Which library still available is the oldest from VSL?

[LGeist110]

I don't know why I want to know, but I have this question on my mind: which VSL library is the oldest still available? I've been told that the orchestral samples from the Kontakt Factory Library are the old ones, dating back to the era before Vienna Instruments. Is that true? If so, these must be the oldest VSL samples on the market. But whatever the answer is, which library is the oldest still offered by VSL themselves?

[Frankenstein]

I want to say it probably is the VI Series and within that series the special editions.

[Dietz]

This was the so-called First Edition for GigaSampler, back in 2003, which came with the iconic "Performance Set" that introduced the famed legato samples:

-> https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/vsl-orchestral-cube-performance-set

The sample data-base was later re-worked and formed the basis for Vienna Instruments.

... this is the very first demo from back then, painstakingly assembled manually by Herb (because the final mappings were not yet available), mixed by Yours Truly:

[LGeist110]

@Frankenstein said:

I want to say it probably is the VI Series and within that series the special editions.

As someone who always buys the full libraries, I always thought the Special Editions were slimmed-down compilations of the samples of the "real" products (which in itself is absolutely nothing bad).

[LGeist110]

@Dietz said:

This was the so-called First Edition for GigaSampler, back in 2003, which came with the iconic "Performance Set" that introduced the famed legato samples:

-> https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/vsl-orchestral-cube-performance-set

The sample data-base was later re-worked and formed the basis for Vienna Instruments.

... this is the very first demo from back then, painstakingly assembled manually by Herb (because the final mappings were not yet available), mixed by Yours Truly:

Do you mean "re-worked" as in "reused" and "extended"?

In my search for the oldest products, I've looked through a few manuals because there's a copyright date and year, but I haven't been able to find any from before 2012. Have I not looked hard enough, or have all the Libraries, Vienna Instruments (Pro) and/or their manuals been updated in that period? The fact that I'm even asking this question shows that I haven't had anything to do with sample libraries for too long. For me, it all started in 2015.

Nice demo by the way!

[Dietz]

@LGeist110 said:
Do you mean "re-worked" as in "reused" and "extended"?

Same raw recordings, re-edited, re-mapped, re-organised, extended - then reused. 😉

The quoted SOS-article from 2003 lists the content of the First Edition release in detail.

Of course the manuals have been updated several times, in the meantime.

It's worth mentioning that the actual recordings for this library began in 2000 (IIRC) already, even earlier for the (unreleased) proof-of-concept instruments.

@LGeist110 said:
Nice demo by the way!

Thanks! It still gives me goosebumps myself, even today. 😉

Trivia: We already used convolution reverb for this mix, although derived from one of those hilariously expensive hardware-based engines back then.

[LGeist110]

@Dietz said:

@LGeist110 said:
Do you mean "re-worked" as in "reused" and "extended"?

Same raw recordings, re-edited, re-mapped, re-organised, extended - then reused. 😉

The quoted SOS-article from 2003 lists the content of the First Edition release in detail.

Of course the manuals have been updated several times, in the meantime.

It's worth mentioning that the actual recordings for this library began in 2000 (IIRC) already, even earlier for the (unreleased) proof-of-concept instruments.

@LGeist110 said:
Nice demo by the way!

Thanks! It still gives me goosebumps myself, even today. 😉

Trivia: We already used convolution reverb for this mix, although derived from one of those hilariously expensive hardware-based engines back then.

Of course, I realise how much better sampling and scripting has become and a demo from back then can't compete (as much) with today's, but still, this old one is damn impressive for the time, especially when you consider how painful it must have been.

But now I want one of those old hardware folding reverbs, just for the sake of it! They probably still cost a fortune second-hand, because they're nostalgic and no longer in production and all that...

Thanks for the info anyway!

[LGeist110]

No way, you sampled such nerdy things as gun shots back then! I own parts of VI Percussion, especially the rare instruments, so of course I have the shots too. So I own some of the oldest samples of yours! How cool!

[Beat Kaufmann]

@LGeist110 said:
Of course, I realise how much better sampling and scripting has become and a demo from back then can't compete (as much) with today's, but still, this old one is damn impressive for the time, especially when you consider how painful it must have been.

I only partially agree with these statements. When I listen to mixes today that I created between 2004 and 2006 with the tools I had at the time, then you can also ask yourself the other way around whether that is really all that 20 years of development have brought.
Of course, I'm not talking about the great development from the silent stage to today's SYNCHRON stage, from the VI player to today's great Synchron player with all its possibilities, but just the final musical results. Both VSL and we users were already producing great music back then, and I'm almost more amazed at the results today than I was back then.

• Example 1: BWV265 Fuge in Dm, arranged 2005 for Symphonic Orchestra by B. Kaufmann
• Example 2: Grieg, Holbergsuite Praelude, recorded in 2006 as a demo for the then newly released Chamberstrings
• Example 3: DeFesch, English Horn1 Demo, played in 2006
• Example 4: Bach, Partita in E, arranged by R.P. Mangiagalli, this is one of my first demos for VSL. I produced this demo to introduce the Orchestral Strings library - probably in 2004 or 2005
• Example 5: Beat Kaufmann, Flight Close to the Clouds, this was a composition for a video I made...
• More examples (Some pieces have the year of creation in their name.)
• And this was my studio 20 years ago, when I started...

What's special about these music examples is that we all only had the audio effects that Logic or Steinberg, Altiverb, Gigapulse & CO offered at the time. Furthermore, nobody really knew how to create entire orchestral mixes with dry samples. Back then, the few of us users learned a lot from each other via this forum. The “pioneering days” back then were a great part on the road to “music with samples”.

Have fun and good luck producing music with samples.

Beat