EW Dark Side

[partyofone]

Anyone here own or use EW Dark Side? While it's obviously limited in it's scope/use I can see where it'd be very useful for drama-type cues and I can also see personally using it on my own artist productions. I'm thinking of possibly getting it while on sale possibly instead of EWQLSO Gold.

As a side-note David Fridmann is an awesome producer.

[partyofone]

Actually I've just watched this demo/review and decided the library might not be as useful as I originally thought. Although I really liked the FX and misc sounds at the end, I'm thinking it's not a must-have at the moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6WQx0o12Iw

EDIT: These demo videos actually make it seem as cool as I thought it could be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqYqWhX8 ... re=related

[Cruciform]

Hi Patrick,

As an industrial guy I considered it a must have but so far I've only used drums and basses out of it. I was actually disappointed by how cheesy a lot of the instruments are. But the drums are fat, nasty and dirty. I do like them.

For an overall package, IMO, the Heavyocity range are way better.

[partyofone]

Hey Rob,
Thanks for the feedback. Good to hear from someone that owns and uses it. I noticed some of the sounds did sound a little hokey in the demo, but then some are downright cool. Good point about Heavyocity stuff too. I hit me that the Mutations stuff had some cool distorted sounds too and I can get the bundle for around $120 I think. So I think I may just end up getting that instead for now.

[mazz]

Bear in mind that any of these libraries, particularly the Heavyocity stuff, are getting heavily used out there in the production world. The basic sounds in Evolve and Mutations are awesome, but they do give several good options for editing and I strongly suggest that you avail yourself of those options. It's great to have good raw materials to work with, but the point of libraries like these, IMO, is to stretch them and mold them so they evoke your sound, aesthetic and vibe. Why sound just like every one else?

Just my 2c

Mazz

[partyofone]

Hey Mazz,

You actually hit on one of my main concerns with the Heavyocity libraries. The sounds seem so distinctive and having heard how popular they are I worried that I'd end up creating unoriginal cues thus were less likely to get placed. But it's good to know there are options to customize and tailor the sound. It sounds like all of you that have been doing this for awhile have accumulated a good collection of libraries and are able to take a little from each to come up with something unique.

[marcblack30]

Mazz, you did make a good point. I am guilty of using stock sounds in some of my tunes and now I'm recognizing them on tv shows, I'm like "hey this is my song", then I'm like "oh, they're just using the same sample that I have but they sped it up 60 bpm". Editing capabilities is golden!

[mazz]

Also don't underestimate the power of the effects processors in your DAW. I will often tweak the crap out of sounds once I've recorded them to an audio track by using plugins. Some of my favorites are the Moog Filter in the UAD card, CamelSpace from Camel Audio and I still have the old Pluggo Plugins from Cycling 74. There are some really freaky effects in that bundle that can do some serious mangling. Even a simple distortion plug in can do things to non-guitar sounds that will make them less recognizable and more your own. Some virtual instrument plug ins have effects versions, for instance many of the instruments in Komplete 7 have the capability to load their filter or effects sections as plug ins.

The ironic thing is, in this day and age, we have more capability to create our own sound than at any other time in history, and yet we sill insist on buying sample libraries that are often made using some of the same tools we already have on our hard drives! IMO, it's best to think of those samples as simply raw materials to put our own special sauce on. There's really no excuse to use stock sounds in a stock way. This is, of course, mostly referring to electronic sounds, which tend to be more like fashion and go in and out of style, than something timeless like a piano, violin, acoustic guitar, etc.