Any A/B comparisons of Opus 1/2 vs. SE?

[rgames]

I am an Opus 1/2 user and am considering the upgrade to VSE but the only real reason I would do it is to get the 24 bit samples. The VI player is nice, certainly, but I can get by with Halion and the Perf. tool. Also, I lose the option of running the library across multiple machines which, quite frankly, is the real deal-breaker for me.

So, having never heard 24 bit orchestral samples, are there any A/B .wav file comparisons out there? The demos are great and I guess I can hear that the VSE sounds *different* but I'm having a hard time convincing myself that it sounds *better*. I've always had trouble with certain instruments in Halion but, because I've never used another sampler or other sample sets, I don't know if it's the sampler or just a limitation of the samples.

Thanks,

rgames

[Conquer]

I'm going to play devil's advocate and suggest that the subtle improvement in quality of 24-bit over 16-bit is far less significant than factors such as instrumentation, available articulations, technical functionality, etc. I certainly wouldn't buy a library merely because it was 24-bit - it's a nice selling point, but it would be the last item on my 'tick list'.

A friend who upgraded to 24-bit confessed to me that he found it quite hard to hear the difference at first but gradually learned to discern it. Having used the Pro Edition and graduated to Vienna Instruments, I think they both sound great. I don't think your music will suffer if you stay 16-bit, but I have to say I think some of the new VI stuff is stunning.

[rgames]

I agree - the new VI is nice and would eliminate the need to have separate tracks for standard and legato instruments. I'm more interested in the quality of the sound engine, though. In particular, how does it compare to Halion?

I've always had problems with the "sucking sound" on string note transitions and a phasey sound in a lot of multi-voice brass lines, particularly at f or ff. I wonder if it's related to Halion's sampling engine or is simply a property of the samples? I've always had to use some filtering to reduce the effect but I've never really been happy with the sound. Of course, there are plenty of demos that don't have that problem but I have no idea if it's just a better type of filtering or a better sampling engine.

So, I guess my real question is whether the VI will give me a better sound overall, regardless of whether it's a result of 24 bit samples or a better sampling engine.

Thanks again,

rgames

[dpcon]

I have the 1st edition (16 bit) library which sounds quite good and is very usable. However the VI player for whatever reasons (including it's 24 bit resolution) sounds a lot better to me. Sucking sound is gone and phasey brass also gone. In fact the brass sounds incredible. Add to that the ease and facilty of the VI player and you have quite a leap from the older VSL collections.

[Dietz]

Whenever you compare our older products with the most up-to-date Vienna Instruments, please keep in mind that the _recorded audio data base_ is the same (although now published in 24 bit), but the actual _samples_ within the VIs may differ quite a bit. Due to the fact that with our own sample player we could make more advanced techniques available to our customers than with the previous 3rd-party players, our editing-crew re-edited almost every single sample to make use of these new possibilties to their full extent.

HTH,

[Conquer]

I think the fact the VI samples have been heavily re-edited is a lot more significant than them now being 24-bit. I don't believe that the sucking and phasey sounds you hear are caused by 16-bit sampling. I haven't noticed such noises myself when using the Pro Edition.

[dpcon]

@Conquer said:

I think the fact the VI samples have been heavily re-edited is a lot more significant than them now being 24-bit.

I agree. As I said "for whatever reasons" it sounds better. Dietz confirmed what I thought: the samples have been edited. Nonetheless 24 bit vrs 16 is audible whatever the source and in this case as well.