Vienna Symphonic Library Forum
Forum Statistics

194,791 users have contributed to 42,934 threads and 258,008 posts.

In the past 24 hours, we have 3 new thread(s), 10 new post(s) and 105 new user(s).

  1. Home
  2. General & Hardware
  3. Dissapointed or I'm using Vsl wrong...?

  • Dissapointed or I'm using Vsl wrong...?

    V
    V
    Hi,

    I just discovered my college has the Vienna Symphonic Library First edition Cube, and I decided to take a few compositions to hear them at school. After spending a long time figuring out how to use Gigastudio and export my files from Finale to Sonar, I was finally able to hear the music.

    Unfortunately, I have to say at this point, the quality is not even as good as my SoundFont library I've been using on a SBLive! The piece is slow and lyrical and even when loading the "long sustain patch" for the instruments, they stop playing after a short while, and even worse, there are huge breaks between the notes! Am I doing something wrong? I can't possibly believe a $3000 library would work less than collected free soundfonts.

    Sincerely,
    Valerie
  • M
    M
    You should listen to some of the user demos to see what vsl is capable of. You have to be realistic in the way you right things with VSL because not all the patches are looped, like synths. Does your school also have the performance set? You should definetly use the legato patches with a slow sustained piece. You must put a certain tiny space between repeated notes with the legato tool and when notes are played in succesion the last note has less sutain capabiltiy than a note played by itself so you may have to have them reatriculate. Also you need to use some kind of reverb with VSL because things were recorded with absoultly no reverb (for good reasons). If you send me the midi file at magates@uark.edu. I could give you much more specific adivce on how to setup up your patches and how to edit your midi file.
  • D
    D
    Oh yeah, please check out the demos and read up on what the performance tools do. This library works best when you compose with it on hand with the tools and it can create the most realistic music around. It will probably not sound just great right out of the box though or when playing an existing MIDI file composition done with other simpler sounds. To do it right requires the use of the various articulations. (long, staccato, trill, swells & decrecendos at several speeds, various medium length samples with various intensities, runs, riffs, legato mode etc) As you can see, there are a ton of choices and a little learning curve to work with it properly. Some reverb ambience helps a a bit too.

    Cheers
    Dave
  • W
    W
    What David says is the essence of it - the VSL will not necessarily play your pieces right just because it's a great library. After all even a Stradivarius violin won't play your violin concerto unless you know how to make it play (or know somebody). The VSL isn't like a machine that does music for you - it is like a musical instrument itself, which you have to learn and practice and finally get to perform on.
  • M
    M
    i just spent all of last week going through every instrument! you must spend some time learning the instruments in order to know what to use when inspiration hits. if your end results sounds like sound fonts, then something is dreadfully wrong! also it takes time( unless ypur mozart) to learn orchestration and composition!
  • M
    M
    Worse than a free soundfont...... well gee... [8-)] ?!?

    Maarten
  • V
    V
    Thank you for the suggestions. I listened to the demos and they are fantastic; that's why I am so dissappointed in what is being produced. I realize there are many articulations, but it's absurd that the "Cube" could only play dis-connected or staccato music - that eliminates a lot of lyrical music.

    So.. I discovered we only purchased the First Edition Cube. That being said, here are a few questions:

    1) If I want to switch from long to short notes, how do I do that for every instrument when I only have 16 channels in GigaStudio (I would need at least 40+ channels just to load two types of all the instruments and tell Sonar to switch channels.

    2) How can I get rid of the space put between the notes (even when using the sustain long note patches)?

    3) I spent some time with the GigaStudio manual and saw that you can combine and crossfade instruements... can I "glue together" several instances of the same patch to make it last longer?

    If I can fix those three things, I think that would make a huge difference! The "quality" of the sound is really great, but they just aren't "playing" correctly, or as I'm accustomed.

    Thank you for any help you can provide; I'll try to find somewhere to post the MIDI file and some MP3s of what I'm hearing.

    Thanks You guys!
    Valerie
  • H
    H
    Hi Valerie,

    if you need short and long note combinations on one miditrack you should try ou the BASIC-SETS of each instrument.
    Her you find keyswitch combinations of the most important basic articulations.

    This files have reduced sample amount, so it enables you to load more instruments also.

    For the ensemble strings you will find in the LONG-NOTE gigfiles "0sus" variations. Here we edited the attack, so this samples could be used for faster "legato" passages.

    My favourite layout patches are the "sus+0sus+RS" programmings.
    Here you can switch between normal and fast attack using the modwheel,
    and the Release samples enables you to use them also for "short note" playing.

    I've posted a step by step tutorial to create new combinations.
    If you want to combine two instruments, which are stored in two different gigfiles you have to merge them first into one new gigfile. After that you could map new instruments.

    Here you have the link:

    http://235.deatech.at/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=7472&highlight=tutorial#7472

    best wishes
    Herb
  • K
    K
    Just keep in mind,

    A library like VSL is designed to offer the best options to make a realistic performance using current tools and future offerings. Its an amazing concetp, but the approach is beyond traditional sample sets, or "Simple" playback options, makign for some need to learn "how to use" the lib in the "best" way for a particular composition.

    Unlike a SFont, which is usually made to be a small set of samples that can be used in many different compositions, but ultimately not offer enough flexibility to make something sound as realistic as VSL can do

    VSL takes some learning. Its a toolset. You'll get there, just understand that it takes a little time to learn the tools (Giga, more sequencer options, the perf tool, as well as basic mixing concepts)

    You can use the Basic sets like Herb mentioned (a good idea), or you can set up Bank/program switches in your sequencer to change patches during playback (more cumbersome, but ultimately more flexible)