The big Vienna Instruments DVD Collections are the most powerful sample-based orchestral virtual instruments ever created. The collections, organized in instrument-categories offer the most complete playing techniques and articulations of all instruments, enabling you to create sonic results of the highest caliber and utmost authenticity.
Piccolo
Flute 2
Alto flute
Viennese oboe
English horn 1
English horn 2
Small clarinet in Eb
Bass clarinet
Contrabassoon
This Collection contains all of the instruments necessary for the realization of large orchestral instrumentations. Also, you will find two completely new instruments, a small part of which were already added to the Horizon Series French Oboe: the English horn II and the small clarinet in Eb.
ARTICULATIONS
Performances:
• Interval Performances: legato, marcato; fast & slow
• Repetition Performances: legato, portato, staccato; crescendo & diminuendo
• Viennese oboe – Performance Repetition upbeats
• Performance Trills
• Grace Note Performances: major 2nd to octave, up & down
• Runs: major, minor, chromatic, whole tone; up & down
• Piccolo, flutes – arpeggios: major, minor, diminshed triads; legato & staccato; medium & fast
• Piccolo, Viennese oboe – mordents: legato & staccato, 12 variations
Single notes:
• Short notes: staccato, short portato, long portato
• Long notes: sustains with various attacks and vibratos
• Dynamics: crescendo & diminuendo in various note lengths; fp, sfz, sffz, pfp
• Trills: half tone, whole tone; crescendo & diminuendo
• Flutter tonguing
• Contrabassoon – FX techniques
- The Extended Library upgrade requires the registered Standard Library and offers more articulations and a significant enhanced sample content.
- A ViennaKey (USB-Dongle, Syncrosoft compatible) is required to activate any Vienna Instrument!
More infos
ScreenshotSystem Requirements
- Please notice: The "Extended Library Upgrade" requires the registered "Standard Library" (Virtual Instrument incl. Player) and offers more articulations and a significant enhanced sample content.
"Standard Library" plus "Extended Library Upgrade" result in a "Full Version"
PC
- Intel/AMD with Windows XP/VISTA/7 32Bit and 64Bit versions (Core 2 Duo/i7/Xeon recommended)
Apple
- Intel Core 2 Duo/Xeon with Mac OS X 10.5.7 or higher. (Vienna Instruments 4 also works on PPC Macs, although it is not actively supported.)
for all
- 1 GB RAM (2 GB or more recommended)
- Fast separate hard drive with space according to your purchased libraries
- ViennaKey (Vienna Symphonic Library USB protection device or other Syncrosoft eLicenser)
- DVD drive for installation
- Vienna Ensemble host software or other VST (OS X, Windows XP/Vista), AU (OS X) or RTAS (OS X) compatible host - also works stand-alone
- Up-to-Date eLicense Control Center (the latest available version from www.elicenser.net is highly recommended)
- 88 key master keyboard (highly recommended)
Product activation:
Vienna Instruments require the ViennaKey!
This USB protection device by eLicenser (formerly Syncrosoft) is not included in the box of any collection, it is a separate item you have to get additionally. So you’ll have to order at least one ViennaKey with your first purchase. It will be put inside the shopping basket automatically but can be deleted if not required. Customers who order the complete SYMPHONIC CUBE will get one ViennaKey for free (not shown in the basket). If you already own another eLicenser USB protection device (e.g., from Steinberg or Arturia), you can use it for the VIENNA INSTRUMENTS, too. Each dongle can store up to 100 product licenses.
Additionally an internet connection on any computer is required to authorize a VSL product.
After five and a half years hard labour with no time off for good behaviour, the Vienna Symphonic Library samplists have finally released their definitive Symphonic Cube orchestral masterwork in the form of 10 Vienna Instruments. Solo Strings, Chamber Strings, Orchestral Strings I & II and Woodwinds I were reviewed in SOS July 2006, and these are now joined by Woodwinds II, Brass I & II, Harps and Percussion.
Woodwinds II adds piccolo, second flute, alto flute, Viennese oboe, two English horns, small 'E' flat clarinet, bass clarinet, and contrabassoon to the basic set in Woodwinds I. Most of these instruments made their debut in the 2004 Pro Edition, though the small clarinet and second English horn were previewed later in the VSL Horizon title French Oboe. All have been expanded with numerous extra performance styles and variations, resulting in a 63.4GB collection.
Nothing on the market beats the Vienna Instrument Player's Performance Legato facility, which produces beautifully joined-up melody lines by automatically selecting real-life intervals as you play - this style sounds particularly sweet on the beautiful second English horn. New Fast Interval and Performance Trills legato deliveries make it easy to program liquid-sounding fast runs and life-like, 100-percent-controllable trills. Played with no vibrato, the Viennese oboe boasts a comprehensive set of perky mordents (double grace notes) and its upbeat repetitions (fast double pickup notes) would be handy if you were attempting a cover of Roxy Music's 'Virginia Plain' (please, no Bryan Ferry karaoke impressions).
The new four-note arpeggios played by piccolo, flute, and oboe sound very lively, and the contrabassoon has had a powerful new overblown special effects version added to its 16 crescendo and diminuendo options. I also enjoyed the alto flute's grace notes, which give the instrument a mournful shakuhachi-like quality in the low register. A couple of minor complaints: this flute's so-called legato arpeggios are over-articulated, and the advertised English-horn arpeggios and mordents, alto-flute arpeggios, and bass-clarinet grace notes are missing.
While Woodwinds I is fine for basic woodwind arrangements, certain instruments on Woodwinds II are indispensable for serious orchestral work. The combined cost of the two collections is hefty, but quality usually comes at a price; if you need a comprehensive woodwind section capable of every musical nuance under the sun, the pair offer an immaculate solution.
The 78.5GB Brass I provides solo trumpet, French horn, tenor trombone, and tuba, as well as trumpet, trombone, and horn ensembles, all of which first appeared in VSL's First Edition. The collection's new content focuses on performance samples, but a more significant innovation is the inclusion of muted samples for the trumpets and trombones and hand-stopped horn-ensemble performances.
Despite their attenuated, slightly cutting 1930s dance-band tone, the muted-trumpet ensemble samples have enormous warmth, presence, and charm. I wish the old comedy mute 'wah' effect had been included, but I guess that falls outside VSL's remit. The muted trombones match the trumpets' vintage radio sound, but the hand-stopped four-horn ensemble samples are altogether more stately and formal; their crescendos swell inexorably from a wiry hum to a piercing and dramatic metallic blast.
Brass I's new four-note arpeggios (played staccato at two speeds, upwards and downwards in all keys in major, minor, and diminished scales by the solo trumpet and trombone and by all the ensembles) are faultlessly and confidently executed - the same goes for the upbeat repetitions, a huge menu of single, double, and triple upbeats. Played at eight or nine different tempos, these are a great rhythmic resource.
Although nicely played, the three trumpets' big-band-style falls lack the uninhibited raucous delivery of jazz players - the same goes for their 'rips', an almost apologetic semitone bend up to a sustained note. 'Out of tune' sustains (which eventually drift into pitch) introduce a Portsmouth Sinfonia flavour, but if I wanted out-of-tune samples, I'd hire real players! (Sorry - couldn't resist that one...) Continuing the dissonant theme, the three trombones' atonal clusters evoke the downbeat, introspective atmosphere of a 1950s black-and-white art film.
Brass II (53.5GB) offers piccolo and bass trumpets, bass and contrabass trombones, contrabass tuba, Wagner tuba, and cimbasso from the Pro Edition, an impressive eight-player French-horn section and a new 'triple horn'. This has an extended range, and produces a more intimate and powerful tone than Brass I's slightly distant-sounding French horn. The triple horn player deserves triple pay, delivering tightly synchronised glissando samples which, when played as a chord, all arrive simultaneously at their target pitches. If you want more control of the glissandos, the Performance Glissandi patch inserts a real played glide between two notes. It's a shame there are no really fast horn glissandos - I miss that exciting 'whoop' effect.
The piccolo and bass trumpets both gain useful new styles: the little one's set of mordents and bright, martial marcato Performance Legato samples are excellent, while the bass instrument contributes ballsy falls and a (literally) pulsating set of 'duophonic' glissando noises. When applied to brass instruments, the new trademark Performance Trills style can produce a rapid, free-jazz burbling - not necessarily desirable, but it's amazing to get this effect using samples! Speaking of obscure arty noises, every single instrument and section on both brass collections has flutter-tongue samples. It beats me why manufacturers feel obliged to include this style - can we please have a flutter-tongue truce?
Formerly released as the Horizon title Epic Horns, Brass II's mighty eight-piece French-horn section is one of VSL's big sellers, offering a Hollywood sound at a Cricklewood price. The Epic Horns content has been transferred wholesale to Brass II with no additions.
5 STARS
Review:
VSL Woodwinds II, Brass I & Brass II - Vienna Instruments
Sound on Sound, November 2006After five and a half years hard labour with no time off for good behaviour, the Vienna Symphonic Library samplists have finally released their definitive Symphonic Cube orchestral masterwork in the form of 10 Vienna Instruments. Solo Strings, Chamber Strings, Orchestral Strings I & II and Woodwinds I were reviewed in SOS July 2006, and these are now joined by Woodwinds II, Brass I & II, Harps and Percussion.
Woodwinds II adds piccolo, second flute, alto flute, Viennese oboe, two English horns, small 'E' flat clarinet, bass clarinet, and contrabassoon to the basic set in Woodwinds I. Most of these instruments made their debut in the 2004 Pro Edition, though the small clarinet and second English horn were previewed later in the VSL Horizon title French Oboe. All have been expanded with numerous extra performance styles and variations, resulting in a 63.4GB collection.
Nothing on the market beats the Vienna Instrument Player's Performance Legato facility, which produces beautifully joined-up melody lines by automatically selecting real-life intervals as you play - this style sounds particularly sweet on the beautiful second English horn. New Fast Interval and Performance Trills legato deliveries make it easy to program liquid-sounding fast runs and life-like, 100-percent-controllable trills. Played with no vibrato, the Viennese oboe boasts a comprehensive set of perky mordents (double grace notes) and its upbeat repetitions (fast double pickup notes) would be handy if you were attempting a cover of Roxy Music's 'Virginia Plain' (please, no Bryan Ferry karaoke impressions).
The new four-note arpeggios played by piccolo, flute, and oboe sound very lively, and the contrabassoon has had a powerful new overblown special effects version added to its 16 crescendo and diminuendo options. I also enjoyed the alto flute's grace notes, which give the instrument a mournful shakuhachi-like quality in the low register. A couple of minor complaints: this flute's so-called legato arpeggios are over-articulated, and the advertised English-horn arpeggios and mordents, alto-flute arpeggios, and bass-clarinet grace notes are missing.
While Woodwinds I is fine for basic woodwind arrangements, certain instruments on Woodwinds II are indispensable for serious orchestral work. The combined cost of the two collections is hefty, but quality usually comes at a price; if you need a comprehensive woodwind section capable of every musical nuance under the sun, the pair offer an immaculate solution.
The 78.5GB Brass I provides solo trumpet, French horn, tenor trombone, and tuba, as well as trumpet, trombone, and horn ensembles, all of which first appeared in VSL's First Edition. The collection's new content focuses on performance samples, but a more significant innovation is the inclusion of muted samples for the trumpets and trombones and hand-stopped horn-ensemble performances.
Despite their attenuated, slightly cutting 1930s dance-band tone, the muted-trumpet ensemble samples have enormous warmth, presence, and charm. I wish the old comedy mute 'wah' effect had been included, but I guess that falls outside VSL's remit. The muted trombones match the trumpets' vintage radio sound, but the hand-stopped four-horn ensemble samples are altogether more stately and formal; their crescendos swell inexorably from a wiry hum to a piercing and dramatic metallic blast.
Brass I's new four-note arpeggios (played staccato at two speeds, upwards and downwards in all keys in major, minor, and diminished scales by the solo trumpet and trombone and by all the ensembles) are faultlessly and confidently executed - the same goes for the upbeat repetitions, a huge menu of single, double, and triple upbeats. Played at eight or nine different tempos, these are a great rhythmic resource.
Although nicely played, the three trumpets' big-band-style falls lack the uninhibited raucous delivery of jazz players - the same goes for their 'rips', an almost apologetic semitone bend up to a sustained note. 'Out of tune' sustains (which eventually drift into pitch) introduce a Portsmouth Sinfonia flavour, but if I wanted out-of-tune samples, I'd hire real players! (Sorry - couldn't resist that one...) Continuing the dissonant theme, the three trombones' atonal clusters evoke the downbeat, introspective atmosphere of a 1950s black-and-white art film.
Brass II (53.5GB) offers piccolo and bass trumpets, bass and contrabass trombones, contrabass tuba, Wagner tuba, and cimbasso from the Pro Edition, an impressive eight-player French-horn section and a new 'triple horn'. This has an extended range, and produces a more intimate and powerful tone than Brass I's slightly distant-sounding French horn. The triple horn player deserves triple pay, delivering tightly synchronised glissando samples which, when played as a chord, all arrive simultaneously at their target pitches. If you want more control of the glissandos, the Performance Glissandi patch inserts a real played glide between two notes. It's a shame there are no really fast horn glissandos - I miss that exciting 'whoop' effect.
The piccolo and bass trumpets both gain useful new styles: the little one's set of mordents and bright, martial marcato Performance Legato samples are excellent, while the bass instrument contributes ballsy falls and a (literally) pulsating set of 'duophonic' glissando noises. When applied to brass instruments, the new trademark Performance Trills style can produce a rapid, free-jazz burbling - not necessarily desirable, but it's amazing to get this effect using samples! Speaking of obscure arty noises, every single instrument and section on both brass collections has flutter-tongue samples. It beats me why manufacturers feel obliged to include this style - can we please have a flutter-tongue truce?
Formerly released as the Horizon title Epic Horns, Brass II's mighty eight-piece French-horn section is one of VSL's big sellers, offering a Hollywood sound at a Cricklewood price. The Epic Horns content has been transferred wholesale to Brass II with no additions.
5 STARS
from stock
5 days
2-3 weeks
