Play engine is sorted now. CPU is low, not buggy, I've personally experienced no issues. Installation centre downloads pretty quick for me. I have a few East West Libraries Some are fantastic, some are just reprocessed old money spinoffs.

Some of their libraries in my opinion are still unrivalled i.e Symphonic Choirs Platinum & Vota. EW Pianos far superior to sonivox imo. I've used both.

I don't like business model but that not their problem.

Subscription a no go for me but if i need an i-loK even though I dislike the company i-lok I couldn't give a shit coz I'll buy or get one for free if I want a library so it really doesn't matter.

Again all personal choice.

If u want it or "NEED" it so bad save the money if able, make a choice and buy it.

 

It very well does, mate. In 2014, my Mac's hard drive crashed while using on instance of EW Ministry of Rock 2 in Garageband, because the CPU overload was too high from that one instance if EWQL MoR2. You can read about that story, and everything I lost from it, in my comment in the locked thread "Apple Music stole my music - & here's proof" started recently by another user. I did a long nasty comment.

Last I remembered, this was an unresolved issue.

I tried QL Symphonic Choirs thru the Composer cloud membership quite recently. Honestly, I couldn't figure out how to do it for the life of me. It was just way too complicated and a PITA that I ended up uninstalling/deleting it. So I think the answer to your question is "No".

EW is makes new products, but hardly or half-assly fixes their old products. Much like Avid & Propellerheads with Pro Tools & Reason - A new version comes out every year, with 1 or 2 "new" features, but... no bug fixes. It's the same concept of people who walk their dogs but don't clean up when the dog takes a shit:
*Walks dog 8 feet* *Dog takes shit* *keeps walking* - *Ooh look! New fire hydrant!* *Dog takes another shit* *keeps walking*. Before you know it, the neighborhood stinks like dogshit and no one wants to buy a house there because of that.
"East west" resembles the dog owner, and "Play" resembles the dog. Play has a bug, and East West rarely fixes it.
I could choose a better analogy, but fuck it. I'ma go make some music.

Naw. Totally obsolete and not worth it at all. Don't do it. You'll regret it big time. Honestly, Spitfire and Orchestral Tools are where it's at nowadays. And I say that from my vast personal experience. I've tried them all. Spitfire and OT are the ones to beat. Especially Orchestral Tools. I have Metropolis Ark 1 and it's so awesome sounding, I almost want to sleep with it. LOL

 

1st, thanx for the info

Agree - so very few or no alternatives..

I have the money - it's about investments and priorities. Don't need it so bad, especially don't need it so often. Would consider buying it though, as it is, as stated above, one of a kind... BUT forgot about iLok!

Exactly, it's a no-go for me.. (and no money for them, which prob doesnt matter..) Managed to get to far without it, to give up.. yet

From what you're saying, I suspect that this is all the same shit-new wrapping of midi-madness relooping that I had to go thru to get the old version working with daw & wordbuilder..

 

Yeah, basically.

And yeah, SC is very unrivaled to this day. Symphonic Orchestra, too.
QL Pianos is a keeper for me, too. Especially that one and SO. I will keep those close by in my studio.
But many other products of theirs, are very outdated in terms of sound.

Btw, I have a 2.9GHz Late 2012 Macbook Pro with 8GB RAM and a 750GB SATA HD in case anyone wants to know why I have a hard time with the cpu. Lol. I very often produce on the go.

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2016

That's the problem. I think u just hit the nail on the head impressive.

Some of these libraries are simply a no go on certain lower grade machines. Not that yours was in any way.

I mean if you buy say a the dedicated HD composer cloud etc with a huge top spec new machine maybe your not going to experience the problems somebody on a 4gb dual core laptop would so it's all pretty hard to figure out & some are going to get problems others don't.

As for the play engine I agree it was atrocious when it first came out but now it seems vastly improved. I can't comment on why it crashed for yourself as I know zero about Mac and it was 2014?

All I can say is that on PC i've been running it for a while now without a glitch.

I also agree that some of the libraries are not worth it as they are outdated but some are great.

I think if you are going to purchase the best option is to get a free iloK from wherever possible i.e Sign up with slate for a month and then cancel Cheaper than buying the ilok i suppose and you get the gear for a month and then be very selective about what products you need.
I hate i-Lok but if it's gotta be done well I will I suppose not that I like it, I will if I want the library or there no alternatives to that library.
So basically before you purchase make damn sure your machine can run it well and demo it first.
I do also think they throwing out a load of old stuff and some libraries are well overpriced but a few are great I reckon JMO