As a bit of follow-up, I continue to try to make sense of the Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL) and Eastwest Quantum Leap (EWQL) family of products, since I am one of those people who tends to want to get everything when I like a company, and after doing a bit more research and watching several of the VSL product videos, I am getting a better but perhaps not complete understanding of what "everything" actually entails for VSL, and I already knew that the way to get EWQL stuff at a super discount is on hard drive via a EWQL Terapack or whatever . . .
[
NOTE: Currency conversion between Euros and US Dollars are based on current exchange rates at approximately midnight (CST) in the US on Thursday September 27, 2012 . . . ]
VIENNA SYMPHONIC LIBRARY (VSL)There are four general categories of VSL stuff, and an additional category which is a bundle of all the stuff in one of the general categories plus some extra stuff:
(1) Special Edition Instrument Collections: These are six sets of sampled instruments and voices, and the total MSRP for all six sets is €2015 or approximately $2,600 (US) when purchased individually, but the bundle price is discounted to €1695 or approximately $2,180 (US) . . .
(2) Vienna Super Package: There are three levels (Standard, Extended, and Full), and the Full set is all the individual sets of sampled instruments and voices, where the total MSRP for the Full package is €10380 or approximately $13,360 (US) . . .
(3) Individual Instruments: These are specific sets of samples for specific individual instruments, but they are part of (1) and (2), which from my perspective is the smarter way to get them, especially since going through all the combinations and permutations with respect to pricing, upgrades, and so forth probably takes about the same amount of time as counting all the individual grains of sand on a typical beach, which is an abstruse way of explaining that it probably is worth whatever the aforementioned (1) and (2) bundles cost not to have to count all the individual instruments and then do a detailed worksheet analysis of the various combinations and permutations . . .
(4) Software: There are four general products, some of which have flavors, but at the complete or full level this maps to (a)
Vienna Suite, which is a set of effects plug-ins; (b)
Vienna Instrument Pro, which is the player; (c)
Vienna MIR Pro, which is the network-enabled mixing solution that works with Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 and conceptually is like a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application front-end for
Vienna Ensemble Pro 5; and (d) Vienna Ensemble Pro 5, which basically is a network server application that streams sounds to host applications like NOTION, where these are the MSRP download prices:
(4.1) Vienna Suite: €475 or approximately $599 (US) . . .
(4.2) Vienna Instrument Pro: €145 or approximately $187 (US) . . .
(4.3) Vienna MIR Pro: €795 or approximately $1,023 (US) . . .
(4.4) Vienna Ensemble Pro 5: €235 or approximately $302 (US) . . .
(5) Vienna Software Package: This is a bundle of all the Vienna Software software application from (4), plus two Vienna MIR Pro reverb packs, and the VSL Epic Orchestra, and its MSRP is €1490 or approximately $1,918 (US) . . .
THOUGHTS ON VSLIf you go with Vienna Super Package and the Vienna Software Package, then it appears that you get everything for €14850 or approximately $19,115 (US), which does
not include €24 or approximately $31 (US) for the required Vienna Key USB dongle. . .
In the grand scheme of everything, if sometime in the not so distant future Justin Bieber decides to record "Feel Me" (The Surf Whammys), then once the songwriter royalty checks start arriving I might consider getting everything that Vienna Symphonic Library sells, but so far Justin's people have not contacted my people, hence my only interest in Vienna Symphonic Library products is Vienna Ensemble Pro 5, which is quite intriguing and according to the information in some of the VSL videos will run on the same computer as NOTION, so it does not actually require a separate networked server . . .
[
NOTE: I do not have any of the VSL stuff, but (a) it is an Austrian company; (b) I have and use the Melodyne Editor (Celemony), which is a German company; (c) I have and use various VSTi virtual instruments and VST effect plug-ins which are based on the technologies developed by Steinberg, which is a German company; and (d) I have and use Kontakt 5 (Native Instruments), which is a German company, hence (e) this particular blend of Austrian and German companies is intriguing, because there are natural incentives for a bit of synergy and all of them are doing leading edge, state-of-the-art digital music production software engineering, which is vastly important from my perspective . . . ]
My perspective on Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 is that it has the potential to provide an intriguing solution to a specific set of problems that might occur in a vastly complex scenario where there are a lot of digital music production applications running simultaneously, with at least some of them by necessity sharing the same application workspace, where the intriguing aspect of Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 is that it removes the necessity of more intensely sharing application workspaces, or at least might do this or something similar . . .
EASTWEST QUANTUM LEAP (EWQL)Based on the presumption that I actually understand the way the EWQL Complete Composers Collection HD Bundle works, then it comes on a 1TB internal hard drive and costs $1,528 (US) or approximately €1188 plus VAT, and the required iLok USB dongle costs approximately $50 (US) or approximately €39 plus VAT . . .
It includes the following EWQL products:
Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Plus
Pianos Platinum
Symphonic Choirs Bundle
Goliath
Stormdrum 2 Bundle
Voices of Passion
Ra
Fab Four
Gypsy
Ministry of Rock
Silk
This price is based on the current discount promotion, which ends on September 30, 2012 . . .
Complete Composers Collection HD Bundle (EWQL)THOUGHTS ON EWQLThe EWQL stuff costs approximately one-tenth of the what the VSL stuff, but among other things I am a bit concerned about how well it runs on the Mac. It appears to run reasonably well on Windows machines, but from what I have been able to determine this depends on the level of quality which is selected for playing the various samples, articulations, and so forth, where at the highest and most intimately detailed level of quality it appears to require vast computing resources for reasonable real-time performance . . .
[
NOTE: I do not have any of the EWQL products, so I am basing my concerns on reading posts in various FORUMS. However, people use EWQL stuff, so it probably works nicely on some platform, which appears to be more in the realm of high-end Windows computers . . . ]
Nevertheless, I like the way the violins included with Gypsy sound--since they actually sound like real violins--and the electric guitar samples in Fab Four include both downward and upward chord strumming, which is intriguing . . .
SUMMARYIn some respects this is an interesting way to obsess on making sense of a maze of what for me essentially is pointless information, since overall the VSL and EWQL stuff costs too much relative to the budget here in the sound isolation studio, and this is all I can do at present toward the goal actually of making sense of it without getting a headache . . .
Nevertheless, I think that for approximately $2,000 (US) one can get (a) all six of the Special Edition Instrument Collections, Vienna Instrument Pro, and Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 or (b) all the EWQL stuff and Vienna Ensemble Pro 5, which if it runs nicely on the Mac might make a bit of sense and is not so expensive as to be impractical, really . . .
Really! 
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:32 pm
"
