Dr. Koss’ Corner: On The Road With Vienna Symphonic Library

June 21st, 2011 by Shane Koss

Alarm goes off at 4:45 AM. A dimly lit room slowly comes into focus as I realize I am face down at the foot of the bed (missed again) lying next to an empty bottle of scotch. Stumble to the bathroom and realize I am going to have to fight through this splitting headache to make the 7AM flight to the next city.

Life on the road – how can you beat it? 7 cities in 9 days. The VSL Technology Integration Tour ripped through NYC, Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Nashville, Atlanta and Miami last week – bringing the good word to hundreds of composers and producers looking to wrestle orchestral magic out of a few chunks of metal, full of hard drives and RAM.

Check out the tour video, with appropriately epic orchestral score:

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t quite that rock and roll. Sure there was a drink here and there but, fortunately, very little-to-none of the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas vibe. Instead we met a great bunch of guys and gals and got first hand knowledge of how they work and what they need from their software and best of all – we were able to shed some light on pesky problems and undiscovered features.

From town to town, Paul Steinbauer of Vienna Symphonic Library was consistently upbeat and excited as he revealed the hidden and not so hidden features of Vienna Ensemble Pro (a must have for any producer or composer: if you use virtual instruments – you need this), Vienna Instruments Pro (Dimension Brass – wowsa!), Vienna Suite featuring the new Hybrid Reverb, and the upcoming MIR Pro – a multi-impulse convolution reverb that will knock your socks off.

It was great to see the clouds clear as we showed that with Vienna Ensemble Pro, 64 bit is here and ready to use, whether your host is 32 bit or 64 bit. No longer held by the 3GB barrier – templates can be expanded to whatever size they need be. Need more horsepower? Simply connect another computer by Ethernet and you can send MIDI and receive audio – all over Ethernet. No more sound cards and MIDI hassles – easy as pie (or, in this case “easy as the Coca Cola cake we had at the Cracker Barrel).

With the new upcoming version of Vienna Ensemble Pro, you will be able to send and receive audio over Ethernet as well. That means you could host a ton of reverbs and effects on one machine and buss audio back and forth – all over LAN and all automatically delay compensated. Separate reverbs for every instrument? Why not?

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Vienna Ensemble Pro Mixer

Meanwhile, Vienna Instruments Pro is a great add-on to expand the content you already own. With a host of features such as time-stretching, preset mode (download inspiration presets for free on the VSL site) and expanded matrix view and control set – it really is a no brainer.

Taking advantage of this is the new Dimension Brass Instrument. Recorded as a section, but isolated enough to allow you to control whether it is 1 player, 2 players, 3 players or 4, this is a really powerful and realistic sounding instrument! Intended to be a bit more raw, this is a great addition for anyone who feels their Vienna Instruments are a little too “clean.” For icing, play with the humanize functions which vary pitch and time to make the performance even more convincing!

Vienna Instruments Pro GUI

The new Hybrid Reverb mixes convolution reverb with algorithmic reverb – so you get the realistic early reflections of a real room mixed with the expensive tail of a hardware reverb.

Hybrid Reverb GUI

And MIR pro is going to be a game changer. Imagine just placing the instrument graphically where you want it in the hall, and then turning it to face the audience, or away, to the side – wherever you want. Too present? Simply move the player to the back of the hall. Naughty trombone player? Make him face the rear wall with his back to the audience. Want an interesting effect? Place the player on the balcony.

The software is so intelligent, it considers the directionality of the instrument and how it activates the room and takes that into consideration when creating the reverb. You can also feed audio into MIR from your DAW, so it really is going to be a revolution in how people think of and process reverb.

MIR Pro screenshot

Out on the tour alongside Paul was yours truly (Shane Koss of Alto NYC), providing real-world context, dot connection, and insight wherever appropriate – letting composers and producers know, that yes, there is someone out there that understands how all this works together, where it is all going, and how to get what you need without breaking the bank. Oh yeah – and where to find a nice single malt at the end of the day is pretty handy as well.

The Doctor Is In...

If you find yourself in NYC and would like to check any of this out in more detail, drop me a line.

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