Performance Set Question

[sm clark]

I have purchased the Brass & Woodwinds component of the VSL Pro Series Orchestral Cube. According to the specs on the Performance Tool, there really isn't anything in that library that the P.T. applies to. Evidently, the only brass and wind parameters that are affected by the P.T. are in the Pro Series Performance Set. The problem I'm having is: the Performance Set is ALMOST 50% String Samples. I don't want/need any of the VSL string library - whether Orchestral Cube component or Performance Set component. I would like to know if the Performance Set Brass & Woodwinds portions can be purchased SEPARATELY from the String component, and if not, why not?
Thank you,
S.M.Clark

[cm]

welcome sm clark,
unfortunately we have to tell you sections from the performance set are not available seperately. mainly the reason is that it is a set of 8 double layer DVDs with continuous spread content in a single package, so one couldn't take out just a *brass DVD*

btw: brass, woodwinds, percussion are about twice the size of strings (~80 GB vs. ~40 GB) ...
christian

[sm clark]

Thank you for your explanation. It was pretty much what I expected, but it seems to me that the way the material is formatted - "continuous spread content" - shouldn't be a reason to prevent selling the individual orchestral groups of the Performance Set separately. If you sell the main components of the the Orchestral Cube individually, shouldn't the extensions of those components ALSO be available individually? Surely it would be a simple matter to reformat the way the samples are encoded on the DVD to allow for individual packaging, just as with the Orchestral Cube. It appears that marketing is the primary deciding factor here...

Thank you,
S.M.Clark

[cm]

well, we had this discussion already somewhen 2003/2004 IIRC ... reformatting is no problem ... we even had only to re-arrange the archives to different DVDs ... but then we'd need new glass-masters (€ 10.000 each), new sleeves, new manuals, new boxes, ect .... i can't imagine this would make sense, especially now after the release of Vienna Instruments which cover such *grouping* much better
christian

[sm clark]

You explanation is helpful regarding the reformatting issue (although I'm not sure what a "glass master" is) but I'm rather unclear on one point: you seem to be suggesting that the (newer) Vienna Instruments has rendered the VSL obsolete. In other words, why purchase the latter when the former works better. I have to admit I'm not quite clear on what the pros and cons of each of the "branches" (VI & VSL) shown on your home page "family tree" might be. From a comprehensive stand point (i.e. how extensive are the instrument library samples in VI vs VSL) would there be a reason for prefering to use one over the other? Or is it rather an "ease of use" issue only?
Thanks
SMC

[cm]

i'd say it's not only the ease of use - please check out from the respective vienna instrument product page the *articulation* popup showing the difference of existing and new content (pro edition or horizon series vs. vienna instruments)
another (and still big) advantage is the lower amount of sample header preload size, so you can get twice as much or more samples loaded as with giga or exs, furtermore you don't *waste* midi-tracks for a single instrument anmore now to just load different articulations.
in a certain sense the vienna instruments have made tho *old* sample libraries obsolete and in case i misunderstood something: i'd say vienna instruments work much better than the *legacy products* from the pro edition or horizon series.
christian

[sm clark]

Thanks!