VI11 Saxophones

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.

• Sopransaxophon
  
• Altsaxophon
  
• Tenorsaxophon
  
• Baritonsaxophon
  
• Basssaxophon

This Collection is the sequel to the Horizon Series’ Saxophones I. With this instrument, the saxophones are now complete, and the performance algorithms of the Vienna Instruments work wonders with these samples. The focus has been directed equally to orchestral settings as well as to jazz. Famous examples for orchestral appearances of these instruments are the saxophone quartet by Alexander Glasunow, the alto saxophone concerts by Glasunow and Debussy, or the Castello from Mussorgsky’s “Pictures”. In addition, a lot of articulations for jazz and big band requirements are included, such as bends, tongue slaps, growling, screams, extended flageolets, key sounds, etc. And there’s the cool long and short downward ending phrases triggered as release samples. The breathy tones stem from the legendary “Barfly sessions” at the Silent Stage, when the lights were dimmed, setting the mood for softer tones.

ARTICULATIONS

Performances:

• Interval Performances: Legato with and without vibrato, grace notes (minor second to octave), portamento
• Fast Interval Performances: Legato, marcato
• Performance Trills
• Repetition Performances: Legato (slow and fast), Portato (slow and fast), Staccato
• Fast repetitions: Staccato
• Octave runs: Legato, chromatic and whole tone runs, up and down
• Grace notes: minor second to octave, up and down
• Bends down: Sustains with and without vibrato, progressive vibrato, „dirty“ (screams); legato with vibrato (grace notes, portamento, glissandi, marcato, trills)

Single notes:

• Short notes: Staccato, portato (short, medium, long), marcato
• Long notes: Sustained notes with and without vibrato, with progressive vibrato, slaps normal und muted, key sounds, screams, long and short end phrases
• Dynamics: Various crescendos & diminuendos; fp, sfz, sffz
• Flutter tonguing: normal and crescendo
• Trills: Half and whole tone, crescendo & diminuendo, constant speed and accelerando

More infos

Screenshot

System 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.

Reviews

Sound on Sound 1/07

Having unleashed their 545GB Symphonic Cube orchestral collection, VSL embark on the second phase of their Vienna Instruments series. Two of the new VI's will ring a bell with VSL followers: Saxophones is an expanded version of the 2004 sound library Saxophones 1, while Elements incorporates the ethereal Glass & Stones, one of the highlights of the company's Horizon series.

Saxophones completes the Vienna saxophone family by adding alto, baritone and bass saxes to the soprano and tenor instruments supplied in Saxophones 1. This 25GB collection was performed single-handedly by Robert Bernhard in VSL's Silent Stage, a controlled room acoustic which suits the saxes' intimate sound. The five instruments perform a huge menu of single-note deliveries, changing dynamic samples and note repetitions as well as fast
octave scales and a comprehensive set of trills and grace notes.

VI's intelligent interval detection software makes legato melody notes join together as nature intended. Sampled at three dynamics, the alto sax's performance legatos sound astonishingly real and can transform simple keyboard melodies into flowing, expressive lines worthy of Wayne Shorter. Now upgraded, the soprano's performance legatos match the high quality of the alto sax. In the full library, there's a choice of vibrato, no-vibrato, marcato and portamento (slide) legatos, the latter producing real played bends which sound far better than anything you can knock up with the pitch wheel.

In the '60s, Tamla Motown producers used to largely confine the baritone sax to honking staccato mini-phrases and the occasional spluttering foghorn-like solo, but the instrument in this collection is capable of far more than that. The rich, attractive timbre of its quiet sustains sounds great in isolation but also blends very nicely with orchestral low winds. The rarely-found bass sax is impressive too; it's an expressive, powerful and surprisingly versatile low-range
instrument which handles bass lines, melodies and even chords with aplomb. But if all you want are those Motown bass licks, the baritone and bass sax's blasting sforzando samples will do nicely.

A new set of growling 'dirty' samples and pitch falls help make these top-quality sax samples suitable for pop, jazz and big-band arrangements as well as orchestral settings. Although Saxophones contains no pre-configured melodic phrases, having such a wealth of lively performance samples under your fingers makes it inexcusable not to program your own. Throughout, Mr. Bernhard plays with commitment and lots of feel, effortlessly covering the emotional
range of these highly versatile and mobile instruments. After performing 58,000 samples the poor chap deserves a holiday - let's hope that VSL bought him some lip salve for Christmas.

The 11GB Elements occupies more of a niche market, but it's a pretty nice niche. The beautiful instruments from Glass & Stones are all here, augmented by several more elemental creations. The largest is an oversized tam tam so tall that Ronnie Corbett could hide inside it. Its small menu of conventional loud hits sound like slow-motion explosions, and it has also been scraped, rubbed, stroked and otherwise molested by a variety of implements, producing a range of mysterious atmospheric noises, suitable for horror film soundtracks and experimental modern music.

Glass & Stones' musical glasses now have alternate samples with an extended range, and also offer mallet hits which reminded me of chiming clocks, toy pianos and Javanese gamelan metallophones. Unfortunately the element of fire is absent, but the liquid world is represented by a fantastic bass waterphone, a mad-sounding contraption that creates a wonderfully spooky set of slithering, other-worldly noises, indeterminate random notes and crazy overtones. A set of blown bottles completes the line-up. Unfortunately, their upper range is rather limited, but hopefully that will be sorted out when someone from VSL next goes to the off-licence. 

The third new Vienna Instrument is the only title in VSL's catalogue not to have been recorded in the Silent Stage, but there's a good reason for that: the instrument is built into the fabric of the Great Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus and it would have been rather inconvenient to move it to another location! Built in 1913, the Konzerthaus organ boasts five manuals and over a hundred stops. The Vienna boys sampled every note of 39, using the organ's retro-fitted MIDI interface to speed up the job. Each note has its own reverb release sample, and although VSL claim the hall acoustic gives the instrument a more defined sound than your average cathedral organ, its reverb tails are still pretty prominent.

The two things I look for first in a pipe organ are a simple flute stop and a big, multi-octave sound to scare the congregation. I found the former quickly enough - 'Bordun 16' and 'Lieblich-Gedakt 16' are both pure, plain flute timbres, which sound lovely on their own, or can be used as building blocks in the construction of more complex sounds. I enjoyed the tremolo effect of 'Unda Maris', which gives it something of the floating quality of a Hammond/Leslie combo, while the brighter, reedier 'Trumpet 16' and 'Krummhorn 8' have a much more triumphant and declamatory tone. If you want to add high frequencies, there are plenty of 4', 2', 'quint' (ie. sounding a fifth higher) and 'mixture' stops, all sounding bright and transparent.

For an instant big organ sound, you can simply select one of the 36 pre-layered multi-stop 'registration' patches, the most massive-sounding of which is the 'Large Principalplenum + Reeds', combining nine different stops. If that apocalyptic racket doesn't put the fear of God into your flock, nothing will! The Konzerthaus Organ is highly playable, extremely versatile and sonically beautiful. The only minor inconvenience is that some bass notes take a while to
develop, so if you want these particular low notes to 'speak' in time with your track, you'll just have to play or sequence them a bit early!

5 STARS  Review: VSL SAXOPHONES, ELEMENTS & KONZERTHAUS ORGAN  Sound on Sound, January 2007

Having unleashed their 545GB Symphonic Cube orchestral collection, VSL embark on the second phase of their Vienna Instruments series. Two of the new VI's will ring a bell with VSL followers: Saxophones is an expanded version of the 2004 sound library Saxophones 1, while Elements incorporates the ethereal Glass & Stones, one of the highlights of the company's Horizon series.

Saxophones completes the Vienna saxophone family by adding alto, baritone and bass saxes to the soprano and tenor instruments supplied in Saxophones 1. This 25GB collection was performed single-handedly by Robert Bernhard in VSL's Silent Stage, a controlled room acoustic which suits the saxes' intimate sound. The five instruments perform a huge menu of single-note deliveries, changing dynamic samples and note repetitions as well as fast
octave scales and a comprehensive set of trills and grace notes.

VI's intelligent interval detection software makes legato melody notes join together as nature intended. Sampled at three dynamics, the alto sax's performance legatos sound astonishingly real and can transform simple keyboard melodies into flowing, expressive lines worthy of Wayne Shorter. Now upgraded, the soprano's performance legatos match the high quality of the alto sax. In the full library, there's a choice of vibrato, no-vibrato, marcato and portamento (slide) legatos, the latter producing real played bends which sound far better than anything you can knock up with the pitch wheel.

In the '60s, Tamla Motown producers used to largely confine the baritone sax to honking staccato mini-phrases and the occasional spluttering foghorn-like solo, but the instrument in this collection is capable of far more than that. The rich, attractive timbre of its quiet sustains sounds great in isolation but also blends very nicely with orchestral low winds. The rarely-found bass sax is impressive too; it's an expressive, powerful and surprisingly versatile low-range
instrument which handles bass lines, melodies and even chords with aplomb. But if all you want are those Motown bass licks, the baritone and bass sax's blasting sforzando samples will do nicely.

A new set of growling 'dirty' samples and pitch falls help make these top-quality sax samples suitable for pop, jazz and big-band arrangements as well as orchestral settings. Although Saxophones contains no pre-configured melodic phrases, having such a wealth of lively performance samples under your fingers makes it inexcusable not to program your own. Throughout, Mr. Bernhard plays with commitment and lots of feel, effortlessly covering the emotional
range of these highly versatile and mobile instruments. After performing 58,000 samples the poor chap deserves a holiday - let's hope that VSL bought him some lip salve for Christmas.

The 11GB Elements occupies more of a niche market, but it's a pretty nice niche. The beautiful instruments from Glass & Stones are all here, augmented by several more elemental creations. The largest is an oversized tam tam so tall that Ronnie Corbett could hide inside it. Its small menu of conventional loud hits sound like slow-motion explosions, and it has also been scraped, rubbed, stroked and otherwise molested by a variety of implements, producing a range of mysterious atmospheric noises, suitable for horror film soundtracks and experimental modern music.

Glass & Stones' musical glasses now have alternate samples with an extended range, and also offer mallet hits which reminded me of chiming clocks, toy pianos and Javanese gamelan metallophones. Unfortunately the element of fire is absent, but the liquid world is represented by a fantastic bass waterphone, a mad-sounding contraption that creates a wonderfully spooky set of slithering, other-worldly noises, indeterminate random notes and crazy overtones. A set of blown bottles completes the line-up. Unfortunately, their upper range is rather limited, but hopefully that will be sorted out when someone from VSL next goes to the off-licence. 

The third new Vienna Instrument is the only title in VSL's catalogue not to have been recorded in the Silent Stage, but there's a good reason for that: the instrument is built into the fabric of the Great Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus and it would have been rather inconvenient to move it to another location! Built in 1913, the Konzerthaus organ boasts five manuals and over a hundred stops. The Vienna boys sampled every note of 39, using the organ's retro-fitted MIDI interface to speed up the job. Each note has its own reverb release sample, and although VSL claim the hall acoustic gives the instrument a more defined sound than your average cathedral organ, its reverb tails are still pretty prominent.

The two things I look for first in a pipe organ are a simple flute stop and a big, multi-octave sound to scare the congregation. I found the former quickly enough - 'Bordun 16' and 'Lieblich-Gedakt 16' are both pure, plain flute timbres, which sound lovely on their own, or can be used as building blocks in the construction of more complex sounds. I enjoyed the tremolo effect of 'Unda Maris', which gives it something of the floating quality of a Hammond/Leslie combo, while the brighter, reedier 'Trumpet 16' and 'Krummhorn 8' have a much more triumphant and declamatory tone. If you want to add high frequencies, there are plenty of 4', 2', 'quint' (ie. sounding a fifth higher) and 'mixture' stops, all sounding bright and transparent.

For an instant big organ sound, you can simply select one of the 36 pre-layered multi-stop 'registration' patches, the most massive-sounding of which is the 'Large Principalplenum + Reeds', combining nine different stops. If that apocalyptic racket doesn't put the fear of God into your flock, nothing will! The Konzerthaus Organ is highly playable, extremely versatile and sonically beautiful. The only minor inconvenience is that some bass notes take a while to
develop, so if you want these particular low notes to 'speak' in time with your track, you'll just have to play or sequence them a bit early!

5 STARS