# VirtualSoundStage 2.0 RELEASED



## gabrielh (Sep 14, 2014)

Hey guys!

After 18 months of very hard work *VirtualSoundStage 2.0* is now finally released:







*New Features:*

- Redesigned algorithms for both the direct signal and the early reflections
- Unified User Interface: Control all your instruments from a single window
- 9 new rooms
- 14 freely positionable microphone setups
- Section Width & Directivity Controls

If you want to read more about it checkout the new website: www.parallax-audio.com

*Price: LITE 129$ PRO 229$ (+ VAT)
Upgrade from VSS1: LITE 24$ PRO 99$ (+ VAT)*

*System Requirements:
**Operating System:* Windows 7 or higher / Mac OS X 10.7 or higher
*Plug-in Formats:* Audio Unit, VST, AAX (Pro Tools 10.3.5 or higher required)
*Architectures:* 32bit & 64bit

I hope you'll enjoy the new version!
Gabriel

PS. There's currently a problem with share-it's keygenerator, so allow for some extra time for the keyfile delivery


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## AC986 (Sep 14, 2014)

Any videos coming Gabriel?


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## Sid Francis (Sep 14, 2014)

There is a thread in "sample talk" about this release. I bought it and I am very impressed. A BIG step forward from Version 1. No, no step forward: a totally different, much better, plugin.


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## PJMorgan (Sep 14, 2014)

This is really great & could save a *LOT* of time. Tested the demo on Lass Lite & Cinebrass Core & got some very pleasing results.

This is the 1st FX plugin I've been tempted to buy in a long time but unfortunately for us in the EU the price isn't really as advertised (not parallax-audios fault). The price for the lite version seems to actually be $129 not $99, although $129 is still very reasonable for what VSS2 does. But when you add VAT the total cost is actually close to $170 for those in the EU. Again I'm not saying VSS2 isn't worth it, it's just always a bit of a downer when you see something at one price but it ends up being (more expensive) another. It might be good idea to add the text "excluding VAT to the buy page.

EDIT: I just checked & the prices have been updated with "+ VAT" very quick work there :wink: and just to be sure I didn't miss it before, I checked browser history & indeed the "+VAT" wasn't there before. Good call, at least EU customers now know there's gonna be VAT added before hitting the buy button.

Sorry for the rant o 

Getting back on track, VSS2 is pretty amazing & a major step up from version 1 & could/would save you a hell of a lot of time in placing your instruments, the different mics sound very nice & the GUI is a real joy to work in.


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## Robym (Sep 14, 2014)

uhm.. i own vss1 and i was really hoping v2 would be surround as it was "kind of promised" in the website
did not understand if it is surround or not

i'm tempted to upgrade, but ... don't know...

R.


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## playz123 (Sep 14, 2014)

I suspect that the difference between the price we paid and the price on Gabriel's web site has to do with the store taking a 'slice of the pie' and not Gabriel. The difference between the selling price in US dollars and what I had to pay far exceeds any known exchange rate by a whopping 10%. What should have cost $109 Canadian, came in at nearly $120 after the store was involved. I know banks take a little when money is exchanged, but this was ridiculous. So, @PJMorgan, I suggest that you weren't wrong to mention this.

In any case, now that VSS2 Pro is downloaded and installed, I look forward to working with it later today. Gabriel has obviously worked long and hard on this version.


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## PJMorgan (Sep 14, 2014)

Still need to change this Gabriel:


gabrielh @ 14th September 2014 said:


> *Price: LITE 99$*


Unless eh.....there's some kind of introductry promo code I've missed :wink:

Regardless, Goodluck with VSS2 it should do well because it does exactly what it's supposed to. I'll probably be buying as soon as funds permit.


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## playz123 (Sep 14, 2014)

Looks as there is a bit of a mix up with the Lite version price (should be $129.), as you suggested, but here's the upgrade pricing for VSS 1 owners. I posted this in another thread, but it may prove useful here as well.


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## Morph (Sep 14, 2014)

Is it only possible to buy though the online store, thus paying extra? :/


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## gabrielh (Sep 15, 2014)

Hey guys,

sorry for the delayed response, really busy at the moment with the release.
The 99$ LITE thing was an honest mistake while I was typing and I changed it to 129$, sorry for that.

@adriancook
I think I am going to do a short tutorial similar to the one last time once the release chaos has settled 

@PJMorgan
I absolutely agree with you and added the + VAT notice on the website. Thanks for the suggestion

@Robym
I know a lot of people were hoping for surround support (so was I), but at some point I had to make a decision, because some things would have become much more complicated due to DAW specific quirks and development would have taken even more time than it already did.


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## Will Blackburn (Sep 15, 2014)

Im very tempted to upgrade. What's the cpu hit like? Any difference to Vss1 ? 

In what way is this superior to Vss1 in terms of spacisal placement?


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## Sid Francis (Sep 15, 2014)

wcb: I can see no noticable differences in CPU. And the differences in placement: huge! Thats it  Different halls, cathedral, opera (love it!), chamber, recording room,all sounding also different.


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## Will Blackburn (Sep 15, 2014)

Thanks Sid, is there any of that phaseyness going on still? Vss1, whilst i really like it, does seem to muffle the high end quite considerably. 

Definitely looking forward to checking the different rooms out. Especially the scoring stages.


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## Sid Francis (Sep 15, 2014)

The phaseyness is completely gone, the muffling is controllabe by controller "air absorbtion" and I always activate it a bit for realism.

The scoring stages are quite small so more resembling a recording room, but the "chamber" might be what you are looking for.

At least I can tell you that my standart "Burbank stage small/large" presets from Spaces have been completely replaced and I do not regret. 

Today I put Realivox Blue in the VSS Church and then reverberated it with the "Berlin Church" from Spaces: amazing! If you switch off the VSS half of the "real!" impression is gone. VSS could be a must for choir mockups.


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## deniz (Sep 15, 2014)

A few minutes ago, i have used vss2 in my Template,

I must say,easy to use and fits perfect In cubase 7?No crashes so far.

For my Little Demo Template i have used 10 instances of vss2 without any Problems here, but if you put more and more instances of vss2 then it is a Little bit confusion to handle each Single Instance of vss2, maybe it is helpful to Integrate a blinking Signal on each used Instrument which is already used on the seating area.
The Problem is, of you forget to Name the Instrument then it's really confusing to find and edit later on 30-40 instances,it would be easier to select the Instrument on one Open Instance of vss2 by Pressing any Key on my Keyboard to locate the right Instrument IAm looking for.

So my Suggestion is, to place an Flash to Highlight the Instrument which is already is use.

Sorry for my Bad discription.

All in one, Perfect intregation, easy to use within minutes and sound fantastic to me, will buy


Cheers deniz


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## playz123 (Sep 15, 2014)

Sid Francis @ Mon Sep 15 said:


> Today I put Realivox Blue in the VSS Church and then reverberated it with the "Berlin Church" from Spaces: amazing! If you switch off the VSS half of the "real!" impression is gone. VSS could be a must for choir mockups.



Interesting you mentioned that Sid. Actually I've been experimenting with Realivox-The Ladies, some 'choir' soloists and, as well, a trumpet. The results every time have been most pleasing. Still experimenting with the halls. and my next goal is to try to fit a few non-Spitfire instruments into some of the Spitfire libraries and see how closely they mesh.


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## hawpri (Sep 15, 2014)

Will users who owned VSS1 and upgraded to VSS2 Lite be able to upgrade to VSS2 pro for the difference of the upgrade pricing? For the time being I think the lite version will fit my purposes, but it would be nice to know what the options are. Thanks.


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## playz123 (Sep 15, 2014)

hawpri @ Mon Sep 15 said:


> Will users who owned VSS1 and upgraded to VSS2 Lite be able to upgrade to VSS2 pro for the difference of the upgrade pricing? For the time being I think the lite version will fit my purposes, but it would be nice to know what the options are. Thanks.



Yes, they can; the information is on the web site, but if I recall correctly the upgrade from VSS2 Lite to Pro is $100. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.


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## davidmesiha (Sep 16, 2014)

I have to say that I did own VSS1 and have since upgraded and I'm very impressed. yes without tweaking it will darken the sound a bit, but as mentioned before that can be treated by the air absorption parameter and EQing.
Now, I'm wondering and curious of people would like to share how they use it and integrate it into their templates. Do you put is as inserts on your channels and then the sends go to your section's reverbs?

Thanks Gabriel great work!

David


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## organix (Sep 16, 2014)

Thanks Gabriel for this new release. Good work and worth the wait.
VSS2 is not only an update, it's a complete new and redesigned plugin. The shared plugin architecture of VSS2 makes positioning and mixing better than ever. 

The new rooms and different mic setups in the Pro version are great. What I would wish for the future is some kind of a Room-Designer for VSS2 to create own rooms. Please Gabriel think about such an addition.

-Markus


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## ceemusic (Sep 16, 2014)

I finally had chance to demo. (& purchase)
You really did a great job improving the entire plugin.
Looks great, works well, small footprint & the phasing issues from v1 are gone.
I'm pleased with the upgrade.
Good luck with this release!


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## Morph (Sep 16, 2014)

organix @ Tue Sep 16 said:


> What I would wish for the future is some kind of a Room-Designer for VSS2 to create own rooms. Please Gabriel think about such an addition.
> 
> -Markus



(Removed following a fellow forum user's advice)


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## AC986 (Sep 17, 2014)

…..


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## clarkus (Sep 17, 2014)

Folks who hang around here know I've had a LOT of reverb questions & I am still educating myself. Can more seasoned users tell me:

This seems a much less expensive way to do what MIR and SPAT & others do, in other words place instruments spatially, as well as add hall sound.

What's your assessment, i.e. are you giving up anything in quality or features?

With Vienna Strings, Jay Asher recently recommended busing to an algorithmic as well as a convolution reverb (unless one has VSL's Hybrid Reverb, which I don't). Would it be appropriate to bus to this plug-in & also add algo reverb?


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## jamcat (Sep 16, 2022)

Anyone heard from Gabriel lately?


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## IFM (Sep 16, 2022)

jamcat said:


> Anyone heard from Gabriel lately?


Two requests and radio silence


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## Sid Francis (Sep 18, 2022)

Clarkus: I still find this plugin very valuable and it makes an immediate difference for orchestral instruments. It is as you said: this is NO reverb, just position and early reflections so you need a reverb with preferably no ER at the end of the chain. Though I still love the sound with a normal reverb (ER AND tail) following the positioning by VSS2. In general I would prefer SPAT but SPAT is several hundrd bucks and I bought this here for 99€ 

The radio silence probably is deserved for someone who just disappeared from one to the other day :-( I was very much anticipating a VSS3 and would have bought it in no time!


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## Bruhelius (Sep 18, 2022)

Literally disappeared? 
I liked the plugin as well…was having some trouble with stability in Reaper and was hoping to figure out the cause…oh well.


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## jamcat (Sep 24, 2022)

It's important to use a properly sized reverb with Virtual Sound Stage. I think people who get less than amazing results are not using reverb correctly with it.

I’ve tried a few different reverbs with it, including PhoenixVerb and Verberate 2, but I have found Studio One’s Room Reverb works best. It’s actually a mathematical room modeler that “adjusts its internal reverb parameters based on virtual-room models.”

Here's how to get perfectly matching reverb tails with Studio One's Room Reverb:

Leave Length and Pre at 0.00 ms, because the correct pre-delay and reverb decay values are already calculated based on the dimensions and Room Type. The Length and Pre settings are only for adding an additional offset to those calculations.

Set the reverb Mix (top left) to 1.0 to remove Early Reflections completely.

The Size setting is based on the volume in cubic meters, so you need to take the cube root of the (Width * Length * Height) of the room. For example, the VSS Chamber is 19m x 27m x 10m, which is 5130m³. The cube root of 5130 is approximately 17.25. So 17.25m is the correct Size in Room Reverb for the VSS Chamber.

Get the right shape of the room in Room Reverb by adjusting the Width and Height settings, which are proportional to the Depth. (Depth in Room Reverb is the same as Length in Virtual Sound Stage.) All 3 dimensions will change based on the ratios you enter, but will always equal the (Room Size)³ when multiplied together.

Divide the Width of the VSS ROOM by its Length, which, for the VSS Chamber, is 19m / 27m, to get a .7 proportional Width. Next, divide the VSS ROOM Height by the Length, which (again for the VSS Chamber) is 10m / 27m, to get a proportional Height of .37. Put those into the Width and Height settings in Room Reverb, and it will now deliver the final Room dimensions of 18.94m x 27.06m x 10.01m, which is pretty close to the specified Chamber dimensions of 19m x 27m x 10m, found in VSS’s documentation.

When you overlay Virtual Sound Stage 2 with these precise reverb settings, the concert space suddenly comes into sharp focus as the room reverb and early reflections align perfectly. You've never really heard Virtual Sound Stage 2 until you've heard it like this.


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