EastWest Sounds

Creating authentic modern, interesting cinematic textures in this genre is hard work, as it takes a real knowledge of tone and effects to sound masterful. Given Wilson's experience and credits, I felt there was a lot of skill and integrity sitting next to me as I begin exploring the various textures. When you need dark and otherworldly, Ghostwriter is a beautifully sinister collection of sonic colors.

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Ghostwriter isn’t really a ghostwriter, but it is a fabulous and inspiring range of contemporary but slightly unconventional instruments that any serious media composer or more experimental music producer could benefit from.

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Designed with film, television and game soundtrack work in mind, Steven Wilson's Ghostwriter occupies a niche that's different from the typical all-in-one library. However, the edgy and distorted sounds in this collection would also provide a great resource for musicians working in rock, fusion, and funk. What is most remarkable is the attention to the big picture as well as details. These sounds were meant to go together, and in doing so, they provide a go-to progressive songwriter kit with little need to look outside the library.

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Dirty, warped and fuzzy. My God, those basses are fat. When I heard the Spector Bass Deep Grunge and Obliterator Bass Fuzz Monster I almost fell off my chair, so nasty, so deep. Like the bass, the guitars also have a unique character. The grunts and rattling are a delight. Everything has a dirty edge, a certain vivacity that'll make you hear the musician behind the samples. This also applies to the drums. Of course, Ghostwriter contains processed drum sounds, with huge rumble and other tasteful effects but the drydrum set with a wonderful dynamic sound contains the necessary imperfections making it sound like a real drummer.

Conclusion: For producers of film music, Ghostwriter can be a huge source of inspiration. And musicians with a preference for the more obscure can indulge themselves with this library. Writers of nice, airy songs, however, will see their good mood disappear like snow in the sun after fifteen minutes on the Evil Piano. The dark side of Ghostwriter will not appeal to everyone. I think the sheer depth and uniqueness of the sounds surpass what is currently on offer when it comes to virtual instruments. Ghostwriter sounds great and very distinctive.

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Producer, solo artist and Porcupine Tree main man Steven Wilson has teamed up with EastWest producer and industry veteran Doug Rogers to produce this 63GB instrumental (plus a few vocals) library for the multitimbral Play engine (included), available on a pile of DVDs or a pocket USB 3 hard drive.

Comprising over 800 multisampled instrument patches, Ghostwriter is aimed at the "cinematic" composer, be they working in movies, games, TV or music. It's intended to be a source of high-quality 'alternative' bread and butter sounds, so we're talking guitars, basses, drums, keys, etc, rather than crazy synths and electronic tones.

The vibe throughout is epic, organic and big; Wilson has true insight into the tasteful use of ambience and distortion, and both are used extensively – and quite brilliantly – in most of the recordings and patches.

The latest version of the Play engine helps here, with its vast roster of convolution reverbs and a superb new amp simulation effect with 80 presets – not to mention the SSL channel strip and EP-1 Delay.

Guitars are by far the best represented category, taking in a staggering array of acoustics and electrics with plenty of keyswitched articulations to aid in creating realistic performances.

The diversity of patches in the Bass section belies the fact that only three instruments were used to make them all.

Of the drums, the Mono Amp Kits are the grimy highlight, while the Keys folder is full of splendidly twisted and gutsy pianos, clavs, celestas and more. And although we wouldn't call it a headline, the folder of male and female 'Oohs' and 'Aahs' is sure to be useful for those panoramic movie moments.

Ghostwriter delivers a beautiful collection of instrumentation in an excellent interface. It's not really one for the dance music producer seeking fuel for their latest banger, but if deep, fascinating sounds, capturing all the energy and soul of the electric and acoustic instruments from which they were elicited, appeal, then this is a must-hear.

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Successful producer and musician Steven Wilson has created this library together with Doug Rogers in the East West Studios. Our review will reveal if Ghostwriter keeps its promise and let you create music, film, game and television compositions at the highest level.

Short test. What can you expect? In East West Studios in sunny California, Madonna, Elton John, Johnny Cash and other global stars have recorded many super hits. This is also where producer and solo artist Steven Wilson and studio owner Doug Rogers produced the sample library tested here today. It comes with a variety of different sounds, with a focus on sound for music, film, game or TV compositions. The 60-gigabyte library includes 8 DVDs with 800 multi-sampled instruments. Each instrument comes with several presets.

To install you need an iLok, which is not included. In the Sample Browser, you can choose between bass, drums, guitars, keyboards, vocals, and other sounds; for my taste there could be more vocals.

Each category has several sub-sections that are easy to navigate. In my opinion, the content of this library allows you to handle complete productions. There are many different instruments, including modulated chimes and similar options, to give your sound design a special touch. The editing options are also abundant.

PLAY 6 includes an impressive array of professional audio processing tools: The SSL/EW FX Global Suite, a $99 value, is now included for free to all PLAY 6 users. This collection of authentic SSL tools includes a filter, EQ, compressor, gate/expander, transient shaper and stereo bus compressor. EastWest has also included 726 new reverb impulses for the EastWest Convolution Reverb.

In the mixer section you can mix the sounds, and find common functions such as pan, mute and solo. The player is available for the plug-in interfaces VST, AU, AAX; if necessary, it can also operate as a standalone software. Via the routing settings it can easily be integrated into your DAW. Each channel can be assigned a separate MIDI or audio channel. Thanks to the MIDI Learn function you can assign each regulator a control element.

The software is not included. During the installation of the library you can download the 32 - or 64-bit version for Windows or Mac via a link.

Effects: The software includes various options for sound design. New on board are the amp simulator with 80 presets, the tape delay Echoplex EP-1 and a convolution reverb with 726 impulse responses of different rooms. As a special feature, there is a Channel Strip by Solid State Logic. This includes filters, EQ, compressor and noise gate / expander. In addition, you can find a Transient Shaper and the popular EastWest bus compressor.

The 80 presets on the amp simulator consist of different amps and boxes that were recorded with known microphones such as the Shure SM57 or the EV RE-20. The 726 presets of the convolution reverb are admirable. They sound good with the sounds of the library and there is enough choice for every taste.

The sound: The sounds are generally in the genres of action, crime, thriller and horror. There is a lot on offer for both game and film music design. It is perfect for those who like to use gloomy atmospheres in their productions. The sounds are intense and you’ll easily manage to turn your listeners’ blood cold. You’re not going to find sounds to design a score for a chocolate bar ad.

The bass sounds nasty and convincing. The clean and distorted guitar sounds create a mystical atmosphere. The guitars are my favorites in this library, and you will have rarely heard such quality. Despite the clear sentiment, the sounds are very diverse with lots of different facets. Even longer compositions will stay exciting.

Those who like it a little harder will have a lot of fun with the amp effect. The 80 presets offer plenty of variety. The well-tuned drum sounds bring additional excitement and action. The convolution reverb and tape delay provide the necessary depth.

Conclusion: Anyone looking for dark to shrill and intense sounds cannot go wrong with EastWest Ghostwriter. The Library can accompany or handle even entire compositions. The sample player is clearly laid out and you quickly get to the desired result. The sounds are well-produced and coordinated. You can tell that Steven Wilson and Doug Rogers put in a lot of effort to make sure everything sounds rich and intimate.

You won’t find happy, funny sounds but fans of the genres horror, thriller and crime will get their money’s worth. The included instruments complement each other perfectly. Thanks to the many editing options and effects along with the presets, it’s fun to compose with the sounds and experiment.

Overall, we give EastWest Ghostwriter four and a half out of five points, a very good rating. For productions in the genres mentioned before, this is a highly recommended product.

A beautiful stage of instruments that are as terrifying as they are lovely, while still being sonically rich and expressive. The bass guitar patches are straight up bad ass. And the guitars are otherworldly and highly experimental, without being silly.

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5/5 - The sound quality is outstanding. If you own suitable speakers, you’ll be nothing short of amazed.