Okay, now that I'm asking questions and have become the bain of the VSL community, it won't hurt to ask another.

How is percussion handled through the new VI? Since it is not multi-timbral how are multiple percussion instruments handled? Hopefully it isn't an instrument per instance as this would not be a good thing. There must be a way to stack multiple percussion instruments in one VI and have the parts play back correctly.

Just curious.

Hello,

Maybe I understand it all wrong: but how would I then make an orchestral set-up using VI? That's certainly more than 64 instruments!

Gerard Beljon

I must admit that this has me confused as well. Each VI instance only provides a single midi channel, and a single stereo output? So, for instance, a basic string quartet would require four active instances? And if I want to have say Pizz. violins play alongside legato violins this would require two instances? This makes no sense at all. Even the basic NI Kompakt player can handle 8 midi channels/audio outputs...

You wouldn't want pizz and legato violins playing at the same time though would you? Unless you were simulating 1st & 2nd violins, in which case they should be on seperate tracks anyway.

The idea is basically 1 MIDI Channel per 'Instrument' or 'Section'. Each instrument having many articulations available to it via keyswitching, velocity, modulation or whatever controllers you have, plus the automated features built into the VI to save you having to load say all the release patches.

For string quartet or string orchestra you would only NEED 4 well-constructed instances.

Colin

Edit: Percussion, I can understand - We'll have to wait and see how they that one, though again, things like Timpanis, mallet instruments will have a number of articulations so they should probably work just the same.

I still do wonder how this will all work with percussion. Even if you switch matrix's emulating 4 real players changing instruments, you could have to use 4 VI's just for percussion.

Is that true?

Hi Joseph,

there will be designated Vienna Instruments for Percussion.

Gerard,

the loading times of the Vienna Instruments are amazing. So you can go through your arrangement instrument by instrument and use RAM Optimize after the instrument is recorded and then load your next instrument. As you can create your own matrices and presets for each purpose, you simply load the file you need (create instruments with different levels of complexity, always depending on what you need).

The more instruments you want to keep loaded, the more computers you will need to hold the samples.

Of course you can also work with your existing library for a quick layout and then simply reassign the MIDI tracks to the Vienna Instruments....

Best, Paul

Thanks Paul. I look forward to more information on that when its ready.

@cwillsher said:

You wouldn't want pizz and legato violins playing at the same time though would you? Unless you were simulating 1st & 2nd violins, in which case they should be on seperate tracks anyway.

This was just an example - and who is to say what is the 'right' way and what is the 'wrong' way? The fact is in the past I had the flexibility to accomplish usage like this within my workflow. And you actually make my point - they would have to be in separate tracks - but within Giga this was no problem. Having multi-instance floating around to do something as simple as performing multiple layered articulations just doesn't sound like fun.

And BTW - I get frustrated enough with having to jockey with and switch between multiple instances of a competitor's NI Kompakt interface because it only has eight midi channels... [[:|]]

The more I learn, the more the new VI instruments seem more appropriate for live performance...

I get the feeling we're at cross-purposes here Existence.

The pizz & legatos would ONLY have to be on the same track (and in the same VI instance) if they were playing as if one section (ie.1st violins) and this is possible within the VI. However, if you wanted them playing simultaneously (ie. as 1st & 2nd violins) they would HAVE to be on separate tracks and in separate instances.

Ever since the invention of MIDI the convention has been one instrument per track. The original problem with VSL was that we were now having to use one articulation per track (ie. many tracks per instrument). The new VIs are doing away with this scenario.

In Kontakt, Giga & Halion you can use keyswitches to move between articulations, but you may need all 16 MIDI channels to create a single instrument.

in EXS (in Logic) I believe you can only load one patch (articulation) per instance.
A major nuisance I would imagine.

But the VIs go much further than this by including many more articulations in one instance, by offering:

- Up to three articulations in a single Patch
- Many Patches within a Matrix which are recalled using controllers and keyswitches.
- And then switching between these Matrices with further keyswitches.

i don't know of any other software that can do that and provide automatic selection of articulations based on tempo etc.

Colin