vagn, thank you for your considerable and un-emotional response.

there is one thing i'd like to put into relation though: VI Bösendorfer (as one of the little libraries from VSL) has 9.350 samples and about 55 GB, whereas it reads as Ivory has 4.000 samples and 40 GB for all 3 pianos, so i'd assume there must be some difference regarding load on a system.

if someone here finds the time i'll ask to have a look into load and performance of bösendorfer only (which obviously would only need just a single instance of VI). if i understood the feedback from initial tests correctly problems started beyond the second or third instance of VI and therefore it appeared to be unusable for orchestral work.
christian

The Italian Grand is 19GB on and takes up about 750MB of RAM, but the older Yamaha grand (one of the original three) takes up 500GB of RAM.

thanks nick for the heads up, i think we're getting closer ... 19 GB, 2000 samples, 750 MB memory ... this gives me 384 KB preload header per sample - VI is using 64 KB (one sixth), which means (simplified) at least six times as much harddisk access and related events.
now we would need detailed info on (process- and thread-)priorities on a PT system. if (and i could imagine this is the case) the highest priority is given to recording and less priority to sample streaming (and the following buffering proceedings) this would fit pretty well into the picture. probably those priorites are nothing VSL could influence or manipulate unless one could set some related preferences on the PT system itself.
christian

@Another User said:

Also, it has come to my attention that Hans Zimmer is producing a big Virtual Orchestra plugin for Digidesign/AIR that will be in direct competition with Vienna products, so somehow it must be possible to get something out of the format. I read in an interview with him that he decided to make the library as a tool for his own writing, while making it a product available for regular customers that also use ProTools for composing, but have no sample library to use within the sequencer.

Hats off to Hans whose film scores I really love, BTW. I know that he is a big fan of VSL, met him at the NAM's VSL booth a couple of years ago and I would only hope that his VI will come close to, or even equal the quality of VSL's samples because he obviously knows that there are serious PT users out there that are looking for something a lot better than Garitan or Miroslav's mediocre libraries... AND are frustrated with VSL's inability to have the other format available (RTAS). As mentioned, I love VSL's sounds and have purchased their libraries for both Giga and the current VI series, the latest being the Appassionata and the SE... but what good are they if they are not available to us PT users? I am forced to to go back to Giga as the VST to RTAS wrapper have not been reliable.... All I can say is if Hans can do it, why not VSL? '[*-)]

question to myself: does it even make sense to go into technical details if no one is interested in facts and in a countermove the thread turns into VSL RTAS bashing?

vagn, rinky, any links you can provide to see a proove what exactly is possible, i mean in the sense of an already working setup?
christian

If I'm buying the best samples available in the world... and I have, a buying customer who spent thousands of dollars AND are willing to spend thousands more, does not need a technical data on how to make it work. It's just a wish! If the support for PT will never happen, then that "small" percentage of PT programmers are either gonna be forced to go to Logic or back to DP... or may discontinue to buy great, but unusable product and hope for a cure in the near future. No VSL RTAS bashing, but a customer's wish to also be able to enjoy the thousands of dollars worth of a million dollar sound.
Perhaps you can post a thread or turorials or a "how to for dummies" on other alternatives, such as the steps or process of creating a host/slave using Bidule that I've heard so much about. This is where customer service is golden. There are a few of us who are only musicians and not techie musicians. I am so willing to buy a Mac Mini if I had a guideline on how to go about making this work.

cm, I'm interested in the facts. [:)]

I've been using PT for 15 years and love it to pieces, but even though I like some of the new A.I.R. née Wizoo instruments, I still use Logic for sequencing. It just isn't as robust a program for that yet.