@nliberg said:

jamriding: thanks. I'm using Kontakt 2/PC, so I guess I could try to implement some of the (simpler) features of VI in KSP. But I'd rather have the real thing.
Regards,
Nils

Well, as I say, I don't know sufficient info to comment on the new VI but if you have Kontakt 2 then I think that you'll have to content yourself with the Horizon Opus Bundles/Solo Strings etc. so far as I know.

Not that that won't sound any less than absolutely wonderful...

@Martin said:

There are no plans to release a VI equivalent to Opus 1 in the near future.
Best, Martin

We'll wait: life is long, budget is low, and, furthermore, on December 6th ECB will rise the interest rates: we hate to pay the bill, but...

[[;)]]

Personally I sometimes find the upgrading/discount path to be confusing, due to the sample content of various packages.

If I'm not mistakes, compagny policy is to have you not paying twice for samples you already have.


(So, if you have Opus 1 and buy the complete Cube, the price of the Opus samples should/would be taken off of the Cube price...) ??

@Martin said:

There are no plans to release a VI equivalent to Opus 1 in the near future.
Best, Martin

Doesn't that contradict this?

http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?t=6946

What some of us want to know is if the Opus series is going away or if it will eventually have the VI.
Thanks
Chris

@dragonwind said:

Doesn't that contradict this? http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?t=6946

On the long period, I guess, each of the Horizon pieces will be "converted" to VI as, to me, further developments of the old PerfTool appears to be neither financially logical nor scheduled.

I also consider that 9.200 euro (or 11.000 USD), and even 5.000 euro for the upgrade, are a lot of money; and most of the world is not enjoying a good economic wealth...

@Chinablu said:

.............and most of the world is not enjoying a good economic wealth...

Yet you can afford the upkeep on a girlfriend? [[:|]]

DG

@mistersynth said:

I'm in exactly the same predicament. I've been saving to buy the Opus 1 & 2 bundle and now the offer's on I was about to go for it and possibly the solo strings library too. BUT having seen the VI demos I'd be gutted if I went ahead then later found that there was a VI version of the Opus libraries without an available upgrade path. Can anyone from VSL possibly shed light on what the position will be? Please! [*-)]
Regards,
John

Hello again,

I'll tell you what I've done (...hoping that I'm not going to appear too stupid [:O]ops: with the way things are at present!)
I've ordered the Opus Bundle and Horizon Solo Strings. In spite of the present uncertainty I decided that at the moment it's more important to get hold of the best package I can afford and to get on with making music using the sounds that I want to use - and they have appeared at a more attractive price than hitherto.
Even so, I can hardly afford to throw money down the drain, and so I'm gambling that VSL as a leader in the field and a world class business won't in the end leave me and anyone else in my position high and dry.
I would just urge them to ensure that there is always a way for those of us at the lower end of the pile' (financially speaking!) to protect our investment and to try to ensure that as the whole concept progresses, we're included. After all, our money still plays a part in enabling the company to grow and to flourish and I think we ought to deserve a proportionate slice of the progress.
Regards,
John

@mistersynth said:

After all, our money still plays a part in enabling the company to grow and to flourish and I think we ought to deserve a proportionate slice of the progress.
Regards,
John

Proportionate slice of the progress is a wonderflly elegant phrase - but what does it mean? [*-)]

Having used and enjoyed the Bundle for some time now, I can say this - even if this is it, meaning I will never be able to upgrade beyond what I currently have ( [:'(] ), it is still by far the best money I have ever spent for my musical needs.
The Bundle is very complete, and very thorough - no end of music with very high quality end results can be made with it. In my view, and I've said it before, the only other thing out there that is actually better is the complete VSL package. [[;)]]

@mistersynth said:

After all, our money still plays a part in enabling the company to grow and to flourish and I think we ought to deserve a proportionate slice of the progress.
Regards,
John

Proportionate slice of the progress is a wonderflly elegant phrase - but what does it mean? [*-)]

[:D] Some reduced?? use of the new system at an affordable price if/when it gets applied to the Horizon libraries.
Sorry for the confusion!
John

@mistersynth said:

After all, our money still plays a part in enabling the company to grow and to flourish and I think we ought to deserve a proportionate slice of the progress.
Regards,
John

Proportionate slice of the progress is a wonderfully elegant phrase - but what does it mean? [*-)]

[[:D]] Some reduced?? use of the new system at an affordable price if/when it gets applied to the Horizon libraries.
Sorry for the confusion!
John

No confusion John. [[:D]]

What does affordable mean? Affordable to whom? Where is the 'affordable calculator'? I can't it find it on the VSL website.

@jc5 said:

Having used and enjoyed the Bundle for some time now, I can say this - even if this is it, meaning I will never be able to upgrade beyond what I currently have.

Herb wrote somewhere that VSL Saxophones will be the first Horizon product "converted" to VI (by replacing the PerfTool with the new VI standalone player and maintaining the 16 bit samples?).

There are little doubts, to me, that Horizon Overdrive will follow almost immediately, and I would be extremely surprised to see VSL still keeping the "old" Opus 1 beside the "VI (Horizon) Saxophones".

I'm moderately sure we'll see an Opus 3. The question is: when?

[[;)]]

@PaulR said:

[[:D]] Some reduced?? use of the new system at an affordable price if/when it gets applied to the Horizon libraries.
Sorry for the confusion!
John
No confusion John. [[:D]]
What does affordable mean? Affordable to whom? Where is the 'affordable calculator'? I can't it find it on the VSL website.

Mmmm...
This is where proportion kicks in.
Maths was never my strong point [*-)] but, based on my (probably incorrect) calculations, and on the price I just paid for my bundle (Opus 1&2 and Solo Strings), in comparison to the Full Library cost, I reckon I should have access to somewhere in the region of 11.862473521264461463255662375754% of the useability of the new interface. [:D] (£728 divided by £6137 multiplied by 100) Maybe that'd equate to a background image with perhaps a single functional button and some dummy buttons to make it pretty!) [:D]
Another way of deciding affordability would be to look at my bank statement and when they've stopped laughing they'd probably give me the Full Library out of pity!! [:'(] [:D]
Well.......I can always dream, can't I? [8-)]

John

@mistersynth said:

This is where proportion kicks in.

Speaking in abstract, a "right price" simply does not exist.

For example, a van Gogh has no price: which could be the "right price" of his Sunflowers? You could search for a compromise by calculating an arbitrary value for each square inch of the painting, then adding the cost of the colors and so on. But van Gogh's inspiration, the balance and harmony of the composition, the light... which is the "right price" of those elements? Nonetheless a van Gogh gets sold at Christie's for n-millions euro, and one could argue that a price is "right" as much as the buyer is wealthy...

Said in another way, there is not a "business way" to the beauty. So, the "right price" is always related to the (theoretical) return of an investment. The price of VI SC could not be "the right price" for the most part of us, but it could be for VSL investors, an it all depends on if they aim to make the Big Money from samples industry. Remember Adam Smith: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."

Sad to say, but it's the world we live in. IMO we should make some efforts to change it.

See also this.

At the end of the story, the crucial question is: did Herb buy a 150.000 euro Ferrari 430 selling orchestral samples?

[[;)]]

Herb rides a bicycle.

@Paul said:

Herb rides a bicycle.

Me too: this one.

[:D]

Tell Herb that Mercedes-Benz launched a 2.500 euro automatic-bike...

[;)]

I like it.

@Chinablu said:

Sad to say, but it's the world we live in. IMO we should make some efforts to change it.

I totally agree!
I've got to say though that depending where you do your business it already has.
Over the past 12 months or so, all my hard-earned but limited music-related cash has been spent in the US - with 2 fantastic companies (which to avoid upsetting anyone here shall remain nameless!)
Up to then I'd considered the US to be the centre of all things bad in terms of hard-nosed uncaring capitalism. It may well be so in other areas of commerce - I don't know - but in my experience the guy who sold me my orchestral strings samples and other sample based stuff (or licensed them to me to be correct), and the guys who sold me my Score Writing/playback package are the tops when it comes to absolute and solid customer care. And I use the word care advisedly. No other company in the whole of my life (and I'm no spring chicken) has come close - or even appears to be on the same planet, as far as I'm concerned.
I'm not saying that their products are everything that anyone could ever want, including me, otherwise I wouldn't even be here, - but in terms of a caring approach and understanding of their clients positions, I'm deliriously happy with them.
My purchase here is the first one I've made outside the US and I suppose I brought with me a kind of expectation that things would be along the same lines that I've experienced there. I hope I'm right. I may be wrong. Whatever the outcome I hope I'm as happy with the items I've purchased as some of you guys seem to be. But no matter how good the package is, if it turns out that it's going to rapidly become a dinosaur which I was tempted into buying because of a time-limited money-off offer, and that I finish up missing out on something that's so much better at a reasonably comparable price in the not too distant future, without the possibility of an upgrade which is affordable relative to my original outlay, then I'm not going to feel as happy, or as valued, or as well-treated as I have been with my US purchases.
Just my 2 cents/euros/penn'orth! [[;)]]
John

@mistersynth said:

... Whatever the outcome I hope I'm as happy with the items I've purchased as some of you guys seem to be.

Hi John,

Whatever the outcome concerning a future "Opus VI", I don't think you've made a wrong decision getting Opus 1 and Solo Strings now. Having written the manuals for VSL (and hopefully not making too many mistakes in the documentation [:O]ops: ), I naturally had to check them all out. Even if I didn't work for the company, I'd still say that Opus 1 is a very solid and useful bundle - I bought the Pro Edition myself but have to confess that I didn't use a third of what it offers in many of my pieces, and could as well have used Opus ... And I use the Solo Strings a lot because they're simply beautiful. I'm sure you'll enjoy working with those editions - and, of course, listening to your pieces then!

Cheers,
David
VSL manuals

@mistersynth said:

... Whatever the outcome I hope I'm as happy with the items I've purchased as some of you guys seem to be.

Hi John,

Whatever the outcome concerning a future "Opus VI", I don't think you've made a wrong decision getting Opus 1 and Solo Strings now. Having written the manuals for VSL (and hopefully not making too many mistakes in the documentation [:O]ops: ), I naturally had to check them all out. Even if I didn't work for the company, I'd still say that Opus 1 is a very solid and useful bundle - I bought the Pro Edition myself but have to confess that I didn't use a third of what it offers in many of my pieces, and could as well have used Opus ... And I use the Solo Strings a lot because they're simply beautiful. I'm sure you'll enjoy working with those editions - and, of course, listening to your pieces then!

Cheers,
David
VSL manuals

Hi David,

And many thanks for that reply. It's very reassuring to hear what you say. To be honest I used my ears more than my head when making the decision to buy, as agonising as that was! - and what really swayed me was the sound quality of the demos and their 'believability'- they're most impressive. I am a trained musician and have played in many orchestras and ensembles in my time and I'd be hard pushed to know that I was listening to samples much of the time!
When the packages arrive I'll have to spend less time worrying about things and get down to writing some (hopefully) incredibly sounding pieces.
I'm sure the manuals will be super - I'll contact you if they're not! [[;)]]
Once again thank you for your kind reassurance.
Best regards,
John [:D]