Concurrent with the VSL Vienna Instruments (VI) sale, all Articulate Presets for the VI series are likewise 50% off

Instead of "HD" - which has already met with negative response here - might I suggest perhaps "high contrast timbre" (HCT), "multi-contrast timbre" (MCT), or something else along those lines. "HD" already has specific established meaning among the audio and video technical community; so I believe it really is, therefore, likely to be misleading.

@Macker said:

Instead of "HD" - which has already met with negative response here - might I suggest perhaps "high contrast timbre" (HCT), "multi-contrast timbre" (MCT), or something else along those lines. "HD" already has specific established meaning among the audio and video technical community; so I believe it really is, therefore, likely to be misleading.

Hello Macker,

thanks for your suggestion to change the established name of an 18 months old feature (which is used countless times in nearly 40 presets, 5 distinct manuals, our web site, ...) because it has "met negative response" from a single person.

We spent a lot of time and effort creating these nearly hundred new sounds that extend a classic library by a whole range of alternate versions of key playing techniques. These fully playable matrices were assembled out of great samples that were quite hidden and very likely unused by nearly all users of the Symphonic Cube - and we are very happy with the result! I had explained the motivation and justification for the name above and do not see any problem with it: 9 velocity layers is still state of the art for orchestral sample libraries nowadays, and it says a lot about the quality of the Symphonic Cube and the vision of its creators that such an extension was even possible after 20 years.

We offer a full-featured demo (cello & trombone) and it only takes five minutes to download and install it to simply check out these new sounds (program changes #109-115), so that users can easily see for themselves what this is and if they are useful for them. But for some reason nearly the only feedback we got on this forum regarding this major extension (and free update for all our users) is about naming ...

@symphonic riot don’t let one critic get you down. If I owned more VI sounds (only the sax atm) I would definitely be very interested.

Thanks rAC, really appreciated 😊!

This sounds very good. And I am more than happy after all the (not so good) news for Symphonic Cube Owners that this is a very welcomed addition I was not aware off.

I know myself how much time will be consumed by working with fine-tuned articulations - so this is really a big helper.

I will download the demo and give it a spin.

And especially cudo's for supporting Studio One, which is a very underrated DAW which have gained much ground with newer versions, not to even mention the integration with NOTION.

So hopefully, I can make a decision before sales end.

+1 on the "Don’t let one critic get you down." remark .

Thanks 😊, hope you like them.

An even easier way to see the HD Shorts in action (also for other instruments) is to watch the video showcasing the automatic Dorico playback which prominently uses them as well (although that particular score unfortunately does not really take advantage of their dynamic range and resolution - and the fully automatic playback without edits surely does not use the advanced features of Articulate Presets to shape the playback in detail). For comparison there is also a version of the same score using the standard short VSL articulations instead.

Right now is the hottest Summer day of 2024 here in Germany and late in August.

After spending the last week thinking about the future of my invest in the VSL cube (not so much the money, but almost 10 years of time, knowledge and work) I found two things coming together, that sparkled and boost my creativity around my actual setup and work with orchestral music. (With the VI Cube and my binaural mixes with MIR3D)

The very intriguing part of "Articulate" is the immense work that went into the Cube presets to shield us user from endless tweaking and give the benefit and power of simplicity to focus on orchestration and writing.

I was always wondering, if it was just me getting lost in the gazillions of articulations and what to use when certain timbre of the voice is wanted.

Yes, Articulate makes these things much more easy. And it it is the only preset that focus on VI, not SY-ized. Well, exactly what the plagued VI mind need these days.

The second part is Dorico. Exactly this week, their 40th anniversary sale was starting and everything is half off. I checked out Dorico Elements, to not beeing forced into the big license, and find out, Elements is all you need and can do everything a hobbyist composer needed, without sacrificing core functionality.

And Dorico Elements works just fine with the Cube and the "Articulate" expression maps. Big win.

Not to say it is easy. I spend some days now getting everything together. I had never used Dorico before and the learning curve is deep and ugly. But at the end, it was very rewarding. With the actual quality of Dorico in Version 5 and the player abilities with VI Pro and the preset of Articulate Cube Expression Maps, your VI Library like my cube gets a whole new diemension of "ease of work".

With my newborn workflow, I can indeed now focus on score-based writing WITH a lot of expressions without setting and tweaking up endless Matrix combinations. It is just that - nice flowing.

So another 50% off offer these day from Articulate and I was all set. Downside is, this is now the challenge to write my symphony, there are no longer no technical excuses. And they must be finished by Nov 2025, EOL VI - so better start now.

Get the two while sales season and summer last and before the shorter days and longer nights could be filled with great work.

Thanks so much for the encouraging feedback 😀,

I fully agree with your comment on Dorico Elements. Since the former instrument limit is lifted and it is mostly lacking expert notation features compared to the Pro version, it is a steal (even without a sale), and what one gets is more than enough for most applications. Although I unfortunately also agree with your comment on the somewhat steeper learning curve, it is eventually worth it, because Dorico is the only Notation software that can actually compete with many DAWs and thereby combines the best of both worlds.

I wish you fun and success writing your symphony!

I am also a user of Articulate Presets, and it is incredibly useful. Kai is also very responsive over email if I had any questions and he has solved many issues over the years. Absolutely worth it!