Jasen,

all in all, the Vienna Suite is "just" a high-quality package of 64-bit capable plug-ins. All of the processors included in th package will give you perfect results in any kind of audio production - music of all styles, post-pro, sound design ... you name them. As a matter of fact, I know quite a few producers / engineers (including myself) using Vienna Suite highly successful in pop, electronics, rock, jazz  and so on.

On of the notable differences to other packages is the vast amount of presets created specially for our Vienna Instruments. While other manufacturers hardly have more to offer than a generic "orchestra" setting for a Fairchild-clone, we have tried to go much deeper when it comes to orchestral instruments in modern music production. This doesn't mean that I _couldn't_ have done presets for other sources, too, but I have to admit that creating all the 500+ settings available today have been enough work for me to move on to other topics. ;-D

Another point worth mentioning is that Vienna Suite plug-ins don't follow the trend of recent years to desperately mimic "legendary" analogue hardware gear. Vienna Suite sports modern, highly efficient algorithms and code, without the intention to impose a "sound" of its own on your signals. - This may or may not be what you're aiming for.

HTH,

@philco said:

[...] What the Vienna people need to do is make their Convo reverb able to read 3rd party IR's.........i mean c'mon guys! [...]

I'm not quite sure if I understand what you're trying to say. If your aim is to open an IR (other than the Suite's own *.vci- format) that you have saved somewhere on your harddisks, then press the pull-down button below the "IMPULSE" header on the very left side of the Convolution Reverb' GUI. Just point at the audio file you're trying to load, and you're done, supposed it is in *.wav or *.flac format. The plug-in loads simple stereo *.wavs (for simple power-pan stereo), or 4-channel *.wavs for true stereo operation (left in and right in will both feed a dedicated stereo IR). - Using the up/down-arrows on the right side of the pull-down button you can easily click through the whole content of a folder without the need of using the dialogue window.

If you try to say that VS Convolution Reverb doesn't load other manufacturer's proprietary formats - well, then you're right, but I think I don't have to explain the reasons for that here. 😊

Kind regards from "the Vienna people" 😉

 OK, now you got me

@Dietz said:

While other manufacturers hardly have more to offer than a generic "orchestra" setting for a Fairchild-clone, we have tried to go much deeper when it comes to orchestral instruments in modern music production.

The reason , why I don't had any money left, when Vienna Suite was released, was that I bought exactly that plug in some weeks before release. One word for defense: I love it, it is so old-school, that you can't pass it by. (And who can say he has a fairchild in his studio) .((Test out the Ocean Way Preset)) (((OK I am no Pro)))

On the original reply:

While they come packaged as VSL Suite, don't be mistaken: They are top-notch, high end and carry the "Dietz" signature, means they fit in perfectly into a highly artistic AND musical approach. It takes some times and ears to master, but (I missed the preset point) use the presets extensively. Dietz is right, especially with compressors - when you don't have presets that fit  and you are not a pro, chances are, results do worsening your mix. I talk by experience.  (See Fairchild Ocean Way Studio Preset, I still havent't got the point yet) )

I am doing all kinds of music -  I tested the compressors and EQ, and they where great. The only reason why I haven't bought it: see above. EQ and Positioning is another good one, that you will not get in any other package with that clarity (neutral to your own sound imagination)

(P.S: Maybe I should do a comparison of "my" Fairchild" vs this plug in again, now I am tempted)

Thanks, Holgmeister.

Don't get m wrong - I _love_ the creamy Fairchild sound, especially as I had the chance to work with the Real Thing quite some time, years ago. From all virtual recreations, I'm most fond of the Dynamic Convolution-variety offered for Sintefx' "Replicator" (also available in Focusrite's Liquid Mix nowadays). The UAD version is very nice, too; I'm not so fond of the Waves-version, although I usually dig their plug-ins a _lot_. There are quite a few others which I either don't like or don't know.

So - while I didn't mean to diss those plug-ins in any way, I just wanted to point out that they don't (and can't) offer such a huge amount of highly specialised presets, simply because they have no idea about the actual signal the user will throw at it. _We_ do - at least as long as our own Vienna Instruments are concerned. :-)

 I don't mean to steal the thread - and the original question is still "Is VI Suite good for any other music?".-

The answer is a straight "yes". The "problem" is the labeling - it has written "orchestral" over it - with good reason. But instead, it is good for anything else as well - talk about "Ambient chill techno with hardcore influence 160 bpm" in my case.

The biggest problem - and I like to stress the point "compressor" here - for any engineer is "overdoing" it. I play around with compressors, think I got it - than "A/B" with my  UAD Fairchild (!Outing!)  Ocean Way Preset - the Fairchilds beats my 1 hour trying - Analog Conservatism beats Digital humble.  

I had the chance during easter weekend to spend a relaxed 3 days without interruption (my wife relaxed with a sudoku marathon) with VSL, getting my workflow optimized. I think, when you are looking for creative freedom,  you want to have as much "preset" as possible. There should be as less technics between you and your "pencil on note sheets" as possible. This is where presets, pre-defined matrixes and ease-of-use workflow comes to you.  I learn to value VI SE this time extensively. Same goes for mixing. Since I was thinking in composition terms, not engineer, I had no lust to spend hours on EQ, Convolution or Compression,. Just get it flowing. Priceless, if you had presets from Masters, when you can anticipate.

Using Presets has often the mark "undereducated" written all over it. Not for me. As long as the sound in my head is translated to tape, I will use everything that helps - and helps me understand the inner sound working of it.  And one day, I will understand the miracle, how the Ocean Studio Fairchild works, the "Holy Grail" of Sound.

Well, this is all very enlightening and thank you to all who responded.  I must admit that I actually sent my OP prematurely because I noticed, in the reviews of the product, that people are using the VS for other styles of music like Hard Rock and Jazz.  

I've also noticed that there are very few complaints of the product, or its learning curve, on this forum  So that is a good thing as well.

My birthday is right around the corner (or just up the street) and I think I know what I'm going to ask for so thanks agian to all for your insight.

If anybody else would like to chime in...  I'd appreciate it.

Hi Dietz, my bad explanation. Yes we can load the IR's one at a time and that's at least possible.

But we can only SEE one IR at a time and I have thousands to choose from. We can only scroll through one at a time without seeing what is next. You would have to agree that this is a limited functionality for those of us with a small fortune invested in 3rd party IR's.

If you could see the TL Space displays folders of IR's you would see what I mean.

I use Altiverb and TL Space and TL is the best system for displaying and choosing IR's.

Your Convo Reverb has a functional interface but needs a better way of displaying what we have been accustomed to for years now.

IR's should appear in the hierarchy that they are stored in and in manufacturer headings. In other words they should be set out as your "Factory" menu is..................except your Factory menu is almost empty. We have thousands of IR's to fill it!!

By the way I think your eq interface is the best I've ever used.

Here is a picture of the TL Space Browser with a small selection of IR's

http://www.philbuckle.com/filechute/TL%20Space%20Browser.pdf

I get your point, thanks.

@philco said:

[...] except your Factory menu is almost empty. We have thousands of IR's to fill it!!

Hey, so do we! 😉

-> [URL]http://vsl.co.at/en/211/497/1686/313/1388.htm[/URL]

-> [URL]http://vsl.co.at/en/211/497/1686/311/181.htm[/URL]

-> [URL]http://vsl.co.at/en/211/497/1686/312/242.htm[/URL]

All of them will appear in the Preset Menu.

Kind regards,

Yes they look good but please excuse us pop/rock guys because our eyes will glaze over when we see yet another concert hall reverb that we will never use. Believe me I have all the Altiverb concert hall IR's from every exotic country on the planet............and I haven't used one of them except to make sure that it didn't work in my track.

Selfish I know but it's more important to be able to get to our Acoustics IR's of the EMT 252 and the Lexicons and all the other goodies.

Still I can understand that you would want to keep things proprietary with your plugs.........but look at it this way.........you won't be LOSING any sales by opening things up a bit[:D]

@philco said:

 Still I can understand that you would want to keep things proprietary with your plugs.........but look at it this way.........you won't be LOSING any sales by opening things up a bit

Sorry if I seem to be dense ... what exactly do you mean by "opening things up"?

Oh simply allowing a more user friendly navigation of 3rd party IR's. Nothing more than that.

I know that a lot of NON orchestral guys (from ProTools world) are looking at VEPro to run their VI's (because they don't work very well in PT) and they already have all their IR's from other plugs. Being able to navigate them properly (as in more elegantly than the current Vienna Suite Convo Rev system) would tempt them to invest in Vienna Suite.

No  disrespect  intended. Just wondered if you were aware of the migration of PT users to VEP and what their plug needs would be.

@philco said:

I know that a lot of NON orchestral guys (from ProTools world) are looking at VEPro to run their VI's (because they don't work very well in PT) and they already have all their IR's from other plugs. Being able to navigate them properly

All the enginners  i know  using ProTools, are more than happy with VI. I don't understand that point. No probs at all.

And how you select IR's - who cares. UI is my very last concern on this world rather than sound engineering.

@philco said:

Oh simply allowing a more user friendly navigation of 3rd party IR's. Nothing more than that.

Oh, ok - the navigation! I thought you meant the import of IRs.

You have my vote on this. 😊

@philco said:

I know that a lot of NON orchestral guys (from ProTools world) are looking at VEPro to run their VI's (because they don't work very well in PT) and they already have all their IR's from other plugs. Being able to navigate them properly

All the enginners  i know  using ProTools, are more than happy with VI. I don't understand that point. No probs at all.

And how you select IR's - who cares. UI is my very last concern on this world rather than sound engineering.

There are a lot of composers using PT 8 HD these days..........not only engineers. Avid have tried to capture some of the Logic market by improving the midi spec of PT 8 and as a result there are a lot of composers trying to use multiple VI's and other RTAS plugs along with the regular TDM plugs. There are many problems with this setup and they are well documented on the DUC (Digi User Conference)

I have been using ProTools since it's inception way back in the 90's. Never has there been more dissatisfaction than right now. Some would say that Avid are in serious trouble. I wouldn't know about that but I can tell you that trying to use multiple VI's in PT8 is some kind of living hell.

This is why the composers who still want to use PT for it's incredible audio handling (me included) are now starting to use VEPro on slave machines. It's working great and we can let ProTools just handle audio and it behaves just like it used to.

Because we've been using PT for so long we have quite a collection of IR's and I was merely pointing out that it would be nice to be able to navigate in a more elegant fashion using the Vienna Suite Convo verb. That's all.

PToolsHD still works well. I use it every day. Just not with too many VI's.

Go over to the DUC and check out the mayhem in regard to this. There are many unhappy users.

@philco said:

Oh simply allowing a more user friendly navigation of 3rd party IR's. Nothing more than that.

Oh, ok - the navigation! I thought you meant the import of IRs.

You have my vote on this. 😊

Cool!![Y]