Vienna Instrument libs - a good idea?

[edhamilton]

We have the philosophy "never pay twice for the same samples". \

Ben, This promise was broken MANY years ago when moving from giga/exs to the vi.
I haven't bought any libs from VSL since.

There was a time limit to make the transition and it was an expensive upgrade. Literally paying twice for the exact same samples, just rolled into the new VI.

I was about to pull the trigger on this full cube sale but the more I look at the synchron vs VI - I can see the whole situation developing again.
At some point the VI will be killed and everyone forced to move to Synchron. And with the "never paying twice for the same samples" promise already having been broken - past is prologue.

My dollars will continue to go to any other developer. ANY OTHER developer. I'm still that pissed at the broken promise.

I own the full cube in GIGA, cross graded to EXS when giga was dying.
Was NOT going to pay nearly full price for the whole cube again for the VI as that would have been the third time "I paid for the same samples).

You are too new to know about what happened since you just started with VSL 4 years ago.

I was a member of a forum the day a guy named Herb started messaging members about his new company, VSL and what he was developing for giga.
So if you see Herb, Tell him I said stick it. Not paying for the same samples a third and fourth time.(when they force everyone to migrate to Synchron).

 

[muk]

Two more cases in which you pay twice for the same samples: 1) if you crossgrade to a synchronized library, you pay again for the exact same samples being ported to the Synchron player 2) if your dongle breaks or gets stolen, you pay again for the exact same samples.

Also, if you upgrade to a product that contains samples you already own, you do get a discount. But I never felt that discount reflected the amount of samples I already owned 1:1. Not even close. I could be wrong here though, as I never went to the lenght to actually calculate it.

 

[sostenuto]

VSL ignorant question please .... I now have (2) Vienna Keys, (1) loaded and working, (1) brand new. If I activate the new Key, should I be able to duplicate exactly what is on Key #1 ??? If so, then if one key gets lost or fails, I am still OK ?? Is there cost involved to activate and load Key #2 ?

 

[Dewdman42]

I for one think Vsl would make a lot more money if they moved away from orchestral at this point rather then reinventing the wheel and trying to charge everyone to follow the latest player software. Instead miveinto totally new territory using their skills to develop completely different stuff, like what EastWest does, only better.

but I do think synchron is an attempt to make their libraries easier to use and I don’t fault them for that but I do think they are charging way too much to customers who invested thousands into their vi line, to move to synchronized versions. Especially those that already bought mirpro too. It should be maybe a $100 synchron play pro upgrade and it should work with existing libraries as is or they should have found a way to make it nearly free to migrate to the synchron player. Instead they are creeping out the synchronized versions little by little at $100 each and in the end it will cost over a thousand bucks to move a Full VI setup over to the new player. I do think this is lame, but I also still think it’s the best orchestral composing environment that money can buy. Someone has to pay for their fancy recording studio after all. I will still be using it despite my groaning about it

 

[Dewdman42]

Except they have stated clearly they are not developing anything new in vipro. So synchron users get an arguably easier ui, and things like ui scaling for hi res monitors, nks compatibility and other things will only happen on synchron. Sorry but no they are definitely finding ways and will continue to find ways to compell vi users to make the switch. When most of them have switched they will cut off support for vipro, Mark my words.

 

[ptram]

Except they have stated clearly they are not developing anything new in vipro.

I think I’ve read the opposite. And they have recently released new samples for the Dimension Brass and Strings collections. But it is true that most development is happening in the Synchron series.

Paolo

 

[Dewdman42]

No you did not read opposite.

new samples here or there but the vipro player is getting no love whatsoever.

 

[EgM]

We have the philosophy "never pay twice for the same samples"

While I'm one of the biggest fan of VSL products, this also disappoints me.

"Upgrading" from VI series to Synchron is SUPER expensive and we're actually buying the SAME samples again with a mirX for synchron patched on.

—Upgrading my Appassionata strings full is 195 euros
—Upgrading my Woodwinds 1 std is 225 euros

I know you most likely can't answer this question @Ben and I don't hold you responsible for all this of course, but we are definitely paying more than twice for the same samples. :(

 

[Dewdman42]

In fairness I will state again that as of today, I still consider vipro the best sample player on the market, particularly with regards to orchestral work. Synchron is looking like the future but as of today vipro can do more and some diehards still prefer it for that reason. It’s an extreme power tool. It makes ew play seem like an utter joke. It’s one of the main reasons I even decided to invest in Vsl instruments.

there is some logic as to why Vsl would want to put more of their limited resources into developing synchron rather then vipro, they are playing catch up.

it’s a bit unnerving when we hear Paul say they don’t plan to make any more enhancements to it except for “maybe” hidpi. Those words make it sound like it’s now considered legacy product with an end of the road. Meanwhile they are slashing the price of cube and little by little they have been synchronizing everything. And it’s clear that potentially paying to get synchronized versions of everything in cube may not be that inexpensive, if and when those even become available.

I still think the vsl VI library collection is best in class today, not withstanding any of the above statements. And who knows maybe the vipro player really doesn’t need any more development for the foreseeable future. But it’s just unfortunate that VSL is doing their future innovations exclusively in synchron player, so who knows what innovations will come along in the future but it sounds like Cube And other vi libs will not get those.

but like I said, cube is still an incredible product right now today with whatever it can currently do. right now today i personally would still choose to buy Cube over synchron libraries that are available. The current sale is an incredible deal. Just saying, expect to end up buying more stuff in the future such as Mirpro, additional vi libs too because although cube is a nice collection it is not everything. You’ll end up wanting some more instruements and articulations that aren’t in cube. And quite likely you will sooner or later be compelled to move to synchron versions, though that is years away IMHO.

 

[shnootre]

just chiming in to agree with the above. VI Pro is absolutely the best sample player. I add my voice to those hoping that VSL will keep VI Pro alive and hopefully eventually return to developing for it.