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THE DARK SIDE
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Created and produced by Doug Rogers (EastWest) and David Fridmann (MGMT, The Flaming Lips etc.), THE DARK SIDE is the first of its kind: an unconventional, 40 Gigabyte, hip and exciting collection of virtual instruments, some dark and eerie, and some which have been purposely—and skillfully!—mangled, distorted, or effected out of all recognition.
THE DARK SIDE provides inspiration for all composers and artists looking for something unique and different, and of course, if you work in film, TV, and game music production, this will give you an edge to separate you from your competitors.
THE DARK SIDE includes a vast, 40 Gigabyte collection, including dark and eerie instruments, and highly processed drums and percussion, basses, guitars, ethnic, keyboard, strings, and effected instruments, all organized into instrumental groups so you can create complete tracks.
Producer DOUG ROGERS was awarded the 2011 MIPA Award for THE DARK SIDE at the Frankfurt Musikmesse. Over 100 international magazines selected the winner. This is the second MIPA Award for Rogers in the last 4 years, having won it for FAB FOUR in 2008. The MIPA has become the "Grammy" of the Musical Instrument industry.
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To produce THE DARK SIDE, Rogers partnered with Grammy Award-Winning record producer David Fridmann, whose unconventional (and successful) work with the likes of MGMT, The Flaming Lips, Weezer, Mercury Rev, Saxon Shore, Ammonia, Ed Harcourt, Sparklehorse, Café Tacuba, Elf Power, Mogwai, Thursday, The Delgados, Low, Phantom Planet, Gemma Hayes, Goldrush, Tapes 'n Tapes, Hopewell, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Number Girl, Zazen Boys, Sleater-Kinney, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, OK Go, and Tame Impala etc. he had long admired.
The Concept for The Dark Side: Creativity without limits!
THE DARK SIDE idea came to me when I was mentoring a young alternative group about some demos they sent me. To my ears, the tracks didn't sound tough enough for their intended market, so I told them they needed to toughen up their sound," said Doug Rogers, Award-Winning Producer at EASTWEST. "I looked around for sounds that could accomplish this and found absolutely nothing, even in our own vast collection. I saw this huge, gaping hole in the market that needed to be filled. Then and there, I decided to make it my next project after my recent pristine orchestral productions, a complete aural turn-around."
Rogers partnered with Grammy Award-Winning record producer David Fridmann. Fridmann's "no rules" style of production was exactly what Rogers was looking for to help produce THE DARK SIDE instruments.
Once they got started, they were like bulls in a china shop: mass aural destruction was the name of the game. They turned traditional instruments into highly processed drums, percussion, basses, guitars, ethnic, keyboards, strings, and FX, all organized into instrument groups for easy audition and recall.
Rogers and Fridmann not only tapped into a wealth of recording and producing experience for THE DARK SIDE, but had the gear to match. Many individual instruments were processed through 5 or 6 effects units, some of the vintage and esoteric tube variety owned by the pair.
THE DARK SIDE distorted and mangled instruments are designed to stand out in a mix, or to disturb the senses. With today's brick-wall limiting, distorted instruments may be the only production trick left to highlight instruments, a successful technique used often by Radiohead, Muse, Nine Inch Nails, etc.
The Dark Side Choirs Keyswitch C-1 – F-1 (Regular & Wide) 28
The Dark Side Ethnic Keyswitch C0–A0 28
Basses wFX
Bass Hemorrhage wFX
Destroyer Bass wFX
Fuzz Bass wFX
Slightly Dirty Bass wFX
Drums wFX
Bone Crunch wFX
Broken Circuit wFX
Dark Dirt wFX
Slap Kit 24 inch wFX
Ethnic and Choirs wFX
2-Bit Choir wFX
Electric Medieval wFX
Ethnic Guitar wFX
Leslie Choir wFX
Snake Charmer wFX
UFO Choir wFX
Zitherland wFX
Guitars wFX
Distorted Lead wFX
Guitars on Mars wFX
Insanity wFX
Tunnel Lead wFX
Keys and Strings wFX
Bent Funeral Organ wFX
Brain Damage wFX
Broken Jaw Harp wFX
Chorus Strings wFX
Dist Org String Thing wFX
Freak Show wFX
Perc Tonal wFX
Super Tabla wFX
Backwardspell
Big Broken Ben
Big Broken Ben Extreme
Bumblebee 01 Non-Tonal
Bumblebee 02 Non-Tonal
Earthquake
Ethereal
FX Madness 01–13
Horror 01 Non-Tonal
Horror 02 Non-Tonal
OC Notes ("OC" refers to the Omnichord)
OC Notes Kaoss
Perc Bells
Perc Sci-Fi
Static
SuperTabla
Timp Explosion
Keyswitch and Mod Wheel Cross-Fades
OC Chords Arp Keyswitch C0–E0 29
OC Chords Kaoss Keyswitch C0–E0 29
OC Chords Arp Kaoss Keyswitch C0–A0 29
The Dark Side Misc FX Keyswitch C1–B1 29
The Dark Side Perc Tonal Keyswitch C0–F0
System Requirements
40 GB Free Hard Disc Space
Below are the minimum and recommended hardware and software specifications for using Opus on Windows and MacOS systems.
MINIMUM SYSTEM
CPU: Quad-core (four cores), running at 2.7 GHz (or above)
RAM: 16 GB
OS: macOS 10.13 (or later); Windows 10 with ASIO sound drivers
Drive: SSD for HW Orchestra Opus Edition
RECOMMENDED SYSTEM
CPU: Octa-core (eight cores), running at 2.7 GHz (or above)
RAM: 32 GB or more
OS: macOS 10.13 (or later); Windows 10 with ASIO sound drivers
Drive: NVMe SSD
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.
Product
Version
MacOS (10.13+)
Windows 10
EW Play 6 Stand-Alone
6.0+
YES
YES
EW Opus Stand-Alone
1.0+
YES
YES
Ableton Live
10.0+
YES
YES
Apple Logic Pro
10.0+
YES
-
Apple Garageband
10.3+
YES
-
Avid Pro Tools
2018.1+
YES
YES
Bitwig Studio
3.0+
YES
YES
Cockos Reaper
6.0+
YES
YES
Image-Line FL Studio
20+
YES
YES
Motu Digital Performer
9.0+
YES
YES
Steinberg Cubase(1)
9.0+
YES
YES
Steinberg Nuendo(1)
8.0+
YES
YES
Presonus Studio One
4.0+
YES
YES
VSL Vienna Ensemble Pro
6.0+
YES
YES
Notation Software(2)
Version
Avid Sibelius
2018.1+
YES
YES
MakeMusic Finale
25.0+
YES
YES
Steinberg Dorico
3.0+
YES
YES
(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.
Produced by multiple Award-Winning producer DOUG ROGERS and Grammy Award-Winning producer DAVID FRIDMANN (MGMT, Flaming Lips etc.)
Many instruments have been purposely—and skillfully!—mangled, distorted, or effected out of all recognition (plus a selection of dark and eerie instruments).
Easy to use browser displays all of your instruments. Interface automatically changes to display current instrument.
Included are 40GBs of highly processed drums and percussion, basses, guitars, ethnic, keyboard, strings, and FX instruments and sounds, all organized into instrumental groups
