Sorry but I am completely confused. Can someone help me?

[Grundman]

I must recognize that I am completely confused about the Vienna Instruments. I must recognize that I do not understand this new policy. Let me explain.

Profile:
User of Horizon Solo Strings, Chamber Strings, Harp, French Oboe and Concert Guitar.
Using on Kontakt and Gigastudio

1. If I order the Vienna Instruments Solo Strings Standard I get a reduced number of Samples than the actually Horizon Solo Strings but I get the brand new VST Instrument of Vienna. Surelly it worth the price.

2. If I also order the Vienna Instruments Chamber Strings Standard I get a reduced number of Samples than the actually Horizon Chamber Strings but I get the brand new VST Instrument which I also have ordered first. So am I paying twice the instrument?

3. If I order....a x number of VI Standard how many times am I charged for the new instrument?

4. Does the new instrument work with the Horizon libraries or just only use the new ones throwing the Horizon libraries to the bin?

5. Were the new 24 bit samples recordered again for all the libraries or just only upgraded to 24 bit?

6. How many dongles I will receive if I order x products? x dongles?

Neither of these questions seems to be answered so would someone to be kind to help me?

[timkiel]

Hi

Here goes:

1. Yes but if you get the extended you will receive a hefty discount because you own Horizon Solo Strings

2. Yes and No, not paying twice - see the countless other forum posts on this subject. But you would need the extended version to get the maximum benefit and receive your discount because you own Chamber Strings.

3. You do not "buy" the new instrument. Each package is an instrument in its own right. The VSTi is just a way to play the samples. So just because you have bought the Solo Strings VI and want to buy the CHamber Strings VI you don't get a discount because you've already got a VI.

4. No it doesn't work with the current libraries. But there is no need to throw them in the bin...

5. Some will be new samples, but the original Vienna recordings would have been 24 bit to begin with, but they will have been downgraded to support GIGA.

6. Good question - I and many others want to know..... VSL Team?

Regards

Tim

[nliberg]

1 and 2: As an owner of a Horizon library you get the corresponding VI Full Library (Standard+Extended) for nearly the same price as only the VI Standard.
For you the Full VI of Chamber and Solo Strings costs 900 €.
The Standard VI of Chamber and Solo Strings costs 840 €.
So the Standard VI is really a non-option for anyone owning an earlier product.

4. If you mean playing the Horizon libraries through a VI in some way, the answer is no as Tim said. But if you mean using Horizon libraries together with a VI in the same song, that's no problem. The only difference is the interface. Horizon instruments are played through Kontakt or Gigastudio and the VI instruments would be VST plugins in your music host. No reason why you could not use them together.

[Grundman]

Thanks Tim.

I am talking only about the Standard (STD) not the Extended (XTND) to avoid mismatch. Suppose you do not wish the XTND. You receive samples and a new VI to play it. But less samples than Horizon Solo Strings.

In my humble opinion the 35€ special offer must be for the Standard and the real price for the XT. I do not want to start another thread inside this thread but if you say that you are not charged for the VI why you are charged for less samples than the ones you already have?.

It seems to me that the real argument is that you will receive a extraordinary new instrument to make easier and better the experience with the samples. I am not discussing this. Sure it worth.

But when you order another product you are receiving the same VI and now this is not an argument but an strategy to avoid this new VI work with the other STD or Horizon samples you have.

Why not sell the new VI as another product alone and let it work with the old libraries? 24 bit is not a problem. You can always upsize your libraries with an audio editor.

[Grundman]

Thanks nliberg but if someone have bought the STD and XTND I do not see the reaons to have duplicated samples doubling the space in the HD. Or am I wrong?

[nliberg]

@Grundman said:

Thanks nliberg but if someone have bought the STD and XTND I do not see the reasons to have duplicated samples doubling the space in the HD. Or am I wrong?

No, I think you're right. I was primarily thinking of using Horizon libraries to which you have no VI counterpart together with newer VI ones.

Regarding discounts I found this thread enlightening. I assume the Horizon libraries lies somewhere between the corresponding VI Standard and VI Extended in terms of number of samples. Therefore, in one way moving from a Horizon library to the corresponding VI Standard would be a downgrade, but at the same time you would get better workflow which could be seen as an upgrade. The central point as I've understood it is that VSL only promises (and have done so from the start) to give you a discount when upgrading to a larger library.

I find your idea about adapting the VI sampler to being able to play older libraries interesting. 24-bit might not be the only limit though. If I'm correct the new samples are equipped with meta-data about how the software should use them, so one would possibly need to convert that too.

[Grundman]

Thanks again nliberg. What I see here is a lot of legacy users a little bit dissapointed with this new policy.

Perhaps it's better to wait if someone buys the new VI and comment the real differences...but in any case my vote is for develop the new VI as a new alone product, letting the users to play the samples they wish. You want more samples, you need to buy it. You have old samples, you will be playinga little far from the state of art.

[Martin]

The samples included in the Vienna Instruments are not just a better quality since they’re 24bit (yes, they have been mastered from the original recording in 96kHz/32bit), but a large portion of the samples have been heavily re-edited (and re-mapped) in order to make full use of the Performance Detection algorithms. That’s the reason why you can’t use your “old” samples in the Vienna Instrument, and that’s also one of the reasons why the prices for the Standard Library are fixed – apart from the new Vienna Instrument technology it’s also the work that has been applied to the samples itself.
Best wishes, Martin

[Grundman]

Thanks Martin.

Now I see the things clear. As a suggestion your answer must be included in the FAQ or in the product information, because makes the decission to upgrade more clear. At last count with me.

[PolarBear]

Re: 6.

Clarified in this thread by Martin:

(edit)You recieve 1 dongle free with the SC(/edited). You have to buy additional dongles seperately, in general if you want to use the libraries on more than one computer simultaneously, as much dongles as computers you want to use it on.

If you already have a Synchrosoft dongle (like Steinberg uses) - you can also use that for VSL licenses (the ViennaKey is also a SynchroSoft dongle). However you will miss out the 30 day demo of the Extended Library content if you go this route.

All the best,
PolarBear

EDIT: Martin stated in the linked thread that "One ViennaKey is free for everyone who orders the Symphonic Cube."

[Grundman]

Thanks PolarBear but there are too much misunderstanding with this matter. I think VSL team must to review all the information they are providing because instead of close up new customers are moving further away the old customers.

First of all, I do not remember have seen in the product page nothing about the new copy protection scheme, neither that the VI will not work with the old samples, neither all the samples are remapped, neither you need an extra USB port available for the dongle which is also forgotten in the information. You only need to go to the webshop and make click on the system requirements.

More than this, they also forgot to mention that any VI instrument you buy alone will not work unless you buy a dongle key separately.

As I said before, this is a pity. Instead of launch a new website with all the welcomes it appears that they do no have all the things fixed. My suggestion is that the VS team need to fix this information quickly.