I have discovered a phenomenon related to VE. It is absolutely taking over my studio, whether I want it to or not. This is because even though there are other sample libraries, with good sounds, they are not VSL, and therefore cannot exist within the brilliantly designed interface of VE. It is among the five most elegant pieces of software I have ever used: Vegas Video 3.0 to 8.1 (which does everything flawlessly and never crashes), ScriptThing (perfect word processing for extremely fast production of my bad film scripts), Finale (post 2001 which actually shrunk the code - imagine that!) and Voyetra Digital Orchestrator (a long abandoned but absolutely perfect and instantaneous-to-use sequencer vastly superior to the MIDI functions of Logic, Cubase and Sonar put together).
I think that people are so quickly accepting VSL products that they forget that someone invented them. I don't, because I remember the nightmare that was Gigastudio and the previous incarnations of working with samples. For example, using a hardware Emulator to record in endlessly repeated layers on an Akai 4 track digital recorder with a 40 megabyte hard drive. I recorded a symphony with it and almost lapsed into catatonic hebephrenia as a result.
I am regularly excited and amazed by the power of the VE matrix switching, the power panning, the instant access to the most musically important controls that are hallmarks of this great software design. You can cynically call me a fanboy, but how can someone not be? There is a real ingenuity and creativity in dealing with the the complex challenges of using samples. In the past it seemed impossible both to work with and to finally hear so many individual sounds flowing together musically and seamlessly.
I just felt the need to write this as a result of how people seem to take for granted this truly magical technology! The company's dedication to the highest standards of musicality is a rare example of a state-of-the-art technology not ignoring, but being scrupulously faithful to the great accomplishments of the past.