Fab Four

Name: Fab Four
Price: 69 USD
Author: EastWest

by EastWest · Instrument · 1960s band library

Not rated yet

Fab Four recreates the sound of The Beatles with period guitars, basses, drums and keys recorded through vintage gear, co-engineered by Ken Scott.

It costs $69 on sale (regular $199) and runs in EastWest's Opus player.

Best for: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keys & Synths. Genres: Rock & Indie, Pop.

Keywords: 60s, hardware emulation, vintage, guitar instrument, film & game audio, 50s, British console, organ, tonewheel organ, world instruments, analog-sounding, grand piano, harpsichord, subscription, woodwinds.

What it does

Fab Four is an EastWest library built from "exact recreations of the equipment setups used by The Beatles", recorded with engineer Ken Scott and produced by Doug Rogers. Denny Seiwell plays drums and Laurence Juber plays guitar.

Guitars: 1957 Les Paul Goldtop, 1956 Stratocaster, 1951 Telecaster, 1956 Epiphone Casino, Gibson SG, 1966 Gibson J200 and Martin D28 acoustics, a Gretsch Tennessean and a 1959 Gretsch Country Gentleman.
Amps: recorded through a Fender Tan Showman, Vox AC30 and Vox Deviant.
Basses: a 1963 Hofner 500 and a 1964 Rickenbacker 4001S.
Keys: Steinway B piano, Hammond B3 and Lowery organs, clavioline, electric harpsichord, harmonium and Mellotron flute.
Drums and extras: a vintage kit processed for a period drum sound, plus sitar, tabla, swarmandel, percussion and BBC-licensed crowd recordings.
Recording chain: vintage Neumann, AKG, Cole and STC mics, EMI REDD 47 preamps, Fairchild limiters, EMI REDD and TG12345 desks and a Studer J-37 four-track.
ADT and playing: a custom analog-modelled Artificial Double Tracking effect with tape emulation, key-switched articulations, and a stereo spread control that widens the mono recordings.

It runs in EastWest's Opus player, with 46 Opus mixer effects. It is also part of the ComposerCloud+ subscription. No demo is offered, and EastWest notes it is not affiliated with The Beatles or Apple Corps.

Source: EastWest product page

When to use it

Fab Four is a specialist: it gives you a whole 1960s British band, recorded through period gear, in one library. Compared with EastWest's Ministry of Rock 2, it trades modern, heavy rock tones for clean, jangly and lightly driven sixties sounds. Its two basses are fixed recordings, so Trilian or MODO BASS 2 are far more flexible if bass is the focus. It is tuned to one era's sound, and its samples can't be edited beyond the player's controls.

Best for: 1960s-style pop and rock arrangements, Beatles-inspired production and period cues for film, TV and ads.
Genres: sixties pop and rock, psychedelia and retro soundtrack work.
Look elsewhere if: you need modern rock tones (Ministry of Rock 2) or a deep, editable bass instrument (Trilian or MODO BASS 2).
Tip: use the stereo spread control to turn the mono samples into a wide stereo part, and key-switch Telecaster stabs between major and minor chords.

What producers say

Reviews at launch were very positive about the authenticity and sound; the criticisms are about limits of the sample set.

Tape Op (issue 66, 2008) called it "a fun and flexible virtual instrument" with "phenomenal and astoundingly deep" samples and found no real faults.
Sound On Sound (2008) praised the researched instrument and amp pairings, the guitar variety and the key-switching, and saw it as an asset for film and TV composers.
Criticisms: Sound On Sound noted unlooped clavioline samples that run short, fixed instrument ranges, non-editable samples and pitch-bend tuning issues when layering.

Where to buy

Best Service: $69
EastWest: $69 (regular $199)
Plugin Boutique: $69 (regular $149)
PluginFox: $69 (regular $149)
AudioDeluxe: $69 (regular $149)

Tutorials and reviews

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