I am making a template to use my VSL sounds, which give a choice of either ensemble or (individual) instrument ?
Previously, in my DAW, Digital Performer 9, I have used 4/5 instances of configured as the standard wind, brass, keyboards, percussion and strings.
But in Dorico, is this still a good idea, or can I use individual instruments as I may require ? I would prefer this as it has advantages for mixer routing when when composing and mixing.
So what are the pros and cons ?
(In my case machine speed/capacity is not an issue : Mac Pro 2010, OS X El Capitan 10.11.6, 3.46 Ghz 6-Core Intel XEON, 32 GB memory, loads of disk space.)
I think Dorico will accommodate both approaches. Most people seem to use the Vienna Ensemble Pro approach, though do be aware that Dorico can only address the first port and therefore the first 16 channels of each instance of VE Pro. You may also want to use the “decouple” option (I may have chosen the wrong word there!) in order to prevent Dorico from saving/loading the state of your VE Pro instances every time you save/open the project, because VE Pro saves a lot of data and that will both make your projects much larger and also increase saving/loading time.
Since posting I have decided to try using the single Vienna Instrument rather than the Ensemble, because the latter will make the mixer unusable because there is no way to switch off the unused slots of the total 16.
Also, I am using the earlier Vienna Instrument and Vienna ensemble, not the later Vienna Instrument Pro and not Vienna Ensemble Pro which have enhanced functionality that may be relevant here. And I cannot currently afford to upgrage to the Pro versions.
Daniel’s answer mostly focused on what VE Pro brings to the table, but what’s left applies. As he said, you can use both approaches. I use Ensemble as well, it keeps everything tidy and I much prefer to mix in Ensemble and not in Dorico.
One of reasons to use VE, as far as I see, is that you have a cleaner list of playback devices in the right column of the Play page. Using the VI approach, one would have a long list of single instruments. With the VE approach, you only have (Single Instruments)/(16 Channels) VE instances.
I’m also inclined not to purchase the VE PRO version, since I don’t need networking and it seems the basic version is enough for me. Does anybody knows if there are limitation of the basic Vienna Ensemble with Dorico (apart for not being able to “decouple” and “unload” the samples)?
In the end, I decided to go for the Pro version of Vienna Ensemble.
I don’t need it for Logic, because I plan to continue using VSL’s libraries in Logic as direct instruments, without the hassle of multi-instrments and VE.
Vienna Ensemble seems enough with Dorico, if you only use VSL libraries, or you don’t use MIR. Loading sounds is fast from SSD drives. With Vienna Instruments, you only load the needed articulations, with the other articulations/cells deactivated. VE and individual instruments from other libraries can cohexist peacefully.
I mix VSL libraries for core techniques, and other libraries (Xsample, Spitfire, UVI) for extended techniques. MIR is the tool I use to place them in the same space. You need VEPRO to use VSL and Kontakt libraries into MIR at the same time.