Why VSL (still) rocks

[Ben]

Well that's VSL - Here the official List:
https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Woodwinds_I/Bassoon_1#!Sample_Content
And with VIro you can create additional variations of these articulations (longer, shorter, ...)

There we go... the timestretching feature of VI Pro is cool, but also frightening (at least for me): you can do so much with it. You can finetune the sound of the articulation just by drawing a time-curve (for example you want the vibrato to be earlier but the transition should stay as it is; or you want faster transitions but the sustain should not be altered; make tremolos faster / slower). And you can define different curves, so you can use the unaltered with the modified/multiple modified articulations together. (now I feel the urge to experiment what a tremolo that starts slow and gets faster would sound like...)

The default vibrato is not what you want? Use the humanize function and draw your own vibrato in it (or use a preset).

And these are only two functionalities that allow you to tweak the sound. If you go full crazy you can combine these and also modify attack, release, transitions and more.

 

[Tice]

Oh VSL, how I love you...
Still haven't found a library I get more flexibility out of with an easier to use interface than what VSL gives us.

 

[I like music]

Surprised I don't hear that much about it. Is it the brand itself that isn't as sexy as others, or is it the price, or is there far too much control in the samples (e.g. not good 'out of the box')?

What Ben describes sounds like my ideal library. Going to look more into this.

 

[Mark Schmieder]

To be frank, I think the majority bias against VSL is based on a combination of cost (more of an historical issue than current, due to all the sales and easy upgrade paths), and especially the dongle.

 

[EgM]

There we go... the timestretching feature of VI Pro is cool, but also frightening (at least for me): you can do so much with it. You can finetune the sound of the articulation just by drawing a time-curve (for example you want the vibrato to be earlier but the transition should stay as it is; or you want faster transitions but the sustain should not be altered; make tremolos faster / slower). And you can define different curves, so you can use the unaltered with the modified/multiple modified articulations together. (now I feel the urge to experiment what a tremolo that starts slow and gets faster would sound like...)

The default vibrato is not what you want? Use the humanize function and draw your own vibrato in it (or use a preset).

And these are only two functionalities that allow you to tweak the sound. If you go full crazy you can combine these and also modify attack, release, transitions and more.

Yeah, haha. I love that Vienna Instruments Pro feature so much! My stretch folder is set to 1Tb lol.

 

[Nick Batzdorf]

You know, I've been playing with the Epic Orchestra. Some of it is growing on me.

I agree with Michael Antrum that the oboe d'amore and the cornet are nice. Some of the brass sections are too.

It was the strings that didn't knock me out.

$150 or whatever it is for that and VE Pro is a good deal - especially since it includes those excellent plug-ins (you can route audio from a sequencer through them).

 

[rrichard63]

Is it the brand itself that isn't as sexy as others, or is it the price, or is there far too much control in the samples (e.g. not good 'out of the box')?

I think the dongle is a major factor, especially when people compare it to iLok, which has better replacement policies in case of loss or damage. iLok also has a preferable (to me) user interface.

That said, some of VSL's competitors offer samples that are wetter out of the box when compared with the Vienna Instruments line (less so when compared to the new Synchron line). Some (not all) folks prefer that, especially when online demos sound so good that way. VSL's spatialization/reverb is very flexible and very good, but the added cost contributes to VSL's reputation for being expensive.

 

[Nick Batzdorf]

To be frank, I think the majority bias against VSL

Really?

I always thought of myself as part of the majority bias *for* VSL.

Everyone I've ever met from the company is extremely nice, and they're all very serious about what they do.

They also make a lot of fantastic products, such as VE Pro.

 

[EgM]

It was the strings that didn't knock me out.

The (very) lite Appasionnata Strings from Epic Orchestra are terrible... As a owner of the full Appasionnata strings I can tell you that it sounds a thousand times better than epic

 

[Tice]

The (very) lite Appasionnata Strings from Epic Orchestra are terrible... As a owner of the full Appasionnata strings I can tell you that it sounds a thousand times better than epic

I recently bought the Appassionata Strings. I'm VERY happy with them!

 

[EgM]

I recently bought the Appassionata Strings. I'm VERY happy with them!

As am I. I don't use them as much as I could because they're huge, but I can't think of anything that replaces them when I reach for that particular sound.

 

[Tice]

Yeah, they're the biggest string section I could find that has the full range of flexibility. Count me a big fan!

 

[EgM]

The Appasionnata dynamic patches (dyMx and pfpx) are so fun and quite the time saver.

 

[Ben]

Surprised I don't hear that much about it. Is it the brand itself that isn't as sexy as others, or is it the price, or is there far too much control in the samples (e.g. not good 'out of the box')?
What Ben describes sounds like my ideal library. Going to look more into this.

The Vienna Instruments don't have an out-of-box experience like the thousends of epic soundtrack libraries out there. The samples are recorded very dry, so you need a good reverb and some mixing skills (or you get MIRx or even MIR Pro, that will assist you with panning and reverb).
The libraries are pricy, but if you buy on sale they are not more expensive then other libraries. And the samples are consistent, even when changing articulations. You get imo a far better value for the same price.
If you check them out, don't forget the VI Pro player. It's a must have.

 

[EgM]

The Vienna Instruments don't have an out-of-box experience like the thousends of epic soundtrack libraries out there. The samples are recorded very dry, so you need a good reverb and some mixing skills (or you get MIRx or even MIR Pro, that will assist you with panning and reverb).
The libraries are pricy, but if you buy on sale they are not more expensive then other libraries. And the samples are consistent, even when changing articulations. You get imo a far better value for the same price.
If you check them out, don't forget the VI Pro player. It's a must have.

Like @Ben said, it's definitely not out of the box CSS kind of sound. I personally use mirX Teldex for everything (I just set the dry/wet to around 15-20% just for placement and use Valhalla Room/Vintage). It can be costly, but there are SO many articulations that you can do anything you want with them if you're into details. Still cheaper than Spitfire or Orchestra Tools though.

Many people say some VSL instruments sound synthy but that just because they don't want to put the work into it.

Also, some people think that some of the instruments are old (Appasionnata Strings were recorded in 2007 I believe), but good recordings don't age! I've been saying this so often... The programming / tweaking is yours to do in Vienna Instruments Pro just like you would do in Kontakt!

 

[I like music]

Very very interesting. My main priority is to be able to shape the note so that the musical intent isn't lost, and samples are generally rubbish at that. I'm going to look into VSL a bit more, but for now all I can say is that they seem to have so much stuff recorded, I don't know where to begin ...

 

[Jimmy Hellfire]

The Appasionnata dynamic patches (dyMx and pfpx) are so fun and quite the time saver.

Man, I love the dynamic patches in all the VSL libraries. Using them all the time. They're such a valuable time saver and are also great for adding more variety to notes in a phrase.

 

[Ben]

Man, I love the dynamic patches in all the VSL libraries. Using them all the time. They're such a valuable time saver and are also great for adding more variety to notes in a phrase.

I like using them particularly with Dimension Strings for long notes: some player play the sustain, some the pf dynamic, some the pfp dynamic.

 

[EgM]

About VSL atriculations across instruments:

I've made my matrices somewhat constant across the whole orchestra so you can see that they share the same patch names for most instruments. Switching between woodwinds for instance is easy.

Oboe French (Extended, I use another matrix for Legato speed trigger):



Oboe Viennese (Extended, also additional matrix for Legato speed):



P.S. @richhickey you should change the title to "VSL Appreciation thread", haha

P.P.S If anyone needs help with VSL instruments or Vienna Instruments just reach out to me, I'm more than happy to help.

 

[Ben]

The beauty of the VSL players is their flexibility (the matix based VI and the tree based Synchron). You can configure them as you like.
My matrices look different from EgM's: (Dim String1 in the screenshot, but all the other instruments have the same layout, so I can quickly remember the keyswitches)


I group the articulations by type in the matrix list (first octave), the second octave selects the specific articulations, and the third keyswitch has always only 3 values, mostly for vibrato, non-vibrato and crossfade between these two.