Think twice before purchasing Eastwest PLAY

[zArt]

Hi guys!
I'm one click away from purchasing 'EastWest Complete Composers Collection', what things do i have to 'think twice' before i 'click', are those more serious issues still present after the updates to PLAY?

Cya.

[Ashermusic]

Hi guys!
I'm one click away from purchasing 'EastWest Complete Composers Collection', what things do i have to 'think twice' before i 'click', are those more serious issues still present after the updates to PLAY?

Cya.

You don't need to "think twice", but there are things you do need to understand:

1. If your system meets the bare minimum requirements, you can expect a minimal performance in terms of numbers of large instruments you can run.

2. If you use a lot of Kontakt stuff, you will want to load the Play stuff first as Kontakt's memory server basically reserves all the unused memory.

[zArt]

I use only Kontakt player with my Mutations Bundle and Omnisphere.
My desktop PC has a DualCore 3Ghz (L2 cache is 1Mb) and 4Gb of ram with 3 disk drives, my laptop has a Core2Duo T6600 (2.2Ghz, 2Mb L2) and 4Gb of ram, 500gb sata drive.
I think the cpu will be enough but 8Gb would be better, wouldn't it?

So do you think that i won't regret it if i buy EWQL CCC, lets say, today?
Anyone else?

Cya

[Joseph Burrell]

I have a CPU of similar specs, but with 8 gigs of RAM. Besides some installation heartburn (that could have been a Windows problem and nothing to do with Play) I am very happy with my upgrade of Platinum.

I think Play is every bit as effecient (from my testing last night) and allows better and easier control over the instruments. Like built in legato (better on some instruments than others), portamento, and repetition scripting. And the ability to point, click, and unload release samples to conserve RAM.

Let me know if you have any questions I can help with.

[zArt]

Hi! Thanks for your input.
I've just ordered it, i expect it to arrive sometime next week.
If i run into some problem i'll post here for sure

Cya.

[Joseph Burrell]

And I'll do what I can to assist if you have any issues. After all the work I put into figuring out my issue, I think I could troubleshoot just about anything.

[zArt]

HI.
I received my EWQL CCC yesterday and today i dedicated the whole day to install it on a Win XP 32bit system.
Like everybody or almost everybody, i had problems. First, after installing Goliath i downloaded the Play update 2.0.18 and run it, it was working fine. Then i installed EWQL SO Gold and then an error ocurred everytime i tried to run Goliath or SO. Something about the qtcore4.dll, which is a library of C++ (Qt) that i think is used in the GUI of Play. Uninstalled everything except the sample/instrument library. Installed again but this time i installed the Play update 2.0.21 that was released yesterday. All is working fine now.

But it's not over. I have a laptop running Win 7 Home premium x64, i installed EWQL SO using the x64 installer but it would only install dvd 1 and never prompted me for the others. :S
After reading some forums/threads/posts i managed to get it working. First i run the Play update 2.0.21, choosing the librarys i would install afterwards, EWQL SO and Goliath, after installing it i copied the samples from the dvds, 1 by 1, to a folder on my laptop. I just had to run Play afterwards et voilá, it's working, tomorrow i'll do the same thing with Goliath library if i don't learn another way to install it first.

It wasn't smooth but for now is working...

Cya

UPDATE:

I tried to install in my brothers desktop runing Win 7 Professional x64 and i haven't had any issues with the installation. It's seems the installer doesn't work correctly in my laptop only... :S Still wondering why...

[ufraidees]

This seems to be an ongoing theme lately. From all the posts I have read, it seems that the only people that are having any luck with PLAY are Mac users and even then, it sounds like working with it is a compromise somehow.
...
All that said, I own like 8 titles of thiers and I love them all. Of course, they all play on K3. I really look forward to owning more of thier stuff when PLAY is a working platform. I really do wish them the best, yet at the same time, I feel for all the people who have invested thier hard earned money into libraries they cant even hardly use.

Just my 2 cents.

E

I use a Mac, or a couple of them on a network. PLAY in Cubase (which I won't recommend on a Mac, CoreAudio2ASIO.bundle makes it too slow) was more or less stable and I got a project done; I got the exact effect I was looking for with it (RA), luckily enough, so I'm glad to have paid the 300 bucks or whatever it was, it happened.

But in VE Pro, EWQL only just got PLAY working on a Mac, and it's a severe workaround here, due to the fact of the memory server instead of a 64-bit app per se. The memory server is a 64-bit process, it's efficient, but it doesn't play nice with much. I had to isolate PLAY assignments and connect to nothing else and render it to even complete the project using it.

EWQL have a peculiar approach to PR, let's leave it at that for diplomacy's sake... I was interested in the apparently deeper Silk, but I'd not buy it until the 64-bit AU PLAY is viable on a Mac and it looks like people are having a good time with it.

[ufraidees]

You don't need to "think twice", but there are things you do need to understand:

1. If your system meets the bare minimum requirements, you can expect a minimal performance in terms of numbers of large instruments you can run.

2. If you use a lot of Kontakt stuff, you will want to load the Play stuff first as Kontakt's memory server basically reserves all the unused memory.

I would go much further and advise not to try anything with both memory servers active, here they work together NOT AT ALL.
In fact PLAY hates kontakt with the latter's 'KMS' turned off on my system, but it's inside VE Pro, which doesn't like some of the trickier GUIs (Play, BFD2, Spectrasonics) much.