Category: Software » MultiMedia → Vienna Symphonic Library Kontakt Edition

The Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL) is a producer of samples of orchestral instruments recorded by members of the Vienna Philharmonic. For recording the samples, VSL uses the Silent Stage, a recording studio specially constructed for this purpose. The number of recorded samples currently is about 1.75 million. VSL's products include legato and repetition articulations. VSL's Vienna Instruments Symphonic Cube contains a full orchestra made up of ten collections that can also be acquired separately: solo strings, chamber strings, two collections of orchestral strings, harps, two collections of woodwinds, two collections of brass (one of which includes Wagner tuba), and percussion.

Imagine waking up one morning and saying to yourself, “I'm not happy with what's out there. I think I'll just…sample an orchestra.” Austrian musician/composer Herb Tucmandl took this notion several hundred steps further: The Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL) is by far the largest and most ambitious sample library ever developed: Even the initial 16-bit/44.1kHz version comes on 14 double-layer DVDs, taking up 94 GB — yes, gigabytes — of hard disk storage. Anyone who's heard the library's online demos knows that VSL is something special, in both quality and quantity. Every instrument has been meticulously recorded in stereo, playing a staggering number of articulations, making it possible to sequence highly expressive and realistic orchestral performances. Variations include notes of various lengths, all kinds of dynamics (accents, crescendos/decrescendos, etc.), and effects such as tremolo strings and flutter-tongued winds and brass, trills, rolls — all recorded at various tempos and mapped to the keyboard in different combinations.