Sibelius 6.2 and VSL SE

[nickvasallo]

I just purchased both of these and cannot get them to play together correctly. I downloaded latest version of Vienna Ensemble, Sound Sets, House Style, etc. Created manual sound set, loaded up the instruments in Vienna Ensemble (as matrices) and it does not sound good at all...I followed the tutorials (video and PDF) but they are using Vienna Ensemble Pro...I just want this to play correctly so I can hear how much BETTER it's supposed to sound than the intergrated Sibelius Sounds... Tried to change the channel assign, in Vienna Ensemble but the program is very limited and couldn't find out how. Also, I noticed that it is eating up RAM like crazy... I figured this would be easy, it should work seamlessly like Sibelius Sounds does, you create an instrument list for a score, and it plays back - simple. Please help or I am afraid I am going to ask for a refund (ordered on Oct. 28 and received yesterday) thanks

[nickvasallo]

Okay, I figured out the problem: If you have both VST's (.dll's) of Vienna Instruments and Vienna Ensemble installed in the same folder Sibelius will only read Vienna Instruments, which is VERY limited. So I reinstalled Vienna Ensemble to a new folder and still had the Vienna Instruments VST folder loaded up and got it all working. But, I have to say this, the sounds (Vienna Special Edition) were not a lot better than the integrated Sibelius Sounds, I am sorry to say. I had a lot of expectation for this...the sounds were inconsistent, jerky, and not as "clean" as Sibelius Sounds.

[thomamd]

Hi, Alot of getting Sibelius to sound great with SE is the articulations you put into the score. If you have it playing strings, for instance, and you do not specify the bowings and technique, it will sound like a bad organ. The beauty of Sibelius, is that it can track all the extra things a musician needs to know in order to play your composition correctly. Unlike a real musician, it will not make up for poorly notated scores. Trust me, SE that do better things than the sounds the come with Sibelius! Mark

[andi]

Hello Nicholas!

I'm sorry that you are not satisfied at the moment. Please be aware that working with the Vienna Instruments is a learning process. In order to make your scores sound great you will have to put some finetuning work into them. The first steps would be adding articulations. For example, use staccato marks for staccato articulations and slurs for legato. You will find all the details in the "Optimizing Sibelius Playback" manual. Maybe it also helps, if you just play around a bit with a MIDI keyboard with the different articualtions.

If you have any concrete questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Best regards,
Andi

[Pekay]

Hi Nicholas!

You're not the only one who feels disappointed when opening the Vienna box.You press the button and play and you think: "Is this it?". So the question is: Is Vienna better than the library that comes with Sibelius?

The answer is: Oh yes, the Vienna Library it is like a miracle!

It takes a while to learn how to make it sound great, but it is really worth the effort.

Best, Pekay.

[nickvasallo]

Yeah, you guys are right...just a little impatience on my part. I thought it would be a seamless transition, but I messed with the articulations and I got a quintet sounding amazingly good, how can I put reverb on it now (for free)?
Also, I noticed my laptop lagging (and its pretty darn fast) what specs do you guy use? here are mine:
Windows XP SP3
Sibelius 6.2.0.88
Vienna Instruments SE
Intel® Core™2 Duo T7700 2.4GHz Processor w/4MB L2 Cache - 800MHz FSB
1GB (1 SODIMM) * CORSAIR * DDR2/667 Memory
120GB SATA 3GB/s Seagate Momentus 7200.2 Hard Drive at 7,200 RPM
I partitioned the drive to 20gb for the OS and 100gb for storage (I have all my samples running on the 100gb partition)
I am thinking of dropping some major change and buying an Asus Intel i7 Quad core with all the bells and whistles (2nd hard drive, 8gb RAM, etc) so I can get VSL running like a champ

[andi]

Hi Nicholas!

You could load any freeware reverb VST plugin with Vienna Ensemble. Just do an internet search. If you want to have a good reverb, I recommend checking out our Vienna Suite. It is a plugin bundle with nine advanced, yet easy to use plug-ins for mixing and mastering. You can find more info and get a free demo version at the following location:
http://vsl.co.at/en/211/497/1686/1673/115.htm

You will get to the limits of your notebook pretty quickly. 1 GB RAM is just enough for small arrangements. Upgrading to the configuration with the i7 CPU and 8 GB RAM would surely be a good idea. ;-)

Best,
Andi

[nickvasallo]

I just got an i7 Quad core with 12gb of RAM, wow it smokes. Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. Can't wait to start arranging some larger ensembles with VSL now! What are the limits of the demo version for Vienna Suite? I need some reverb quickly...

[nickvasallo]

argh, cannot get any VST to work with mt setup. Does anyone have a reverb freeware VST that works with Windows 7 64bit?

[andi]

Hello Nicholas!

The demo version of Vienna Suite can be used without any limitations for 30 days. It comes with 64-bit and 32-bit versions of all plugins.

As Sibelius is a 32-bit application, you can load 32-bit VST plugins directly in Sibelius. You can also use the 32-bit Vienna Ensemble Service and will be able to load 32-bit plugins in your VE instances then. Be aware, that you'll be limited to 2 GB RAM with VE 32-bit.

Best,
Andi

[thomamd]

I am running the 64-bit version of Sibelius with the VST Roomworks reverb from Steinburg's Cubase. I put the .dll into Sibelius->VSTPlugins and set the path to the VSTPlugins in Sibelius to that folder. Then when you reload go to Playback Configuratuion->Plugins and select it and SHOW. (VE Pro also ghas a reverb which is nice.) Mark

[andi]

Sorry, but there is no 64-bit version of Sibelius ...

Best,
Andi

[thomamd]

I think that the marketing department at Sibelius has been doing "creative wording" to make their product sound better. One of the reasons I bought it was I wanted the 64-bit version for my quad core computer. The disc itself does not say anything, but it defaulted to installing in the the 32-bit folder and not the 64-bit program files folder. It appears that all they did was ensure that the 32-bit version would run in the 64-bit environment. Then they marketed as a 32 and 64-bit versions. At least Cubase 5 gives you that chance to load the 64-bit version. Whether they actaully wrote a 64-bit version, or just tweeked 32-bit code is something I am starting to wonder about. Mark

[thomamd]

Sibelius being 32-bit would also explain why all the 32-b-t .dll programs I put into the Sib->VST folder worked. Mark