I had to reinstall my OS, but my sample files are preserved on a different drive.  I'd rather not waste ssd write cycle re-downloading the same things.  Will VI and Synchron player (both) see that the samples already exist after I reinstall the players?

I'm thinking about buying the Synchronized Starter edition 1 during the current sale. I mostly write for small ensembles and am particularly interested in the solo voices. My plan would be to perhaps purchase single instruments as I need them. For example, one project I'm working on is a brass quintet and it looks like I'd need to get a separate euphonium*. I see individual instruments available for VI but not Synchron. Is it horrible to mix the two collections together?

How does an instrument in a special edition relate to getting an individual instrument from the regular edition list? Is it just a matter of articulations?

*For my specific example, I do have VEP 6 and 7, which seems to include Wagner tuba. If my euphonium part fits in the range of a Wagner tuba is it worth giving it a try?

I recorded my first midi from the controller earlier today. Prior to that, all of my note entry was with the mouse. (I'm transitioning from MuseScore / soundfont to Reaper / libraries.)

I don't have a performance background (played tuba in elementary (primary) school and that's about it). About 7 years ago I came across Rosegarden while doing a Linux install (to make it worse, it was Arch). In a moment of supreme hubris, I thought to myself, "I have a master degree in chemistry, how hard can composing/producing music be?"

I've since earned some humility and taken a year of college theory. Composition has been almost a visual activity. I use playback all the time, but the initial notation entry with the mouse, visual, sort of.

So, this morning, I have a controller that I mostly use for sound design preview. I stumbled on a short sequence that I liked, so I learned how to record midi. I even used a black key! :)

So, today I had my first glimpse of the value of improvisation for composition.

Thank you for the topic and the other answers. It is good learning how other people do things.

I had to check what a Mac Mini was. The currently advertised ones list 10gbe Ethernet as available. There are also Thunderbolt 3 to 10gbe adapters on the market.

Is your 48 GB machine not enough? My laptop with 48 GB RAM is my music machine. If I get into VSL will I need to get my server (Cisco C460, 40 cores, 128 GB RAM) into the game?

I'm intrigued by VSL and am thinking of starting to collect the libraries in a month. I'm very much still a beginner at composition / production.

I have VSCO2 and am buying full Kontakt in a few days. I'm thinking to start my VSL collection by filling in some gaps such as saxophones, jazz drums and concert guitar for VI Pro. Maybe then get a copy of VE Pro, in part for Epic Orchestra and to compare VI Pro to Synchron. At this point my plan is to evaluate what I use frequently and am unhappy with whatever I currently have.

Is there anything I should be aware of when buying an instrument at a time, as opposed to a starter edition?

I can see using VE Pro to distribute the workload across several machines.

How is a single instance of VE Pro different from just using the DAW as the plugin host? Is there a special benefit if a mix of VI Pro and Synchron libraries are being used?

Who's awesome? You are!

I'm looking into getting a few small VSL instruments to fill some gaps. (I currently own VSCO2 Pro.) Specifically, I'm looking at the classical guitar, jazz drums and saxaphones. I would spread the purchases out over a few months. What kind of benefit would VI Pro offer for the classical guitar or the jazz drums? (Will I see the most benefit to use it with the saxophones?)