Great demo. This should do a wonderful job of selling the brass collection.

Guys, i own the same library, and yes it is a different sound, and it is good, but it is the smallest denominator. You can go looking for the holy grail, but the only real place to find it is within.

timkiel,

these samples were not made made for a composition. The midi file would be of some use but it would have to be tweaked for each lib and really the best person to do this would be TJ, and I know he couldn't be bothered. BTW most of the hall you hear was added in later.

I know that I do not purposely write to the strengths of the library I am demoing. If a library was that restrictive I would not waste my time. I will cover up problems as I go along if they occur, or edit to make the library do what I want, and I believe Thomas does the same thing. Again, I write for myself, I figure that will also create the best demo. the music is first and 2nd, the library is just the vehicle.

I think most people are missing the forest through the trees. While TJ's sounds are good (I should know as I was on that session team), It is his understanding of the instruments and how to get samples to phrase correctly that is key. Lets say for instance that TJ was given only VSL to use and you only had TJ's sounds, once TJ did his mockup you would be wanting VSL. That's not to say what we recorded isn't good, it is, but most people are looking at the samples as the problem, and there are enough tools here to do better work than you are currently doing. A knowledgeble composer and programmer can make the tools do what they want.

Not convinced?

check TJ's work on VSL,SAM's and EW....DO IT!. If you are positive you are writing this well, then you can take issue with the sounds, if not, do some soul searching and then figure out how to get to the next level. a new library will give instant gratification but after the wow factor wears off, you are still left with what you can do.

My jazz one was made with a given preset.

I may be missing the point, but not deliberately. As far as being affiliated, the only ones who have had any experience with the VI are VSL and it's testers. If the answers from any of us are not what you are looking for, then you will of course need to wait to get your answers from 3rd parties.

"So far, the way I see it - the basic premise of this VI tool is repetition. There are other cool features about it on paper of course - but mainly it's about repetition and people have ALREADY bought into that. They're not getting a fair deal and I am now convinced of that."

I can assure you that this is just one area the VI deals with. There are many more cool functions. As mentioned before, you may need a test drive.

Paul, it is apparant you need a test drive.

Warning, once you try it, you may have trouble driving something else....also no speed limitations.

I have limited Keyboard skills (I am a guitarist first), but do play almost everything in. the convience in sequencing with this VI is unprecedented. I can honestly say this has been the best sampling sequencing experience I have had. One track, everything available. One can use the intelligent tools to get off and running, but there are always a plethora of other options quickly available. One of the problems I encountered was allowing the intelligent tools to dictate my choices. what I mean by that is if you let it choose for you, you get a really good result, but you may accept it without checking out other options.

another way of looking at the VI is by really thinking of it as an instrument. Like any instrument you need to know where things are, but once you do, working becomes much easier. Also the VI is of course custom so you can create each VI to suit your needs. The difference in using this as opposed to using GS or Kontakt is actually not comparable as the sequencing experience between them really is not relevent. this is a whole new animal.

also if anyone would like to see my midi file, i can make it available.

I did do much of my demo work live, but my demo works are not posted, so I will pass at this time till there is a reference up.

Nice Stuff Rob!

Very clean, sounds like it worked great for the movie. Would love to see it sometime.

"Just for info:

to produce a performance interval instrument with one dynamic layer would take the major part of the six sessions. some small add ons are possible.
It's not possible to produce two performance intervall sets in this time.

We have to decide: focus on this performance thing, or more variations of "standard" samples

best
Herb"

This is a lovely offer...

I think Jay hit it on the head with extend it to include 2 dynamics with per-legato. It would also be nice to get a set of staccs to go with them.

That said I have never seen a large string ensemble sampled well. Most often in samples, the larger the section, the more synthy it becomes. Large sections of course can be fantastic recorded live, but so far the larger sections sampled (EW, KH) do not work well. Jay also pointed out doing a test session. I realize it would be another expense but far better than spending 3 days recording and coming out with what seemed to be great recordings, but not great samples.

My 2 cents

Having worked with the "updated" vn I can say not only does it sound to my ears better than the old one in solo strings (thicker, richer etc) but the capabilities are so vast. i am not limited to any tempo slow or fast or ungodly fast, it all just happens. The extended stuff is not just a small upgrade, it really changes the face of the entire instrument and it's capabilities along with the new VI. I for one cannot wait till the String sections come out and i can play arpeggios and scale lines at speeds that make all other libs sound like synths (yes the violin can do this already).

If you need a comparison, though this is not fair to VSL try this.

Remember when a new roland synth came out. a year and a half later they would come out with a new and improved version with 4X the capabilites for a little less than twice what you paid for the original. you could now sell your old machine for real cheap or keep it as another box. this is essentially happenning here except Roland did not care whether you were a user or not, here you get benefits.

ICE CREAM??

what if the players are lactose intolerent?

The stopped Horn xmas giveaway was a substantial offereing. I am sure as polar says it will be included in future editions. It has been out for a while and it would be nice as a bonus to tie it into new promotions, but of course that gets tricky.

It could also be happening as your audio is not syncing up quickly enough. The problem does not lie with VSL. You may wish to try optimizing your settings within Logic.

tone,

Go to the audio ease sight as Nick suggested and listen to Maarten's demo (another VSL beta tester). You will then become familar with the the placement concept of Audio Eases Altiverb using VSL.

Until MIR, have you thought about Altiverb 5? It can really place VSL nicely with depth in a stereo field and by trimming tails will not eat a ton of processing power. this would be my prefered method.

I have both libs,

One of the advantages also of Synful is dynamics. It really reacts not only to p and mf and fff levels but increments in between. Sonically IMO it can't hold a candle to VSL and of course this is it's major drawback, but I will occassionally use it as it does things no other lib can do.

Rob,

Glad you are liking these....

I think VSL already had their recording process down by the time these libs were recorded, but to their credit, listened to their users to create and embellish on what they were doing.

Enjoyed the discussion on "Pasture pool"

You can get extra bite of course on the trumpets by adding some eq.

If someone mentioned this all ready sorry, but in going through the posts I didn't see it.

very cool, a hearty thank you and thumbs up!

I believe this was their intended use. They work in a jazz vein, but classical, I believe is where they really shine.

Personally i like the sound of KH solo strings. It is my favorite lib he put out. If I were in your shoes i'd go with chamber or opus 2 depending on usage. i like solo but i feel you can get away without it. Chamber has a great expressive 7violins patch perfect for layering, and along with the KH stuff you should be well covered. Well you are well covered already, but the chamber is a great extra color and it works perfectly but different from the main strings.