EastWest Sounds Reviews 66

customer service horrible they create new netsuite website to login i cant remember the password not able to login hard to reach customer service not recommended to buy again any product from them

I don't understand all the bad reviews here. I love these libraries. Nothing is perfect but I came to East West after nearly tearing my hair out dealing with IK Multimedia plugins and their awful customer service. The libraries I bought are old (Symphonic Orchestra, Goliath, Stormdrum 3) not super customizable, scarse or no keyswitches, depending on the library.. but still the sound quality is top notch in my opinion.

I purchased Symphonic Choirs and Orchestra many moons ago, which are all well and good, and very EXPENSIVE. they are now unusable because EW have cynically junked the 'Play' engine necessary to run both. So when I upgraded my computer recently and need to re download my stuff via Ilok and EW Installer, I find I'm told to fork out over 80 dollars to buy their new 'Opus' player. Thievery plain and simple. Thsir so called' ;icences' are simply a licence to print money whenever they feel like it. Stuff by EW is a convoluted, pain in the ass to use anyway, but now, they're just trying to fleece you despite being expensive in the first place. Grubby little company. I'll never buy another of their products. Craphouse.

I bought ComposerCloud+ for one month to try it out. I was thoroughly disappointed by the experience. Every step of the way was clunky, hard to use, and not at all user-friendly. The one product that I was actually excited to use, the Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra, I couldn’t get because of glitches and technical problems. I would strongly recommend that EastWest improve their user interface and fix the numerous bugs. I can't really comment on their products, since I was not able to actually download them. Thankfully, I only spent $10 for the month. However, I am extremely disappointed and would not recommend buying their products.

I'm pretty sure I unsubscribed from their subscription after signing up for my second year. It stopped working, which was my main clue. And I don't look at my charge card accts as I should, so I missed the 3 YEARS I was billed - out of the country each time. I accept my part. BUT Soundsonline/EastWest did not send 1 single notice of upcoming billing or of my card being billed $199 each time. WOW. That's typical of shady companies who don't really give a damn about their customers and hope you're not paying attention. It's BASIC business to send pre-billing emails and then a receipt once you've been billed. I only asked for an extension and for them to implement BASIC notifications of billing. Their response was, nope. It's not difficult to run a business properly. I have lost all trust in them. There are too many great collections in the VST market. They have a great collection, but I can't use it now without thinking about how horrible their business practices and support are. Unsubscribed!
The two stars are for the sounds. 0 Stars for the eastwest soundsonline business.

Terrible customer service. Ever since I started subscribing to EastWest products (8+ years ago), they still have the worst customer support I have experienced. The products are good however.

Do not pay for this software. Impossible to use without an “iLok account” which I’ve never heard of. Try to sign up for one and apparently you already have one. Either way I got around that and sorted but eastwest still don’t accept the login details to activate the software.

3rd party accounts should not be mandatory for products paid for. I’m sure the software is great but you are swindled into this impossible hurdle after paying and, so far seeming impossible to get a refund!

This isn’t even a problem with this mysterious iLok website as I’ve managed to create and get into the account, it’s Eastwest that don’t accept the login credentials.
For context I’ve been using VST software flawlessly for years and know what I’m doing. This company are just a bunch of swindlers.

Don’t waste your time.

Fantastic realistic sound samples - to fit any style of music and excellent support !!

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED - Very deceptive FULL REFUND policy, you get nothing back from this people. I cancelled after only 4 days of signing up and poking around their composercloud+, I didn't use the program because I found it to be a very steep and time consuming learning curve both in time, and system resources, support questions by others that never received replies, this is a red flag meaning the program has issues that are unresolved. Yet they told me you can cancel but we are keeping your $19! We are talking $19 dollars! WOW! that's low vibration in the purest form. READ their terms it says " CANCEL ANYTIME " but it is not a full refund at all (just a cancellation of future service), so for the month you have been billed for and that INCLUDES a brand new monthly new user subscription, you get nothing back. Gets worst if you paid the year in advance for the $149 you DO NOT GET A REFUND. Just search the internet for eastwest refunds, you'll see. At the end of the day, I take full accountability for not going deeper into customer dissatisfaction and or cancellation issues with this companies products on the internet before taking a plunge, so I've just been flushed by them for $19 dollars, OH MY, how asinine is this!

Several days after getting the ComposerCloud subscription, they blocked my account and stopped responding to my emails.

I found them very helpful when setting up Spaces II reverb which is a great plugin for use with my piano studio. Thanks.

Okay strange thing. I found out today that I apparently owe them a sum of money from 2017 for a subscription (that I paid for from them back then). Even stranger, is that I bought a new subscription from them back in 2019 and that charge wasnt there at the time. (They are trying to steal money from their consumers, I expect a civil claims suit at somepoint)

Other scummy practice, so they discontinued Play engine... I do have outright purchased libraries from them (before there was a subscription) for a total of $1500 but now the play engine doesn't work anymore. It has been replaced by 'Opus' BUT opus requires a purchase, either by buying Hollywood Strings (currently 300, but when not on sale its about 1000) or by buying their subscription. This is important to note though that Play engine just doesn't work like it used to. Actual theft, should be illegal. Don't buy from them.

Predatory billing practices. In no way should anyone be held hostage to a subscription for any length of time let alone a year. They do not let you cancel until it is the very last month of your year subscription and if you miss that moment then you are auto renewed for a new year which you will have to wait until the last month of that subscription to try to cancel. Any self respecting business would just end your contract once the time has passed to renew but not them! Beware!

their support is even worse than their products, which includes but are not limited to violins out of tune, awkward keyswitch design, software instability, etc.

And it looks like I am not the only one saying this stuff.

Much happier with Native Instruments, their software is rock solid, and always has been.

This is the worst.

I had the ComposerCloud+ Yearly subscription.
70% of the sounds from whatever from EastWest library i downloaded didn't work.
And when you commit to to full year, you can only cancel renewal ON THE LAST MONTH. Which meant i have had to make notifications on my calender to remember to cancel. Insanely greedy tactics, hoping to squeeze a last dollar out of their customers if they forget.
Would advice to stay away from this.

Great dark sounding strings, but billing plan / automatic renewal is deceptive. Just wanted to try for one month, now i can use it for one year. But i won't. Because i despise sales techniques of this kind. 200 euros thrown :/

Well I signed up for a £17 a month they have been increasing the payments without telling me it's a con
Not happy at all

I see I'm in very good company here. This is what I told EW: Not only has this been the worst audio software experience of my life, it has been the worst overall computer experience I've had in the whole history of the personal computer. The word's been used by others but it's true: Nightmare. Every aspect of getting EW's software up and running is pure nightmare. And the money! The money I have spent trying to make this work makes me nauseous. Don't do it. Really, just don't do it. There are so many other distributors out there producing excellent samples that are easy to install, affordable, and actually sound like the year 2023 instead of 2000. Good riddance to EW.

I have tried the composer cloud for one free month, and after the month i didnt mind to pay a couple of months more but without any notice i am stuck with subscription for a year. On top of that, it is only posible to cancel your subscription one month before the subscription ends (so they hope you forget and trick you into another year).

The sounds are decend but the controls are dated.

Works when it works. Plus lots of iLok nightmares, compounded if you don't upgrade your computer along with the other rich techies.