Hollywood Pop Brass

EASTWEST is excited to announce the release of HOLLYWOOD POP BRASS, your new go-to product when you need a tight, bombastic, and dynamic brass section to make your next track pop, sizzle, and soar.

For this project, producers DOUG ROGERS and NICK PHOENIX recorded one of the top horn sections in the industry in EastWest's famous Hollywood studios, and brought in multiple Grammy award-winning engineer MOOGIE CANAZIO to craft a sound that's larger than life. MOOGIE CANAZIO has recorded music icons Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Sergio Mendes, Diana Ross, Luis Miguel, Michael Buble, Melody Gardot, and many more. He's been nominated for over 35 Grammy nominations and has won 7 Grammys and Latin Grammys.

HOLLYWOOD POP BRASS features a 4-piece brass ensemble for all multi-sampled articulations that includes 2 trumpets, a trombone, and a saxophone that alternates between a baritone, tenor, and alto saxophone depending on the note range; and a 5-piece ensemble for all phrases and licks that includes 2 trumpets, a trombone and 2 saxophones that alternate between a baritone, tenor, and alto saxophone depending on the instrument voicing. It includes incredible sounding multi-sampled ensemble sections recorded in the famous Studio 1 at EastWest Studios ("the best brass recording room in the world" according to Michael Jackson engineer Bruce Swedien) as well as stylized phrases and licks in multiple keys recorded in Studio 2, a favorite of many Latin artists going all the way back to Tijuana Brass by Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66. These phrases will simply blow you away with how easily they slide right into your track, and cover many genres from pure pop to rock, funk, soul, and many distinctive rhythms and melodies from the Latin world.

HOLLYWOOD POP BRASS was created for one simple reason - there's just nothing else out there on the market that instantaneously gives you that fiery, punchy pop brass sound that made songs like Uptown Funk such mega hits. The great thing about this library is that there's something for everyone - whether you want to build deep and detailed compositions with one of the world’s top horn sections, or if you just want to "plug and play" using licks and phrases that will inspire you and bring that "it" factor to your song. It's the ultimate ensemble pop/Latin brass collection that will leave you screaming, hollering, and begging for more.

HOLLYWOOD POP BRASS includes the articulations listed below. Most include multiple dynamic layers, up to 8 round robin sample alternatives, and a variety of instrument programming options to accommodate a variety of playing styles.

Sustain: Contains different types of sustained articulations: fast, medium and long crescendos, sustain accent, crescendo and diminuendo, and "xfde" ver- sions of instruments that use Mod Wheel (CC1) to cross-fade between dynamics. Each contain 2 dynamic layers, and use Expression (CC 11) to control loudness.
Short: Contains a variety of articulations that have a short duration, including marcato, stabs, staccato, and staccato repetitions. Each include round robin variations, use velocity-sensitivity to control dynamics and Expression (CC 11) to control overall loudness.
Effects: Contains instruments that feature special articulation techniques like falls and rips in various durations, as well as growls and trills. All but growls contain multiple round robin variations.
Legato: Contains an instrument that will playback true legato intervals when two notes are played in a connected fashion (legato), for every interval up to and including an octave in either direction. When playing disconnected (non-legato), a sustain layer will playback.
MOD Combo: Contains instruments that combine multiple articulations and uses the Mod Wheel (CC 1) to select between them. A ‘VS’ (velocity-sensitive) instru- ment named HPB Shorts VS MOD.ewi alternatively uses velocity to select between articulations and Mod Wheel (CC 1) to determine dynamics.
Phrases: Contains instruments that feature phrases and sub-phrases in various tempos that fit perfectly in the world of pop brass. Each was recorded with multiple transpositions, and are mapped across the virtual keyboard on their respective root note positions for use in a variety of key signatures.
Licks: Contains instruments that feature short licks (or "motifs") performed at 120 bpm that fall into 1 of 6 chord types. The position of the Mod Wheel de- termines which of the chord types will playback. Each lick has 2 round robin variations and is mapped to the key that corresponds to the respective root note position of each chord type.
Keyswitch: Keyswitch contains instruments that combine multiple articulations into a single instrument and uses keyswitches to activate the desired articulation.

System Requirements

23GB free hard disc space.

Below are the minimum and recommended hardware and software specifications for using Opus on Windows and MacOS systems.

The chart below outlines the MacOS and Windows 64-bit operating systems and sequencers that are officially supported and fully tested with the latest version of Opus. Please note that while most Sequencers / DAWs are VST 2, VST 3, AU and AAX plug-in format compatible, only those listed in the chart below are officially supported.

(1) VST3 usage is recommended
(2) Sibelius / Finale / Dorico notation programs work with Opus, but do not support the full feature set of some Opus/Play Libraries, such as those that use WordBuilder. Please contact support for details.