Herb, Win my money!!!!!

[dpasdernick]

Dear Herb or seasoned VSLO veteran,

I will be investing in an orchestral library very soon and am very interested in Opus 1. I currently use Halion 1.1 not 2.0. (I received this for free from Audio MIDI when I bought Xphrase and it is not upgradable.) It does convert GigaStudio files though and I was wondering if I could use it to play the Opus 1 sounds? Specifically do you know if Halion 1.0 has the juice and brains to convert the libraries intact. I own GigaStudio 32 (junior version) but have removed it from my computer as I have never been able to get it to "behave" properly and do not wish to invest time and money into it. Also will a P4 1.7 ghz with 768 megs of ram be able to play most of the Opus 1 library? I know these questions are rather vague and generic but any help could sway me one way or another.

On another note I have not seen as much class in an individual or a company like you Herb, and VSL in a long long time. This alone makes me want to invest in Opus 1 even if I have to buy another computer to run it on. You'll just have to help me convince my wife! ; )

I wish you further success. This company and it's products are in a league of their own!

Sincerley,

Darren Pasdernick
(Budding Film Composer and all round nice guy)

[cm]

darren, i doubt halion 1.1 will convert the files intact and AFAIK i does not stream(!). your proc is fine (if we talk about using gigastudio), but i would add _some_ more memory. upgrade to 1 GB with W98 or 2 GB with W2K/XP to get loaded as much as possible. opus 1 has about 40,000 samples - about 8000 can be loaded at once in 1 GB RAM (but please note, you don't need to load complete instruments, selected articulations need significantly less space) - so you should have the most important parts at your fingertips
christian

[Peter Alexander]

HALion 2.0 is the ticket.

[Beat Kaufmann]

Dear Darren
You’re asking if your actual equipment will work with OPUS1.
I'm also using a P4 with 768MB ram and HALion 2.01yet...

Memory-Size (in addition to christians answer)
To produce music with your PCs memory-size means, that you will be able to load one instrument in time (VL-14_mV_sus, VL-14_mV-sfz, VL-14_mV-sffz, VL-14_stac-1, VL-14_stac-2, VL-14_0_3s-1, VL-14_mV_dim3_1_5s, VL-14_pz_mV-1, VL-14_tr-GS). This example shows a collection of samples you need if you want to play in a different and expressional way. Maybe there will be some space in your ram for a second instrument...
So you have to play instrument by instrument (perhaps)! This is not very comfortable but it works. Please have a look to the VSL-Demo-Section (J.S. Bach E-Partita). This track I’ve done with this technique.
In the VSL-Library you will find also Basic-Set-Samples. They will generally take less of memory. So you can load up much more different instruments with there expressions… But the Basic-Set-Sample-Quality is normally reduced: Only 2 velocity-layers, only one sample for more then one halftone etc.
Solution1: Your “money-level” increases > buy more ram.
Solution2: Your “money-level” decreases (OPUS1) > work like me…

HALion
First I had also HALion 1.1. There were no problems converting VSL-Gigafiles.
Important: I have no experience using HALion with the VSL-Legato-Tool. ???
Today I’m using HALion 2.01. This version seems to be more stable. It converts now also other Gigafile-Products (bigga giggas) without problems. The version 2.01 has another important option:
With HALion 1.16 the lowest loading time for the integrated samples is 1.53s I remember. With HALion 2.01 you have 0.74s (Logic 5.5). This feature doubles the count of samples!
So you will be able to work with HALion 1.1 but I agree with the upper answer: The Ticket is HALion 2.0!

all the best
Beat Kaufmann

[cm]

this would be a good place to point again to the most valuable tutorials from tim kiel http://www.timkiel.com/music/tutorials/tutorial.htm">http://www.timkiel.com/music/tutorials/tutorial.htm describing possible setups for the performance tool with halion
christian

[dpasdernick]

[:D]

Beat, Christian, Peter, & Tim Kiel

1st Class gentlemen. Thank you so much for the advice (and the tutorials Tim). Man I have a ton to learn but I did buy the demo cube from Ilio so I'll practise with the tools on that CD. Once again I thank you for the help and kindness. Great tools, great music, great people!

Sincerely,

Darren

[cm]

darren, a final note because you mention the demo CD - don't run midi yoke, which comes with the demo CD on a W2K/XP system, it may freeze your gigastudio with a bad undetected midi-loop in some configurations.
if you need virtual midiports for routing i'd recommend to download mapleports instead, which has been generously made available by Jeff Hurchalla as a freeware a while after the demo CD has been manufactured
christian