Jay-
WOW! The Ravel quartet is so lifelike, it's incredible. Not only is it life-like, it sounds like great players playing live, I know how hard this is to achieve, and I'm really impressed with your very subtle and constant manipulation of dynamics to achieve this. Great work!

William-
Excellent work, very musical and haunting interpretation - very impressive. Nice job!!
-mvanbebber

Homebilly-
No, I don't mean detune then transpose. Giga editor 'knows' when to detune and how much when you drag notes in the keyboard window.
- Open the giga editor.
- Open the giga file you want to edit
- Right click on it and click 'duplicate instrument'
- Go to the duplicated instrument and click on it.
- Select all the notes in the keyboard window.
- Drag them all to the right one half step.
- Select the lowest note only and drag it to the left by one half step - to where it was originally.
- Rename the instrumnet "Violin 2", for example.
-Save the file and exit. You will notice that you giga file is only slightly bigger (less than 1 megabyte!)

hope this helps,
-mvanbebber

Yes, you are correct - a VERY good side effect to this is that it requires no more ram usage, so you could have: trpt.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 all with the same ram usage. Wonderful trick.
-mvanbebber

Mech289-
Yes, you are wrong. Every string has its own unique character and sound, which you want to preserve. If you shifted by an octave, for example - the entire low octave of the violin would be 'played' on the low g string. Not only that, they would all be the same exact note, just transposed. So in the low octave, you would get all the same phasing problems. However, if your instrument is not chromatically sampled, it would be a good idea to transpose by the lowest common denominator. For example, 3 half steps, if your instrumnet was only sampled every 3 half steps. This avoids phasing in all registers. Also, samples become shorter as you transpose them higher, and vice versa. That would be way too much transposition and would sound completely artificial.
-mvanbebber

Dietz-
Actual anvils are used in America, not rails - FYI. The only substitute are occasionally brake drums, which are literally a car's brake drum. Hey, I just noticed the homonyms - drum, drum - get it? I was not aware that rails were used in Vienna instead of anvils - why is this? Is the sound prefered?
-mvanbebber

This has been debated many times, and basically many people (me included) feel that this is a necessary instrument. Many voiced their opinion that they needed a 2nd voilin section for various reasons, but VSL does not think it is necessary.
Here's what I do:
- Edit the violins 1 by transposing it up a 1/2 step. This is now your 2nd violin section.
- Pan and reverb like you would a completely different section because IT IS!

Your question about loudness and richness is a bit confusing. The combined sound of two identical samples will be considerably quieter AND less rich because of the acoustic principle of phasing.
When you play 1st and 2nd violin unisons (which happens quite often), you get phasing problems all over that place because it is exactly the same wave form playing on top of itself. When you transpose it by 1/2 step, it sounds very similar, but there are no phasing problems. The reason why you need to transpose it UP a 1/2 step (in my opinion) is because you want a slightly darker sound in the 2nd violin section. You will get that slightly darker sound because it is recorded samples 1/2 step lower, therefore less string tension, bow noise, etc. The very slight difference makes all the difference in the world. This procedure applies to all instruments as well - 1st - 4th trumpet, 1st-3rd clarinet, etc. Just transpose each respective instrument up another half step in the giga editor, works great!

I hope my long-winded answer helped.
-mvanbebber

Go away, bother somebody else. You are not wanted here. I don't find you amusing or witty or (insert any positive adjective here).

Yes, this has happened to me also. After I downloaded the registry tweak from Mattias Henningson, it didn't happen anymore. I have no idea why this happened, and Tascam didn't either (not like they know why anything happens!) Anyways, just look at the first thread on this page with his name and download and install the 'memory load optimizer' for free.
Give it a try and let me know what happens,
Mike

Benjamin-
Yes, my system has crashed many times using Gigastudio 3.1 and all other versions. You need to give more information about exactly what happens when your system crashes for me to help you though. My system hasn't crashed for months because I figured out what was causing the crashes. Common culprits are: opening too many Gigapulses (usually 4-5 is the limit before crashing), rebuilding the quicksound database (crashes when scanning some files other than giga files), and other system conflicts like running outlook, etc.

Give me some more info, and I'll see if I can help you further.
-Mike

Benjamin-
I have always had to open the performance tool and make sure that it is properly setup first. Then, you open Gigastudio and your sequencer or notation program. Do you do this? If so, make sure the outputs on the perf. tool are set to Giga output port 1-4 respectively. Make sure the inputs are the same as the outputs of your sequencer/notation program. For example, on my system I have the inputs on the perf. tool selected as "maple midi in 1-4" and the outputs selected as Giga output port 1-4. Your problem may not be the perf. tool, however. It may be that the Giga ports are wrong in Gigastudio itself. Go to the system menu, and make sure that the midi inputs are set to 'none'. I have the outputs on my notation program set to 'Maple midi out 1-4". So, the chain is:
Sequencer/Notation program : maple midi or midi interface : performance tool : Gigastudio.
Let me know if this helps,
Mike

Janosax-
You are correct - there is definetely a problem with the soprano sax legato which renders it basically useless for most applications. I voiced my opinion (as did many others) and VSL claims that it is impossible to fix this problem (according to Herb.) Go here to see the debate over this problem: http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?t="2536&highlight=soprano+sax&sid=1871a40cb194587ccf843e9437a98e59" "="" target="_self" title="http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?t=2536&highlight=soprano+sax&sid=1871a40cb194587ccf843e9437a98e59">http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?t=2536&highlight=soprano+sax&sid=1871a40cb194587ccf843e9437a98e59">http://community.vsl.co.at/viewtopic.php?t=2536&highlight=soprano+sax&sid=1871a40cb194587ccf843e9437a98e59
I was actually banned from the VSL forum for a few months for what I said in this thread. Pretty amazing, considering some of the language and insults that are allowed by other members! (I didn't swear or insult anyone.)
-mvanbebber

That was funny, but true. When I need to get a VSL "fix," I don't tell the wife, I have a separate bank account for that type of stuff. eBay has been my source of "music toys" income for years now - you'd be surprised what people will buy! Maybe you could give that a try...

-mvanbebber

Short answer - Yes. The English Horn is played in the 'French' style, meaning with very expressive vibrato - beautiful. The Eb clarinet is a wonderful bonus as well, just as good (maybe better) the VSL's Bb clarinet. In short - BUY IT! (if you can afford it.)

-mvanbebber

Alex-

Thanks so much for those useful tips, I will try them now. Just to be clear, are you saying that you DO have dynamic control over just one perf_leg sample using Sibelius? If you playback a measure with piano marked in the score and then forte, you will hear a difference between the two in the same perf_legato sample? If so, then there is no problem, and my problems are solved.

thanks again,
mvanbebber

Herb-
These are great answers, thank you! You are right, there are no libraries that compare to VSL, which is why I didn't want to look for them. Your point about timral changes being minute is also a good point. Your tip about the stacking instruments is exactly what I was looking for- thank you!

One last question: Is there any way to crossfade stacked instruments via velocity layers?
thanks,
mvanbebber

Herb-
If you are implying that I will only be happy with ALL dynamic levels, you clearly do not understand my question. Even if that were the case, the library would not only be missing the pp, but also the p, and the mf, and the f and ff.

I guess no one (including VSL) will answer my question about how to create different dynamics using the perf_leg, which makes me think it is not possible. I will have to look at other libraries, which is a shame.

Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not angry, just truly confused at all this - maybe my repeated questions are not clear enough... Oh well.
-mvanbebber

That is a good point, but I use the VSL samples with Sibelius 4 notation program, which uses velocity to create dynamic level changes. To create dynamic changes to the same sample with the volume slider sounds very artificial, not to mention being very difficult to do in a notation program (you have to create hundreds of continuous controller midi messages.)

What I do now is to create crossfaded perf_legato samples based on velocity (just like Jay Bacal uses with mod wheel control), and I would obviously not be able to do this with the woodwind ensembles. If there was some type of workaround to fix this, I would certainly love to purchase the library.

I would use perf_legato almost exclusively, and if I couldn't change the dynamics, it would basically be useless to me (as you can imagine.)
thanks,
-mvanbebber

I agree completely, it is odd and is certainly an exception in VSL. How does one create different dynamics with just one dynamic level? Am I going crazy, or is it kind of strange that they would only have one dynamic? I just can't figure it out, this is completely unique for VSL, and I am just asking why they did it, and for a workaround to create dynamic contrast using performance legatos.

By the way, I have not yet purchased this library - I am just asking if I will be able to create dynamic changes in perf_leg with the woodwind ensembles before I buy it. If the answer is "no," then why would I buy the library? Even if I have to do a complicated workaround I would be willing to do it, but to claim that it is not necessary or even logical to have 2 dynamic levels is not acceptable to me.

-mvanbebber

Alex-
Wow, you are getting all worked up and straying from the point completely! Please stick to the point - I'm not asking for EVERY POSSIBLE NUANCE OF EVERY INSTRUMENT - I'm just asking for more than one dynamic for performance legatos. Don't you think it might be nice to have SOME control over dynamics - not COMPLETE AND UTTER CONTROL OF EVERY PARAMETER POSSIBLE, as you say in your post above. Please don't take my request for (1) more dynamic level (which would total 2, like most other perf_leg. samples) to mean that I want an infinite number of samples for all instruments.

Alex-
I'm sorry, but this makes no sense at all. First, I find it hard to believe that professional players in Vienna (who are some of the finest players in the world) could not create an outstanding ensemble tone and intonation at piano and forte dynamics. Secondly, if you applied this philosophy to all instrument samples, you could not have a forte trumpet ensemble, or piano trombones in high register, or any number of things that are difficult (but very possible) to play.

Also, keep in mind that these are the ONLY performance legato samples with just one dynamic, rendering them incapable of playing different dynamics, as far as I can tell. This is essential, in my opinion to creating realistic mockups. I was asking Michi for a workaround or something achieve this, but have not recieved a response yet.
-mvanbebber

Alex-
That was my question. The wierd thing is - there is only ONE dynamic recorded for the perf_legato - mp. That's why I was asking how you could possibly get dynamic changes with only one dynamic. Michi seemed to say that it is not necessary, which doesn't make sense to me.
-mvanbebber

Michi-
Your answers to both questions don't make sense to me.
#1.) (and please don't get mad at me.) Why would you use 3 Viennese oboes and not French? What type of ensemble (other than possibly - and very rarely - the Vienna Philharmonic) uses three Viennese oboes? Wouldn't it be much more universal and therefore useful to use French oboes. (again, just asking - don't get mad.)
#2.) How does one achieve different dynamics with the woodwind ensemble perf_legato with just one dynamic -mp? Is it your contention that you should not ever need to use different dynamics with perf_legato samples? This appears to be what you are saying, which doesn't make sense to me.
-mvanbebber

VSL team-
I have two questions about the woodwind ensembles:
1.) Are the oboes "French" or "Viennese" oboes?
2.) Is there a way (workaround) to get more than one dynamic of perf. legato (for crossfade legato samples)?

thanks,
Mike

I like the French Oboe perf. legato samples. I think that package contains the finest sampled instruments of all time.