Well, I guess you feel comfortable with what you like. For instance I prefer Cubase over Logic .. but I had to get used to Logic to use my VSL first Edition. And now .. it ain't so bad.

I don't think you'd be disappointed with the Vienna Instruments. It's hard to imagine anyone using them and not being impressed.

The bundled VSL pack you had with Kontact probably did not contain the performance samples .. I'm not sure about that as I don't have it but I had a similar thing with GIGA Studio 3. VI is best represented by it's Performance elements.

The difference between the Kontact and VI is that the Kontact player version is just the samples, as prepared for use with the Kontact player. Whereas the VI is it's own player. The VI player is where all the magic happens .. with performance, speed detection, and loads of other things that can be changed.

You can't try it unfortunately as there is no way at the moment to do a trial version. But I'm sure if you talked to any person here who uses the VI, or indeed the Horizon series libraries, they'd all tell you great things about it.

I have the First Edition VSL which is amazing to use, but I also have the VI Special Edition which is nothing less than incredible. Playing any instrument .. in whatever articulation you like just sounds great. And I'm looking forward to getting the whole cube one day.

The only thing I'd say to look out for is that you will need a keyboard with Pitch and Mod wheel, and some extra controllers wouldn't go amiss because there are a lot of possibilities on how to make your music and midi controllers will make it easier for you to do more (controlling velocity - breath control .. or controlling articulation changes in realtime - keyswitch or modwheel)

VI special edition is certainly worth .. and then some .. it's price tag, as it has so many instruments (check out the listings to see what you get).

@Emperor said:

Is there any way to test VSL before purchasing?

I purchased GPO and disappointed.
I purchased Garritan Stradivari Solo Violin and disappointed.
I purchased Kontakt 2 full version with bundled VSL and disappointed.

What is the difference between VSL that comes with Kontakt and VSL special edition?

Sorry for the fundamental questions, any reply is appreciated.

What orchestral samples have you previously purchased, that you are not disappointed with? That way it will be easier to understand what you expecting from VSL.

DG

Thank you hetoreyn for the valuable information, I need to know more about the special addition before purchasing.
Please see this demo from the promosion Video section of VI site

http://vsl.co.at/en-us/68/331/213.vsl">http://vsl.co.at/en-us/68/331/213.vsl

Can I achieve the same legto/ portamento from the special edition as described in the demos?

Thank you again.

_____________________________________________________________

@Another User said:

What orchestral samples have you previously purchased, that you are not disappointed with?

Thank you DG, a valid question. What I need is crystal clear sound and real time playability of instruments. Many musicians made wonderful works with GPO and Stard solo violin, which encouraged me to purchase. What I cannot achieve is legato and protamento. For example Garritan solo violin do the job good for slow tempos, for fast passeges the full portamento becomes impossible, in thier site they are talking about automatic portament and this misleads me, so trial version is always good for decision making.

I don't think that anyone call tell you whether or not you will like the sound of VSL VI. However, due to the way it is recorded, I find it to be very clear and easy to work with. I also find that programming is far easier than any other library that I've worked with. Three things to watch out for:

1) You will need to "invest" in a decent reverb.

2) It will take a while for you to build up a workflow, and your own, custom matrices.

3) I don't use SE (although my assistant does), so I can't say from first hand experience that the articulations will be suitable for you.

DG

Obviously there are no demo versions but here are a couple of comments that might help.

I also got GPO and was very disappointed with the quality of the samples but the interface was, at least, playable in a somewhat musical way without much effort. Then I got VSL Opus 1/2 and was disappointed with the playability of the samples (partly because Halion is such a piece of crap), but the sound was top-notch. My guess is that your experience with the Kontakt VSL library is similar. At that point, I started dreaming of a library that combined professional-quality samples with a playable interface.

Well, my dream almost came true - VI is now the most playable interface I have used. So, it now wins in terms of playability AND sound. It's not a panacea, though - you'll need a separate instance of the VI for every instrument in the orchestra, so it's a bit of an organizational nightmare. If VSL would change that "feature" I would say the library is darn near perfect.

rgames

I have never used VI (I'm planning on purchasing SE ASAP) but I don't think you should blow your money on an expensive reverb. Not everyone uses expensive reverbs, not everyone needs to. It depends on how much of this --> $$$ you got and if you are a hobbyist or a professional.

Anyway, to say you "NEED" to invest into an expensive reverb is like telling someone you can't make good music with VSL if you don't have an expensive reverb. When I get VSL (4 weeks from now?) I'll post demos of using QuikQuak RaySpace like an Altiverb and we'll see if I can get by.

Does VSL give demo licenses to retail locations?

If not, they should. I'm currently trying out a few things that way. Granted, if you're not buddies with the guy who runs the store, you would have to check them out IN the store, but still.

I would've NEVER bought a $2k synth back in the day with getting to test drive. I'm fearful of this paradigm switch. Sure, when we were talking about instruments that were $180 or something, maybe one could risk that based on audio clips...but, now that we're walking into $300-$5k instrument libraries? No thanks.

Right now, I'm auditioning a piano library which I don't want to name...but, a popular one...that I think plays pretty awful. I have 8 year old piano samples I think sound better. But, if I'd not been able to audition them? Anyway--the flipside is true, too. He gave me a demo copy of another, which didn't sound like my kinda thing, but turned out to really spark me musically with it's sound.

I've bought orchestral libs before that I was utterly disappointed in.

I own the VSL VI for Solo Strings and Chamber Strings. The only thing I'm disappointed in is price. [:O]ops: I must say that overall, they are easily the "best programmed" strings I've used. Meaning, with a little CC set up and practice, you can actually PLAY most of what you need to live on the keyboard. They also sound nice--although, honestly, there are a lot of libs that sound nice, IMO.

So, I feel for you. I do. I'm the WORST about not wanting to lay down money on "hyped libraries" having been burned so often. Luckily, FWIW, I don't feel that way about the VSL instruments. They've worked flawlessly for me and allowed me to do things much easier due to the instument/patch/matrix programming.

On reverb...ehh...I get that. these samples are dry as a witch's...well, they're dry. They long for verb. Good verb is highly underrated by the "grew up recording ina computer" set. "Good" is also relative. I use a PCM91--I know folks who would say that's barely useable. [:D]

popman et al,
currently VSL does not have an end-user demo product, it is somehow hard to weigh between limiting instruments, articulations, velocities playrange vs. data size and still allowing to demonstrate the great features for performance detection of the vienna instruments player.

if your favourite store does not have VSL products for demoing (i.e. is not member of the VSL authorized dealer program) ask them to get in touch with the regional distributor

what i personally often find very saddening is the fact that actually so-called solution providers (however they received that title) don't have any clue (or time?) how to setup a computer for demoing VSL products regulary, so it might be worth to spend some time in our demo zone to find out what _is_ possible to receive with vienna instruments libraries.
christian

Thanks alot, this a good idea as I still want to examine the performance detection tool, I will be in England during August, may be there a can find a decent VSL distributer.

@Elan Hickler said:

I have never used VI (I'm planning on purchasing SE ASAP) but I don't think you should blow your money on an expensive reverb. Not everyone uses expensive reverbs, not everyone needs to. It depends on how much of this --> $$$ you got and if you are a hobbyist or a professional.

Anyway, to say you "NEED" to invest into an expensive reverb is like telling someone you can't make good music with VSL if you don't have an expensive reverb. When I get VSL (4 weeks from now?) I'll post demos of using QuikQuak RaySpace like an Altiverb and we'll see if I can get by.

Hah, you NEED to learn to read. [:D]

What did I actually write? [8-)]

DG

I think West LA Music in Universal City (Los Angeles) has copies of VSL for people to demo. Otherwise, score a NAMM badge and go to Winter NAMM (Also LA area, Anaheim).

Emperor, our distributor in UK is time+space whereas for qatar normally it would be bestservice
i'll ask if someone from the team is around there in august, otherwise: visit vienna, it's nice here too [;)]
christian

christian, thanks, I am planning for Vienna next year. This time my vaction will be in London and Abergavenny. [:)]

@Elan Hickler said:

When I get VSL (4 weeks from now?) I'll post demos of using QuikQuak RaySpace like an Altiverb and we'll see if I can get by.

Keep me informed if you've done some renderings with QuikQuak, cos I'm interesting in this reverb.