Vienna Symphonic Library Forum
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  • VSL is slowly taking over my studio!

    It happened quite subtely. At first, I used a balance of EW Gold Pro XP, Halion Symphonic ORchestra, a touch of SAM stuff, a dabble of Miroslav, some Apple Jam Packs. But lately, I've noticed I'm substituting my HALion Strings with Appassionata, my GOld PRo Horns with my Epic Horns, my Garritan Jazz & Big Band saxes with VSL Saxophones (okay, Garritan never had a chance...), my Apple jam pack guitars with VSL guitars. And this is only from Vienna SE!!! What the heck would happen if I had THE CUBE [insert echoplex effect here].

    Seriously though, I normally go with my HALion Symphonic Orchestra for strings because I like the release but the other night I was doing a John Powell-styled Borne Identity type cue and I found the staccato strings from Appassionata Strings to be much more realistic sounding in their release, so I used them instead. DAMN, I like 'em!

    And the Epic Horns (unison [H] on Vienna SE have totally taken over thanks to the flexibility of the Vienna Player and the keyswitches that allow me to go between staccato and performance legato in a single key stroke.

    The only thing I DO NOT like about VSL is that I have to upgrade to an 88 note controller to take advantage of the switching (even though I know you can transpose the keys in the Control Editor section). No problem though, since I have a Kurzweil PC1SE that I'll trade in for the new(er) Kurzweil SP2 since it has 88 keys and a nice control slider that the PC1SE strangely doesnt have. So I WIN all around.

  • I had the same thing happen, Dave. I used to use a mix of so many different libraries, but with certain ones (which shall remain nameless!) I reached a point where I hit a brick wall with them: they worked well for certain things, but weren't versatile enough to work for everything. Now I use VSL for just about everything. And I think Appassionata Strings and Epic Horns are the 2 best libraries I've ever bought. So versatile, and so well-recorded.

    - kerry

  • hell, VSL didn't have to take over my library, my library just surrendered as soon as VSL showed up with its big horns. [H]

    Thank you for freeing me from my Reason 3.0 oppression!

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    last edited
    Went from Peter S Adv Orch to VSL Orchestra Cube Ext Edition. Soooo...yeah, huge difference.

    Once again, I bought VSL specifically for the perf legato that nobody else seems to do right. Woodwinds definetly win in this department.

    The only thing I DO NOT like about VSL is that I have to upgrade to an 88 note controller to take advantage of the switching (even though I know you can transpose the keys in the Control Editor section).

    @Another User said:



    I'm confused, why didn't you just re-assign the key to switch? You can do that by right-click the keyswith (right below the left panel) in the VI, and hitting which hey you want.

  • Yeah, I did think of changing the switch key but I like to have an 88 note controller anyhow.

    I just sketched a little theme out on my Macbook 1.83ghz with a Lacie bus-powered HD using Logix Express and a little M-Audio Axiom 25 (pretty neat board actually). I had just finished watching 300 (the film) and started playing around with the legato strings from my Vienna SE. I think they are the best sounding sustained strings I have heard. I like using the Velocity Control with the mod wheel to increase/decrease the tone rather than key velocity which doesn't render accurate string articulations IMO.

  • I use VSL with my EWI 4000s, and currently its in need of repair.

    So I tried to write some string parts with my keyboard and the mod wheel, and I can't do it nearly as well. Such a huge difference in expression.

  • hi,

    nathan is right.. for the strings it better to have 88 fully weighted keys. but for the boesendorfer its even more worse [:)]

    i used a yamaha stage piano before and now switched to a light weighted fatar-keyboard because of to less space. at the end this means... take the mouse and "spread" the velocities in terms of what i played... so after the extended solo strings i will definetly by a new masterkeyboard!!! and the appassionata.. and then epic horns... and then and then.... iam running out of money, cause of that great quality [:)]

    greats from germany
    markus