I was interested in purchasing some of the individual wind instruments that are part of the download collection. When i listened to the audio demos I was very disappointed in the sound of most of the instruments. I believe this is mainly due to the fact that all of them use the same audio demo piece, written by Beat Kaufmann, instead of having demos that were actually written for each particular instrument, displaying a sensitivity to the individual character of each instrument! As we all know, articulations and the general approach to all instruments vary considerably, hence, one must be very sensitive to the particular nature of each instrument when composing for it. It does not do to just write one piece and simply change which instrument is playing the solo part! I found that most instruments lacked the subtle nuances in articulation and approach which is critical to good idiomatic writing for solo wind instruments. Can you imagine a bass trombone player playing the piccolo using the exact same approach to articulation? Nor can I! Even the ensemble versions used the same demo. I believe this was a very poor decision as it does not show any of the instrument samples in a very favorable light. I hope this is changed in the future.
I am a longtime user of VSL and VI products and I really respect them. That's the biggest reason i was so disappointed by this.
Thanks,
Mike Coyle
Bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Coyle_(American_Composer)