Opus 1+2: platform comparisons

[radiospace]

If anyone can give me a rundown of the plusses and minuses of using the different versions of the Opus collection (Giga, EXS, Kontakt, Halion) I'd appreciate it. (I don't mean, for example, "Giga can only be run on a PC", but rather more subtle or VSL-specific problems that a platform might have... for example I feel I've read on here somewhere that the Kontakt version and the Performance Tool are not yet fully integrated in some way...if that's true, more details on that, etc.)

My main platform is Cubase on a Mac but I would consider building a PC with Giga if that's got clear advantages. I'd prefer to use Kontakt since I already own it, it's cross-platorm (OSX and Windows), and is a VST and AU plug-in. But if the other versions offer benefits perhaps not...

Thanks...

[Paul]

Hello and welcome radiospace,

all the streaming samplers we support offer exactly the same programs and functionality as far as the Vienna Symphonic Library is concerned. HALion and Kontakt do not support our symphonic editions, but you will be fine with all our Horizon Series products (OPUS 1+2 are a part of this product line).

GigaStudio is the first platform we released our products for and the major difference to the other samplers is that the samples are "scrambled" in so-called gig-files, whereas the other platforms manage a database of wav.files.

EXS 24 is very comfortable to use, as the Performance Tool is already integrated into the sampler and the sampler is a part of the sequencer, which makes it easy to save (just 1 program).

With both HALion and Kontakt it makes sense to use the latest versions.

As you already own Kontakt, I´d suggest to use this sampler, plus the library that comes with Kontakt 2 features quite a few Vienna Symphonic Library samples (7 GB).

As to the integration of the Performance Tool, all systems are the same (apart from EXS 24):

You send a MIDI signal from your sequencer to the stand alone Performance Tool that sends the modified signal to your stand alone sampler.

Please have a look at the detailed setup guides here to find out more about the integration of the Performance Tool with Kontakt:

http://www.vsl.co.at/english/pages/profile/news/formats_%26_performance_tool.htm

Best wishes,

Paul

[radiospace]

Paul,

Thanks for the informative post.

A couple of other questions: What benefit (if any) does using Kontakt 2 offer over using Kontakt 1 with the Opus library? (I.e., should I upgrade to Kontakt 2 specifically for use with Opus?).

What instruments exactly does the Kontakt 2 library include from VSL? Are these duplicates of Opus stuff, or would they actually add some instruments or articulations not otherwise in either Opus collection?

I'm a little concerned about using Kontakt in "Stand-Alone" mode, as described in your link. I've never used it in Stand-Alone on the same machine I was sequencing on and worry about performance issues or crashes. Any comments on this?

Thanks...

[Paul]

Hi radiospace,

Kontakt 2 is a very powerful sampler, also because it has a very flexible scripting engine and surround sound, including very nice reverb options.

Also, the library included (it contains the "most important" instruments from OPUS 1, but: 7GB compared to 25 GB!!, there´s enough left to OPUS 1 to make it very special! you might want to start with just the library included and then add whatever you find necessary) makes it very interesting.

So far we have not observed any crashes or problems with Kontakt in standalone mode.

Best, Paul