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  4. Vienna Ensemble is brilliant

  • Vienna Ensemble is brilliant

    W
    W

    I have discovered a phenomenon related to VE.  It is absolutely taking over my studio, whether I want it to or not.  This is because even though there are other sample libraries, with good sounds, they are not VSL, and therefore cannot exist within the brilliantly designed interface of VE.  It is among the five most elegant pieces of software I have ever used: Vegas Video 3.0 to 8.1 (which does everything flawlessly and never crashes), ScriptThing  (perfect word processing for extremely fast production of my bad film scripts), Finale (post 2001 which actually shrunk the code - imagine that!) and Voyetra Digital Orchestrator (a long abandoned but absolutely perfect and instantaneous-to-use sequencer vastly superior to the MIDI functions of Logic, Cubase and Sonar put together). 

    I think that people are so quickly accepting VSL products that they forget that someone invented them.  I don't, because I remember the nightmare that was Gigastudio and the previous incarnations of working with samples.  For example, using a hardware Emulator to record in endlessly repeated layers on an Akai 4 track digital recorder with a 40 megabyte hard drive.  I recorded a symphony with it and almost lapsed into catatonic hebephrenia as a result. 

    I am regularly excited and amazed by the power of the VE matrix switching, the power panning, the instant access to the most musically important controls that are hallmarks of this great software design.  You can cynically call me a fanboy, but how can someone not be?   There is a real ingenuity and creativity in dealing with the  the complex challenges of using samples.  In the past it seemed impossible both to work with and to finally hear so many individual sounds flowing together musically and seamlessly.

    I just felt the need to write this as a result of how people seem to take for granted this truly magical technology!  The company's dedication to the highest standards of musicality is a rare example of a state-of-the-art technology not ignoring, but being scrupulously faithful to the great accomplishments of the past.
  • M
    M

    William,

    Impressive...

    Great tistimonial text...

    Agree

    Modestly
  • R
    R

    I have most of VSL currently for the reasons stated.  MOST importantly VSL is not an 'end all' but they work hard to be so.   Where they are weak relative to competitors they soon become strong.  For me - I look forward to continual improvements in the strings portion of their offering (both in workflow improvements to get the art's and performance we want without hours of programming).  I also look forward to the upcoming choir offering.  I have a feeling that release will set a new standard.

    The last thing that IMHO that would secure their place of LEADERSHIP in this industry is to have VE3 host other vsti's.   That would be incredibly powerful to users.

    Rob
  • W
    W

    I agree whole heartedly with the above statements.  I'll add that, for me, the release of MIR represents a milestone in the world of sampling.  Only VSL have the vision and patience to see this gargantuan project through to completion and I think this sets them apart from their competitors.
  • W
    W

     those are good points, and i would add that what has always struck me about the company is the creative and innovative approach to tackling an enormous challenge - actually representing the entire symphony orchestra. There have been attempts in the past, but they were very small and the approach had to be entirely re-imagined to actually accomplish this.That goal has always been behind the huge undertaking of the entire sample library, and is something that can only be done with a lot of new ideas.  For example, not only the software interface, but also determining which articulations to sample, out of the millions that are possible with the enormous expressive range of the orchestra. This is where VSL has also been brilliant, in figuring out how to give enough of what is really needed without losing practicality, as in the tremendous innovation of legato, as well as  the very judicious selection of dynamics.  You can sample things forever basically. The great difficulty is in determining an artistic blend that will be both practical and expressive, and it has been done excellently by the VSL.