In immediately’s Logic Pros, we’re taking a deep dive into the brand new EastWest Hollywood Backup Singers. The highly effective vocal sampler instrument provides a trio of iconic Hollywood singers to your Logic Pro X library and immediately beneath your finger suggestions. EastWest has been a significant participant within the premium sampler instrument sport for some time now and its newest provides producers unbelievable capacity to program three equally tenured, if not much more iconic, vocalists to their liking. Head beneath the leap for the whole lot.
Hollywood Backup Singers
Hollywood Backup Singers is well among the finest vocal pattern libraries for what it does, however this factor is far more than your common assortment of license-free vocal recordings you can pattern into your songs. Featuring about 9GBs of meticulously recorded vocal patches, the backup singer samples right here vary from your typical assortment of vowel primarily based Ooohs and Aaahs to multi-instrument patches with clever key change/modulation efficiency settings, and vocal oddities/noises. This is a whole vocal plug-in instrument with exact management over the microphone setup, world-class FX, efficiency choices, and extra. Unlike your common vocal-based instrument, EastWest’s Hollywood Backup Singers product makes use of the corporate’s highly effective WordBuilder expertise that permits it’s splendidly recorded vocal samples to actually sing no matter lyrics you need.
Here’s a short overview of the content material included in Hollywood Backup Singers:
Approx. 9GBs of 24-bit/44.1 kHz samples with three Mixes
Collection of 87 instrument recordsdata
Plus 588 expressive solo vocal phrases (in all keys)
WordBuilder software program turns textual content into sung phrases
222 preset WordBuilder phrases throughout four sub-classes (Common Words, Gospel, Pop, or Soul)
EastWest has introduced on some critical expertise for this assortment as effectively. Durga and Lorelei McBroom (Pink Floyd’s backup singers for a few years), alongside C.C. White (Lenny Kravitz, Al Green, Jason Mraz, and Crosby, Stills & Nash) are in high kind right here. Everything was recorded at EW’s iconic Studio three too — a room identified for iconic recordings together with the whole lot from the Beach Boys Pet Sounds masterpiece and Blondie proper via to Ariana Grande, Frank Ocean, and Lady Gaga’s Academy award-profitable “A Star Is Born” soundtrack.
Instruments:
Hollywood Backup Singers works like nearly every other plug-in instrument for essentially the most half. You load one of many many vocal devices up from the browser on EW’s free Play 6 instrument hub and also you’re able to go. As we talked about above, these devices vary from the assorted vowel and pitched consonant sounds proper via to solo phrases and vocal licks in every key. The performance for every varies barely together with these with keyswitches — designated keys on your MIDI controller for switching between varied pattern units on the fly — to separate-devices that will let you play chords on the underside half of your keyboard and solo phrases on the highest.
The choices are fairly in depth for one thing solely targeted on background singers if you happen to ask me and is well among the many most spectacular I’ve skilled of its sort. The Combo MOD set is a selected favourite among the many batch right here, particularly the Xfde sub-class inside. Here you’ll discover combo patches with a pair of vowel sounds you can easily fade between (say from Mmmmm to Ooooh, for instance) utilizing your controller’s modulation wheel in the course of the efficiency or programmed after the actual fact in your DAW.
Backup Singers Player Interface:
The Player web page side of HBS is the place customers have management over the sound of the instrument chosen. This consists of should-haves just like the AHDSR envelope, grasp out tuning/pan/quantity, per-instrument/grasp reverb (huge variety of response varieties, pre-delay, and quantity management) and a few efficiency controls (Portamento, Legato, extra).
You can’t document singers this superb with out an equally succesful mic, which is probably going why EastWest employed business-heavy hitters like Neumann’s U47, a Telefunken 251, and a Shure SM7 (amongst others) when recording the HBS vocal pattern library. And we additionally get fairly an in depth degree of management over the three-pronged microphone setup contained in the plug-in. That consists of the quantity and pan steadiness of shut, rear, and room mic arrays. Although, some expressive vowel and solo phrase instrument varieties within the constructed-in library — designated with “LES” if you’re choosing them within the Browser — additionally characteristic a fourth microphone setup that has been run via a Leslie speaker cupboard for a refined refrain-like impact. These mic choices are nice for getting the vocal half to take a seat in a selected mission simply the best way need whether or not it’s distant ethereal vocals drenched in reverb, a decent, in-your-face pop method, or possibly one thing sitting properly in between.
Mixer and FX:
There’s additionally a full Mixer web page with constructed-in FX. EastWest has introduced a few of its associates alongside for the trip right here and we’re in significantly good firm, to say the least. That consists of SSL channel strip-model EQ and compression together with a stereo bus compressor to complete issues off. Amp emulation (Aguilar, Fender, Roland, Marshall, Mesa, and extra), Ohmicide’s fantastic multi-band distortion plug, delay, a candy type of doubler model-impact, and the convolution reverb are additionally included. I for one often favor to maintain my sounds dry from the software program instrument and use FX and my Ohmicide from Logic as an alternative, however on this case, I’d must rethink some issues. Either means, the FX are right here in full drive.
Word Builder:
Even the perfect vocal pattern library will wrestle with with the ability to sing alongside to your subsequent hit. But EastWest’s highly effective Hollywood Backup Singers WordBuilder expertise let’s you just do that.
Among the included instrument assortment within the Browser, you’ll discover one referred to as HBS WB Multi. This explicit preset is your entryway into the fantastic world of WordBuilder. Once this multi-patch is loaded up, the WordBuilder button will mild up on the highest left-hand nook of the primary Player web page. From right here, we can use the textual content window to sort in our personal lyrics or choose one of many 200+ preset phrases included from the Phrases menu. Essentially what we’re taking a look at here’s a meticulously crafted multi-instrument WB patch that consists of all of the attainable vowel sounds in addition to each pitched and non pitched consonant sounds. It then intelligently selects which of them to set off by itself primarily based on the lyrics within the Text Editor window, each time you play notes on your keyboard.
It takes a contact of finesse and a few delicate sufferers at first, however I for one am impressed. It will default to the phrase “Feel it in my Soul,” written in WordBuilder’s odd, and but fairly efficient native tongue generally known as Votox: “fEl it in maE soOl.” In this instance, each time you strike a key or a chord on your controller HBS will sing the following syllable within the phrase. It sounds easy however when you begin taking part in with chord progressions and multi-notice melodies, they means grouped singers of this nature typically do, the outcomes are fairly magical.
WordBuilder’s native Votox language actually takes some getting used to, however there are many assets and instruments in place right here to assist the trigger. Firstly, the Voice part on the highest left of the interface means that you can flip the Text Editor over to English so that you can sort your desired phrase in and permit the system to translate it to Votox routinely.
Due to the pure variance in sung phrases, this received’t at all times simply work excellent proper from the get-go. Separating your phrases with an area by syllables and adjusting the routinely created syllable time areas within the Time Editor are nice locations to begin. From there you’ll should familiarize your self with the Votox translation within the handbook and simply use your instincts for essentially the most half. Sometimes the phrase “out” will get translated to “uOt” and sounds nice. But on one other observe, the handbook translation of “Aut” appeared extra acceptable, for instance.
Hollywood Backup Singers Conclusion:
EastWest Hollywood Backup Singers has been a pleasure to work with up to now and much more helpful than I initially imagined. The WordBuilder tech actually is pretty much as good because it sounds right here for my part. You may need to be a complete Jedi at utilizing it earlier than you’ll have the ability to simply solo out a small group of pc-programmed singers in your subsequent hit, however in a combination, with a lead singer on high, this factor appears like the true deal to me. Despite all of the FX and tuning choices, I can’t assist however need some sort of further web page for formant changes and different oddities to remodel these angels into demonic alien choirs from time-to-time. But that’s not likely what it says on the tin right here. And frankly, issues can get fairly wild with the FX suite if you need it to anyway.
All-in-all, EastWest’s Hollywood Backup Singers is the perfect within the sport at what it does, and price each penny for an expert who makes use of it for a residing. But the common $399 price ticket may be a tricky capsule to swallow for hobbyists and aspiring composers. Fortunately, EastWest is actually not proof against gross sales and also you can make the most of its “Stay at Home, Create and” save a completely huge 60% off proper now, dropping your complete right down to $159.60.
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