I've been using VSL Special Edition for a while and I like it very much. Now I want all the other articulations available especially for solo violins.
Unfortunatetly information about migration paths is incomplete and very confusing. Do I get all other articulations just by buying SE Plus or do I need to get VSL Solo Strings for instance. Then I would exepect a discount as a SE owner. However your online store asks for the full price, even if I'm logged in. So was it a mistake to start with VSL SE? Do I need to buy patches from SE twice each time if I need to migrate to a higher level? This would be very frustrating and there should have been a warning that no upgrade is available.
Please help me by providing information about the proper migration paths from SE Edition to higher level bundles.
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Migration from VSL Special Edition to VSL Instruments without wasting money
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I used to describe the SE as a watered down version of the cube but it's actually what's residually left in the water after the cube is watered down. Big difference.
If you want all of the articualations of the solo strings, then you'll have to buy the Solo Strings I extended and/or II depending on your needs. As for a discount, if you have SE extended then you'll qualify for a small discount on the Solo Strings I extended version but that's it. You have to understand that the SE is sampled whole tone and with less velocity layers (in some cases), where as the full collections are sampled half tone. Solo Strings I full version contains 105,000 samples, more or less, and the SE extended only has about 76,000 samples. And remeber, the SE contains the entire orchestra hence, the first sentence in my response. The solo strings you have in SE are maybe only 4 or 5% of the Solo Strings I collection?
As of May 1st, the prices of all the collections were already reduced and most users don't buy straight from the VSL site we buy from 3rd party dealers where you'll probably find a better deal.
Disclaimer: I am just a user like you. I do not represent VSL.
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Thank you for your reply even if you tell me exactly what I was afraid of: Starting with SE is a big mistake because getting the full instruments means to buy everything again. There is no real migration path and the information about migration at the VSL homepage is absolutely misleading. I'll contact VSL to get them to remove this misleading statement from their homepage.
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Hello mftlstudio,
I´m sorry, but I´ll have to disagree with you.
If you are looking for a full symphonic orchestra with all instruments included, the Special Edition is the best way to go, no doubt. The fact that there are "only" up to 8 articulations (with the string instruments) makes it easy to control, and of course your upgrade path takes these samples in account.
If you, e.g. upgrade from the Special Edition Standard Library to the Download Instrument Trumpet in C (with a lot more articulations!!), you get a discount of 18 Euros, if you have registered the Special Edition PLUS Standard Library, you get another 15 Euros discount. Here are the discount details for the Trumpet in C.
BTW: all our products have a dedicated webpage that shows the discount details.
Let´s take a look at the Solo Strings discount details:
You get a discount of 27 Euros for the SE Standard Library and an additional discount of 35 Euros for the SE PLUS Standard Library.This discount applies to the Extended Library.
Please bear in mind that the sample content of the Solo Strings (105.000 samples for 4 instruments in Solo Strings vs. 76.000 samples for more than 60 instruments in the SE) makes a huge difference.
All in all, the Special Edition is a very good basis to work with, it gives you all the instruments an orchestra offers, and if you want to specialize in, e.g., Solo Strings, the part you already have in the Special Edition is taken into account. If you decide to upgrade to the Symphonic Cube, the discount will be MUCH bigger, of course, as you are upgrading all instruments.
Best,
Paul
Paul Kopf Head of Product Marketing, Social Media and Support -
So is there a discount going from the SE (NOT the SE extended) to the cube or parts of it?
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Hello Mike,
yes, there is a discount when you upgrade to any FULL Library of a DVD Collection that contains samples from the Special Edition Standard Library. This discount applies to the Extended Library of the given collection only.
If you´d like to know more about your options, please contact us at
with a short mail including a description of your musical vision (and ideally also your budget)!Best,
Paul
Paul Kopf Head of Product Marketing, Social Media and Support -
Still pretty confusing. So you're saying if you upgrade from SE (either standard or extended/full), there is no discount if you upgrade to say Solo Strings standard, only a discount if you upgrade to Solo Strings extended/full?
In that situation does it matter if you get SS standard and later add extended versus buying both at once?
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So if you upgrade from SE (either standard or extended/full), there is no discount if you upgrade to say Solo Strings standard, only a discount if you upgrade to Solo Strings extended/full? Is that correct or not?
Sorry to have to repeat myself, but I want to make sure I understand it correctly.
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I do not yet own the SE bundle and the extension bundle. I am speaking of the bundles that run around $1800.00 U.S. together roughly. My thinking is on this SE plus the extensions is it is a good way to get something that truly could be listened too without "noticing". A great high quality sketch pad for Sibelius. I think a person has to decide what they want and if you want virtual reality with VSL it is going to cost. Lets face it folks that although the price seems high for the bigger cubes - these samples are not going anywhere once you own them. The cost is incredibly reasonable when you think of it this way. I just think that I am wanting a high quality sketch pad with less computer demand and with soundsets for Sibelius (but will probably upgrade the solo strings). The fact that you can upgrade over time is great. I am curious how these upgrades effect the soundset of Sibelius once you have done them? I assume their is no soundset for the Cube but SE only.
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It seems some third party vendors allow you to buy the Extended collections without first buying the Standard. For example, the Solo Strings I Extended at Ilio; can I skip the installation of the Standard Solo Strings? Will that work?
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Hi umarekawaru,
Extended Libraries do not work without the corresponding Standard Libraries.
You can see what´s available for your in our webshop and at which price (when you are logged in, we know what you have already registered. Other webshops cannot know this).
Best,
Paul
Paul Kopf Head of Product Marketing, Social Media and Support -
For the OP: I don't know how much you have already invested in SE, but here is my opinion. Buying one or more SE libraries is a good way to try out VSL's products and to make very good mock ups of your scores. You can run the entire SE library on one descent computer and have a full orchestra and beyond with all of the most common articulations.
However, if you have reached a point where you find SE too limiting, I'd suggest either buying individual libraries or the cube. Just a quick glance at VSL's price shows the complete SE library for 1,696 euros and the standard version of the cube is 2,690 euros. So depending on what you want to do musically, you might be better of purchasing the cube instead of additional SE libraries. Keep in mind that the non SE libraries take considerably more computer horse power then the SE does, so if you go the cube route you may have to upgrade your computer hardware as well.
If you could tell us more about what types of music you are writing we could help you make choices about which libraries would work best for you. If you are mostly writing for string quartets then solo strings is fantastic. For chamber ensembles a combination of one or more of the more expensive libraries with some of the SE might work very well. Hope this helps.
Michael
