EastWest Libraries

HOLLYWOOD STRINGS

Widely considered the most detailed & realistic orchestral string library ever created, with grand articulations including long, short, slurred, portamento, individual bow changes, and much more. You can quickly create epic, suspenseful and dramatic passages with individual patches, or simply bring up a single keyswitch instrument for instant access to everything you need for a full cinematic sound.

String instruments include: 18 Violins (NEW), 1st Violins, 2nd Violins, Basses, Celli, Violas, Ensemble (NEW), and Full Strings.

HOLLYWOOD SOLO VIOLIN

Responsive legato, spiccato, pizzicato articulations and more, along with pre-recorded dynamic notes like sforzando and marcato. We captured every nuance of a true violin performance, providing you with a level of control to match.

Articulations included: Sustains Vibrato, Sustains Non Vibrato, Flautando, Grand Detache, Marcato, Martele, Pizzicato, Sforzando, Spiccato, Legato, Keyswitch.

HOLLYWOOD SOLO CELLO

Warm and lyrical, with brisk short notes ideal for faster passages. You have every detail of a real cello at your fingertips, with every articulation you need to tackle the most challenging passages with unparalleled realism.

Articulations included: Sustain Vibrato, Sustains Non Vibrato, Flautando, Grand Detache, Tremolo, Marcato, Pizzicato, Sforzando, Spiccato, Legato, Keyswitch.

HOLLYWOOD BRASS

A collection of powerful ensemble and solo patches perfect for everything from fanfares to romantic melodies. Excellent for monstrous low brass, piercing trumpets, 6-piece horn ensembles and more, with both separate and combined articulations for easy use.

Brass instruments include: 2 French Horns, 2 Trombones EXP (NEW), 2 Trombones and 1 Bass Trombone, 2 Trumpets, 2 Trumpets EXP (NEW), 3 Trumpets, 6 French Horns, Low Brass, Solo Cimbasso, Solo French Horn, Solo Trombone, Solo Trumpet, Solo Tuba.

HOLLYWOOD ORCHESTRAL WOODWINDS

Regal, sharp, and subtle timbres with everything in between. Use this woodwind powerhouse to fill out any orchestral arrangement with complete command over every articulation, available both in individual patches and key-switch instruments.

Woodwind instruments include: 3 Bassoons (NEW), 3 Clarinets (NEW), 3 Flutes (NEW), Alto Flute, Bass Clarinet, Bass Flute, Bassoon, Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet, Contrabassoon, Eb Clarinet, English Horn, Flute, Flute 2, Oboe, Piccolo Flute.

HOLLYWOOD ORCHESTRAL PERCUSSION

A full complement of every orchestral percussion instrument you could ask for, including ratchets, slapsticks, mallet percussion, and a wide range of drums from small to huge. Choose from individual instruments or combo patches for as much control (or chaos) as you like.

Percussion instruments include: Combo Kits, Cymbal Pairs, Sustain Cymbals, Timpani, Field Drums, Bass Drums, Snares, Tambourines, Marching Drum Ensembles, Taos Drums, Brake Drum and Anvils, Crotales, Glockenspiel, Orchestral Chimes, Sleigh Bells, Mark Tree, Triangles, Vibraphone, Castanets, Celesta, Claves, Mahler Hammer, Marimba, Puilli Sticks, Ratchet, Shakers, Slapsticks, Wood Blocks, Xylophone.

HOLLYWOOD HARP

Smooth, elegant and angelic articulations perfect for gentle backgrounds and orchestral cut-through alike. Use full patches or solo individual articulations for total control over the harp’s timbre.

Articulations included: Sustains, Harp Angeles, Bisbigliando, Harmonics, Gliss Technique, Nail Pick, Plucks, Reps, Keyswitch.

Hollywood Strings 2

Hollywood Strings 2 features a 21-piece string ensemble recorded in EastWest Studio 2 using close mic techniques never achieved before. While Hollywood Strings 1 (in Hollywood OPUS) excels at epic blockbuster soundtracks, Hollywood Strings 2 is perfect for those in-your-face, emotional moments in your score. With high precision playing and fast articulations, its versatility also makes it well-suited for modern genres like pop, rock, hip hop and more. Rather than replacing Hollywood Strings 1, this sequel serves as the perfect complement.

• 6 1st violins
• 4 2nd violins
• 4 violas
• 4 celli
• 3 double basses
• Full strings

Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra

Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra includes everything you need to create fantasy film, television, and game soundtracks. It was recorded in full stereo mic placement in the historic EastWest Studio One, the same recording studio as our legendary Hollywood Orchestra series, and includes all of the features of EastWest’s revolutionary Opus player. Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra includes

• Strings
• Brass
• Windwoods
• Percussion
• Voices

Hollywood Choirs

Male and female choir with built-in WordBuilder 2 Engine. Full choir with dramatic dynamics – soft and lyrical, to epic.

Pianos

Featuring the Bechstein D-280, Steinway D, Bösendorfer 290, and Yamaha C7. Pianos was created with a single goal: to fully capture every sonic detail possible from 4 of the most sought-after grand pianos in the world by any means necessary. With 3 individual mic positions, 8 separate articulations, and up to 18 velocities per note for each articulation, the detail and stereo image of every piano is highly customizable. You can easily mix multiple mic positions and simulate the damping effects of a real grand piano lid for each instrument, giving you full performance flexibility.

Steinway D
Bright, regal and elegant. The Steinway D captures the full sound of the concert hall and grows into a space larger than life. While capable of gracefully handling soft passages, this piano shines in broad, virtuosic passages. In the hands of a composer, it’s an excellent way to bring one of the world’s most famous pianos into your own studio; in the hands of a skilled performer, it’s a highly powerful weapon in your arsenal.

Bosendorfer 290
Far mellower than the Steinway D, the Bosendorfer 290 excels in both light & bouncy and legato & sustained passages. Rather than aspiring to the grandeur of its brighter rival, it prides itself on buttery smooth performances. When you engage the sustain pedal, this smoothness increases tenfold and lends this Bosendorfer the power and richness of an entire orchestra.

Bechstein 280
The clear winner in clear detail and note separation. Whereas the other instruments in Pianos excel in creating a larger-than-life acoustic tapestry, the Bechstein 280 is perfectly content to offer precise harmonic separation between every note. Each note is slightly thinner than the other pianos, which affords you the ability to perform incredibly complex passages and still hear each individual note, no matter how large your chord stacks are.

Yamaha C7
With a beautiful mid-range and a light twinkle in the high end, the Yamaha C7 is an excellent choice for blues and folksy music, especially old American classics. It offers a unique blend of smoothness and character that practically beg you to throw in a few jazzy ornaments here and there. While perfectly suitable for orchestral writing, this piano shines in genres like stride and ragtime.

Silk

Silk features a large collection of world instruments from the lands of the Silk Road: China, India, and Persia

Instruments from China

ERHU
The erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, sometimes known in the Western world as the Chinese violin. Dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907), it is the most popular of the huqin family of traditional browed instruments and is used as solo instrument as well as in small ensembles and large orchestras.

DIZI
The dizi is a Chinese transverse flute made of bamboo, widely used in many genres of folk music, as well as Chinese opera and the modern Chinese orchestra. Traditionally, the dizi has been popular among the common people of China, partly because it is simple to make and easy to carry. Includes large and small versions.

GUZHENG
The guzheng is a plucked string instrument that is part of the zither family. It is one of the most ancient Chinese musical instruments with a more than 2,500-year history and is considered one of the main chamber and solo instruments of Chinese traditional music.

JINGHU
Principally used as an accompanying instrument for the Beijing opera, the jinghu is another important two-stringed fiddle in the huqin family. It was developed in the Qing dynasty (around 1790). The pitch of this instrument is the highest among all instruments in the huqin family.

BAWU
Although shaped like a flute, the bawu is actually free single-reed wind instrument played horizontally. Originating from the Yunan province of southwest China, the Bawu has become a standard instrument throughout the country and is often featured in film scores and popular music recordings.

SUONA
The suona is a double-reeded horn with a conical wooden body, similar to that of the European oboe. It is an important instrument in the folk music of northern China, where it has long been used for outdoor festivals, military parades, wedding and funeral processions.

PIPA
Sometimes known as the Chinese lute, the pipa is a four-stringed plucked instrument with a pair-shaped body. It’s one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years, originating in the Han dynasty.

SHENG
The sheng is a mouth-blown free reed wind instrument consisting of vertical pipes, It is a polyphonic instrument, often used as a solo instrument or as an accompaniment for suona or dizi performances. Dating back to 1100 BCE, the sheng is one of oldest Chinese instruments.

XIAO
The xiao is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of dark brown bamboo. It is a very ancient instrument usually thought to have developed from a simple end- blown flute used by the Qiang people of Southwest China.

YANGQIN
The yangqin is a dulcimer played with bamboo mallets. It produces a high and tinkling timbre in its top registers, a soft, beautiful tone in the middle, and a strong, rich sound in the lower. It is a rather new instrument by Chinese standards, first arriving from the Middle East at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).

ZHONGHU
If we call the erhu the Chinese violin, the zhonghu is then the Chinese viola, where zhong means “middle.” It was developed from the erhu in the 1940s. Both the structure and performing skill of these two kinds of huqin are very similar, but the zhonghu has a deeper-sounding timbre.

Instruments from India

BANSURI
The bansuri is a common Indian flute with six or seven holes, typically made from bamboo or reed. It has been depicted in ancient Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples and is used in traditional folk music, although today it is found in Hindustani music and films.

DILRUBA
The dilruba is bowed instrument, a cross between the sitar and sarangi. It is extremely close to the esraj and the mayuri vina. It was created over 300 years ago, although it was popularized in the west in the 1960 by acts like The Beatles in their psychedelic phrase.

SAROD
The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it’s the most popular and prominent instruments in Hindustani (north Indian) classical music. The sarod is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound (in contrast to the sweet, rich texture of the sitar).

TANPURA
The tanpura is a drone instrument. It resembles a sitar except that it has no frets. The name “tanpura” is common in the north, but in south India it is called “tambura.” The tanpura is known for its very rich sound and is a favorite of Hindustani musicians.

Instruments from Persia

DUDUK
The duduk is a double-reed instrument with ancient origins, said to be from 1500 to 3000 years old. Armenian duduks are mainly made from aged apricot wood. In modern times, duduk music has been used in a number of films, such as 2000’s Academy Award Best Picture winner Gladiator.

ELECTRIC CELLO
The electric cello is a type of cello that relies on electronic amplification to produce sound. Many electric cellos have bodies modeled after acoustic cellos, while others abandon the design completely, opting for a totally new body shape. It’s popular in modern day Middle Eastern music.

KEMENCHE
A kemenche is a bottle-shaped, 3-stringed type of from the Black Sea region of Asia Minor. In Greece and the Pontian Greek diaspora, it is known as “kementzes” and in the last few decades as “lyra.”

NAY FLUTE
The nay is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Persian, Turkish and Arabic music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. It is a very ancient instrument, with depictions of nay players appearing in wall paintings in the Egyptian pyramids.

QANUN
The qanun is a string, zither instrument played either solo or as part of an ensemble, in much of the Middle East. It is thought to trace its origins to Ancient Greece, or even to the earlier Minoan or Mycenaean times between 3000 and 1600 BCE.

30 PIECE STRING SECTION
European strings were first introduced to the Middle East during Napoleon’s failed attempt at capturing Egypt in 1798. Featuring a different tuning style, characteristic performance techniques are very decorative with melismas, slurs and slides, trills, wider vibrato, and double stops.

TAR
The tar is a long-necked instrument with a pronounced waist. The word “tar” itself means “string” in Farsi. One of the most important instrument in Persian classical music, it has also been adapted into the cultures of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and the Caucasus.

The Hollywood (Fantasy) Orchestrator

Create full-scale orchestral music with complex arrangements by playing a few simple chords with one hand and shaping expression with the other. With over 600 customizable presets built from the instruments of Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition and hundreds of presets for the Hollywood Fantasy Orchestrator, you can instantly create music in the style of Hollywood’s greatest composers.

Since the release of Hollywood Orchestrator, we’ve released the Action, Adventure, Horror, Comedy and Drama Expansions Packs, all together adding over 100 more blockbuster presets to the Scores category of Hollywood Orchestrator and  36 presets for the Hollywood Fantasy Orchestrator.

Presets include: Ensembles, Ostinatos, Scores, User

Spaces 2

Hundreds more reverbs recorded in churches, concert halls, opera houses, catacombs, train stations, recording studios, and warehouses. The new streamlined user interface and control features enable you to access every reverb and make edits rapidly, with minimal delay between searching for the most suitable reverb and finalizing your settings. It includes all reverbs from Spaces I.

The mixer

In the Mixer section, refine the final output of each instrument by adjusting the volume, pan, equalization, reverb preset, reverb send amounts, and other reverb controls like pre-delay, length, and filters.

Studio 1

Hollywood Orchestra and Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra were recorded in EastWest’s iconic Studio 1, one of the most famous orchestral rooms in the world. Studio 1 has hosted some of the most celebrated scores and artists in modern history, including countless blockbuster soundtracks like Mission: Impossible, The Godfather, Ironman II, Jurassic World, La La Land, A Star is Born and legendary artists and bands like Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga. Studio 1 is renowned for its expansive, cinematic acoustics — a room designed to bring orchestral performances to life with clarity, depth, and natural width.

Hollywood Strings 2 was recorded in EastWest’s own Studio 2, just like the themes to The Beverly Hillbillies, Hawaii Five-O, and the soundtracks to Encanto and A Star is Born. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Weezer, and Metallica also selected Studio 2 for its tight and punchy sound! It’s only fitting that these strings suit cinematic metal or heavy rock as well as they would an epic film cue. If you’ve had your fill of massive ensembles and need focus and precision, you won’t find a more intimate string library anywhere else. Even if you already have them all.

References

• EastWest Academy
• Hollywood Orchestra Opus (Sound On Sound)
• Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra (Sound On Sound)
• Hollywood Strings 2 (Sound On Sound)
• Hollywood Choirs (Sound On Sound)