EastWest Quantum Leap : Platinum vs Gold vs Silver

[Frederic Petitpas]

Hey guys. I'm a bit tired of Miroslav in Reason hahah.. since I want to reserve it for the synths and mainly use Reaper, I need a good librairy and more functions (keyswitching).

I wanted Vienna, for it's dry and all, but it's pricey. I'm considering Quantum Leap and from what I've heard when I saw this video, I thought the Silver version was pretty cool :

I then saw his video for the choirs :

I need those products. I would also need something like Storm Drums.

Anyway, the main focus here is to debate the need of something above the silver version and so on. Why would gold not be enough or the opposite. Is Platinum useless even to a semi-pro level when you have Gold ?

Thanks.

Edit: I'm also confused. I see people talking about Gold and Gold + XP or something. I don't see such a thing on http://www.soundsonline.com/Symphonic-Orchestra and do I need a PLAY or Kontakt thing or is it standalone ? ;/

Edited April 6, 2014 by Metal Man

[timaeus222]

Platinum is not useless, and neither is Silver, if you have experience designing reverbs. If you can tweak reverbs so that those versions will sound good in any context, then they will.

[Moseph]

Gold and Platinum have the same articulations, but Platinum includes two additional mic positions and 24-bit samples rather than 16-bit. If you don't look at multiple mic positions and say, "This is a thing that I need!" then Gold will probably be a better choice.

Silver has fewer articulations than Gold/Platinum (there's a comparison chart somewhere on the EWQL site). I haven't used Silver, so I can't comment on how useful it is, but from what I've seen online, Gold seems to be the most popular of the three among people making their first big orchestral library purchase.

EWQL SO runs on PLAY, which is included with the library.

Gold XP is no longer available -- I think it added the extra mic positions to Gold that are currently available as part of Platinum.

I'd advise against getting EWQL Choirs unless you're okay with an extremely steep learning curve on the word builder. It is the most difficult library I've ever used and it requires a lot of fiddly detail work to get it to sound decent. Granted, you don't have to use the word builder at all, but if that's the case then there are other newer and cheaper choir libraries that might serve you better.

Edited April 6, 2014 by Moseph

[Chernabogue]

Gold is definitively a good library. I worked with it, and still use a few samples, and it really rocks.

[Nase]

I've never used any of these, but judging from all the demos i've listened to, silver might well be enough if you're not going for purist/expansive orchestral sections. Like, if it's just for a bit of symphony in your metal.

Gold is probably the way to go if you can see yourself dive down deep into the rabbit hole of orchestral programming.

There's something to be said for simplicity if you expect limited usage (price notwithstanding).

Edited April 6, 2014 by Nase

[Argle]

platinum is your only hope to get a drier sound due to the close mic position.

[Frederic Petitpas]

Thanks for the replies. Part of it is to enhance some metal orchestration but I really wanna give a go to real orchestration without any guitar/drum implied hehe. I have some fun with Miroslav but it is extremly lacking in term of articulation. I'm actually glad that Quantum Leap comes with natural reverb, it probably blends perfectly.

When should I expect a deal and how much.. black friday..summer sale ?