@Peter Wayne said:

417 x $398 = $165,966

...

Well, for us poor guys it seems to be a lot of money. But I think VSL prefers to sell 417 copies for the original price... [:D]
I think you are missing the point! How many of those 417 people would not have bought the library in the first place? There is no way that EWQL would have sold anywhere near those figures in a matter of weeks at the orginal price. Although $165,966 may not seem like alot. You have to understand that a large percentage of this money did not existed without this group buy.

I would definitely go in on a group buy for Opus 1 as opposed to the EWQLSO GOld Edition. I already have Silver Edition with Silver Pro on its way in March or whenever. But I've been continually knocked out by the VSL samples and the performance tool features such as "legato" patches. I only have a couple that came with my Gigastudio 3.0 Solo version but they are really outstanding sounds. This library, above all else, has gotten the closest to emulating a real instrument. It's actually scary how good these sounds are....

@dcoscina said:

[...] This library, above all else, has gotten the closest to emulating a real instrument. It's actually scary how good these sounds are....

Hey, thanks! May we quote you on this? [:D]

/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library

@Peter Wayne said:

417 x $398 = $165,966

...

Well, for us poor guys it seems to be a lot of money. But I think VSL prefers to sell 417 copies for the original price... [:D]
They will , but not as quickly. And...Not to a certain group of buyers who otherwise wouldn`t have bought it in the 1st place. Group buys appeal to the "fence sitters"... Rich

@Peter Wayne said:

417 x $398 = $165,966

...

Well, for us poor guys it seems to be a lot of money. But I think VSL prefers to sell 417 copies for the original price... [:D]
They will , but not as quickly. And...Not to a certain group of buyers who otherwise wouldn`t have bought it in the 1st place. Group buys appeal to the "fence sitters"... Rich

Hey Rich, good to see another Torontian on the board. I also wish for a group buy but if it doesn't happen I'll figure out a way to add Opus 1 to my virtual orchestra (I already have SAM Horns and Solo Sessions, EWQLSO SIlver, GS 3.0 Orchestra, HALion Strings etc.). It was a very smart move of companies such as VSL and Project SAM to include demo patches on the Gigastudio 3 packages. That's how I ended up getting SAM Solo Sessions. Those damn sounds were just too good to pass up. But obviously they are a lot cheaper than Opus 1, hence I got them first.

However, stores like Long and McQuade and Saved by Technology offer these libraries and have different methods of payment. Saved... has a credit card although their interest rates absolutely suck. Long and McQuade ahs their own in-house financing which is 17% annually and the terms are such that you must pay the balance off within a year. That's not bad. I've put things on account then paid them off way early so as to avoid paying too much interest.

For Opus 1, I originally hoped to get it trading in my P90 but the store I went to didn't have it and I realised that I needed to upgrade GS3 Solo to GS3 Orchestra before getting Opus 1. And orchestra comes with a boatload of VSL sounds specially done for that platform so it was a good deal.

@dcoscina said:

[...] This library, above all else, has gotten the closest to emulating a real instrument. It's actually scary how good these sounds are....

Hey, thanks! May we quote you on this? [:D]

/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library

Sure, no problem. Just give me a free copy of Opus 1. Or heck, I'll be a beta tester for your next library [[;)]]

I was actually surprised that the Vienna people had sales of any kind at first.

I guess a group buy would be nice, but I believe that even discounts can have an impact on the perceived intrinsic value of a product. Especially one that is upgrade oriented.

VSL is serious stuff. People on the fence about their VSL purchases really don't need what the library or the company has to offer.

Clark

@clarkcontrol said:

I was actually surprised that the Vienna people had sales of any kind at first.

I guess a group buy would be nice, but I believe that even discounts can have an impact on the perceived intrinsic value of a product. Especially one that is upgrade oriented.

VSL is serious stuff. People on the fence about their VSL purchases really don't need what the library or the company has to offer.

Clark

I do agree. And VSL also probably doesn't want to alienate the loyal customers who shelled out the full price for their products. I know I'd be pissed off if I paid $1500 or whatever for Opus 1 only to discover a month later that it was going for a group buy price of $500.

Just from the quality of the demo patches that came with GS3 Orchestra, I know that these samples are leagues ahead of the competition (in most categories- I still prefer Project SAM brass over any other library out there, but that's a preference obviously).

If I had to recommend a single cost effective library to someone who demands excellence from their orchestral samples, I'd point them toward Opus 1. If I had to start all over again, I would go this route. But I don't know if I'd get GS3 version or Kontakt. Kontakt benefits from greater polyphony as it's a plug-in. On the other hand, GS3 running as its own app. has some advantages. And the re-wire function certainly gives one some flexbility.

@clarkcontrol said:

VSL is serious stuff. People on the fence about their VSL purchases really don't need what the library or the company has to offer.

Right... [8-)] And people who are on the fence because they've already invested in many other libraries are not serious. I smell the sadly familiar odour of snobbery in the air. [:'(]

That may be true, however keep in mind one thing: what Herb said, that he had "deep respect for anyone who does a sample library."

this is one of the reasons that VSL is so good - it is run by someone who is a pure artist.

I apologize most profusely if my comments seemed elitist. I was only attempting to be direct in my comments.

I own many libraries. I go to VSL first.

That doesn't mean that the other libraries aren't good; some of the older ones do things that sound better than the newest ones do, including VSL.

But I'll bet that if you asked any Vienna orchestra user (Opus, 1st Ed., Pro) what their "desert island" sample set was...

Clark

I've got EWQLSO SIlver loaded up, playing one of the Gold patches. Nice but then I switched to GS3.0 (re-wired in Sonar) and started messing around with the legato clarinet patch...um, don't mean to compare but holy smoley, whatta difference.

1st joke of the day :

Why is East West doing group buy ?

Because they need some cash to pay the hall where they record the Pro edition [[:D]]

---------
2nd joke of the day :

Why is East West doing group buy ?

Because they received an Arward and some cash from Apple as the best "G4/G5 killer" [[:D]]

Merry Xmas

Cyril[/b]

@Cyril said:

1st joke of the day :

Why is East West doing group buy ?

Because they need some cash to pay the hall where they record the Pro edition [[:D]]

---------
2nd joke of the day :

Why is East West doing group buy ?

Because they received an Arward and some cash from Apple as the best "G4/G5 killer" [[:D]]

Merry Xmas

Cyril[/b]

Woo hooo! [:O]ops: Man, are those jokes ever hilarious [8-)] . If you`ve ever used it, You`d know that EWQLSO is a Killer Lib. And that takes nothing away from VSL ..They both compliment each other nicely ,rich

@dcoscina said:

I've got EWQLSO SIlver loaded up, playing one of the Gold patches. Nice but then I switched to GS3.0 (re-wired in Sonar) and started messing around with the legato clarinet patch...um, don't mean to compare but holy smoley, whatta difference.

Hey Dcosina,
Yea there arent that many Torontonians a far as i can see, maybe we`ll bump into each other one day.. [:D]
BTW, the VSL Perf. Set stuff is really wonderful and does things that no other library can do but you really have to check out QLSO Platinum to get the full experience of that lib. Silver`s just a teaser..Best to you [:)] Rich

@Another User said:

Hey Dcosina,
Yea there arent that many Torontonians a far as i can see, maybe we`ll bump into each other one day.. [:D]
BTW, the VSL Perf. Set stuff is really wonderful and does things that no other library can do but you really have to check out QLSO Platinum to get the full experience of that lib. Silver`s just a teaser..Best to you [:)] Rich

I actually just bought the Gold edition through the Group Buy. And I'll probably end up going Gold Pro from there on a bit later on.

Still haven't ruled out VSL though. I REALLY like those legato patches, especially for woodwinds.

@Another User said:

Hey Dcosina,
Yea there arent that many Torontonians a far as i can see, maybe we`ll bump into each other one day.. [[:D]]
BTW, the VSL Perf. Set stuff is really wonderful and does things that no other library can do but you really have to check out QLSO Platinum to get the full experience of that lib. Silver`s just a teaser..Best to you [:)] Rich

I actually just bought the Gold edition through the Group Buy. And I'll probably end up going Gold Pro from there on a bit later on.

Still haven't ruled out VSL though. I REALLY like those legato patches, especially for woodwinds.
The performance stuff in VSL is amazing. Not to be ruled out.. [[:D]] Rich

Yeah, I definitely think so. I keep going to that legato clarinet demo patch every time I boot up GS3. I feel a bit stupid since I could have bought Opus 1 last weekend but instead went the GS3 Orchestra route. I have Solo as well which is running on my lesser powered laptop but I guess my reasoning was that I wanted mondo polyphony BEFORE I bought Opus 1. It never occured to me, being the dumbass I am, that I could have bought Opus 1 for Kontakt (which I also own) or else, used the freeze featured on Sonar 4 with GS3 Solo....oh well.......