Vienna Instruments - Orchestral Strings I from Vienna Symphonic Library is a sample-based virtual instrument, featuring a Violin Ensemble (14 players) and a Viola Ensemble (10 players.) For the recording sessions, the violinists were headed by Christian Eisenberger, who has collaborated with artists and conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Martha Argerich, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Herbert von Karajan, Gidon Kremer, Kent Nagano, Roger Norrington, Murray Perahia, Andras Schiff, Georg Solti and many others. The viola ensemble was headed by Anett Homoki who is a member of the Vienna Chamber Philharmonic as well as of the Volksoper Vienna.
The string sections of the Vienna Instruments offer an extremely wide range of articulations. The special qualities of this instrument are a result of the multitude of performances it contains. With larger ensembles, the random effect of articulations like Performance Trills or fast Legatos is especially pronounced, lending those patches remarkable authenticity. The larger the ensemble, the more intense the random effect, that is the natural "inexactitude" among the musicians when changing from one tone to the next.
Additional samples are also included like short staccatos, expressive Interval Legatos, espressivo con sordino, as well as extensions of the tonal ranges for sustains and staccatos.
The Vienna Instruments user interface is clearly arranged and includes pre-configured patches for immediate playability with no learning curve. The interface uses a powerful proprietary streaming audio engine that can load up to 3,456 articulations (patches) on one MIDI channel.
Load times are extremely low and sixty-four stereo voices per instance can stream from the hard disc. A RAM optimizing utilities clears unused samples out of RAM. Users can easily create their own instruments, using "drag and drop" functionality, and the instrument provides the ability for velocity crossfades and release control to be switched on or off in real time.