VIENNA INSTRUMENTS Production and Shipping Status

[Martin]

Dear Valued Users,

We’d like to inform you about the current status of our Vienna Instruments.

The Vienna Instruments come on two data carriers: The files containing the samples come on several DVDs, the software instrument itself is stored on a CD-ROM for greater flexibility so it can be updated easily and regularly.

While we started manufacturing the DVDs, the manuals, and the boxes (which takes longer) a while ago, we held back the pressing of the CD-ROMs in order to carry out the last tests and fix the last bugs. The PC VST version was perfectly working, but we still had to optimize the OS X AU version. Since we didn’t want to delay the release, we recently decided to start pressing the CD-ROMs including the following versions of the software instrument: PC VST (plug-in and stand-alone) and OS X CoreAudio (stand-alone). We’re still optimizing the AU plug-in version (with amazing streaming and CPU results, by the way!), and it’s working very well already. Since the AU plug-in version isn’t included on the CD-ROM that comes in the box, it will be ready for download when the Vienna Instruments are shipping. We apologize to Mac users for this procedure, but we didn’t want to postpone the shipping of the products.

I’d like to add that the AU “plug-in” version is a very special one. We had to develop a special architecture to reach 300 simultaneous stereo voices in 24 bit quality. The AU Vienna Instrument works like a plug-in, but is in fact another application. You’ll be able to instantiate the Vienna Instrument the way you always do in your sequencer, but it’s still an external application running outside the sequencer. For us stability and performance were the most important issues and that’s why we opted for this architecture in version 1.0.0.

The finished product should be leaving the European manufacturing plant by the end of this week. As always, US customs is unpredictable.

Best wishes,
Martin, Vienna Symphonic Library

[Christian Marcussen]

First of, thanks for the update!. Secondly, thanks for not delaying the shipment further - I'm sure even MAC users will agree [:)]

I'm really looking forward to hearing how this baby runs on a G5 Quad! Might just make me take the mac plunge.

@Martin said:

The finished product should be leaving the European manufacturing plant by the end of this week. As always, US customs is unpredictable.

Best wishes,
Martin, Vienna Symphonic Library

When about would distributors like Bestservice have the Cube then?

[Rob Elliott]

Thanks Martin. My experience with shipments from Germany to the US is about one week - inclusive of customs (assuming you use 'overnight' services).

Illio will take another week to fill orders and ship out from thier offices - probably standard ground (although using overnight services to all the US customers that paid $2400 2 months ago - would be a smart business decision.)

Looks like we should see product in our hands first week of March. Should we expect the balance of the titles (that were originally schedule to be shipped in March to be pushed to May?)

Thanks for letting us know on this.

Rob

[garylionelli]

@Martin said:

The AU Vienna Instrument works like a plug-in, but is in fact another application. You’ll be able to instantiate the Vienna Instrument the way you always do in your sequencer, but it’s still an external application running outside the sequencer.

Hi Martin -- this could be good news. Does this mean that the Vienna Instrument uses its own memory block, apart from the memory used by the sequencer? And in turn, does this mean that each new Vienna Instrument we instantiate uses its own block of memory as well? This would mean we'd be able to sidestep the 4 GB per app memory limit on the Mac.

Thanks,
Gary

[Martin]

Best Service in Germany is the first distributor to stock the Collections, maybe by the end of the week, too.

All this does not delay the second part of the Collections to the full extent. We're still heading for end of March. Currently Brass is a little bit behind. So if we are not able to ship all 5 remaining Collections at once by the end of March, we'll split the shipment into part II (Percussion, Harps, Woodwinds II), and part III (Brass I & II).

Cheers, Martin

[Martin]

@Rob Elliott said:

My experience with shipments from Germany to the US is about one week - inclusive of customs (assuming you use 'overnight' services).

The more complex and larger the shipment, the longer it could take. But we can never tell. We had 3 weeks with small shipments, 1 week with large shipments...

[Martin]

@garylionelli said:

Does this mean that the Vienna Instrument uses its own memory block, apart from the memory used by the sequencer? And in turn, does this mean that each new Vienna Instrument we instantiate uses its own block of memory as well? This would mean we'd be able to sidestep the 4 GB per app memory limit on the Mac.

Yes, the Vienna Instrument uses its own memory block apart from the sequencer. Several Vienna Instruments use the same memory block, though. We're still testing the RAM limits, optimizing its usage.

[dfhage]

Dear Martin,

Could you tell me if the VI are compatible with Logic 7.2

Regards

Dave Hage

[Martin]

@dfhage said:

Could you tell me if the VI are compatible with Logic 7.2

Not from the very beginning, but soon...

[julian]

Martin,

This could be a major issue for those of us running Logic 7.2. Songs created in 7.2 will not open in earlier versions of Logic so the backward step would be a real pain.

My other third party AU instruments appear to be working fine in Logic - it's usually a OS update that upsets them rather than a Logic update.

If the AU's are compatible with Logic 7.1 is there something in particular that creates isues with 7.2?

Thanks

Julian

[stevesong]

Just echoing Julian's concerns about compatibility issues with Logic 7.2 - I'm wondering whether the initially released standalone version will work with Logic 7.2 and if it is the AU version that is currently not compatible. Also would like to get an approximate idea of the time frame for release of a Logic 7.2 compatible version. Finally, does the standalone version have a capacity to accept AU plugins? I'd be most appreciative of any information on these subjects. Thanks.

[cm]

just stepping in ... it's not a question of 7.2, it's a question of intelMac or PowerPC ... AU version on PPC runs very smooth already (independantl from the used host application) ... as far as i've heard 260+ voices.
martins answer was implying the question was about 7.2 on intelMacs
christian

[fitch]

how can an independant version run fine standalone as an AU?

i thought AUs ran inside Logic ?

maybe i'm mistaken

[cm]

hmmm, maybe it was me who misinterpreted the sequence of postings ... the stand-alone version was already finished and can be found on the install CD (you should check for updates in the user area though ...)
the AU version initially had some performance problems (don't know the details ...) but this is fixed for the PPC platform now.

also not sure now if one could say *ViennaInstruments as AU is running _inside_ logic*, it is of course an extra application (which needs to be installed) but can be used as a plugin _from_ inside logic.
(my english might be too poor to describe it correctly)

christian

[golem]

Due to problems with different hosts - seems that everbody is brewing their own
soup - we ended up with an AU Server. Think of it similiar to ReWire - only faster and without additional rewiring.
Thus opening an AU Vienna Instrument audio is routed from the VI AU Server to AU Host ( such as Logic )
The only drawback is that GUI appears in an extra window.
This anticipates some directions we may take in the future ...

Thanks

chrisT

[julian]

Yes, the Vienna Instrument uses its own memory block apart from the sequencer. Several Vienna Instruments use the same memory block, though. We're still testing the RAM limits, optimizing its usage.[/quote]

Martin,

Does this still apply when VI's are opened as an AU within Logic or is it back to the single app limit.

Thanks

Julian

[plowman]

"Does this still apply when VI's are opened as an AU within Logic or is it back to the single app limit."

I'd like to know this too. Also, is it possible to open VI on the same Mac both as a plug-in within Logic and a stand-alone (hoping to gain more sample memory)?

I appreciate the updates on your testing and read them eagerly.

[Peter Alexander]

@golem said:

we ended up with an AU Server.

Precisely. A few years ago, my partner in TrueSpec Systems and I met with Martin as he reviewed with us VSL and its direction. At that time, Bruce and I saw that what was needed was a basic server solution. Right now with your own proprietary software for the Vienna Instruments you have the freedom to move in that direction, and you should.

Although no one really talks about it in these terms, what everyone is looking for is a desktop mainframe solution for music production.

Computer A is the sequencing machine. It can be Mac or PC. Computer B is the VSL server using a special edition of FX Teleport and connecting via one (1) LAN cable.

Computer A contains X-number of VI instruments, Computer B holds the rest.

Computer C - a Vienna laptop with a sketch set of VI so the composer can work remotely. See this picture of Max of FX Teleport as a perfect example:
http://soniccontrol.com/features/article.php?ID=17

You're a stone's throw from making this happen. But wait... one point more...

You license the player to the other orchestral libraries so that everyone can work on the same system. Total number of phone calls: 5.

And then...

You have MIR as part of the server solution. Works with everyone since everyone is working with the VI software. System integration issues - solved.

For your computer marketing reading, I suggest: Who Says Elephants Can't Dance, by Lou Gerstner, past president of IBM.

And I'll help you bring it to market.

PA

[golem]

@Plowman said:

"Does this still apply when VI's are opened as an AU within Logic or is it back to the single app limit."

I'd like to know this too. Also, is it possible to open VI on the same Mac both as a plug-in within Logic and a stand-alone (hoping to gain more sample memory)?

I appreciate the updates on your testing and read them eagerly.

As pointed out in previous posting, VI AU uses an AU Server App.
This is: 1 Application for all AUs
But: indeed you can open standalone in parallel. In this case audio is _not_ routed back.
You even can make a copy of standalone and run 2 standalones (and AU host)
If this is an issue we will add virtual MIDI ports.
Pls note: this has _not_ been tested.

The Sphinx presumes: VSL might work on an integrated multicomputer platform.
(shh, don't tell anybody)

thanks

chrisT (development)

[fitch]

so the VI au cannot run directly in logic ... Apples own software .. that is the main standard for au ?


mmmm...


sounds messy