@clamnectar said:

I'm not just talking about MY specific needs... the glaring hole in the special edition bundle is the lack of articulations that facilitate fast playing on all instruments. If there's anything to add, it's that. I'm sure most special edition customers who have pushed their bundle to the limits have noticed this as well. Presuming that the number of special editing buyers is large, there's significant demand to fill in the gaps. You can do it piece by piece with the winds and brass, but when it comes to the strings, your only option is to plunk down $9000, something that VERY few special edition customers can afford (I mean, if they could have, they probably would have bought the full bundle in the first place). The additional rub is that the $9000 is mostly spent on buying marginally higher quality versions of the SAME articulations that already come with the special edition bundle. But that's beside the point. As a satisfied customer who wants more strings, I find myself with nothing left to buy (unless I win the lottery). I think that's a failure on the part of VSL. I think the best solution would be ~$1000 DVD package that serves as "special edition plus plus." But CM has shot this down, either because their sales figures don't support my assertions, or because they don't want to piss off anyone who spent $9000 for all the strings, or because they are making a business mistake. Whatever the reason, it's a shame. I hope I've made my opinion clear now.

Hint me a little more and give me some suggestions please! (private message perhaps?)

@clamnectar said:

Actually, I also want to illustrate with an example. Looking at this... http://vsl.co.at/en/211/442/344/352/579/393.htm There are only two or three articulations in the Standard library that are not in the Special Edition Bundle. The slogan 'never pay for the same sample twice' may apply TECHNICALLY, if half tone interval sampling is worth another $675, but... it looks to me more like you're paying $675 to get absolutely nothing. Doesn't that strike anyone else as wacky? I still can't wrap my head around this pricing.

Dude, you are getting TWICE the amount of samples (if not more) due to the chromatic samples. You may not think thats a big deal, but it is huge. Trust me. It really does add to the realism having the extra legato/portamento half-tone samples. You may say, but yeah i dont care about that, its not that big of a deal to me... Well, then why do you care so much about the fast-legato samples? If realism is important, half-tone samples and true fast legatos are crucial. If realism isnt that important, then just use whole-tone samples and edit your attack time on your regular legato samples.

You're turning this into a "What i hate about VSL" thread. 

 Not to mention that you're getting more velocity layers in, I think, all of the articulations which, as mplaster points out, adds to the realism.

I used to think that the SE was just a watered down version of the Cube but it's more like what's left in the water after the Cube is watered down.  Big, big difference.

Okay, so I have nothing to do with this conversation and I am adding my two cents a year later, but as pointless as it may seem... I feel it is appropriate in case anyone ever reads this who is trying to find people comparing EW to VSL (as a google search of HS vs VSL brought me here).

A friend of mine is an avid EW fan and owner, he owns everything they have. I am a new VSL owner (just the Special Edition, for now (bwa ha ha)) but I would challenge everyone debating on what company to invest in... to one thing; let VSL speaks for itself.

I play with Hollywood Strings on my friends computer and I notice two things consistantly: 1) Bad software - their software doesn't seem to work correctly, glitches when I play the controller while samples load (My wonderful VSL doesn't), and the organization of samples is chaotic. 2) Bad sound - Hollywood strings, like all other 'East Wurst tomatoes' sounds incredibly pale, and dead.

VSL, under the microscope I find very small problems (which I can always work around with ease)... but with Eastwest, I can't even play for about 10 seconds and I already miss my VSL because the difference in quality is night and day.

-Sean

P.S. Is 1,000,000 crappy samples worth 300,000 superb samples? I would rather have a 4 octave bosendorfer instead of an 88-key out-of-tune yamaha.

Hello

Now it is up to VSL to think about an upgrade between Downloaded Instrument and DVD collection.

I have try to do a little table with the Flute instrument (not obvious as sometimes it is not so clear but it give you a general overhaul)

You get the discount when you upgrade to Extended Library and you pay the full price on the standard library

if you look at the columns of the tables there are not a lot of articulation between the Donwloaded and the Standard and you pay the full price

In contrario there is a lot of articulations between DVD standard and DVD extended and you get the discount 

I love VSL products, but if VSL wants more money from me it will have to rethink about the situation an put the discount to DVD standard

Best

Cyril