Vienna Symphonic Library Forum
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  • Shopping for better solo instruments

    Hi guys, I'm new to this forum. Quick intro. I've been using the EasyWest composer package for a few years, with good results. But.... Some of the solo instruments are just not cutting it for me. I have been shopping around on here for a few weeks and have come up with this rather expensive list of products: Fanfare Trumpets Standard Library € 95.00. Percussion Complete Standard Library € 490.00. Solo Strings Bundle Standard Library € 490.00. Harps Standard Library € 155.00. Vienna Ensemble PRO 5 € 235.00. ViennaKey € 24.00. Post & Packaging Australia & New Zealand € 33.00 - Total € 1,522.00 I'm going to go with VE Pro5 no matter what. It is the best way to have everything loaded so I can move from one session to another without waiting for huge sample libraries to load. My question is, are there any bundles that contain all these libraries? Is there a better way to go about this? $2000AU is a lot of money to invest in this gear for me. I'm hoping some of you guys, with more experience, can advise me? Thanks

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    Hi Kingsley,

    Thanks for your interest in our products!

    With your list of instruments that you'll need, I'd rather go for one of our Vienna Special Edition Volumes, since they're our entry-level products that also have a smaller price tag. Here's a list of which instruments are included in which Special Edition Volume.

    With the instruments you listed I would probably go for the Special Edition Volume 1 (€310), Volume 3 (€365) and add the Fanfare Trumpets Standard Library as a Single Instrument (€95), as well as the Vienna Ensemble PRO 5 (€235, not part of any sample bundle) and the ViennaKey (€24). With shipping, the total would then be just a little over one thousand Euros, €1.062 to be exact.
    If you want to get more Special Edition Volumes I'd check out our specially priced Special Edition bundles.

    Hope that helps!

    Best,

    Stefan


  • Thanks! That's exactly the kind of advice I'm after. It would have taken me months to study the whole library and come up with what you have suggested. I also get the string section "con sordino" with this combo too. Nice. Thank you

  • If you do eventually decide to purchase full libraries, if at all possible, try to get both the standard and the extended portions.  The additional articulations of the extended portion can be most helpful when seeking to achieve more realistic results.  When just starting out, the SE libraries are a good option, though most users do eventually seem to migrate to the full collections.


  •  Noldar I agree with you, but what if budget is a question? You can't do anything about that? That is why I dislike the SE so much. I think the best way instead of migrating for full collections. Single Instruments, collecting one by one, slow process but effective.


  • Honestly, I do not quite understand, how Stefan comes from "your list of instruments that you'll need" to the SE suggestion. You mention Solo Strings, Harp and the Fanfare Trumpets, to me, this seems to be very specific.

    When I understand you right, you are happy with the overall sound of your EW lib, so for the orchestral body you are willing to continue to use it. Just for some solo instruments you want to move to VSL, right?

    So why should you invest in the SE lib, which gives you many instruments, but only some basic articulations? Compare the sample content of the solo strings collection to the portion of solo strings that are included in the SE and you might get an idea of what i mean. 

    I totally second the Idea of buying single instruments, alas, with solo strings this is not possible. But, as you probably noticed, until the end of the month you get a free single instrument for every instrument collection you buy. Did you see, that the Harps collection consists of actually 2 Harps? Do you really need both of them? Each one is available as single instrument as well.

    So considering the current free single instrument offer, I would calculate as this:

    Solo Strings Bundle: 490EUR - this counts as 2 collections, so you get 2 single instruments std. lib, or 1 single instrument Full lib (or you buy the std. lib and get the ext. lib free - whatever is cheaper)

    Harp I: 80EUR

    VE PRO: 235EUR

    Key + Shipping: 57

    TOTAL: 862EUR

    Then you choose Harp I ext. lib. and Fanfare Trumpets Std. lib. as your free single instruments (saves you 190EUR)

    If you like you can upgrade the Fanfare Tpts to Full by buying the ext. libr. for 75EUR afterwards, so for 937EUR you would have more than you planned to buy, and still got 585EUR left - considering your sum 1522 from the 1st post. So you even could get the ext. lib for the solo strings for another 490EUR - and still be under your original amount.

     EDIT: I overlooked that you also hat percussion complete in your list. You could, of course, have a look at the sample contents of Special Edition Vol. 1 - Percussion and more (55EUR). If you really need the big collection, good thing is, this also counts as 2 collections, so in total you would get 4 single instruments, sou you could get both Harp I and Fanfare Trumpets for free for a total sum of 1272EUR


  • I was not aware of the limited articulations in the suggested library. I love the 9 key switches on the "gypsy violin" in EW, but the solo orchestral instruments only have 3 key switches. That is the main point. Also, why is it so hard to write replies on this forum, and why does it take all my paragraphs out? Is it a iPad bug? It took me about 10 tries to post this reply!

  • Sorry to hear that you ran into a notorious "feature" of our forum engine, which always chooses the most basic settings as the default values.

    Please open your User Profile and apply the following changes:


    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
  • That's much better! Thanks.
    I think I will get started with the Solo String pack and grab the harp 1 and Fanfare Trumpets as a bonus, if that is possible with this July deal?
    I'll look into the percussion latter. I've got loads of drum sounds but I want some better bass drums and taiko. The drums I hear here sound great! They are much more natural sounding then a lot of other sample libraries.
    Once I get started with the solo strings, it will give me time to get into this forum a bit more a learn stuff?


  • In general, Special Edition and Special Edition + give you a lot.  You may not need it all now, but it is way less expensive that buying individual things and adding on.  But, of course, it all depends on your need.

    For the record, I have SE and SE+ from Vienna, plus Dimension Strings.  (When I bought SE and SE+ things were packaged a little differently, but the same principle applies.)  I also have Hollywood Strings Diamond from EastWest but I don't use it much.


  • Hi Kingsley,

    I think skiping over the SE and going straight into the full libraries is the way to go. If you were new to classical midi instruments and on a much tighter budget then SE would be a good place to start.

    I'll just add that once you get the Solo Strings, or which ever libaries you decided to get first, you should check out the Vienna Suite effects bundle. You can demo it for free. What really sets it apart, from say Waves products, is besides being really good effects, the compressor has presets for EVERY VSL instrument. It is amazing how the compressor actually makes the instruments "pop out" of my speakers and sound like actual performes are playing in front of me. And, to get that sound all you have to do is adjust the threshold.

    MIR is worth looking into too. Once you get all of the sounds you want, you might want to try it out and possibly pick it up down the road.

    Michael