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  4. Newbie Q's: Pro player functionality with SE vs Dimension, and more...

  • Newbie Q's: Pro player functionality with SE vs Dimension, and more...

    Z
    Z

    [rant]

    I've delayed purchasing my first sample library for months as tempting new products spring up. I've been waiting for a company to offer the range of extended techniques and non-orchestral techniques that composers have used for the last hundred years - but I've realised many of you have been requesting this for nearly as long! It seems the perceived market stretches from Downton Abbey to Game of Thrones, with VSL the least genre-stymied.

    [rant/]

    My plan was to get SE 1/1+ and gradually add Dimensions. The following are dimensions of the same question but all advice is appreciated:

    1. PRO Player is a massive factor in VSL's appeal. How is its functionality limited by only having one Special Addition and its Plus? I'm unclear about which features rely on having more samples - eg. humanize. I'm blown away by the Dimension Brass video using Pro player and wonder if I'll be disappointed by the SE functionality and should just start with Dimensions instead.

    2. Do I lose anything by skipping all the Special Editions and starting to collect Dimensions? Apart from the wait to have those instruments? IE. Comparing expressiveness on a by-instrument basis? Put another way, I understand VSL's ethos of extending rather than replacing functionality, but in practice if I relied solely on Dimension Brass for all my brass including solo instruments would I lose any expressiveness compared to the Special Editions? And compared to the pre-Dimension Brass collections/instruments? Is the solo instrument capability of Dimensions less because its really an ensemble tool?

    Thanks!
  • N
    N

    Welcome to the VSL forums.
  • Z
    Z
    Thanks for your reply, it's really helpful. And sorry for the huge block of text - somehow my formatting disappeared. I've now found some threads from Dimension users that I hadn't found in previous searches; I'll read those.
  • DietzD
    VSL Team
    DietzD
    last edited
    last edited

    Welcome Zenith,

    @zenith said:

    [...] And sorry for the huge block of text - somehow my formatting disappeared.[...]

    for some reason the engine which VSL's forum relies on seemingly can't be set to make the following setting the default - you have to do it manually:

    Kind regards,

    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
  • B
    B
    Not sure if this helps, but here goes:

    • I bought Special Edition and Special Edition + a while back when the collections were arranged differently. This gave me all the string, wind, and percussion instruments of the orchestra, including Orch Strings, Chamber Strings, and Solo Strings. • Although not all articulations are included, I have not found that to be a major limitation.

    • I just added Dimension Strings and find that a perfect companion and look forward to the other sections as they are available. (Only violins has been released so far.) Although this is a smaller section than an orchestra (8 violins instead of 14 or so), it sounds very full and in my opinion can be used for almost anything. The options of breaking the 8 into smaller sections really makes this flexible.

    • I found that the Pro Player made ny SE/SE+ collections sound much better and smoother. Polyphonic legato, humanize, etc. are great. I do not have any data to support this, but I find that the Pro Player makes even monophonic legato sound better with the SE/SE+ strings. (I was using the Classic Player before.) Perhaps it is just my imagination....

    In short, I am quite happy with SE/SE+, Vienna Pro, and Dimension Strings. I always want more VSL stuff, but this is a lot of bang for the buck.
  • C
    C

    I agree with the mighty Konrad [:)]

    I also started with a special edition (standard + extended) and found it very useful to build a basement for an orchestra.
    Of course they are dry and without reverb and all that stuff they don't sound great - but hey... they really do, when finished up.
    Next to that I invested into a VI Pro Player and in my oppinion it definitely was a good choice to do that.

    Last year I extended my libraries with the dimension violins... gread product and so much detail in sound.
    I still use the SE (especially appassionata and solo strings) but I'm able to add more detail and realism with dimension violins and I'm getting fucking hot thinking bout the upcoming instruments in the dimension strings.

    Best regards
      Chris
  • Z
    Z

    All useful stuff this, thanks for your opinions and the formatting tip.

    The whole not sounding great dry thing I don't get. I get how a reverby sound is more playable to spark off. I get how a baked-in hall reverb would be more natural than its convolution reverb equivalent. But unless there's a very dry close-mic option I don't see how you can make it sound like its recorded in a concrete bunker, or a garden, or in the different spaces created from one pop mix to the next. Perhaps I'm missing something, or just that concert hall realism is only one of the colours I'd want to use but for many its the main event.

    Yes, I can see how this gets addictive. Oh dear.