East West Sounds Ghostwriter User manual

1.0.3

USER MANUALUSER MANUAL

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

ii ii

IMPORTANT COMPATIBILITY NOTE!

Our Revolutionary New Opus Software Engine

Our brand new Opus software engine has been years in development, and replaces

the Play engine. All EastWest Libraries (with the exception of the original Hollywood

Orchestra, the original Hollywood Solo Instruments, and the MIDI Guitar Series) are

supported in Opus, allowing them to take advantage of a faster, more powerful, more

ﬂexible, and better looking software engine.

Opus comes with some incredible new features such as individual instrument down-

loads, customized key-switches, new effects for the mixer page, scalable retina user

interface upgrades for legacy products, a powerful new script language, and many more

features that allow you to completely customize the sound of each instrument.

It’s one of the most exciting developments in the history of our company and will be the

launching pad for many exciting new products in the future.

Using Opus and Play Together

Opus and Play are two separate software products, anything you have saved in your

projects will still load up inside the saved Play version of the plugins. You can update

your current/existing projects to Opus if you so choose, or leave them saved within Play.

After purchasing or upgrading to Opus you do not need to use Play, but it may be more

convenient to make small adjustments to an older composition in your DAW loading the

instruments saved in Play instead of replacing them with Opus. For any new composi-

tion, just use Opus.

A Note About User Manuals

All EastWest Libraries have their own user manuals (like this one) that refer to instru-

ments and controls that are speciﬁc to their respective libraries, as well as referencing

the Play User Manual for controls that are common to all EastWest Libraries.

For EastWest Libraries supported for use within Opus, we highly recommend taking

advantage of all the powerful new features it has to offer.

Reference this user manual for details related to the instruments and controls speciﬁc

to this library and, in place of the previously mentioned Play Software Manual, refer to

the Opus Software Manual from the link below instead.

OPUS SOFTWARE MANUAL: https://media.soundsonline.com/manuals/EW-Opus-Software-Manual.pdf

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

iii

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not rep-

resent a commitment on the part of East West Sounds, Inc. The software and sounds

described in this document are subject to License Agreements and may not be copied

to other media. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise

transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by East West

Sounds, Inc. All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective

owners.

Solid State Logic (SSL) Channel Strip, Transient Shaper, and Stereo Compressor licensed

from Solid State Logic. SSL and Solid State Logic are registered trademarks of Red Lion

49 Ltd.

East West Sounds, Inc.

6000 Sunset Blvd.

Hollywood, CA 90028

USA

For questions about licensing of products: [email protected]

For more general information about products: [email protected]

http://support.soundsonline.com

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

1

1. Welcome

2 About EastWest

3 Producer: Steven Wilson

5 Producer: Doug Rogers

7 Credits

8 How to Use This and the Other Manuals

8 Online Documentation and Other Resources

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

2Chapter 1: Welcome

Welcome

About EastWest

EastWest (soundsonline.com) is the #1 producer and distributor of virtual (software) in-

struments in the world. With clientele that span the Who’s Who of music, ﬁlm, television,

games, multimedia and performing arts, EastWest has led the industry for more than 25

years and provides professionals with the very best music creation tools available.

Virtual instruments enable composers and others involved in music production to use

music keyboards linked to computers to create music that is virtually indistinguishable

from a live performance to the average person, at a fraction of the cost. A high percent-

age of the music produced for all media today is produced on computers using EastWest/

Quantum Leap virtual instruments.

EastWest/Quantum Leap virtual instruments are considered to be the best available, and

are endorsed by the Who’s Who of the music, ﬁlm, TV, and games industries, including

Danny Elfman (Spiderman, Nightmare Before Christmas, Terminator 4); J.J. Abrams

(producer Star Trek, Lost); Rene Dupere (Cirque Du Soleil, KA, Mystere); James New-

ton Howard (The Dark Knight, King Kong); John Powell (Hancock, The Bourne Trilogy);

Thomas Newman (Revolutionary Road, WALL-E, Lemony Snickets); Jeff Beal (Rome, Ap-

paloosa, He Was a Quiet Man); Brian Tyler (Fast and the Furious, Dragonball); Chris Beck

(Pink Panther 2, Under the Tuscan Sun); David Newman (The Spirit, Cat In The Hat, Ice

Age); Steve Jablonsky (Desperate Housewives, Transformers); Paul ‘Wix’ Wickens (Key-

boards/Musical Director, Paul McCartney); Herbie Hancock (12-time Grammy-winning

pianist and composer); Teddy Riley (Producer Michael Jackson “Dangerous” and “Invin-

cible”); David Kahne (Producer Paul McCartney); Mark “Spike” Stent (Coldplay, Lady

Gaga, Muse); and countless others.

Based in Hollywood, USA, Sounds Online (soundsonline.com) is a wholly owned division

of EastWest and the #1 online source for professional sounds and virtual instruments.

Based in Amsterdam, SoundsOnline-Europe (soundsonline-europe.com) distributes

EastWest/Quantum Leap products in Europe.

EastWest owns and operates a large recording studio complex in Hollywood (eastwest-

studios.com), and sound- and software-development divisions in Hollywood and Berlin,

Germany.

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

3Chapter 1: Welcome

Producer: Steven Wilson

One of the most eclectic and proliﬁc artists in rock music, Steven Wilson has been writ-

ing, recording, and producing music continuously since the early nineties. A native of

England, Steven was ﬁrst exposed to music at the age of eight, when he started hearing

his father listening to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” and his mother to Donna

Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby,” two albums that were pivotal in the development of

his musical direction, and which embedded in him the idea of the album as a musical

continuum or sonic journey, an approach that runs through all his work. His father, an

electrical engineer, built him a multi-track tape machine, and he began to experiment

with overdubbing and developing a repertoire of distinctive production techniques.

Album releases and touring between 1993 and 2009, as leader of his band Porcupine

Tree, saw him gain a reputation for his songwriting, experimentation, and sonic excel-

lence that resulted in many invitations to work with other artists. Among his many ac-

complishments, he has produced several albums for grammy award winning Swedish

metal band Opeth, and has sung on UK drum and bass band Pendulum’s UK number

one album “Immersion.”

Never interested in using presets or existing samples, his passion has always been to

create unique sounds. He started a solo career in 2009, and his most recent solo album

“The Raven that Refused to Sing” was recorded at East West studios with legendary re-

cording engineer Alan Parsons at the helm. It received rave reviews and charted high all

over the world, while a world tour with his band made use of quadrophonic sound and

extensive visual elements to create an unforgettable and immersive live experience.

Steven has become known for his 5.1 surround sound mixing, starting with his own proj-

ects, but more recently also for revamping and remixing the catalogues of King Crimson,

Jethro Tull, Yes, XTC, and Roxy Music, among others. His mixes have been Grammy

nominated on 4 occasions, and he has twice won Album of the Year at the Surround

Music Awards.

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

4Chapter 1: Welcome

Steven is seen by many as the predominant progressive rock musician in the world today,

and in 2012 he won “Guiding Light” at the Progressive Music Awards 2012, following

this in 2013 with another win for best album for “The Raven that Refused to Sing.”

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

5Chapter 1: Welcome

Producer: Doug Rogers

With over 30 years experience in the audio industry, Producer Doug Rogers is the recipi-

ent of many industry awards including “Recording Engineer of the Year.” “The Art of

Digital Music” named him one of “56 Visionary Artists & Insiders” in the book of the

same name.

In 1988 he founded EastWest, the most critically acclaimed virtual (software) instru-

ment developer in the world. Since then, EastWest has been the recipient of over 60

international industry awards. Rogers’ uncompromising approach to quality, and innova-

tive ideas has enabled EastWest to lead the industry for more than 25 years.

After forming EastWest, he produced the ﬁrst commercial drum samples collection, fol-

lowed with a sequel co-produced with Bob Clearmountain, which was so successful that

a new industry was born. Rogers and Clearmountain produced two subsequent releases

which won many awards. In 1991, Rogers released the ﬁrst collection to include MIDI-

driven drum loops, which enabled users to adjust each loop tempo in their sequencer

without adjusting pitch or decreasing quality. During the next decade, Rogers partnered

with a number of top musicians to produce many more award winning collections with

members of Aerosmith, Billy Idol, BT, The Cars, Public Enemy, and Prince. Many of

these products introduced a new concept called construction loops, which enabled users

to mix and customize each loop to ﬁt their music.

With sampling technology improving, Rogers released the Ultimate Piano Collection in

1995, the ﬁrst multi-velocity sampled piano collection, which received many industry

awards. In 1997 Rogers partnered with Nemesys to create the GigaSampler software and

sound libraries, which pioneered the use of “streaming from hard drive technology,” a

technical breakthrough without which the high quality virtual instruments of today would

not be possible.

In 2003 he co-produced the ﬁrst surround sound virtual orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra,

engineered by 11-time Grammy nominated classical recording engineer Keith Johnson,

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

6Chapter 1: Welcome

and recorded in a “state of the art” concert hall (awarded Keyboard Magazine “Key Buy

Award,” EQ Magazine “Exceptional Quality Award,” Computer Music Magazine “Per-

formance Award,” G.A.N.G. [Game Audio Network Guild] “Best Sound Library Award,”

and SOS “Reader’s Choice Award”). He followed that release with Symphonic Choirs

(awarded Electronic Musician “Editor’s Choice Award,” G.A.N.G. “Best Sound Library

Award,” and Keyboard Magazine “Key Buy Award”). Symphonic Choirs and its predeces-

sor Voices of the Apocalypse were the ﬁrst music software products to enable users to

type in words for the choirs to sing with a computer, and it remains the only product ca-

pable of this innovation today. This was followed in 2007 with EastWest/Quantum Leap

Pianos, the most detailed virtual piano collection ever produced, also in surround sound.

In 2005 Rogers established a software development division for EastWest, and released

the ﬁrst 64-bit virtual instruments, which have become the standard today.

Rogers’ most recent productions include Hollywood Strings, Hollywood Brass, and Hol-

lywood Orchestral Woodwinds, co-produced with Nick Phoenix and Thomas Bergersen,

and engineered by Shawn Murphy; Fab Four (with Beatle’s engineer Ken Scott), inspired

by the sounds of the Beatles; and The Dark Side (co-produced with David Fridmann),

aimed at alternative musicians. Fab Four and The Dark Side both won M.I.P.A. Awards,

judged by over 100 international music magazines.

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

7Chapter 1: Welcome

Credits

Produced by

Steven Wilson and Doug Rogers

Production Assistance

Rhys Moody and Justin Harris

Assistant Engineer

Jeremy Miller

Musicians

Steven Wilson, Marco Minnemann, and Laurence Juber

Programming

Justin Harris, Andrzej Warzocha, Jason Coffman

Editing

Andrzej Warzocha, Jason Coffman, Mike DiMattia, Justin Harris, and Arne Schulze

Art Direction

Steven Gilmore, Doug Rogers, Shaun Ellwood, and Steven Wilson

Software

Klaus Lebkücher, Klaus Voltmer, Bartlomiej Bazior, Adam Higerd,

Truc Phan, Stefan Holek, Doug Rogers, Nick Phoenix, Rhys Moody,

Elon Arbiture, and Helen Evans

Special Thanks

Andy Leff and Jordan Rudess

Manual

John Philpit

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

8Chapter 1: Welcome

How to Use This and the Other Manuals

All documentation for the EastWest PLAY Advanced Sample System and its libraries is

provided as a collection of Adobe Acrobat ﬁles, also called PDFs. They can be viewed on

the computer screen or printed to paper.

Each time you install one of the PLAY System libraries, two manuals are copied to the

ﬁle system on your computer:

• The manual that describes the whole PLAY System. The largest of the manuals, it

addresses how to install and use all aspects of the software that are common to all

libraries.

• The library-speciﬁc manual, such as the one you are currently reading. This smaller

document describes aspects that differ from one library to the next, such as the list

of included instruments and articulations.

Using the Adobe Acrobat Features

By opening the Bookmarks pane along the left edge of the Adobe Acrobat Reader, the

user can jump directly to a topic by clicking on the section name. Note that some older

versions of Acrobat Reader might not support all these features. The latest Acrobat

Reader can be downloaded and installed at no cost from the Adobe web site. (As an ex-

ample of a hyperlink, you can click on the last word of the previous sentence to be taken

directly to the Adobe site.)

When reading this and other manuals on the computer screen, you can zoom in to see

more detail in the images or zoom out to see more of the page at once. If an included

picture of the user interface, or a diagram, seems fuzzy or illegible, then zoom in using

one of several means provided in the Acrobat Reader software.

Online Documentation and Other Resources

For the most up to date information, visit the support pages at EastWest’s web site.

There you can ﬁnd:

• information made available after these manuals were written

• FAQ pages that may already list answers to questions you have

• suggestions from EastWest and other users of the EastWest PLAY System

• news about upcoming releases

The address is:

World excluding Europe: http://support.soundsonline.com

Europe: http://support.soundsonline-europe.com

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

9

2. Ghostwriter, An Overview

10 The Design Concept for the Ghostwriter Virtual Instrument

12 What’s Included

12 Hardware Requirements

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

10Chapter 2: Ghostwriter, An Overview

Ghostwriter, An Overview

The Design Concept for the Ghostwriter Virtual Instrument

Ever since Ghostwriter Producer Steven Wilson ﬁrst learned how to produce and record

music on equipment his electronic genius father made for him in the 80’s (see photo

below), his passion has always been to experiment with the possibilities of sculpting with

sound. Avoiding presets or existing samples, he has instead preferred to create unique

sonic worlds, thus blurring the boundaries between sound design, song-writing, and

record production. However, he also recognizes that not everyone has the time or inclina-

tion to spend so much time developing sound sources when working on their productions.

The multi-track tape machine his father built for him in the 80’s.

For the ﬁrst time ever, this new instrument presents many of Steven’s most innovative

sounds, as well as a selection of especially created instruments and some replications

of instantly recognizable classic sounds created by other legendary producers and engi-

neers. These organic and inspirational sounds can be used as part of the fabric of com-

plex music productions, or as the basis for cinematic soundtrack-based music, providing

a ready-made selection of sonic building blocks with years of expertise and sonic innova-

tion already embedded in them.

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

11Chapter 2: Ghostwriter, An Overview

A Note from Producer Doug Rogers

I ﬁrst met Steven through a mutual friend, Jordan Rudess, nearly 4 years ago. I had long

been an admirer of his skills, not only as an incredible and proliﬁc musician and writer,

but also for his expertise and passion for sound design. His gigantic body of impressive

work always has the aural ingredients to create the right atmosphere for the music he

writes, and it was clear to me that a Steven Wilson Virtual Instrument would enable him

to expand his contributions to other musicians’ work. After literally years of persistence

he ﬁnally agreed to do it, and here is the result: Ghostwriter, an instrument collection

like no other. He and I hope that you like it and that it elevates your music to a new level.

Why “Ghostwriter”?

A ghostwriter is a composer who writes music that will be ofﬁcially credited to another

person. The concept of ghostwriting goes back centuries: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was

a well-known composer paid to ghostwrite music for wealthy patrons. These days the

sound design aspect of composing music has become as important as the notes, chords

and rhythms, particularly in the creation of ﬁlm, game, and television soundtracks, so

while Ghostwriter won’t write the music for you, it has been designed to be a “ghost” col-

laborator in the compositional process, an invaluable and inspirational tool for creating

your music.

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

12Chapter 2: Ghostwriter, An Overview

What’s Included

This Ghostwriter library you purchased includes all of the following:

• a complete set of sample-based instruments, enumerated later in this manual

• approximately 63 Gigabytes of 24-bit, 44.1 kHz samples

• the EastWest PLAY Advanced Sample Engine

• the unique authorization code that identiﬁes the license you bought

• manuals in Adobe Acrobat format for both the EastWest PLAY System and the Ghost-

writer Virtual Instrument

• an installation program to set up the library, software, and documentation on your

computer

• an Authorization Wizard for registering your license in an online database

One required item not usually included is an iLok security key. If you already have one

from an earlier purchase of software, you can use it. Otherwise, you need to acquire one.

They are available from many retailers that sell EastWest and Quantum Leap products, or

you can buy one online at www.soundsonline.com.

Hardware Requirements

See the PLAY System manual for a complete list of the Hardware and Software Require-

ments for installing and running any PLAY System library. In addition, the available

space on the hard drive required for a full installation of Ghostwriter is approximately

63 GB (Gigabytes).

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

13

3. The Ghostwriter User Interface

14 Overview of the User Interface

15 Round Robin Reset Button

15 Stereo Spread

16 EP-1 Delay

17 Amp Controls

17 Filter Controls

17 Reverb Controls

18 Sensitivity

18 The Graphical Representation of the Envelope

19 The Browser View

19 The Mixer View

20 FX Plug-ins in the Mixer View

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

14Chapter 3: The Ghostwriter User Interface

The Ghostwriter User Interface

Overview of the User Interface

Each library presents its own interface when one of its instruments is the current one,

as speciﬁed in the Instruments drop-down in the upper right corner. The image below

provides an overview of the entire Ghostwriter window when in Player View.

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

15Chapter 3: The Ghostwriter User Interface

Much of this interface is shared by all PLAY System libraries, and the common features

are described in the PLAY System manual. The 8 controls in Player view that are de-

scribed in this section are:

• Round Robin Reset

• Stereo Double

• EP-1 Delay

• Amp

• Filter

• Reverb

• Sensitivity

• the graphical representation of the Envelope

Round Robin Reset Button

A round robin articulation is one in which several different samples are recorded with all

parameters, such as volume, speed of attack, and so on, being essentially constant. The

PLAY Engine then knows to alternate between the two or more samples during playback.

The goal is to avoid what’s often called the “machine gun effect,” in which playing the

same sampled note repeatedly causes the unnatural sound of consecutive notes being

mechanically identical.

There’s one potential problem with round robin technology, and one way to

solve it is the Round Robin Reset button. The PLAY Engine remembers which

sample should be played the next time the note sounds. If, for example, a round-robin

patch contains two samples, A and B, and a piece uses that note 7 times, the PLAY

Engine plays A B A B A B A. If the piece is played again from the beginning, the engine

will play starting with B, because that’s next in order. The second rendition will be subtly

different. Being able to reset all round-robin articulations to the beginning of the cycle

allows for consistent playback.

You can use this button to reset all round robin instruments on demand. Or use your

choice of a MIDI note or control code to reset one instrument at a time from a MIDI key-

board or the data stored in a sequencer project. See the description of the Settings dia-

log (in the PLAY manual) for more information about this instrument-speciﬁc approach.

Stereo Spread

The knob in this set of controls affects the apparent width of the sound of the instrument

within the soundscape. Turning the knob all the way to the left makes the sound seem

to come from a speciﬁc location as indicated by the Pan control. The

more this knob is turned to the right the wider the apparent source of the

sound, making it harder to pinpoint in the stereo ﬁeld.

The Left and Right (L and R) buttons specify the source of the audio

input for this control, the left or right channel. Note that you can click either button to

change the input to the one currently off. The button titled On must be illuminated for

the controls to have any effect.

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

16Chapter 3: The Ghostwriter User Interface

EP-1 Delay

This set of controls models the Echoplex Delay as designed in

1959. That original hardware used magnetic tape to create the

delay effect. The vintage vacuum tube sound of the original units

is highly prized today, even though newer models (up to the EP-4)

have been released. This digital processor emulates the sound of

the original unit. The On button needs to glow blue for the effect to be engaged. There

are 5 knobs and 1 button that affect the audio output.

Flutter: This knob affects the intensity of the ﬂutter (a small and fast variability of the

pitch, caused by slight variations in the tape speed in the original hardware). Adding

in some of this effect increases the vintage feel of this emulator. The range of possible

values is 0–10.

Drive: Use this knob to add gain to the distortion of the echos created by the Delay. The

range is from 0 (no distortion) to 10 (maximum available distortion). This effect is in

addition to any distortion already built into the basic audio output.

Echo: Turn this knob to control the length of the delay between echoes. When the Sync

Button is turned off, the knob’s read-out is measured in milliseconds for times less than a

second, or in seconds for longer times. When the Sync Button is on, the delay of the echo

is synced to the tempo of the piece. Times are measured in terms of notes and, for longer

delays, full bars. The letter “T” refers to a triplet and “D” to a dotted note. For example,

“1/8D” waits the length of a dotted eight note (dotted quaver) before sounding the next

echo. The tempo is taken from the host when running as a plug-in, or from the setting in

the Engine Sync Tempo control when running standalone. That setting can be found in

the Advanced Instrument Properties dialog as opened from the Main Menu.

Repeats: This knob speciﬁes the relative loudness of each repeat compared to the one im-

mediately before it. The smaller the value (in a range of 0% to 100%) the more quickly

the repeats get softer and, therefore, the more quickly they drop below the level of audi-

bility. Note that the repeats can continue after the end of the played note, after the value

in the Voices control has dropped to 0.

Level: This knob controls the loudness of the repeats relative to loudness of the original

signal. It is measured in decibels, so a value of 0 means that the two audio levels are

identical. Values above 0 turn the level of the repeats louder than the main signal but,

of course, as the repeats get softer (based on the value from the Repeats knob) they are

likely to eventually fall below the loudness of the main signal. A value below 0 has all

echoes softer than the original level. Very negative values may be so soft as to be inau-

dible even in the ﬁrst repeat.

Note that the Reverb controls have a switch for indicating whether the EP-1 Delay pro-

cessing should be done before the Reverb (Pre) or parallel to the Reverb (Post). (See the

Reverb description below).

EASTWEST | GHOSTWRITER

17Chapter 3: The Ghostwriter User Interface

Amp Controls

This set of 5 knobs and a drop-down list lets you control the built-in ampliﬁer emulation.

The drop-down list presents you with a selection of ampliﬁers. Different amps may work

better with different styles of music and in varying projects. The list of available amps is

very long; you’ll want to experiment with a variety of the amps to see which works best

for your projects.

Drive: This knob changes the volume of the output, but

at the same time affects the amount of distortion being

added to the incoming signal. If you only want to change

the volume, the Master knob is a better choice.

Bass, Mid, and Treble: These three knobs change the loudness in the three broad ranges

of frequency. Together they act like an equalizer to change which frequency ranges are

emphasized.

Master: Use this knob to control the overall loudness of the output signal. It works to-

gether with, but is different from, the Volume knob at the center of the whole window.

Filter Controls

The Filter controls take the sound of the instrument, and

modify it by ﬁltering out some of the sound at either end of

the audible frequency spectrum.

The Low Freq knob speciﬁes at approximately what fre-

quency the sounds in the bass start to be ﬁltered out. (In

the image at the right, the lower cutoff frequency is set to

33 hertz.) The High Freq knob does the same at the upper

end of the spectrum (at 8746 Hz in the image).

The graph gives you visual cues about the frequency distribution you are creating with

the settings you select.

Make sure the On button is illuminated for this ﬁlter to have any effect.

Reverb Controls

Although a generic Reverb control is described in the main PLAY

manual, and that description applies here as well, the version in

Ghostwriter has several features not found in all EastWest prod-

ucts. Here are the three extra controls:

Pre-Delay Knob

Increasing the level with this knob delays the onset of the reverb so that the initial sec-

tion of the sample is unaffected. This feature allows the sound of each attack to maintain

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East West Sounds Ghostwriter User manual

East West Sounds Ghostwriter User manual

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