1. I am wondering, I currently have the Special Editions Complete Synchron libraries, what am I getting with Prime that I do not already have?

2. Is there no upgrade pricing available for those of us who have the Special Edition libraries? My understanding is that the Special Edition libraries come from the same collections as the Prime library, so I am a bit confused... Considering I paid significantly more for the Special Edition libraries than what Prime costs, this new collection confuses me.

3. Also, does this Prime Library have vibrato control for solo instruments? In all honesty, this is the only thing I really wish I had in the Special Edition libraries...

I dont even know where to begin. I have an iLok dongle, had to buy one for PercX and EastWest Cloud Composer.

My understanding is that Steinberg is discontinuing its elicenser nonsense, so VSL is switching to iLok. Great. Im not thrilled about this, mostly because currently, everything works and you know how we are, we don't like to mess with things that are currently working.

For some reason, I can't enter my iLok user id, which I assume is the user id I enter when I log in to the iLok manager (the ID that is paired with my password).

Adding to the confusion, I have several licenses that show as "not convertible to iLok."

SPECIAL EDITION Vol. 1 WOODWINDS PLUS
 
 

SPECIAL EDITION Vol. 1 BRASS PLUS
 
 
SPECIAL EDITION Vol. 1 STRINGS PLUS SPECIAL EDITION Vol. 2 BRASS

SPECIAL EDITION Vol. 2 GUITARS & KEYBOARDS
 
 

SPECIAL EDITION Vol. 2 STRINGS
 
 
SPECIAL EDITION Vol. 2 WOODWINDS VIENNA INSTRUMENTS PRO 2 License VIENNA ENSEMBLE PRO 6 License

I am assuming instruments pro is not convertible because it is free, EP6 isn't sold anymore, and the SE individual bundles are also not sold anymore? This is all fine except, I use the special edition libraries, so how do I make these transferrable?
 
If you want to make my life easier, I have no problem if you want to remove all the individual special edition libraries I have and just change them to a single Special Edition Library Complete license and do the same for the Synchronized Special Edition (this is assuming such a thing even exists), but at a minimum, I need to have my SE Vol 1 and 2 VI licenses converted to the bundle so I can make these transferrable (assuming this is the problem (?).
 
Is there any sort of max timeframe on this rollout? Are we looking at this rollout being spread out over three months? This stuff makes me anxious and I'd rather do it, get it over with, and get on with my life. You guys have no idea how much I hate this dongle / activation nonsense, I just went thru it again with Cubase 12 Pro after spending nearly a month troubleshooting why my legit purchase of Cubase 12 could not be activated.
 
Writing music is therapy for me. It helps me deal with my roller coaster of emotions I deal with on a regular basis and thank God products like VSL exist, because these things keep me unmedicated and out of a mental institution. I just wish it wasn't as much of a hassle to use, because honestly, cracked software is easier to deal with than legitimately purchased software in far too many cases.

This short, two minute piano piece is one of my favourite pieces. I decided to orchestrate it using a simple string arrangement. It includes the special edition of Appassionata strings and layered Dimension Strings from the special edition, as well as the Oboe from the special edition. I found that the Appassionata strings did not have enough character and uniqueness, and the SE Dimension Strings added just the right amount of unique character I was looking for.

The oboe is probably the most beautiful and underrated instruments in the orchestra and I felt like it was very appropriate for the mood of this piece. Interestingly, the piano only version sounds melancholy, almost unsettling, while the orchestrated version I arranged feels...mysterious, melancholy, and almost dreamy / sad. Anyway, hope ya'll enjoy :)

Prelude in E Minor (Chopin)

So, does this mean more than two microphone positions, or should we say, speaker positions? The biggest limitation of MIR to my ears is the lack of stereo field from the ambient microphones and the inability to have a more realistic approach to capturing what an orchestra sounds like both in the room while still capturing a more intimate sound from an instrument.

For this reason, I typically have to use two to three recordings and merge the audio, and mix carefully (two microphones, one at the conductor location and one near the front of the room, the so-called 7th row microphone, another recording with two microphones at the left and right of the room about 1/3 of the way back starting from the front row of the audience, and a final stereo set of mics at the far back of the room on the back left and right walls).

I then mix this in 7.1, using the conductor location as the center, the 7th row also mixed in as center, and I eq the 7th row microphone to under 120 Hz as the sub, and the additional sets as the mid rears and rears. Maybe it's overkill, but the reason we are working with samples and impulse data is for ultra realism, ultra near perfection that is not possible in a live, one take recording.

Thanks much, I might do this then, and I assume once I purchase and sweetwater does their purchase, it will show up on VSL's website under my account in exactly the same way it does purchasing from VSL directly?

I am considering buying some libraries through sweetwater, do these purchases act exactly as they do if I were to purchase them through VSL directly?

That is, as I understand it, Ymir and Zodiac as I understand it are free for those that have the rest of BBO, if I were to purchase the remaining libraries through sweetwater, would I still receive these products free of charge?

I am assuming bundles also work? If I had bought some MIR room packs through sweetwater and some through VSL's own website, if I wanted to "complete the bundle" so to speak, I assume the purchases through sweetwater would be considered as already purchased and allow me to save by completing the budle?

Does license activation work the same way? I receive a key, plug it into the elicenser, it downloads the license, I install the software, and off I go? How do I register a sweetwater purchase with VSL's website so my license appears in my account section of VSL's website?

While I would love a children's choir, I don't want it in BBO. I want a full children's choir library, and a complete rework of the current choir library, modernized for contemporary composition, while still maintaining the necessities for classic works. I am confident VSL can smash the other choir libraries if they put their mind to it, and I envision something like Dimension Strings / Brass but with choirs. The kind of legato that is offered in something like Fluffy audio's Dominus Choir Pro while offering the epic sound option in something like 8dio insolidus or Oceania would be great. I just don't see a childrens choir in BBO getting the attention it really deserves in a BBO product.

They may not be appropriate for BBO, but I want points for creativity.

Pipe Organ (how this was not included in one of the libraries already is beyond me, pipe organs are epic)

Bagpipes (both Irish and Scottish variety please)

Panflute

Didgeridoo

Ok...didnt realize I had access to the manuals...got all the answers I needed... Looks like velocity layers vary between 1 and 4 depending on the articulation being used and for the more common artics, 3-4 seems about what it has. Kinda hoped there were more but maybe I can try a demo and see if there is enough nuance.

Still not sure on vibrato stuff but the manual is 300 pages long so still going through it

1. Is there an upgrade / xgrade path from Instruments to Synchron? Is the order I need to buy them Instruments and then Synchron, and any idea on the price of xgrade?

2. How many velocity layers in the standard and full libraries, and is it the same for the other standard / full libraries (for example, the solo coronet vs the dimension series).

3. Do these libraries have dynamic, CC controllable vibrato for each instrument?

4. Can these libraries deep fry things or bring world peace?

I am very seriously thinking about jumping into the full libraries, having worked with the special editions for several years, for two reasons. The not so subtle three layers offered in the special editions are just not working for me anymore. It is not that I need more articulations, its the lack of timbre changes between pp, mf, and ff. Not being able to control vibrato is killing me for solo instruments, so there is that too.

My plan is to start on the "winds" section.

Nope, only folder here is my Kontakt folder, for giggles, I removed the Kontakt folder and restarted it, still takes at least 5 minutes, I closed after the 5 minutes.

Also, I dont have an ini file in that directory, I have show hidden files and folders enabled.

This is what it looks like when I start VEP7. Takes somewhere between 20 minutes and 4 hours to load.

http://prnt.sc/t3relg

No plugin names show while its scanning.

Core i7 8700k, 64 gb of ram, running a handful of VST's and as the title says, I have been waiting for VEP 7 to load for the past 20 minutes and its still scanning plugins.

I have EastWest, Kontakt, Vienna Instruments, Synchron, Synchron Piano, and MIR Pro, along with Izotope RX7 and Eventide's Blackhole plugins.

I guess Im not doing any writing tonight, this is insane, its just gotten worse and worse scanning for plugins, it was never addressed since VEP 7 was first released and now, it doesnt even load. Yes, Ive rebooted. I dont run any virus scanners except what Windows 10 comes with, and yes, before you ask, I checked, the computer is plugged in.

How can I use VEP 7?

*Edit* Ok, went out to eat, came back, still scanning plugins. My list of non-vienna plugins is nowhere near 50, there is no reason it should take this long.

I dunno when you added this, but now that school is out, Im finally getting a chance to dig into the Big Bang stuff Ive been buying the past few months (currently have the entire library). I remember looking at this before you had timestretching as a thing in Synchron and it looks like it was silently added to the Big Bang libraries (it was announced for Synchron, but not mentioned for Big Bang).

This makes the usability of the library so much easier, just set my tempo in the DAW and let Synchron player figure it out for me. It also make the library so much more flexible as I dont write in 120, 130, or 140 BPM, typically, I write at 75-85% of this tempo and use half time if I need faster than that.

While I cant stand the Synchron player UI, it certainly has come a long way since it was first put out, and its getting pretty close to being on par with Instruments Pro feature wise (and in other ways, far surpasses VIP). Now if I could only figure a way to set libraries to disable all reverb and to have all mics disabled except the close mics, both by default :)

Thanks for the thoughts, I define "warm" is usually a bit more emphasis on the mids and low mids. Its generally less tiring on the ears, but also has a more subdued sound and probably idea for smaller, less bombastic music.

I have all the MIRx rooms and have been playing with the limited options it provides for quite a long time using the Pern monastery, and once the amount of wet dry signal has been adjusted to be a bit more reasonable, it has what is in my opinion, one of the most beautiful, deeply coloured reverb sound I have heard. It is personally my favourite venue of the MIRx groupings, but I have to tell you, the lobby of Konz in MIR Pro is quickly growing on me.

Having only recently had the chance to really dive into MIR Pro (this might be a violation of the terms, but a friend let me borrow his Vienna key so I had a chance to use MIR Pro for an extended period of time while he was out of the States), I finally decided to buy my own license with roompack 1, and Im very quickly wishing I had pern monastery (Roompack 5). There are many reverb engines out there, but nothing tailored for orchestral work with exception to maybe altiverb, which pales in comparison.

The hidden little gem about MIR Pro? I think Paul dropped the ball on this, MIRacles. It gets a 45 second mention in one of the later videos and is never mentioned outside of this. It really deserves its own video, even if you just take the video from Suite pro and drop it into the MIR Pro video collection, because this hidden little gem allows us to really have the best of both worlds, realistic venues with some algorithmic sweetness to iron out resonances, or, in my case, accentuate resonances. Let me explain.

While many sound engineers and composers are looking for a flat sound, I am not. A room plays the biggest role in the sound an instrument makes. Arguably, the sound engineer is "playing" the room when he is mixing. I like to write, compose, and mix to the room. This means, looking at the room, determining the type of reverb, tail length, resonant frequencies, and other key characteristics and writing music tailored for that venue. I am not an expert in sound engineering, nor am I a very good composer, dont take everything I just said as some sort of blow hard set of comments, I only mention this to say that even something as simple as changing the key of a piece to match the acoustics of a room can make a HUGE difference in the tone and timbre of a piece, and it is something every composer should consider.

A trumpet sounds terrible on a street corner when compared to an acoustically tuned room. Add coloration to that room and that adds character. Most sound engineers consider color to be a flaw, I consider it to be character. The most overlooked aspect of composition is the room with which a piece is played in, and if you are not paying close attention to the acoustics of the room, you are missing an important detail of the the timbre of the music.

This is, by the way, why I wish there were more mic positions available, Id love to be able to capture more of the room's tone, but I have digressed. Pern Monastery, I will pick it up in the coming months, the current "crisis" has me broke. Why did every sound font company have to put everything I wanted on sale this last month??

Probably a common question, I'm doing a lot of smaller arrangements lately to try to improve my music theory and instrumentation skills, working with self-imposed limitations allows me to really have to work harder to make an arrangement sound good without using a huge swath of instrumentation to hide poor/artificial sounding instruments because of lazy MIDI programming (as good as MIDI is these days, it still requires a lot of work to get a MIDI instrument to sound realistic). One of the aspects I am also working on is my mastering skills, including compression, EQ, and reverb.

A lot of what I am doing right now is upbeat chamber music from the medieval era, usually, the kind of thing you might expect to hear in film in a kings court type of settings (think tambourine, small string quartet, some historical winds like recorders and even the crumhorn got some use last night!).

I'm currently using MIR Pro with the starter edition complete libraries (1-7 and 1+ & 2+) in either the VI or Synchron stage variety, depending on which UI I feel like working with. It's worth noting, I really love these libraries, my only wish is that they had progressive vibrato, for the price of these libraries compared to other similar libraries, the others do have progressive vibrato, it puzzles me that the starter editions do not. However, I digress...

My mastering is done completely in Vienna Suite Pro, and I have Ensemble Pro with Instruments Pro, the only room pack I have a license for is Konzerthaus (room pack 1).

Surprisingly, the lobby is actually fantastic, very lively sound, interesting and unusual reflections, it really adds a lot of character to smaller chamber music and I am betting, it's overlooked by many. My guess is, many think the lobby was included as maybe a goof, or, a "why not capture the lobby, we are here", sort of thing, but it really is a fantastic sound, provided you dial down the wet/dry mix and make some small adjustments on the tail (nearly 5s of reverb tail is a bit much haha). I find the tone in the lobby to be warmer and more friendly than the small Schubertsaal venue that is also included. This whole paragraph is all to say, if you have room pack 1, don't overlook the lobby, even if it's for bigger work, again, with the caveat that you adjust the tail and wet/dry ratio.

That said, I'm looking at room pack 4 (Sage Gateshead), specifically, hall 2 wondering if this has a good sound for the kind of music I am writing, or perhaps there are other venues with some tweaking, might be suitable. (I have all of the MirX rooms so that might be an interesting way to preview the bigger Mir Pro room packs).

Anyone have any thoughts on any specific room packs that might be suitable for this and some possible appropriate adjustments to make for a more authentic and warm sound?

Smart Orchestra's primary purpose is quick sketching or live performances.

Big Bang & Epic Orchestra is primarily for sketching or projects that might require light orchestration where individual instrumentation is not necessary.

The more complete libraries like the special edition libraries or even the standard or full libraries are for focused orchestration that requires individual notation for each and every instrument in the orchestra. It is notable that for the vast majority of composers just getting started, the Special Editions cover almost everything you need minus the ability to adjust the amount of vibrato (for the life of me, I don't understand why crossfading is not included, since many more full libraries that cost significantly less offer this functionality, such as the Chris Hein libraries, which are in my opinion, the best overall solo orchestral instruments on the market right now).

Whether you have a reason to open the VI instruments is all a matter of what products you currently have, and what your needs are. If you have a license for Vienna Suite Pro and MIR Pro with Synchron stage IR, You can easily get the identical sound that is offered from the Synchronized libraries but has, but with much more flexibility.

You have to understand that Vienna decided to create a product that sounds good out of the box (Synchron libraries) but at the cost of less flexibility. The advantage the Synchronized editions provide is good sound, less time spent having to shape the sound of each instrument, and results in having to spend less money for said results.

On the other hand, the VI libraries provide more flexibility at the cost of having to spend time shaping the sound for each instrument and require spending additional money on things like reverb or FX like compression or EQing. Of course, you can set up templates, but this comes at the cost of having to load more into memory than you may be willing to load, which is an additional tradeoff you have to make if you use templates.

Finally, probably pretty obvious, but often overlooked, is the UI provided with Vienna Instruments versus the Synchron player. My personal opinion is the VI player is better for my tastes. It looks less fisher price and more like a product that is professional, however, each person will have their own tastes. I think feature for feature, VI Pro is on par with Synchron player, in fact, Synchron player has the advantage of offering polyphonic legato without having to pay extra, something which for the life of me, is an astonishing money grab by Vienna. In my view, if you paid for the instrument, polyphonic legato should not be an added cost.

My personal workflow involves using Smart Orchestra, Epic Orchestra 1 & 2, and Big Bang to sketch out ideas, then quickly convert the instrumentation to full orchestration in one of the Special Edition variants. For epic or trailer work, Synchron is great. For more subdued projects, I use VI. For example, I just wrote a Fugue, and it made more sense to use VI for this project. A month or two ago, I did a 12-minute trailer that made use of the Synchron libraries. One other point worth mentioning, some specific instruments simply sound better in either the VI or Synchron variation. The solo coronet, for example, is simply stunning in the VI variety, run through the Black Hole reverb plugin. The majority of the string libraries are fantastic in the Synchron library right out of the box with almost no sound-shaping required. It is all a matter of exploring both of the libraries. You paid for them, spend time getting to know them, start writing pieces with them in different styles and varieties, and it will quickly become apparent where they are good, and where they are not so good.

Seems ya'll heard my requests, this looks like alot of fun. Percussion yay! Time Stretching yay!!

Now, if you wouldnt mind doing one small favor, would you do a short video of your cymbal rolls with soft mallets? I have been searching high and low for good cymbal rolls and I have been unable to find any that work for me... This might be the answer, especially if time stretching works the way I think it does / should :)

We just need some timpani love and some phrases used in time signatures outside of 4/4!

My apologies to Paul, I stole your announcement.

Percussion absolutely makes sense in this library. This is a lite library that should have timpani hits and rolls, bass drum hits and rolls, and cymbal rolls and crashes. It's an "epic" orchestral library designed for quick scoring. It doesnt need dozens of articulations, but basic hits and rolls for timpanis, bass drum(s), and cymbals absolutely fits.

As to having to have every instrument in the DAW, the idea is that you literally drag from Synchron into the DAW and the notation is added in separate tracks. What instruments you are using is up to you.

I am curious, are there plans to add tempo sync to the Big Bang product line? I dont understand why I cannot set my tempo in my DAW and have Syncron dynamically adjust to my tempo settings as many other similar products are able to do.

I am also curious whether there are plans for drag and drop functionality into my DAW that will automatically place the notation used into the MIDI tracks I have created in my DAW. For example, perhaps, I want to double the Cello and Double Bass used in Capricorn with a low brass library of my choice (whether it be Vienna or another library).

These are both features offered in other similar products such as Sonuscore's The Orchestra Complete or Sonokinetic phrase based libraries. Granted, you often have to tweak CC data to get them to sound authentic with third party libraries, but at least the notation is easily put in place.

Also, as I havent looked at Capricorn (literally just bought a license about an hour ago and Im too exhausted to dive into it right now), are the phrases in the 120 BPM section the same as the 130 and 140 libraries? If they are, perhaps we can simplify this, remove the option to select BPM and just put tempo sync in.

Im liking the direction you are going here with BB, however, I want to see more, much more, with more time signatures, a more flexible arp that doesnt lock me in to specific phrases, and has more flexibility in not only notes played, but play style (legato, staccato, marcato, etc), note duration, etc.

Pick up a license for The Orchestra Complete and take a look at what they are doing, as this is probably the best arp library on the market right now. I think you guys can not only reproduce what they are doing, but do it better.

Also, while Im not specifically needing it, BB is curiously missing percussion. It is Big Bang after all. The big is there, but wheres the bang?

Did not mix in surround sound, I am unable to figure out how to get cubase to export in 5.1.

As to using the stereo imager, I dont know what this. If you mean, did I pan the instruments, yes, however, I did not use the power pan plugin, I used the pan builtin to Ensemble. I also used the exciter, eq, hybrid reverb, and compressor.

*Added* So I just looked at the panning, it seems that everything was centered.

This is with the panning correctly implemented. (yea, I know the reverb tail at the end is not right, Ill fix that part later this week)

https://soundcloud.com/joshua-gardner-15/ds9-updated-with-correct-panning

Growing up, Deep Space Nine, a popular scifi television series, based in the Star Trek universe, always fascinated me. The theme for this TV show was majestic, bold, brassy, and in your face, with big fat fifths and occasional dimished chords that are so good for brass instrumentation, and I wanted to arrange something that would really showcase the Vienna Special Edition library and its capabilities, hence this arrangement.

This is done using (exclusively) the starter / special edition libraries from Vienna, with one exception, I used an atonal rumbler from omnisphere to provide a bigger oomph to the opening of the track. This track showcases the most absolutely wonderful coronet that is included with the special editions (my favourite unsung hero of the Vienna libraries). You will also hear french horns, which carry the main melody and harmony of the piece at various points of the piece (the coronet and horns carry the melody throughout the piece). The appasionata strings carry the lovely, high string line that sings over the top of the theme, and the tubas and trombones fill in the low end, along with a cello, and as a side note, now that Im thinking about it, I should add a double bass haha. Also included is the orchestral strings to carry the softer string line often associated with the opening of almost any star trek theme. Also used is the wonderful Cannon from Smart Spheres for an even bigger bass line.

I also utilized the Vienna Suite Pro FX plugins that was recently on sale, I used the compressor, EQ, hybrid reverb, and my new favourite plugin, the exciter for the cymbal rolls, strings, and coronet. The result is absolutely stunning in my humble opinion. I went outside of Vienna for one FX, the horns did not have enough of a spacial feeling, so I used my favourite reverb engine (next to Mir Pro), Blackhole on only the horns.

Without any further ado, the theme to Deep Space Nine the way it was meant to be heard.

DS9 Theme

My concern is, resources are still an issue for me. I write and compose using a single PC, an Intel core i7 8700k with 64 GB of ram. A full orchestral piece consisting of about 60 tracks in which I use every instrument that is loaded, will eat every bit of that ram up in a heartbeat. I cannot upgrade my RAM any more than that, 64 is my motherboard limit, so my next option would be to start freezing tracks or converting tracks to audio, which would severely hamper my creativity (waiting minutes to unfreeze and reload a track is a creativity killer).

Factor in MIR Pro and perhaps a light compression / delay VST (I use the FX builtin to Ensemble 7 as the FX are quite good), and the video editing software I use (Magix Vegas Studio) which I like to have open with the music writing process so that I can write music and time / render it correctly in time with the video and things start to go quite nuts on resource usage. While I know there are options for reducing resource usage, and I certainly could do what I do without having everything loaded all at once, It would slow down the final bit of the process for me, when I am fine tuning the work I do.

It is also worth noting, probably 70% of what I work with is already what I would consider a light library (Special Edition libraries - 1,1+,2,2+,3,4,5,6,&7). I shudder to think how bad it would be if I were using the complete libraries. I mean, in all honestly, with exception to the solo instruments, luckily, I dont see a big enough value in the complete libraries (for me) to use them or I would have to consider replacing my motherboard and doubling my ram, a prospect that would run me about $1000.

As much as I absolutely love Orchestral Tools libraries and some of Spitfire libraries, the main reason I dont use them is the size. They are unbelievably ginormous and unnecessarily so.

I also, as a side note, do not want to introduce complexity in my workflow. Running Ensemble over a network, while neat, adds unecessary complexity that I just dont need or want. As the famous line goes, the more they overtake the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.

Synchron pianos is already one of the biggest piano libraries out there, surpassed only by another piano library that touts a terabyte and a half as I recall. I am glad that VSL decided to release the special edition synchron variant, as it serves well enough to my ear to use for orchestral work, and hell, I think the special edition variant is STILL larger in size than most piano libraries on the market.

Finally, I dont think it is beneficial to anyone to suggest that performance is better with higher sample rates. What we are doing is vastly different than what many articles are writing about, which is simple playback. We are adding FX and we are not merely simply playing wav audio. The audio format is in a proprietary format, not native to what soundcards are acustomed to playing, which adds overhead, increasing processor usage.

All this having been said, I am not against having an optional download for those that want higher quality, although, if this option is provided, I dont understand why they should need to sell it as a "give us more money" choice, because they already have the samples in this format. It would not or should not require much more effort on their end to make this option available, and it should be a free choice, as it is with every other library on the market that offers quality choices (Sonokinetic for example, it is a free optional download).

Personally, no offense meant, but I find it highly suspicious that anyone can tell the difference between 48 and 96 sample rates. Now, between 16 and 24 bit, in very specific circumstances, that I can tell the difference, but the circumstances where I can tell the difference are very specific, having to do with dithering with certain frequencies and lower volume levels. However, who am I to get into a debate over whether someone can hear a difference?

Anyway, I have Physics homework to get back to, make the option available free of charge, choice is never a bad thing, I merely wanted to address the notion that performance was better with higher sample rates.

Right, but we arent just talking about playback, we are also talking about adding FX. The reverbs and other FX we add to our sounds becomes more complex (thus, significantly higher processor usage) with higher sample rates. Its easy enough to test, if you have a library that contains multiple sample rate options, both with and without FX.

On the off chance that they were included in "Drums" under Percussion, I found them, plus rolls. Yay Vienna, ok, now I know where to find them. I shouldve thought to look here, Ive been using the ones from epic orchestra all this time :(