You could buy the Brass II and Woodwinds II DVD Collections. They contain many of the instruments which go beyond the standard Orchestra lineup, like contrabassoon, bass clarinet etc.

Another way would be to buy exactly the instruments you need as single Download-Instruments. To extend the string techniques, you COULD consider to buy ONLY the SE+ Strings, but it is recommended to have the SE (without+). Programming then would be quite awkward, because you would for example need one instance of K4 for the regular articulations, and one instance of VI for the additional stuff. You can’t load VSL patches into Kontakt and vice versa.

Anyway, you should be aware, that so your „extra instruments“ will be much more elaborate than your standard instruments.

The legato from the full library does not sound better, as it contains the same samples as the SE, but:

1: In SE you only got legato and portamento (leg.sus uses the same samples as legato), and there are exactly two samples from each note to another (one mezzopiano and one mezzoforte). In some cases the legato transition is VERY characteristic (for ex. an audible key click noises in wind patches, portamento-like transitions in the strings). If the same combination of two notes occurs more than one time in a piece, then you will always hear this prominent sound.

The Full library offers a fast legato, zigane-style portamento, legato sul (on one string), and of course the perf_trill, so you can always choose from several similar sounding alternatives to create little differences

2. You probably know, that the Full library is chromatically sampled, you get samples for every note, while the SE only gives you every second note, the semitones inbetween are produced by playing the samples faster. This is not audible for a single note, but when you alternate between two notes which use the same sample, in some cases this  can be noticable.

3. Some articulations offer more velocity layers in the full libs.

@MassMover said:

while the SE only gives you every second note, the semitones inbetween are produced by playing the samples faster. This is not audible for a single note, but when you alternate between two notes which use the same sample, in some cases this  can be noticable.

What should I explain more? It's just as I said: you get - say, for the solo violin sfz articulation - a sample for g, one for a, for b, for c#, d# f and so on. The half-steps g#, a#, c, d, e and f# are produced by using the sample a semitone below. So, if you play "a" followed by "a#", those two notes will use the same basic sample. If this sample has a very characteristic sound, for example because the player hit the string in a harsh way, so that more upper harmonics than usual are heard, then you will hear this characteristic sound on both notes, which will not happen in the DVD Library, as there would be a different sample for a#

Hope this helps ...

@MassMover said:

What should I explain more?

bhartmann: I partly agree.

You have Orchestral Strings, Chamber Strings and Solo Strings, so strings are definitely the LEAST LIMITED set. Everything you could do with the Appassionata Strings could basically be done with the SE Orchestral Strings as well. The Appassionatas on the other hand are the "most complete" DVD collection in their own - the Full library contains a full String orchestra with all articulations you need for mainstream movie soundtracks, while Orchestral Strings are split in I+II, the Woodwinds and Brass also.

So, if you are in need of a large epic hollywood sound, the appassionatas are a good choice.

Do you have the SE in standard or extended? If not, this would be worth consideration.

Nielsdolieslager: You really should try out the Vienna Instruments in general before deciding. The most big stores (musicstore in cologne for instance) can arrange to have at least the special edition installed on a test-machine, and if you ask in advance, they give you some time to experiment.

You really should not consider to share instrumental parts between different software players, like sustained notes from Kontakt and pizzicati from VI. It's a different thing to do - say - the whole string section with one library, and the solo oboe with another though.

What you definitely do not have in your K4 collection, nor in the Logic Jam Pack are the VSL legato-patches, and they are the thing that makes the whole collection shine.

There is no "extended" label on any box. If the term confuses you, you probably only have the standard library. The extension of any library - normally -  gives you more articulations of the instruments you already have in the standard library. For instance, in the solo strings standard you have only sustain with vibrato, the extension gives you in addition: sus w/o vib, with progressive and with fading vib.

In the Special edition it’s not more articulations, but additional Instruments, like the chamber strings.

Due to the compresion-algorithms the extension is ALWAYS installed together with the standard lib, AND you instantly get a demo-licence for the extension, so you can see and use ALL instruments of the SE ext. in the beginning, but after a while (depends on how often you use them) they disappear (although they are still physically stored to your HD. You can see a small "l2" (Level2) sign next to the extended patches, and you see a "+" sign next to matrices which use l2-articulations.

Or: if you spent around 330 EUR for the SE you only got Std., if you paid around 720EUR you also have the ext. patches (just SE, the same prices go for SE+)

You don’t buy the extension physically (as they are already on your HD), but you buy an activation code for you eLicencer.

Of course the Appassionatas have a std. and a ext. lib as well. You can buy them from some sellers as "bundle", but it’s just like buying std. and ext. at the same time.

App I are regular played strings, App II are played muted (con sordino).

I STRONGLY advise you to go to the descriptions of the libraries here on this site, by clicking on "sample content" you can clearly see, which samples you get in the standard library and which you get additionally by buying the extended library on top.

@MassMover said:

Do you have the SE in standard or extended? If not, this would be worth consideration.

Nielsdolieslager: You really should try out the Vienna Instruments in general before deciding. The most big stores (musicstore in cologne for instance) can arrange to have at least the special edition installed on a test-machine, and if you ask in advance, they give you some time to experiment.

You can also try out the SE bundle on Try-Sound.com ...

http://www.try-sound.com/detail.asp/vi9b_vienna_special_edition_bundle/en

Hope this helps [:)]

@bhartmann said:

So, I have SE and SE+. I believe my next purchase should be the full Appassionata library since that is the most limited set in my collection. Agree or disagree?

It depends. I had the same idea, and Appassionata Strings was the first library I bought after the SE and SE+. But a couple of years later, it's the library I use least, because it just happens that I haven't had a project in that time that required a huge string section. Meanwhile, Woodwinds 1 and Brass 1 aren't at all exotic, but I use them nearly every day, and would never go back to their SE counterparts.