Hi all,

I'm on Cubase 7.5 Pro (PC), Windows 7 Pro, everything else up to date (VEP / VIP etc). I own Cubase 8 Pro, but I have never used it for a project, as I found it was unstable, my templates wouldn't load correctly from V 7.5, and then the new audio engine in Cubase 8 changed from 7.5 to be a problem. Now I am wondering if version 8.5 is better or worth upgrading to? So far I have found V 7.5 to be basically very stable and while not perfect quite efficient for my purposes with using mostly Vienna software.

Just wondering if anyone has any direct experience with this and can help with some advice. The last thing I want to do is make my set up less efficient, less instrument count, higher latency, worse for live playing etc, or less stable (worst of all!).

Thanks in advance :)

Hi VSL team, just wanted to send a feedback about the new website design and let you know it looks great and is a pleasure to use and visit! Congratulations you got it perfect! :)

I've got the latest version of Ensemble on Windows 7 and have had a problem for a while where Waves plugs are not coming up in the plug ins. I tried reinstalling them but no joy. They come up in Cubase just fine. Not sure what I am doing wrong - have rescanned etc. Anyone got any tips on this??

Just a quick question does anyone know if the current Cubase 8 HMT feature will work with VI Pro or VE Pro?

In my humble opinion, if I were starting out today, and focusing on strings as you said, I would go for Chamber Strings and Dimension Strings first. if Icould only get one, then Dimension Strings first, but both together is great fun. It's very flexible, you can make a big sound with this combination, and many variations from small to medium to large. Great to learn to write as you can split things up into divisi, double up on the dimension strings parts to create second / third strings, use the chamber section to fatten out single lines without having to resort to pitch bending, etc. Next I would get the Orchestral strings, and then solo strings, lastly appassionata strings. That's just the order that in my mind is the most useable, flexible, practical, etc, way to build up your string section giving you flexibilty and sound from the start. Appassionata strings are fantastic, but are the least flexible, because they are extra large ensembles playing single notes (fantastic for soaring lines). Of course the idea is to get everything eventually :)

Good luck choosing! :)

lol wait for the violas!! haha

Wow, ok thanks so much for letting me know! I appreciate that. I did check the changelog before posting, but I missed that somehow - sorry!

Hey everyone - I posted this as a feature request about a year ago, and just wondering if anyone else agrees with this. I work basically with low latency playing in parts. When working with large projects with a MIR instance on every instrument, if you want to get low latency when [edit] when performing a part* you need to disable every instance of MIR in that project window (not others). So for example if I want to replay a Violin part in my strings project window I have to hit Bypass like 12 times individual click/click/click etc. Then when finished to hear the part in context of the mix I have to re-enable every instance of MIR.

My point is why can't there be a Global bypass button, like a per project window bypass - so bypassing all the instances of MIR in that window, and there should also be a global bypass buttong that bypasses all MIR instances across the entire server. I don't want one that just does all plug ins because many plugins like compression or eq are low/no latency and it's good to hear what they are doing when performing a part many times. But also it wouldn't hurt to have that feature.

Does anyone else agree that it's a pain to disable instances like this or are you all working with such powerful machines or small projects that it doesn't matter to you as you have your MIR latency set so low you don't notice it?

Just bought a new Angelbird Master SSD (since I had not much more space on my system for libraries) in anticipation of the DS Cellos and hopefully the Violas also arriving over the rest of the year (hope I'm right!). Can't wait for these to arrive! Basses too, although one can live without those in the short term it will complete the picture for sure.

Roy: Congratulations - you belong to a special club my friend. We need a secret handshake or something...

hehe I just logged in to reply to the other message and you have a similar one here - I am pretty flat out, and I'm also not interested in running any other software on this system than what is there for music. If I get a chance though I'll give it a go.

Hi Cyril, I don't really have time for that right now, but you can verify my claims on peformance just on normal PC's (not the custom job I have) anywhere online. Maybe later if I have a chance I'll give it a go :)

Hey everyone, just wanted to put up a review of an amazing computer I bought a few months back. I've waited until I had used it quite a bit before reviewing, but I knew when I got it out of the box that it was something special! It will go without saying to anyone who knows me here that I have no financial interest in this company, nor did I get any incentive whatsoever to write this, simply I want to promote things that I believe in. I want to share my experience with something I find to be truly *exceptional*. When you buy a boutique / custom DAW you really hope for your money you will get something special that delivers, and we always have that worry that maybe whoever we are buying from despite earnest sounding promises will somehow let us down and deliver us something less than excellent. Well in this case I was not disappointed in the slightest. This thing is not a Bentley (yuk), or a Rolls (boring), it's a twin V8 quad turbo Bugatti Veyron with custom interior... and it smokes the latest Ferrari with aplomb...

First of all the case I got was an upright version, with a 2897W Intel 8-Core processor, 64Gb's RAM, and Angelbird SSD's throughout (no hard drives). I got the extra acoustic insulation. The system is running Windows 7, and they got me a video card so I could hook up my 30 inch Apple cinema display - the 8 core 2007 Mac is now relegated to all other duties other than music ;) and I have the PC running purely Cubase / VSL etc. It's not even plugged into the internet, except for the odd quick serial number / registration process. I do my USB sticks etc, internet, email and all the rest on the Mac.

Where to start? Well this thing is gorgeous. From the outside, simple, clean and really cool. No flashy zig zaggy lights and bizarro world jazz. It's just cool, and elegant. I am a huge mac fan, but I did the math, and hardware and software wise PC's have a massive edge dollar for dollar on performance right now - you cannot beat it. It's not a matter of opinion folks so please no mac versus pc arguments I dislike MS as much as the next person, but the fact is technically they're doing the right thing for music to happen and the Macs aren't matching that right now. You can't run the same project on a PC as on a Mac with the same hardware, and, on a mac, that same hardware is either not yet available, or it's twice the price. If it was the other way around I would be as strongly advocating the Mac. I don't care either way, I'm objective about track count! So anyway I treat it like what it is, a machine to make music.

Now when I say this thing is gorgeous, I mean I think even Steve Jobs himself would have said that, and been so impressed with the internals of this thing he would have gotten a meeting with his MacPro engineers that day to discuss. I won't post photos, because there is some proprietary stuff going on in there, and I don't want to help Leon's competitors! He deserves the business! But let me say, when I got my 8core MacPro in 2007, I was well impressed with the internals, very well designed, put together, and just overall super impressive especially in it's time. I thought then, "No PC could ever match this kind of engineering and design". I was wrong! The XI Machines design, the parts and workmanship that Leon and his team have put together here is just simply awesome and a huge one or even TWO up on the current MacPro. I can honestly say I have far more confidence in this machine than I did when I first unboxed my new very expensive Mac Pro in 2007. They are really using top quality parts and cables etc in this thing. the PSU, the fans, etc. I repeat, top notch. Of course, it came with the obligatory set of Angelbird Master SSD's which are simply part and parcel of the rest of the standard of this thing - absolutely exceptional - so they are right at home in this machine. I wish I could post photos! For now you'll have to trust me about the looks and build!

It's silent - it's blazingly fast, I mean I can do *at least* 10 times (LITERALLY) more live low latency work with MIR and everything running than I ever could on my mac - without freezing tracks. Even with the latest MacPro I estimate I would get not better than (at best) half that for double the money. (Read that again I'm not exaggerating). Only on the largest projects lately have I had to freeze one or two instances of Kontact since it seems to be much less efficient than VI Pro. If you run your VI's mostly in VEPro, then performance is very high indeed even with Kontact and other VI's. It's extremely professional, I mean, it just works beautifully. I've had no problems (other than my own user errors), for example I had one mistake I made where I was shutting down the PC before VEPro had finished quitting, and eventually I lost some preferences, which were easy enough to fix up, before I learned you should let apps quit before shutting down on Windows. That's a Windows thing I guess. Apart from that very minor issue of my own doing, All VSL software (VI Pro, VE Pro, Suite, MIR) Cubase, and Windows itself have been extremely stable throughout the last four months I've been using this. Cubase runs almost flawlessly. I'm on V6 right now waiting for V7 to arrive. Of course, I keep this machine very clean. No supurflous software - none at all in fact, just the bare essentials. No internet, no other "jobs" just purely music. I can highly recommend this way of working folks. Worry free!

I keep backups of all my stuff on external drives, and the USB3 port on this is a real time saver, VERY fast. I am hoping to get one of Angelbirds external SSD's that look amazing when I have some budget. This machine has LOADS of ports. There's plenty of USB ports to plug everything into. I was able to get away without using any USB hubs, and still have about 3 ports free for hard drives, usb sticks etc including USB3. I have quite a few dongles as well, I have the SSL dongle, Waves, Cubase and VSL which I put on the one dongle quite a while ago, and an iLok. It has no firewire, which I don't need and am glad is not there. Simplicity is king! I have a 2882 interface, which is Mac only firewire, but it has AES/EBU ports, so I bought an RME AES card for the PC, and that sends digitally to the 2882 which feeds my monitors. Since I'm only in 2.1 right now, it works fine. If I want to go to 5.1 (or up to 7.1) I can buy a new interface, or buy ADAT > AES convertor box and use the ADAT lightpipe (8 channels) on the 2882 with the AES cables on the RME. There are I think 16 stereo channels of AES on the RME card which is awesome, I can hook up any AES external digital gear I need with room to spare, even if I went to 5.1 or more.

I tend to work at low latencies whenver possible, since I perform all my parts it always helps especially with string parts and other instruments with an already delayed attack to have very low latency so you can really hear what you're doing, and this thing does it with NO problem, and it was always an issue on the mac, the best I could get was 256 buffer in Cubase with a 1X buffer in VE Pro, which is too slow to perform it at your best IMO. I'm sure there are much more accomplished keyboard players out there who have "read ahead listening" haha, but after a certain point, certain material is impossible to play properly at larger latencies espescially fast material, especially if you want to record the best possible performance you can do. If you are using VEPro to host your instruments our of Cubase or whatever you're using (which I highly recommend) then you'll be able to get a HUGE live voice count on this thing especially with SSD's.

Anyway the beauty of this is there's not much more to say except that I think this has to be the absolute pinnacle of music production available today when it comes to DAW's. XI machines + VSL / VE Pro / Suite / MIR is the king of audio production and I don't only write orchestral material. I can't think of anything better and I looked at many options, including much more expensive options (no names!) they frankly and honestly didn't even come CLOSE to being deserving of standing in the same *sentence* as this machine. I would have the same confidence buying any other configuration from these guys.

Dealing with the company itself was painless, honest, and efficient. I can't recommend them highly enough. I don't live in Europe so it had to be shipped, and they handled that very well also. If I lived somewhere far away like Antartica, and there was a custom PC shop around the corner from my Igloo... I would still order from DAW Plus / XI Machines. If you're really serious about your music, this is where you want to go for your next DAW. The only way I could be happier is if this thing had a flux capaciter and could travel through time...!

Edit: I just realised that although the machine is called "XI Machines" And they are a hardware company the custom build was done and purchased through a company called DAW Plus.

Makes sense. In my case what I have is 128Gb for the system, 128Gb for Audio, which I use just for projects currently in use, then an set of 480Gb ones for my libraries, which are not raided, just simply load them up. I use the angelbirds, they're extremely well made and very very fast, so I don't even worry about what library goes where mainly, except for my own organisation purposes. If you're on a laptop and not very heavy track count I think you could get away with one ssd for system and audio, providing it had enough space. Edit: You might find that buying 2X128 drives, one for system, one for audio is not that much difference in price as 1X256... maybe get one of the Angelbird external SSD's for audio, I don't have one but they look pretty nice! and an internal one for the system. You  might fine the price difference justifies having everything seperate. Then also you don't have as many write cycles on your internal drive so it would presumably last longer.

I recently (a few months back) bought a new PC from XI Machines loaded up with Angelbird SSD's and just want to put a short review up here for anyone wondering about either of these companies - even though they're both already recommended by VSL. Basically don't think about it. I have waited and worked with this machine for several months now intensely before saying anything, but I'm happy to confirm that everything is absolutely FLAWLESS. I'll do a review of XI Machines in a seperate post later when I have time as that's more detailed, but as for the Angelbird SSD's the good news is the review is very simple! These are beautifully made devices, extremely cool (mine are all internal of course) - extremely fast, not a hitch. I got the master class of drives, but after using these for a while now - and successfully employing VSL's suggestion of lowering the load buffer in VI Pro to save RAM - I am happy to confirm that in my experience thus far they are 100% living up to their hype and reputation, and frankly if I didn't have the budget I would go with confidence with any of their cheaper models also. I got them for all my system drives - Windows drive, an audio drive for projects, and three larger library drives (3X 480Gb) and this thing is awesome. If you're wondering about going for it - seriously: wonder no more!! I wish there was more I could say about them but honestly they just work, and they're so simple - what more is there to say. Very fast, very cool. Just wanted to pass that on and thanks to VSL for recommending them.

Thanks for the reply Dietz, that's great news :) Yes I think it's the only feature I would say is missing right now.

I wouldn't say you need to have bypasses for other individual plug ins such as normal reverbs or eq's, no other hosts have that feature and it isn't really necessary in most cases, especially as those don't introduce latency for the most part, and if they do it's very little in most cases - even multiband compressors don't introduce much latency and most people won't be using those on every single channel or even many channels. But MIR is another thing. For me when I'm performing parts I need that to be snappy especially fast string lines or anything really. So MIR has to be disabled so you can hear things in low latency, then renabled so you can hear how it sounds in the mix, etc. For me at least it becomes a real issue over time.

Ok, I think I wrote about this before, but at the risk of sounding redundant I have to ask again. Am I the only one who thinks that a per VEP instance "MIR bypass" button would not be hugely helpful? It would be just awesome to be able to disable all the instances of MIR on a given VEP instance and re-enable with one click. As it is I have to CTRL-click click click click click click click click click click click click click click to disable, (thereby reducing latency of the instance), and then CTRL-click click click click click click click click click click click click click to re-enable. All instances of MIR have to be disabled for the latency time to get reduced.

I can't help thinking, (with my very limited understanding of programming) that it shouldn't be that hard or expensive to implement, and at least for me it would be a massive time saver. Perhaps I'm the only person who works the way I do, in which case I suppose I'll just have to suffer it, but I can't help but think this would be useful to more than a few people.

If you agree please +1 this post or comment so maybe they'll see I'm not the only one!????

Just so I don't sound ungrateful, I take this opportunity to again say thanks for such amazing great software and libraries VSL, it would be a
sad world for me without it... just hope you can do this one feature - it would be unbelievably fantastic!

It's hard to explain it, for a start the VSL programming on the choirs is much cleaner and more predictable - the legatos are certainly smoother and overall the engineering programming is better. However, with the Requiem choir they freely admit that it's got all the rough edges on purpose... so I suppose they have different uses. But if I had to choose one over the other, the VSL choir is really something truly excellent and beautiful sounding, which you can use on anything. I say the programming is "clean" but that is not to say the library itself is "clean" - it is certainly clean in terms of performance, and engineering, but it is not without feel, depth and emotion. I really love it a lot. That said, sadly (VERY sadly) though understandably, there are no soloists, and no phrases like other libraries (well it has some), or wordbuilding as already discussed. But each section is on it's own, so you have Basses, Tenors, Altos and Sopranos (plus the second sopranos as mentioned if you were lucky enough to download that when it was available). It just blends effortlessly, and there are a lot of great articulations. As I said, the sound of it is so great that I regularly find myself giving up phrases and going with VSL choir. I believe the detail they went to meant they had to choose between doing their typical best of the best top of the line VSL style of engineering and recording OR doing phrases and so on, they made the right choice. That said, I think anyone can agree that if they would release a follow up ..... that would be unbelievable. For the record Requiem is also a fantastic library, don't want to diss those guys, just saying, if I had to choose one or the other, I'd go with VSL, but happily, I have both :)

No that's the interesting thing - the download sopranos are not all the same singers though I believe a couple of them are, but mostly not. So the thing is there is a patch you get that has both the soprano sections into a 32 singer ensemble which has a fantastic sound.

Or you can use the two sections together as a soprano divisi section. Pretty sweet!

I haven't personally looked into adjusting tuning ranges that far but just as first thought it seems like you are going to want to detune to something suitable and then look at a key change on top of that to get you where you want to go. If you detune the original sample that much it's not going to sound very good or realistic. For example, figure out how much a semi tone or whole tone keychange would get you in terms of hz then adjust it the rest of the way by adding/subtracting the difference, depending whether you're going up or down.

Haven't use this but it may help http://users.utu.fi/jyrtuoma/speech/semitone.html

Actually just for curiosity I just tried that out and it looks like transposing 1 semitone down from A440 gives you roughly "A"415 (G#415) (415.30469~) Just changing down a semitone in key would get you to where you want to go without any further tuning. If you want to be really precise then you could just adjust the tuning down by 0.3hz :)

It would need a special label "Caution: This product may cause the users mind to explode"

??? Doesn't make sense to me. More is more :) Dimension Strings with any of the other libraries =

Plus any of the other libraries with each other, also makes more. Chamber and Solo with anything, properly mixed, gives you that realistic attack - use the pitch humanize feature - works great!

VSL Choir is the biz.  I own also other choirs like Requiem for their phrases etc, but I find at the end of the day I gladly sacrifice phrases and go with the Vienna Choir, it's just the best there is *hands down*. If they would do phrases or some kind of word building thing.... that would be insane. I would pay $1000 for that "extended" library on top of the existing one. 

You can just set the master tuning either on the vienna instrument plug in, or you can do it for all plug ins in a vienna ensemble instance by clicking the master tuning butting (it's an image of a tuning fork). Works great. You can also change scales and tunings in VI Pro.