Man, I'm pretty stoked. After nearly 120 hours spent searching over the last month, and up to page 300 or so on my Google searches, I finally found an online retailer with a copy of the Horizon Series Solo Strings.
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel like I've stuck it to the man, outsmarted a clever and elusive foe. It's kind of a bizarre feeling of victory, since I like these Austrian-made chamber strings and epic horns very very much. But I like Kontakt very very much, as well. I don't want the VI - ever, if I can manage it. Kontakt works for me, and when it doesn't, I write a script that modifies its behavior. I don't care about dongles. They never did anything to me. :) But I really don't like the thought of being constrained to a canned workflow. I've done all the reading, all the viewing, all the research. I understand how the VI makes lots of folks' lives easier, but it's not for me. I have a particular paradigm, Kontakt does it for me, and I'm stickin' to it. So nyah.
The sense of relief is prominent. I was going to be bitter if I had to fork over the dough for the VI version of the solo strings.
I missed the discontinuing of these strings this past spring, as I had my head buried in the sand with a massive pile of gigs and contracts. And I really couldn't tell you the purpose of this thread. It's my first post in these forums. I guess I've never wasted more time and energy in my whole life trying to hunt down a sample library. So you VSL guys know I think your samples are the cat's pajamas. :)
Well, alright, off to go relax after a long and tiring day in the trenches of electronic commerce. If anybody wants to know the vendor, PM me (if such a thing exists on this forum). I was informed they have the entire Horizon Series in stock, but aren't making a big deal out of it. Kinda wish they did, so they'd be easier to find - but then again, they probably wouldn't have any copies laying either, if that were the case!
-Tom