VSL are offering their “Epic” Orchestra v2 on sale for €55.
It’s mostly a ‘taster’ for the full products, and you get it free anyway if you buy Vienna Ensemble Pro (€195).
Alternatively, you get Vienna Ensemble (non Pro) free when you buy Epic. I have to say I don’t really know what VE does, other than add an additional layer of complexity by being some kind of intermediary.
EDIT: finally download it all.
The Syncron “Light” instruments are pretty useless, being often just a legato and something else. They’re mostly just a demo.
The actual Epic Orchestra gives you: Combined Strings (stacc, sus, fast, sfz, trem, pizz.); Woodwind (stacc, sus), and oboe d’amore and a cornet; Trumpets a 6, Horns a 8, timps, and percussion.
It’s worth €55 for some nice sounds, but not a complete orchestra by any means.
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Vienna ensemble is a host. You can open a lot of VSTi inside it, insert effects (VST or AU), apply EQ, pan, and so on. It is great when working with a DAW and you need to open different projects running the same heavy template with a lot of VSTi (no need to open and close everything for each project).
Pro version can also work from another computer and stream audio and midi to the main PC or Mac.
The main reason I use Vienna Ensemble is that it allows me to load my entire collection of orchestral VSTIs on a machine located on my internal network (in a closet in a basement). The machine is a monster: 64-core, 256G RAM, 3RAID Controllers and TBs upon TBs of SSD storage. It is also pretty loud so having it as far away from my studio is very important.
All of those instruments can then be used across projects and applications.
Another good example of my use-case: I have the same orchestral template in Dorico as I do in Logic. I compose, arrange transcribe etc. in Dorico as notation is what I know best. I doodle with new compositions and bring pieces to decent mockup status inside Logic. So bringing a large and complex piece from Dorico to Logic is as simple as exporting MIDI.
Sorry for the rant, just saw your edit and VEP isn’t your main question… ignore as you wish.
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How do you get the sound back in real time over a network?
Vienna VST (let’s call this the client) is loaded into Dorico and communicates with the VEP let’s call this the software server) in my basement. Dorico sends MIDI to the VST (client) itself has loaded, the VST sends the MIDI to the server in my basement and the VEP (server) sends the audio back over the network. I don’t perceive any latency whatsoever.
Allows up to, I think 32 MIDI ports, and 64 audio outputs (don’t quote me on the limits, I’m not in my studio at the moment).
For me, one of the big benefits is being able to quickly open or switch between Dorico projects without having to wait for the sounds to load. As the VEPro server project is already open with all my typical sounds, Dorico just has to connect to it, which only takes a few seconds.
I would save the money and buy Vienna Ensemble Pro.
Paolo
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Yeah, Vienna Ensemble Pro is really excellent if you’re working with any reasonable samples outside of NotePerformer (anything larger than a chamber ensemble outside of NP), whether you use the network functionality or not.
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In my own case, I have two older computers (no audio hardware, no monitors, no keyboards, no mice) each running a VEPro “instrument server” that I connect via the regular ethernet cable and a $10 desktop switch. The audio device latency on the main machine is 256 over 48000 and this setup is very stable even with over a hundred channels running.
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lol I bought VEPro thinking I was buying Vienna Instruments Pro, and wondered what the heck I’d bought. Now it is indispensible. To add to what Fred says, switching between Cubase or Live and Dorico without having to repatch and reload, and also save configurations independently – all very useful, but also important is how VEPro manages CPU load.
I’m wondering how useful VE non-pro might be, at the discounted price!
I might be wrong about this, as I don’t currently have the non-pro version installed, but I think the non-pro VE simply gives you another mixing host within Dorico, similar to how HALion, or Aria, or NP’s mixer works, but for libraries from different vendors. It’s useful software, but still would have to load with each project, so doesn’t give you the ability to have it run outside of Dorico and then have Dorico connect to it. That’s the big time saving benefit of VEPro for me. I think the non-pro VE is free with any VSL product if you log in to your account.
VEPro also works great in conjunction with MIR Pro. Since the release of D5 we can do some of the staging stuff of MIR directly in Dorico, but MIR takes it to a whole different level. There are other popular convolution reverbs like Altiverb too, that I’m sure some people here use.
It’s a separate app, that looks like this:
Yes, but can you load it up with libraries, leave it as a standalone outside of Dorico, and then have Dorico connect to it? If so, then I’m wrong about that, but I thought that was the limitation of the non-Pro version.
The non pro version can’t host non-VSL instruments to my knowledge.
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Ah, ok. I remembered there were some limitations of the free version but couldn’t remember what exactly they were.
Hmm. Yes, I don’t seem to be able to connect Dorico to the app, (and as said, it also can’t host other VSTs), so it does seem pretty useless.
You can connect Dorico to it, you just can’t host third party VST instruments in it. It’ll work with Dorico, but for VSL libraries only.
To use regular Vienna Ensemble in Dorico you go to Play mode and under “VST and MIDI” add an instance of Vienna Ensemble.
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Can you run it as a standalone, add any VSL instrument, then select Vienna Ensemble as a VST instrument in Dorico, click the little e for Show Instrument, and then connect to it? If so, then that’s pretty useful, if only for VSL instruments anyway.
That’s not how it works in the non pro version. When you choose Vienna Ensemble as a VST in Dorico it opens the interface inside Dorico, not as a separate app.
