Hi Herb & co,
VSL's license is non-transferable, so one cannot afford to speculatively try VSL products which aren't germane to the bulk of one's composing. Mine is primarily for exposed solo instruments. The only instrument I grew up playing and know inside & out enough to evaluate as a performance instrument is bass trombone. The instruments I need for my writing are performance solo cello, violin, viola, flutes 1/2, concert guitar, and bass trombone, in that descending order. (My entire sample library today consists of the Bardstown Bosendorfer; I discovered VSL via Kip's link to your site.) I face the following difficulties in becoming a VSL customer (yes I've played the demo CD samples):
- EXS performance set won't be available for eval before the Aug 1 price increase
- ILIO will only VIP me for products I've purchased before Aug 1
- Eval instrument #1 (solo bass trombone) is only available in Pro Brass
- Eval instrument #2 (solo cello) is only available in Pro Strings
- $5,050 US to evaluate solo bass trombone + cello
- $5,180 US for Complete Orchestral Package still doesn't buy me solo viola!
- Don't know if Concert Guitar will be separate product or upgrade
Based on my recent purchase of Logic 6 Platinum & EXS24mkII to host Kip's Bosendorfer samples, composing software appears NOT to have any quantum advances in the decade I've been away (adding features to simple-minded MIDI sequencers doesn't count in my book). In the case of Logic, "simple-minded" also means arbitrarily complex to deploy. I've gotten an entire tree's worth of Finale upgrade notices from Coda but they still don't have an OS X version. The true advances seem to be happening in sampling, and then only by folks such as the yourselves and Kip, who are willing to make the bottomless personal sacrifices required to fully flesh out a product, because "almost" == "can't do it". Kudos in advance on what others in this forum say you've accomplished on the performance tool software.
Since my writing won't make use of more than a fraction of the instruments in the Complete Orchestral Package Pro edition, and the 1st edition contains only 2nd Flute from my requirements, I am concerned that I won't be able to track future upgrades (which look to be an infinite explosion of the Strings/BrassWood/Perc & Perf products) unless the larger products become subset'ed. I need to be able budget for MIR, you know! I would really like to see a "Nonsemble" product containing solo performance instruments for composers like myself.
Bottom line: I converted all my expendable income to expended income a decade ago trying to do this, for naught. I'm trying to determine if I can resume my non-commercial lifework of composing, for which my 70+hr/week startup and single parenthood don't leave too many hours each week. If the answer is no, okay, I'll give up again and take another loss -- to a point.
I want to be offered a way to evaluate bass trombone and cello (one solo performance instrument each which I "know" from Brass and Strings; I want to eval 1st Flute too but am trying to be maximally reasonable in my request) before buying the rest of the instruments I need for my composing, strongly want (bassoon, tuba, et al), or the rest of the orchestra; I also request VIP pricing on them as long as I buy them in the near term. I DON'T request or expect that any other instruments from the existing products be made available as part of my evalution, and I DON'T expect a la carte level pricing for the evaluation -- I would expect it to have meaningful financial and/or contractual teeth, but that the teeth be fair and acknowledge my risk. I'm not looking for this to be shrink-wrapped or formal, am willing to take reasonable steps to make this practical to accomplish on your end. If the evaluation shows that it's feasible to render my style of writing using VSL performance instruments, I naturally don't want to toss the eval monies when buying VSL instruments.
What can you offer me, Herb? Whether we're able to do business or not, I congratulate you for pulling off a radical, quality-oriented company and product set, wish you LOADs of success, and hope you get to enjoy your vacation. In particular, I hope VSL allows you to say everything you've ever to say in your writing.
Thanks so much,
Jim
VSL's license is non-transferable, so one cannot afford to speculatively try VSL products which aren't germane to the bulk of one's composing. Mine is primarily for exposed solo instruments. The only instrument I grew up playing and know inside & out enough to evaluate as a performance instrument is bass trombone. The instruments I need for my writing are performance solo cello, violin, viola, flutes 1/2, concert guitar, and bass trombone, in that descending order. (My entire sample library today consists of the Bardstown Bosendorfer; I discovered VSL via Kip's link to your site.) I face the following difficulties in becoming a VSL customer (yes I've played the demo CD samples):
- EXS performance set won't be available for eval before the Aug 1 price increase
- ILIO will only VIP me for products I've purchased before Aug 1
- Eval instrument #1 (solo bass trombone) is only available in Pro Brass
- Eval instrument #2 (solo cello) is only available in Pro Strings
- $5,050 US to evaluate solo bass trombone + cello
- $5,180 US for Complete Orchestral Package still doesn't buy me solo viola!
- Don't know if Concert Guitar will be separate product or upgrade
Based on my recent purchase of Logic 6 Platinum & EXS24mkII to host Kip's Bosendorfer samples, composing software appears NOT to have any quantum advances in the decade I've been away (adding features to simple-minded MIDI sequencers doesn't count in my book). In the case of Logic, "simple-minded" also means arbitrarily complex to deploy. I've gotten an entire tree's worth of Finale upgrade notices from Coda but they still don't have an OS X version. The true advances seem to be happening in sampling, and then only by folks such as the yourselves and Kip, who are willing to make the bottomless personal sacrifices required to fully flesh out a product, because "almost" == "can't do it". Kudos in advance on what others in this forum say you've accomplished on the performance tool software.
Since my writing won't make use of more than a fraction of the instruments in the Complete Orchestral Package Pro edition, and the 1st edition contains only 2nd Flute from my requirements, I am concerned that I won't be able to track future upgrades (which look to be an infinite explosion of the Strings/BrassWood/Perc & Perf products) unless the larger products become subset'ed. I need to be able budget for MIR, you know! I would really like to see a "Nonsemble" product containing solo performance instruments for composers like myself.
Bottom line: I converted all my expendable income to expended income a decade ago trying to do this, for naught. I'm trying to determine if I can resume my non-commercial lifework of composing, for which my 70+hr/week startup and single parenthood don't leave too many hours each week. If the answer is no, okay, I'll give up again and take another loss -- to a point.
I want to be offered a way to evaluate bass trombone and cello (one solo performance instrument each which I "know" from Brass and Strings; I want to eval 1st Flute too but am trying to be maximally reasonable in my request) before buying the rest of the instruments I need for my composing, strongly want (bassoon, tuba, et al), or the rest of the orchestra; I also request VIP pricing on them as long as I buy them in the near term. I DON'T request or expect that any other instruments from the existing products be made available as part of my evalution, and I DON'T expect a la carte level pricing for the evaluation -- I would expect it to have meaningful financial and/or contractual teeth, but that the teeth be fair and acknowledge my risk. I'm not looking for this to be shrink-wrapped or formal, am willing to take reasonable steps to make this practical to accomplish on your end. If the evaluation shows that it's feasible to render my style of writing using VSL performance instruments, I naturally don't want to toss the eval monies when buying VSL instruments.
What can you offer me, Herb? Whether we're able to do business or not, I congratulate you for pulling off a radical, quality-oriented company and product set, wish you LOADs of success, and hope you get to enjoy your vacation. In particular, I hope VSL allows you to say everything you've ever to say in your writing.
Thanks so much,
Jim