VI Interface Suggestion

[timkiel]

Apologies if this has been requested beforehand, but I've just been playing with EWQL RA Instrument, and was impressed with the shading on the piano keyboard at the bottom that shows the range of the instrument plus any available keyswitches.

This got me thinking and i wondered how easy it would be to add a similar feature to the VSL VI? It shouldn't be too difficult (other than the fact that keyswitches are user definable) but I'm sure it would be useful. It would especially help on things like the Percussion VI to see which keys are mapped and which aren't.

Cheers

Tim

[Austin]

What a great idea. I agree with this. This could be very useful. Also, it would be nice to be able to double click patches and have them load instead of dragginng them over to a cell.

[Christian Marcussen]

Both would be nice. Btw this would be a good thread to post new ideas into... I posted a bundle. Would be nice to have it all gathered in one place.

http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?t=8461&sid=802fa2ec79b1ed3df6e74e31d1ea8bd4

[timkiel]

Hey VSL Team - any thoughts on the original posting about having the ranges of each instrument shown on the keyboard?

It would be a really useful feature - especially for the percussion et al which is spaced over the keyboard quite a lot.

TIA

Tim

[Jerome]

That would be such a neat improvement (and it doesn't seem too hard to put in place!)

I've been thinking about the exact same thing when my boss was trying the Percussion library. He didn't know which keys to press so he tried a few randomly before moving to the next instrument. I'm sure we missed some cool samples! But it's really time consuming to try 88 keys for each instrument!

What would be nice also is to have, like, a small, bound, booklet with each instrument keymap. If too expensive, it could be downloadable as a PDF maybe? That would really be a great added value to the whole package.

References are always good to have!

Jerome

[DG]

I'm not sure that shading for the range would help me much. It is quicker to play and then find that the horns (for example) don't play high enough.

For the rest there are PDF manuals with all the details of mapping including percussion mapping, but I would have liked a proper manual rather than having to print my own. At the price that this library has cost it seems a bit cheapskate not to provide a printed manual, but I guess that this is the way that software companies are doing things these days.

DG

[cm]

i'm not sure if this can be even put into action - one of the reasons is the higly multi-dimensional structure of the Vienna Instruments.
to trigger the sampling engine the GUI has to communicate with the software *below* (tell the engine which settings you choose in the various configuration pages), this has to happen very fast because the Vienna Instrument can switch between an incredible number of layers (matrices, ect).
the other way around needs communication in the other direction to let the GUI know details about the used patch, matrix, cell, ect - this can change actually faster than your display is able to refresh the screen (depending on your hardware between 50 and 100 Hz), otherwise it would make no sense. such a feature would not only be always delayed but also consume heavy resources which might be better used for the sampling engine itself.
christian

[timkiel]

cm - Ok I guess it's a little trickier than I thought as each matrix could be full of all sorts of different instruments. How about it shows the currently selected patch item during a period of "rest" - i.e the VI isn't receving MIDI data.

Or alternatively have a manual "show me the current patch on the keyboard" button...

Personally I'd always rather have an "in software" rather than an "in the manual" feature.

Cheers

Tim

[julian]

@DG said:

For the rest there are PDF manuals with all the details of mapping including percussion mapping, but I would have liked a proper manual rather than having to print my own. At the price that this library has cost it seems a bit cheapskate not to provide a printed manual, but I guess that this is the way that software companies are doing things these days.

DG

With you all the way on this DG. I too was surprised that my final 5 VI editions didn't ship with a printed manual similar to the excellent Pro Edition manual. PDF's are usefull but having a reference volume away from the operating interface (computer) is a valuable and time saving tool... and i have to say on a $10,000 investment should be expected!

Julian

[herb]

We decided to add as much as possible informations into the online informations of patches, matrices and presets available directly in the VI.
A printed manual would be very redundant to these infos.

best
Herb

[julian]

@herb said:

We decided to add as much as possible informations into the online informations of patches, matrices and presets available directly in the VI.
A printed manual would be very redundant to these infos.

best
Herb

Hi Herb,

All the electronic documentation, along with all the other information provided by VSL is excellent, but in the same way that there is a totaly different experience between reading a newspaper or novel on line compared with having a hard copy in your hands - the same can be said for a manual.

Online stuff can always be updated unlike a hard copy but nevertheless the value a quality printed manual can be to productivity and how a product is preceived should never be underestimated.

julian

[Nick Batzdorf]

But I think the question is what else you need printed out, Julian. It seems to me that once you read the printed User Guides that come with each Collection you understand how to load everything and construct Matrixes, and the display tells you exactly what's in each Patch when you click on it.

I'm all for printed instructions, but in this case I just don't see a reason to print anything other than what's included already.

[julian]

[quote=Nick Batzdorf]But I think the question is what else you need printed out, Julian.

The information that was provided in the pro manual!

Julian

[Nick Batzdorf]

Do you mean the reference information about each articulation? Again, I think that's superceded by the online reference when you click on the program.

I'm certainly open to being dissuaded from my point of view, but I still don't understand what it is you'd like printed out. There was mapping information in the printed manuals, but most of that was redundant just with the program names, and a lot of it was about keyswitches that are contained in Matrixes now.

[julian]

@julian said:

All the electronic documentation, along with all the other information provided by VSL is excellent, but in the same way that there is a totaly different experience between reading a newspaper or novel on line compared with having a hard copy in your hands - the same can be said for a manual.

Online stuff can always be updated unlike a hard copy but nevertheless the value a quality printed manual can be to productivity and how a product is preceived should never be underestimated.

julian

Nick,

It's not the actual information it is the access to that sort of information. If you are away from the computer for instance you can look up what sort of articulations are available and do forward planning independently of the programme. With the Logic and Final Cut Pro manuals it can sometimes be useful to sit away from the glare of the computer monitors to just read a section in the printed manual to get a better understanding.

Computers are wonderfull things but not necessarily the best format for the display of the printed word otherwise books and newspapers would soon be redundant.

Julian

[DG]

I find that I have to have the percussion PDF manual (which I've printed out) open all the time, as there is so much detail that I can't remember what is mapped where on the keyboard.

For other instruments it is handy to have some of the information about presets available without having to click a dozen or so times in order to find it.

DG

[Nick Batzdorf]

@Another User said:

With the Logic and Final Cut Pro manuals it can sometimes be useful to sit away from the glare of the computer monitors to just read a section in the printed manual to get a better understanding.

Computers are wonderfull things but not necessarily the best format for the display of the printed word otherwise books and newspapers would soon be redundant.

As one who spends more time reading manuals than books - and I doubt that makes me unique among musicians - you'll get no argument from me about that as a general comment. I agree 100%.