations. Bright SUMMARY Mahogany snare, while the ‘Brass Calf and triumphant, these cymbal clashes Recorded in the same studio using the same Head’ drum from the same manufacturer come in a choice of long, short and very multi-microphone setup as the Hollywood- offers a lower-pitched sound. A set of short durations, and a handy ‘Crash series strings, brass and woodwinds, EWQL Hollywood Orchestral Percussion maintains field drums (large military snare drums) Combo’ patch lets you quickly review all the exemplary sonic standard and power have an altogether deeper and earthier the options. of its predecessors. Orchestral staples such tone, the standout for me being the The ‘swoosh’ of a cymbal crescendo as timpani, snare drums, bass drums and fabulously named Black Swamp model. roll is a great way of adding drama cymbals provide an excellent foundation, gongs and metals make a healthy racket, and The Stormdrum series cemented Nick to a transition. Six different types are the large tuned percussion section contains Phoenix’s reputation as a producer of big, featured in this library, all perfectly some magical ‘ear candy’! Zimmer-esque (that name again) drums executed and sounding excellent, with 32 February 2015 / www.soundonsound.com ON TEST EWQL HollYwooD ORCHESTRAL PERCUSSION noise, HOP has a generous selection of remains a very playable instrument. clangs, clanks, boings and dings played If you need a magical sound to herald on anvils, brake drums and, er, railway a musical entrance, HOP’s celeste plays tracks (let’s hope they kept an ear open a lovely pair of ascending glissandi, one for approaching trains). I discovered on the white notes, the other on the that detuning a railway track hit by 24 black. That’s pretty much the extent of semitones transforms it into a low-rent the celeste’s usable effects, but of course church bell — remember you read it there are also four-octave, gloriously hi-fi here first! A far prettier effect can be multisamples of this delightful keyboard obtained from the library’s crotales, instrument.