Vienna Symphonic Library Forum
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  3. How To Start?

  • How To Start?

    B
    B
    Hi there ...

    I'm involved in creating music for short video clips. Our company uses Cubase (PC), creamware's PULSAR and a good old T1 as central workstation. A colleague of mine informed me 'bout VSL what made me curious. But what I found is just overwhelming. How to start? Should we initially buy a tutorial DVD?

    Any help will be appreciated.

    Regards from good (c)old Germany.
  • J
    J
    Welcome to the VSL Forum, Bernd!

    I've used VSL for almost two years now and just updgraded to the PRO Edition just over a month ago.

    Yes, the DVD will help. It's a great overview and a bit more.

    First, try Beat Kaufmann's website beginning online tutorial:
    http://homepage.hispeed.ch/beat.kaufmann/tipspcmusic/howtousevsl/index.html

    His link was posted on this thread:
    http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?t=4900

    Scour the site for occasional MIDI files. I'm a Mac/Logic user, but I've run across several posts about Cubase and VSL.

    Also, be sure to check out the user demos and classic demos on the main area of this website. The results are encouraging.
    http://vsl.co.at/english/demos/vienna_demos/solo_instruments/woodwinds/piccolo/piccolo_%2d_pro_edition.htm

    Don't be afraid to drop Herb, Dietz, Christian, or any of the other VSL team a note to express your interest. They are very supportive and they will take your interrest in VSL very personally. They care a great deal about what they do-- as much as they care about their users. I'm sure that they would be happy to answer most of your questions. There are some very experienced members here, too, who will also be able to answer questions or post helpful links for you.

    Good luck!
    JWL
  • P
    P
    A good start is to have a general overview how everything is organzied with VSL, meaning to get to know what the packages are, what they contain and so on. From that point on, I'd sit down a day (it may already be enough for two) and download demos that show what you get with a package you're interested in. So you might go a route like this:

    There is the Horizon Series, and the Symphonic Editions for now. The Horizon Series are products that are either a package of their own (like Overdrive, Woodwind ensembles, Chamber Strings, ...) or derived from the Symphonic Editions (like Opus 1, ...) or a "status quo" (extending the Symphonic Editions like Solo Strings). Let's say you opt for big orchestral stuff. Then you might be more interested in the Symphonic Editions. These are the First Edition and the Pro Edition (and somewhere in the future there is the Symphonic Cube). They both represent more or less a large standard orchestra, for details about that check the articulation lists of both, whileas the Pro Edition is extending the First Edition (historically they hit the stores a year or so apart).

    Both Symphonic Editions are seperated more: The Cube, that contains the more "standard" articulations in a style you might already know from conventional sample libraries and a Performance Set, which contains the revolutionary parts like true legatos and repetitions that are a trademark of VSL. The latter needs the Performance Tool to work correctly (in case you stumbled over that name), which is a download once you got the Set. It's also on the Demo DVD with correspondent sounds - there is also a Tutorial DVD for this tool, but that's not containing any sounds or tools but explaining how to work with it. Furthermore, the Cube products again are divided into three parts that can be purchased seperately - Strings, Brass & Winds, Percussion.

    Also worth a look before you decide what to purchase is the discount calculator where you can calculate the costs of special bundles, upgrade paths and so on.

    Hope that helps a bit (and I didn't forget crucial parts),
    PolarBear