As a new user to this forum and not owning any VSL products, I checked with Herb to see if my question would be fine. He said yes.

How do you feel VSL SE stacks up against EW Gold? I have seen many discussions comparing it to the cube and Opus, but it is now priced against Emerald and a bit below EW Gold. I have only found one demo, so I am not sure if there are other data points from which to draw comparisons. Guy's demo was very diverse and interesting, and I appreciate him taking the time to share it.

I'm also new to VSL Forum and products (I only own the excellent Glass & Stones - no legato stuff) so I may ask for a two letters answer, if it's the case please be my guest:

Using a combination of different perf-leg strings programs available in SE (Solo, Chamber, Orch.) and some solid MIDI skills, is it possible to fake decent trills?

[[[:|]]] "Trills have nearly no priority" [[[:|]]]

Christian

musical,

you have PM... [:D]

@cfdg said:

[...]
[[[:|]]] "Trills have nearly no priority" [[[:|]]]

Christian

("... within the Special Edition") [;)]

@musical said:

As a new user to this forum and not owning any VSL products, I checked with Herb to see if my question would be fine. He said yes.

How do you feel VSL SE stacks up against EW Gold? I have seen many discussions comparing it to the cube and Opus, but it is now priced against Emerald and a bit below EW Gold. I have only found one demo, so I am not sure if there are other data points from which to draw comparisons. Guy's demo was very diverse and interesting, and I appreciate him taking the time to share it.

It's an apples and oranges question that gets asked a lot, since SE is just a reduced version of the larger Symphonic Cube.

Any comparison has to be done with the Gold Bundle vs. SE, and even there, you can only really compare instrument lists and articulations. Each company produced to their own individual aural vision, and the approaches are radically different. You need to look at sound and workflow, too.

You can listen to any of the VI demos because except for sampling whole step vs. chromatically, and the number of articulations you get, it's the same sound.

I have the Pro Edition at 16-bit and VI at 24-bit. The 24-bit is gorgeous sounding and is a major sonic improvement over the 16-bit.

I have KH Emerald that friends in CA bought for me. The other two libraries are radically stronger choices and worth the extra money.

@Peter Alexander said:

I have the Pro Edition at 16-bit and VI at 24-bit. The 24-bit is gorgeous sounding and is a major sonic improvement over the 16-bit.

It's really hard for me to go back to 16 bit samples after having used 24 bit samples. I use to think that gold sounded good and still does but once i got SISS in 24 bit i got to say Gold sounds kind of cheap in comparison. I would assume it's the same with VSL.

@Anonymous Joe said:

It's really hard for me to go back to 16 bit samples after having used 24 bit samples. I use to think that gold sounded good and still does but once i got SISS in 24 bit i got to say Gold sounds kind of cheap in comparison. I would assume it's the same with VSL.

That's comparing rotten apples with a screwdriver. The quality of the recording means a lot more than the bit depth of the samples. Then there is the sample engine and your equipment that have an effect on the sound quality. The difference between 16 bit and 24 bit end product is almost negligible if both are made from 24 bit source files and the possible editing has been done in 24 bits.

Since SE will pitch-shift every other sample I wonder if the VI engine suffers from any aliasing problems. Anyone who knows?
I'm a little bit worried about this since the other VI instruments are chromatically sampled and hence aliasing might not have been a concern earlier.
I didn't worry much about aliasing earlier, but when the later versions of Kontakt2 introduced new high-quality interpolation modes I noticed a big difference for some of my whole-note samled instruments.

All the performance legato patches of the Symphonic Cube (and also First/Pro and Horizons) are whole tone (24 intervall samples for each wholetone step).
We only recieved statements so far, that the content of Vienna Instruments sounds much better than the previous sample library products.
So nothing to worry about.

best
Herb

I NEED an answer to these questions to know if VI will suit me. I've looked around but there no pdf that explains that.

a) How many articulations can i control with the mod wheel(EXCLUDING the use of keyswitch)? I've watched the video tutorials and i see only 3 instrument controllable by mod wheel. I would like to control way more than that 3.

b) Can i work like i would in K2 using instrument banks and program change where i can load 128 articulations asign to 1 midi channel(with out using keyswitch). Can the matrix be use as an instrument bank?

Thank you!

@Anonymous Joe said:

It's really hard for me to go back to 16 bit samples after having used 24 bit samples. I use to think that gold sounded good and still does but once i got SISS in 24 bit i got to say Gold sounds kind of cheap in comparison. I would assume it's the same with VSL.

That's comparing rotten apples with a screwdriver. The quality of the recording means a lot more than the bit depth of the samples. Then there is the sample engine and your equipment that have an effect on the sound quality. The difference between 16 bit and 24 bit end product is almost negligible if both are made from 24 bit source files and the possible editing has been done in 24 bits.

My example may not be perfect but it still work IMO. ANyway, you listen to user demos done with Gold and Platinum you will hear a huge difference.

You can manage 1728 articulations in only one VI instance (on one miditrack).
And each articulation ca also be stacked with a second articulation (layering or crossfading)

One Vienna Instruments holds 12 matrices which can be switched via keyswitches or programm changes.
And each matrix can be setup with 144 patches/articluations.
You would need two controllers (or keyswitches), one controller, for example modwheel, to switch between 12 horizontal cells/articulations, and a second controller of your choice, swithimg between 12 vertical cells.

best
Herb

@herb said:

You can manage 1728 articulations in only one VI instance (on one miditrack).
And each articulation ca also be stacked with a second articulation (layering or crossfading)

One Vienna Instruments holds 12 matrices which can be switched via keyswitches or programm changes.
And each matrix can be setup with 144 patches/articluations.
You would need two controllers (or keyswitches), one controller, for example modwheel, to switch between 12 horizontal cells/articulations, and a second controller of your choice, swithimg between 12 vertical cells.

best
Herb

Thanks for the quick reply Herb. It looks like it may suit my needs. I would have prefered to have control to more than 12 articulation with the mode wheel(only) but i guess i could live with that.

Thank you.

@anonymous said:

It looks like it may suit my needs. I would have prefered to have control to more than 12 articulation with the mode wheel(only) but i guess i could live with that.

[*-)] SCNR

@anonymous said:

It looks like it may suit my needs. I would have prefered to have control to more than 12 articulation with the mode wheel(only) but i guess i could live with that.

[*-)] SCNR

What does that mean? [8-)]

Just click on it...

OK. SCNR means sorry could not resist.

Well the reason I'm saying this is because i like to trigger my articulations in the controller editor using program change and instrument banks in K2 where i have 128 articulation in one bank and all on one midi channel. So all i have to do is draw a line at #1 forsustained #2 stacato tec.. up to 128 using JUST ONE controller. It's by far my favorite way of doing things. So using the mod wheel is a bit similar so i guess it will suit my need. BTW i don't like to use Keyswitchs.

Here is one more question: How many different articulation can i trigger using program change only(with out the use of keyswitchs)? 12 i suppose? That will be my last question.

Yep, 12.
By the way, if you plan to buy the Special Edition you won't need more, except you want to change instruments also on a single miditrack.

best
Herb

@herb said:

Yep, 12.
By the way, if you plan to buy the Special Edition you won't need more, except you want to change instruments also on a single miditrack.

best
Herb

I realize that but I'm assuming there will be a VI SE part 2 that will give us a little more articulation. [[;)]]

Btw, i want to be clear that the articulation choices you've made is very good/smart, i just don't think i can live with out things like trills and a few others.. note that many.

Thanks for your time Herb.

@herb said:

All release samples included.

best
Herb

edit: (except Bosendorfer)

What else can we expect, this is really perfect (where is my bass flute ???!!! [:D] )
You're right Herb, the perf legato are the most important and you provided it for every instruments (!) (except the appasionata, but the normal ones will do it)

So that's an incredible value, I wish it was only 30 Go…