Thanks for the explanation, Paul!

So, to summarize...

• Collections (e.g., Woodwinds I, Brass I, Appassionata) are always mapped in semi-tone steps for both Standard and Extended.
• Individual instruments separated from their parent collections (e.g., French Oboe, Viennese Horn) are still mapped in whole-tone steps for both Standard and Extended—regardless of it being a "full" version.

Correct?


I think verbiage like the following is why I was initially confused...

Originally Posted by: Paul

...The Full Libraries of each product are always mapped in half-tone steps...

For example: let's say I purchase the Viennese Horn Standard download. Is the Standard version sampled in whole tones and to enable the semitone samples I'd need to upgrade to Full?

Silly quesiton, I know... but I think where I'm getting confused is the definition of a "full" library. I've read that only the full libraries were sampled chromatically... does "full" in this context just mean "not a Special Edition?"

In other words, Standard libraries like their Extended counterparts are sampled in semitones, too... right?

I'm curious about this myself. I'm a Cubase user so all my VSL licenses are on the same eLicenser that came with Cubase. I've read posts where VSL has recommended getting a new eLicenser every two years to be continually covered under warranty (which I'm totaly fine with; it's cheaper than Zero DownTime for my iLok licenses). What I'm not sure about, though, is if my eLicenser suddenly stopped working one day, who do I send the defective eLicenser to... Steinberg (who owns eLicenser and the license for Cubase) or VSL (who owns the licenses for the VSL products)? My first guess would be Steinberg as they would own the license server (and thus be able to restore licenses), but as someone has mentioned in this thread, they were told to consult VSL instead. Or maybe I should be keeping VSL and Cubase licenses on their own separate eLicenser keys so I can send defective keys back to their respective owners?

I really don't know what the offcial answer is.

Wow, thanks so much for doing that, Brian! This is encouraging! :)

Would you say it's mostly Dimension or mostly Appassionata? Or was the layering kind of evenly split? Also, which reverb do you use?

I grew up in the 80s watching an anime series called Robotech and recently finished watching a movie adaptation of the series—Macross: Do You Remember Love?—for the first time since I last saw it over twenty years ago. Of course, back then DAWs/plugins/samples/etc. weren't part of my life so what really grabbed my attention this time around was Kentaro Haneda's beautiful score. The strings in two particular pieces have been haunting me (in a good way) ever since:

- Teenage Dream (second half): isolated / scene
- Before the Battle: isolated / scene

Now, I'm the type of person that believes anything in the right pair of skilled hands is possible, but my inexperience is getting in the way of trying to imagine this sound being reproduced with VSL—is it possible? Are there specific VSL string libraries I should be looking at? Are there any inherent technical limitations (e.g., lack of particular articulations, a special kind of recording technique, etc.) of the VSL string libraries that would prevent this sound from being reproduced? Wrong type of library?

Here's something I've always wondered. I have my VSL licenses on the same eLicenser as Cubase. If my eLicenser one day stopped working (and it is still under warranty), who do I send the defective eLicenser to? If I send it to VSL, would they return it to me after replacing my VSL licenses so I could then send it to Steinberg to recover my Cubase license? Or do I just send it to Steinberg since they own eLicenser (and I image they have some kind of "admin" access to all licenses since they're the owner of the company)?

Unless I'm looking in the wrong section under User Area > Software, it appears that the only way to install the non-pro version of Vienna Ensemble is through the non-pro installer for the Vienna Instruments Sample Player? If so, not really a problem, but I already have Vienna Instruments Pro and I like to keep my plugin folders clean by not installing plugins that I won't need/use.

Edit: It looks like installers for the legacy v4 exist so I think starting with v5 it became bundled with the sample player.

Excellent, thanks!

Excited indeed, but I'm a little unclear on some things...

If I'm understanding the product pages correctly, the previous product lines:
1. Special Edition Standard
2. Special Edition Extended
3. Special Edition Plus Standard
4. Special Edition Plus Extended

...have now been renamed/rebranded to:
1. Special Edition Volume 1
2. Special Edition Volume 2
3. Special Edition Volume 1 Plus
4. Special Edition Volume 2 Plus

Correct? The products above have the same exact number of instruments and articulations?

Thanks, Dietz! Great to hear VSL, at the very least, has thought about it. :)

http://www.propellerheads.se/news/rackextensions/

If Vienna Ensemble Pro became a Rack Extension, it would mean you could host VST plugins inside of Reason without the need for ReWire or to wait until your favorite developer jumped onboard. Or if Vienna Instruments Pro became a Rack Extension, Reason users would finally have a quality [native] orchestral library.

Or is there some technological roadblock Propellerhead implemented in their Rack Extension platform that would prevent all of this?

These sound great, thanks for sharing!

I've also used this "poor man's tape saturation plugin" trick as well. You can measure what's going on by inserting a spectrum analyzer on the master bus (I use Voxengo SPAN) and feeding it a 1kHz sine wave; you'll see the odd harmonics being generated as you adjust the Distortion Level parameter (most noticeable when slid towards negative values).

Can they be saved on either machine, copied back and forth, re-saved on either machine once more overwriting each other, re-copied back and forth... etc.? They seem to work, but I'm not 150% certain. I opened one up in a text editor and, aside from the Rudyard Kipling easter egg (), I really don't know what's going on under the hood and want to be sure there won't be any unexpected compatibility issues down the line.

Wow, this is precisely the kind of information I was looking for. Thank you, noldar! :)

If I'm building a new slave machine for a Vienna Ensemble Pro setup, I think the components would be ranked, from most important to least, like this?

1. Amount of RAM
2. Hard drive speed
3. CPU

I have an older computer lying around that I could use, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's too old (8 years) and would be better off buying newer parts... but I'm not really sure where, in terms of components, most of my money should be spent on.

Or... am I going about everything the wrong way? Should the master machine be the most powerful one in a master-slave setup?

Nice job! Thanks for sharing. What reverb do you use and which libraries (was this Special Edition or much more)?

Thank you!

I came across this thread via search as I'm in a similar situation. I was doing some house cleaning on my VSL account and noticed I still have an old USB-eLicenser registered to my account. This was a key that came with Cubase, but I sold Cubase -- along with the key -- last year. Of course, before the sale, I bought a new key and transferred all my VSL licenses over to it, but I just now realized: what if the person who bought Cubase from me decides to purchase a VSL product in the future? Will they have an issue registering the key to their VSL account since it still shows up in mine?

Unlike the OP, though, the person who bought my Cubase isn't my friend (sold it on eBay) so I don't have regular contact with them (and haven't had any since the sale).

So, yes, I've contaced support.

Just picked up my free copy and downloaded the installer from the order history section in my NOTION online account as well as their latest downloads page, but both installers fail (OS X 10.6.6).

I was talking to MarkSealey :)

I'm having a hard time following along based on how you've described your issue so far. Can you please take a screenshot of your VI setup (with the Control Edit tab active) and upload it to imgur.com (or a similar free image hosting site) so we can take a look?