Hi Nigel,

I too moved to Mac/Logic/finale a few years back and I love it! I’m using Akai (S6000) and K2500 with M. Vitous library. Vitous sounds OK but only after enormous effort – nightmare to work with!!! I had to retune the whole library, redo all the stereo programs (for S6000) and after I spent $4K on it, support now from Ilio is non existent!!!

Anyway, I too would probably prefer EXS24, but I think it has only 32 voices (GIGA has 160) and that wouldn’t do it. So perhaps EXS24mkIII will be more generous, I hope.

I hear from guys around here (Berklee) all kind of horrors about GIGA. BTW I don’t understand why we still don’t have some serious dedicated hardware sampler with internal HDs, 512 voices tons of RAM, 17’ FPD, 16 or 32 digital outs, based on similar idea like software samplers, without all kind of computer OS conflicts. I’m losing hope with Akai people. Maybe Tascam will surprise us after all. They are good at making boxes so they should stick to it. Or perhaps they sould just sell the license to Mackie because they get things done!

I think that the people at Vienna are creating a fantastic engine – but I don’t see any adequate chassis to install it onto.

Peter,

I don’t understand all the technical details you described in your posts (I’m only a dumb composer), but I’m not intimidated a bit. To the contrary – I love to learn as I go, and I agree 100% with your philosophy on how business of any kind should be run, and our right to scream when we're paying someone who doesn’t deliver on promises.

But there is no need to insult our non-american friends (and vice versa) let us all yell together until well get what we want! And then (of course) we shall yell all over again! Right?

If you want to see a true collaboration. Check out "DA7.com"

GO Pats GO ! [:D]

Kecinzer,

Logic Platinum 5.x supports up to 64 Audio Instruments, and depending on your CPU power, each instrument could be a separate instance of EXS24 MkII.
Also, if you enable VSM (Virtual Sample Memory), you effectively get hard disk streaming, just like Gigasampler.

So, the 32-voice limit you mention is definitely NOT the case!
[:D]

Also, EXS24 now supports multiple outputs......

Hope this helps clear things up.
Regards - Colin

Colin,
Thank you very much for clarifying the voice issue in the EXS24. I just got the 5.3 Platinum Logic so I'll get going with it. I only hope that the EXS24 version of this library will not be a watered-down version of the Giga.
- K. [:D]

Definitely not - the EXS-version is completely native programming, done originally for this host-application.

/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library

Regarding the original topic, has everyone heard the big news regarding EastWest? Check out the latest issue of Keyboard for their ads. They're releasing a number of new products, including the EWQLSO pre-bundled with the software needed to run them. No need to buy GigaStudio, or any other sampler software for that matter. It's going to be Mac compatible, too (NI designed the software).

Evidently, Tascam has not even released GS 3.0 to the library developers yet, so they can't even begin to start writing product for it as of yet.

In addition to the EXS-24 version, I wonder if VSL is contemplating an alternate path other than GS for release (perhaps a bundled version like the EW product). Tascam seems to be taking forever.

Lee Blaske

I am a one-year giga-user, and a professor of Music Technology at a small college. I love Giga studio. It won't work with early XP (or home) editions, but when I finally got around to upgrading W98 to XP pro this month, I installed Giga and it booted and has worked perfectly with zero trouble.

My biggest disappointment has NOT been Giga, but the samples I have spent a fortune on which have not lived up to the hype. I am hoping the VSL will finally be worth the high price tag. The biggest problem with the industry is the "buy it... but if you hate it, you're stuck with it" attitude. I don't mind paying full price for a great product, but I am now stuck with $4,000+ of lame samples. I'm plain ticked off with the shameless hiding behind the "it's software, so you can't return it or try it before you buy it" scam.

Peter, if you have written a better program, why don't you send them it to show there are different solutions.....

Geert.

I haven't written an entire sampler, just various modules and pieces of code that could be made into a sampler. And if I did that they could still sue me for patent infringement, especially if I sent it to them and rubbed it in their face.

Nevertheless, I have something new I am contemplating making that would not infringe their patent, that would not be a realtime sampler at all but could be the best thing yet for orchestral creations. It's just in my head right now, but it gives me something to do. [:)]

something to do, because there is no VSL in the mail yet?

If you are talking about your idea to render a score.... Why render? Isn't it possible and much preferable to do everything realtime these days?

If Halion is going to handle these samples right, it would be possible already [:)]

About sending your proggie, do you really believe sending them an idea is suable? An idea is far from a finished product.
If you really think Gigastudio sucks, you can finish your sampler for home use without risk... (I'm up for Beta testing [6] )

Regards,
Geert.

"About sending your proggie, do you really believe sending them an idea is suable? An idea is far from a finished product. "

I've posted my ideas on their website and they are either not interested or (I hope) plan on incorporating some of them in their next version of Gigastudio. But they've been tight lipped about it.

'If you really think Gigastudio sucks, you can finish your sampler for home use without risk... (I'm up for Beta testing)"

Unfortunately I can't. I am very familiar with US patent laws, and it's illegal merely to make or use an invention that infringes a patent, to say nothing of giving it to others or selling it. Unfortunately my hands are tied there.

As for rendering a score, I've found that even Gigastudio (don't know about Halion) has limitations that can only be solved by a non-realtime renderer. And with a non-realtime render, you can do so many amazing things that you can't do in realtime - such as complex wavetracing for accurate environmental effects, and (this is the most important) MULTI-CHANNEL sound rendering for distribution as 24-bit 96khz DVD-audio or AC-3 5.1 surround sound for movies. How would you accomplish this in any way other than rendering? In GS you'd have to separately record all your tracks and then use a hardware mixer to mix each one of them. I'm talking about making something that could render the whole score and create a 5-channel WAV right on the spot with accurate spatial depth and environmental effects without having to use a hardware encoder.

And then there'd be no limit to the samples you could use, too - you could have a score that utilized totally random parts of the 200 GB Vienna library with no problem at all.

Peter,

Regarding rendering to DVD/5.1:
If you use a program like Logic Audio Platinum, you can create full surround mixes and simply use the "bounce" function to write the files to hard disk, in 24-bit 96khz format.

On Mac, you could then use A.Pack (part of DVD Studio Pro) to encode your files in Dolby Digital format for burning on DVD.

All in software.....nothing needs to leave your computer.

Regards - Colin

The patent obviously can't cover all that, since both Halion, EXS24 and soon Kontakt will use diskstreaming in the same way as GS uses it.

"If you use a program like Logic Audio Platinum, you can create full surround mixes and simply use the "bounce" function to write the files to hard disk, in 24-bit 96khz format. "

How do you mix your sampled instruments from Gigastudio in surround though? Or is Logic a sampler separate from GS?

I'm guessing even with what you're saying you'd still need to record each track from GS separately and then use Logic to mix them.

As for the patent and the other programs, I'll have to take a look at them. Is it possible that they have much higher latency than GS? GS uses a sample caching system for an "instant on" sample - it takes the first few milliseconds of the sample and stores it in memory, and then as soon as the sample is played, it loads the later parts into a sample buffer. That's the patent. If someone else (Halion, etc.) figured out another way to have an instant play that doesn't use GS's technique, that's great, but I can't figure one.

Anyway is there anything like Logic Platinum for the PC? That's mac only as far as I can tell.

Peter,

Logic is currently up to v5.5 for Mac & PC. In July, it was announced that Apple had bought Emagic and that no further products for PC would be forthcoming. However, Emagic has been supporting their PC userbase and has supplied all new updates since then for both Mac and PC. I'm on Mac and I don't use or know Gigastudio at all, but from numerous posts on the Logic-users group, I gather that folks are running them together, probably with ASIO drivers.

With most VST instruments, their outputs come up directly in Logic and can be processed using Logic's native plugins: EQ, reverbs, delays, chorus, gate, compressor, etc etc etc. Seems lots of people run Giga on a separate computer though, and simply bring the Giga outputs into their soundcard on the Logic computer, via the input objects, so there's no need to commit to files, if I understand correctly.

From where I sit, I'm obviously very attracted by the EXS24 option - it runs from within Logic and you can have up to 64 instances of EXS24 running at once, depending on your CPU of course. You should take a look around the Emagic site for more info:
http://www.emagic.de/english/news/index.html is the main page
http://www.emagic.de/english/products/logic/lap.html is the Logic Platinum start page.

Obviously the folks at VSL believe in Logic, hence their choice to support EXS24.......

Regards - Colin

Ah, I see now - thank you very much for your explanation. It sounds like Logic combined with EXS24 and all that, and that version of VSL, is the solution I'm looking for.

Still, I may experiment a bit with sound "rendering" - maybe with some good algorithms I can make some pretty nice realistic environmental effects and spatial surround sound, for myself if for no other reason.

Thanks again.

Peter

Concerning EXS24 for Windows, I have an XP Pro fully updated system that I just installed Logic 5.5.0 on, along with the EXS24mkII, solely for later installing Vienna Symphonic Library. There have been no problems with the Logic software itself, however some driver conflicts occurred with the particular sound card, a Mia. Gigastudio was crashing often to begin with. I received no support from the website via email, however, after reformatting the drives and reinstalling the basic XP operating system, the GS system now seems to be functional, without a clear reason as to why it had problems in the first place.

One thing that would be extremely desirable is dedicated help for using the EXS24 from "within" the VSL. In other words, something designed for musicians, by musicians. At this stage of the technological game, there are many problems with the interfaces designed by other companies, and to work from within the actual software one is attempting to use would be wonderful.

Very interesting post Willian, but I´m curious about one thing. Seeing how you obviously speak from a proffessional point of view...how will you deal with the situation of not going to have any more Windows updates for Logic (while Mac people will do)? What if you really need to update the software for any future need? Will you buy a Mac or what?

I´m interested because at our current point, and being myself a PC user, I feel we are really trapped. We can´t deal with Gigastudio limitations (well, some people can, some others don´t) but we can´t put our faith on Logic either, as they´re going to abandon further Windows versions support.
What´s your take on this?

@Another User said:

how will you deal with the situation of not going to have any more Windows updates for Logic (while Mac people will do)?

Anyone can be a Mac person. Apple does NOT discriminate on the basis of religion, sex, race, or national origin. [;)]

That out of the way, I think it might be good to wait and see what happens at the coming NAMM show before making any purchase decisions. There's much change in the wind, and a lot is happening (more so than is usually the case, at least in my observation).

Although I don't know how much stock to put in them, I've heard rumors that Emagic is going to steal the show. Time will tell.

Lee Blaske

Disregard.