Vienna Symphonic Library Forum
Forum Statistics

185,409 users have contributed to 42,393 threads and 255,502 posts.

In the past 24 hours, we have 2 new thread(s), 8 new post(s) and 63 new user(s).

  • last edited
    last edited

    @JSAntares said:

    What is the ideal midi keyboard for Vienna Imperial? I'm not sure if mine is good enough for expressive purposes.

    CEUS?  😛


  •  I have a Fatar Studiologic, a Roland 700 and a Clavia Nord stage and the three all reacts differently to the Special Edition Piano.

    A friend of mine who is a classical concertist use a Casio Previa.

    So many keyboards, so many different actions.

    It would be important if  in the engine of the new Vienna Imperial we could find a sort of keyboard-meter to measure our MIDI-keyboards responses and to use all the 100 different piano nuances.


  • the ideal master keyboard will most probably be vienna grand, once it´s available... next to ceus himself, of course.

    nothing compares to a real grand piano mechanic.

    next best thing would be a yamaha (owner of boesendorfer) silent grand or piano, which i use (yus-5). this is quite good (fantastic key surface), although when turning it "silent", one painfully misses the string reaction. 


  • Thanks for your answers everyone. The keyboard I use on my computer is a Keystation 88es. It's been fine so far but don't know if I can take advantage of the Imperial with it. Your thoughts anyone? Thanks for the help by the way.

  • last edited
    last edited

    @clemenshaas said:

    the ideal master keyboard will most probably be vienna grand, once it´s available...

    Hi Clemens

    Is this just wishful thinking or have I missed an announcement somewhere of VSL's intent to produce a master keyboard?

    There would appear to be a lack of choice when it comes to currently available MKs and a tried and tested, dedicated (obviously not exclusive) VSL model would be something I'd look out for. I am very interested in Vienna Imperial but as has been pointed out already, I doubt if my present MK, a Studiologic, would do it justice.

    Have been disappointed with the Bosendorfer from a personal point of view. Nothing to do with it's quality, more the results I have been able to get from it, especially in the lower midi velocity regions. Not to mention my own shortcomings as a player. [:$]

    A lot of the demos are brilliant, as is Jay's Scriabin for the Imperial, but an upgrade to a better keyboard looks a must.

    Colin


  • 500gb of uncompressed data.

    Jeepers.


  • last edited
    last edited

    @Robert Munnelly said:

    500gb of uncompressed data.

    Jeepers.

    This is the bit I don't get... 500GB of data compressed to 50GB.

    "The Library contains 500 GB of uncompressed sample data in 44.1kHz/24-bit. Due to a specifically developed optimization process, the Vienna Imperial engine decompresses the samples in real-time, so that they take up only 50 GB of space on your hard disk."

    I don't know of any compression algorithms that offer 10 to 1 compression without affecting the data and the sound quality. Apple's lossless is 2 to 1 and a typical iTunes download is 10 to 1 but at mp3 (well ac3) quality. But and 10 to 1 and no loss of data or quality how is this so? If it were possible iTunes downloads could be provided at CD quality at 140bps but they can't be.

    Julian


  • last edited
    last edited

    @Robert Munnelly said:

    500gb of uncompressed data.

    Jeepers.

    ...but thankfully only 50 on your hard drive! (And mine)

    Colin


  • Saying that Julian, with the relatively low cost of a 500GB hard drive these days( got the latest barracuda for under £50) there can't be any good reason for VSL to compromise on quality surely?

    Colin


  • last edited
    last edited

    @ct1961 said:

    Saying that Julian, with the relatively low cost of a 500GB hard drive these days( got the latest barracuda for under £50) there can't be any good reason for VSL to compromise on quality surely?

    Low cost for Harddisk space, yes. But the cost for distributing such a large amount of data as DVDs might be substantial. And juggling this amount of DVDs is horrible. One could ship HDDs instead or offer downloads (see above...)


  • last edited
    last edited

    @ct1961 said:

    Saying that Julian, with the relatively low cost of a 500GB hard drive these days( got the latest barracuda for under £50) there can't be any good reason for VSL to compromise on quality surely?

    Colin

    If you can reduce the data amount stored on a hard disc without affecting the quality there are 2 good points excluding distribution costs.

    The data takes up less space, and when streaming hundreds of voices simultaneously the data busses (whether SATA, Firewire, SCSI or USB) have much less chance of being saturated - however there is a trade off in increased CPU demand decoding the audio on the fly.

    However I'm still interested in the 10-1 VSL compression claim - no one else, to my knowledge, has got beyond 2-1 without affecting data integrity i.e. not lossless. If they have truly developed a 10-1 algorithm that is lossless then they surely would make more money licensing this to the computer industry than income from the rest of the VSL library put together.

    Julian


  • Hi Arne

    With download speeds in the UK  that's a non-starter for me anyway- on a good day 150kbs is a cause for celebration!

    HDD sounds not a bad idea. How many DVDs do you reckon we're looking at here?

    Colin


  • last edited
    last edited

    @ct1961 said:

    Hi Arne

    With download speeds in the UK  that's a non-starter for me anyway- on a good day 150kbs is a cause for celebration!

    HDD sounds not a bad idea. How many DVDs do you reckon we're looking at here?

    Colin

    1 blu-ray!


  • last edited
    last edited

    @ct1961 said:

    Saying that Julian, with the relatively low cost of a 500GB hard drive these days( got the latest barracuda for under £50) there can't be any good reason for VSL to compromise on quality surely?

    Colin

    If you can reduce the data amount stored on a hard disc without affecting the quality there are 2 good points excluding distribution costs.

    The data takes up less space, and when streaming hundreds of voices simultaneously the data busses (whether SATA, Firewire, SCSI or USB) have much less chance of being saturated - however there is a trade off in increased CPU demand decoding the audio on the fly.

    However I'm still interested in the 10-1 VSL compression claim - no one else, to my knowledge, has got beyond 2-1 without affecting data integrity i.e. not lossless. If they have truly developed a 10-1 algorithm that is lossless then they surely would make more money licensing this to the computer industry than income from the rest of the VSL library put together.

    Julian

    Don't understand the technicalities of it Julian, but I can't see VSL throwing an inferior product at us when the whole idea is to produce a market leading brand. Or not?   Who's on the night shift at VSL? [:)]

    Colin


  • last edited
    last edited

    @ct1961 said:

    Hi Arne

    With download speeds in the UK  that's a non-starter for me anyway- on a good day 150kbs is a cause for celebration!

    HDD sounds not a bad idea. How many DVDs do you reckon we're looking at here?

    Colin

    1 blu-ray!

    I prefer cod or haddock.


  • last edited
    last edited

    @ct1961 said:

    Is this just wishful thinking or have I missed an announcement somewhere of VSL's intent to produce a master keyboard?

    i think both. as vsl showed a prototype of vienna grand, this could be regarded as kind of an announcement. and i sure do wish it will be released sometime...

    i was very looking forward to boesendorfers ceus-master and tried to get a prototype for a film project, but as there were just two prototypes in the whole wide world then, they sent me a ceus grand 280 instead - pity me! 😊 (thanks again, guys)

    i guess with yamaha taking over boesendorfer, the ceus-master project was transferred to vsl, as recording of vienna imperial was planned anyway and this would make a good overall product, and probably vsl users are kind of a target group for such a keyboard, maybe more then are "traditional" boesendorfer-customers. 


  • Thanks for the reply Clemens. I look forward to something new coming our way.

    I haven't seen anything for a long time that has appealed. Joysticks, modwheels on the side. Dodgy software/firmware. How difficult is it to produce a decent MK at a reasonable price?

    Colin


  • it depends on what price seems reasonable to you. a good grand piano mechanic is not cheap. i would expect the price for something like a vienna grand around 15k. 


  • it may be useful to have a look at the yamaha range of products. 

    vienna grand will be much cooler, but i´m quite satisfied with my yus-5. good masterkeyboard, and a really really good piano as well.


  • last edited
    last edited

    @clemenshaas said:

    it depends on what price seems reasonable to you. a good grand piano mechanic is not cheap. i would expect the price for something like a vienna grand around 15k. 

    Sounds reasonable to me.  [:O]

    I mean, we are talking 15k if the Italians opt out of the Euro and reintroduce the lire. Yes?

    Colin