yeah most of my samples, even my giga format VSL samples, would be "foreign" I never jumped on board the VI bandwagon and now of course it's too late unless I win the lottery.

Honestly I thought there was a bit too much stereo seperation and not enough sense of varying distances. woodwinds seem too far, percussion in some cases too close (particularly piatti and other high metalic perc)

very subjective of course. 

mir doesn't really sound any better or difrent than altiverb  

great job though as alays, jay.  you're the best

If you'd like I can remix in altiverb to compare/contrast.  

2 questions.

must you run some VI instruments to make it work or could it simply be a etherernet solution for us?

do you have to pay for each computer you run it on?

 this all not the point, the point is mac is (seemingly) capable and there seems no reason for it to be 64 bit since other software companies managed to do it (supposedly). that's my point - I don't care which one you enjoy using.  I happen to have both and would like to run my VE my mac because it will work better in my particular setup.   

 according to what I've read it's NOT exlusive to windows it's claiming 64 bit mac support which was got me wondering.  Thanks for the reply. 

Kontakt 3.5 is 64 bit I see no reason why VE shouldn't be 64 bit on Mac (i.e. no realistic memory limits). Maybe I missed a memo though.

Here is the rub, for me at least I only need the samples I have (first edition plus epic horns) no more, no less - I'd pay a certain amount for the reprograming maybe even significantly (say 30 percent) but there is no way I can afford the cube. As of right now I am pretty much planning on not upgrading - I'll stick with orphaned gigastudio untill another company comes along with the next generation of virtual orchestra - you have to believe it can get better in the next 5-10 years.  Unfortunatly, I was tought as a kid to look for value in my purchases. To me, to pay such an incredibly large amount of money for a software upgrade with sample tweaks is not a good way to spend money (if you don't understand the logic of my point of view just realize I'd have to buy the full deal to get what I need and all I need is the first edition plus epic horns which I already own)

So, the solution to me, would be to offer First Edition, Pro Edition, Horizon as VI products (seriouisly how hard could this be since it would basicly consisting of drawing up an articulation list and printing discs) for like 30% of the original cost with an obvious upgrade path that can't be revoked on a whim.   The math of the upgrade paths isn't that hard, seriously.  A theory of "too complex" is not a good argument (I am sure the marketing department would disagree).  

Would it be possible to have two diffrent sequencer computers access a VE3 sounds/slave machine without constantly switching the dongles between the two computers?  

I have on computer by the grand piano I'd like to enter some material from and a more powerful machine that use to sequence and mix - so could I have them both acess the same sound template?   

 yeah, I was thinking I would have to run a seperate computer just to run the performance tool with machfive - but that's what I was already thinking, so if that would make it work - I think I could handle that for a couple years untill the technolog shifs again.  

Here are all things that really really suck about this:

1. all my samples are gigastudio format

2. because vsl discontuned my VIP discount there is NO WAY for me to convert to VI now.  I will not wast my inital investment by paying again.

3. I am not sure any other sampler will be able to properly play my samples, my hope is machfive will be able to.  My main concern is the performance legatos

4. I just bought gigastudio 4 and it's very buggy for me.  It crashes a lot and takes 27 minutes to load my template (which only uses about 5 out of the 16 GB's of ram)

5. VSL also stopped selling the samples in other formats so I can't crossgrade to a non-orphanware sampler now.

6. I am screwed anyway I turn.

Here are my hopes:

1. VSL will lower their prices some time in the future

2. Gigastudio will go open source and some blessed people will fix it and keep supporting it(and that tascam will give people their money back for a program that basicly doesn't work)

3. Machfive will become 64 bit and properly run my gigastudio samples (especially the performance legatos)

So here are my questions, questions that I didn't think I would ever have to ask.

1.  Can I get my discount back, can I get something, anything nice from VSL - you guys seem to hate your old customers for complaining but what do you expect, you basicly more or less lied - at least from our perspective. 

2.  Can machfive use the performance tool to do the performance legatos properly with .gig files.

3.  is machfive for pc doing the many gigs of ram 64 bit thing?

Here is what I concluded. VSL must be doing this for their own esoteric reasons NOT to "maike more money" Because - this scheme basicly gurantees anyone who doesn't upgrade now will NEVER upgrade. So VSL I guess this is good bye.   I'll look to your competitors from here on out.    

looking for a non-tascam benchmark test on 100% 64 bit system with 8-32 GB of ram (my plan is for 16 gb)

anyone tested it yet? 

I 2nd the motion.  

Herb, maybe we can consider it "water under the bridge" if you give us back 30% of our "investmnent"?

If you can program the VI surely you can write an algorithm to properly calculate a discount?  It probably wouldn't even take 32 GB of RAM.

I would like to recomend vsl not discontinue the VIP upgrade path.  Doing so could bring a costly class action lawsuit and that isn't good for anyone, including those who have upgraded already.    

you'd need a gsif compatible sound card to do - or maybe you can use rewire... not sure exactly but I know it can be done. but just by altiverb - it's way better.

Duduk, and other ethnic winds (perf legato, pp, mp and forte)
I think VSL would knock this one out of the ball park - I'd pay $500 for the Duduk Alone.

xfading doesn't really seem to sound that way - particularly with sections it just is so much better than simple volume fades - go with xfades 99% of the time

I know it's natural and realistic and all but it'd be nice still be able to have a more controlled experience - at least that's my opinion for film music. Right now my only solution would be to introduce some of the dry signal back in 10-15%

After reading this topic I did some rather extensive testing with altiverb.   My conclusion is that the farther you put your instruments back (both with mic selection and stage position) the less pan information gets across - regardless of whether it's from the panned direct signal or the stage positioning or both -  In general altiverb diffuses the panning a ton - which is reaslitic I guess but the result I feel is that is hard to have a balanced (i.e controlled) stereo image.   I also tried every possible combination of sending signal to both the early reflection and the tail seperatly (in a chain AND using the same signal twice at the same time via an aux bus with two sends). It never sounded as good as the signal being proccesed in one instance of altiverb - the diffrence was signficant. Even if I had the CPU to run the 6 instances of altiverb I'd need to pan in stage positioning it still wouldn't give me very good control over the stereo feild (unless I used all close mics and close stage positionings which I don't want to do).  If anyone has tricks on how to regain control over the stereo image while using large diffusing IR's it would be much appreachiated. 

4 hours per minute - so it depends on how fast you need it.

www.symphonicuproar.com

it is possible to make the files open perfectly in a sequencer. Note that the order is the order of the instruments is the order they were CREATED not the order they are placed on the score. Also any stave with out pitch information won't get translated. So what I do is setup a template in an exacting manner making sure to keep things in order when I save as midi file. I only do this when it is absolutely needed though, but it might be helpful to you. ALL the mockups on my website are done exclusively in finale. No tweaking done in logic. I think I've gotten pretty good at it.