Okay, I'll answer.

There's a RAM access limit of 1 - 1.25GB in Giga (Kontakt is roughly the same, perhaps a little less), but you can buy multiple Giga licenses and run multiple machines to get around that. EXS/Mac - which requires that you use Logic - has a practical limit of roughly 3GB (maybe a little less) on a G5 with 4.5 - 5GB of RAM installed. But one machine is it, unless you buy extra copies of Logic at $1000 each.

The other alternative is to run Kontakt 2 stand-alone on PC and/or Mac. That requires converting any of the VSL products that don't come in Kontakt format, a daunting task that I personally wouldn't want to undertake.

Also, I don't agree that Giga is necessarily the preferred platform. EXS and Giga both work really well.

Another thing I didn't mention is the Performance Tool (check the product info for the Performance Set for info about it). It's a stand-alone program on PCs, so you can access it, but it's built into EXS on Macs.

Hello and welcome Amit, hi Nick (thanks),

please take a look at this thread:

http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?t=5613

All Horizon Series products work very well with Kontakt 2, the Symphonic Editions have not been converted for neither HALIon nor Kontakt.


Best wishes, Paul

Thanks Nick & Paul!
Nick - what HD speed is recommended for the library storage? is a 10,000rpm HD better? (SATA? SCSI?)

Paul - Any plans of creating a VSL PRO-KONTAKT VERSION in the future?

thanks in advance,
Amit.

Most people are just fine with 7200rpm IDE/S-ATA drives, if you are really pushing your system hard maybe a second/third 7200rpm drive is a cheaper alternative. Second/third because it's common to split system drive and sample drive physically and not only by partitioning for a better performance. About the RAM limit Nick mentioned: 1.25GB RAM that could be utilized to load sounds into. However, to get this number you have to install 2GB into your PC. If you only install 1.5GB you will be able to load about 800MB of sounds.

Hope this helps,
PolarBear

I forget exactly what I'm getting on my 1.5GB machine, PB, but it's about 1.1GB - 1xx less than my 2GB machine, which is why I haven't bothered replacing the second 512 chip with a 1GB one.

Some 1.5GB machines apparently get 800, but some get more. Nobody seems to understand why, although a 30% difference is pretty drastic.

Hi Amit,

there are no plans of creating a Pro Kontakt version so far, sorry to say. This has a lot to do with the tedious work of conversion.....


Best, Paul

I asked about this not too long ago, this is what Herb said...

We are working on a very flexible and modular purchasing system for our Symphonic Cube release.

best
Herb

Herb answered the question about upgrades from existing packages to parts or the complete Symphonic Cube here, once it is out for release. As far as I know the Symphonic Cube is yet only planned to be in GS and EXS format. The "very flexible and modular purchasing system" should prevent users paying twice for things they already got or don't want to get everything at once.

Nick, thanks for posting that there are machines that get more with 1.5GB installed. So far I didn't know that and didn't manage to get GS2.5 above that mark myself, as it's already at 99% in the Gigameter there, too. Perhaps this is different with GS3.

PolarBear

Oh oh oh. Yes, this is GS3! I didn't think about that. GS3 has considerably improved memory access.

On pc there is little doubt that GS3 will get you the most out of each system. We all await the arrival of 64 bit setups that will finally break the 2 gig ram limit... (though why this limit was built into Windows in the first place inevitably leads to lengthy vitriolic rants... [[;)]] )