Vienna Symphonic Library Winds Complete - Vienna Instruments

Vienna Instruments - Woodwinds I from Vienna Symphonic is a sample-based virtual instrument, featuring the four main wind instruments of the orchestra, namely the flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, as well as their corresponding ensemble formations, with three players per ensemble.

All the original players are top flight professionals and include Gisela Mashayekhi-Beer who was the solo flutist of the Zurich Opera orchestra and taught at the Bruckner University, Linz and at the Vienna Music University. Markus Deuter is the first oboist of numerous German orchestras and the clarinetist Daniel Hörth looks back on an international concert career with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra and others. Martin Machovits, among other assignments, is solo bassoon player at the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The solo instruments as well as ensembles contained in the Woodwinds I volume offer fast Interval Performances in legato and marcato styles, marcato Interval Performances in "normal" tempo, as well as Performance Trills. The solo flute and clarinet arpeggios include major, minor and diminished broken chords in legato and staccato styles. The solo flute's mordents and the French oboe's flutter tonguing are outstanding and the slow legato repetitions of the solo flute are also especially appealing.

The oboe in this collection is the French Oboe from the Horizon Series Library and therefore offers playing techniques with vibrato.

Vienna Instruments - Woodwinds II from Vienna Symphonic is a sample-based library, featuring all of the wind instruments necessary for the realization of large orchestral instrumentations.

These include the Piccolo, Flute 2, Alto Flute, Viennese Oboe, English Horn 1, English Horn 2, Small Clarinet in E♭, Bass Clarinet and Contra Bassoon.

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 64 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.

Vienna Instruments - Special Woodwinds from the Vienna Symphonic Library is a sample-based virtual instrument, that extends the scope of the woodwind family with several rare instrument additions.

The base flute adds a velvety, earthy sound, and expands the flute family to its lowest register. Two oboes also extend the range of the oboe family. The collection features two additions to the clarinet family, the full sounding basset horn that covers the alto/tenor registers, and the deep sounding contrabass clarinet.

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 utility 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.

Saxophone from the Vienna Symphonic Library is a sample-based virtual instrument with an emphasis on both orchestral settings as well as for jazz compositions. Instruments include the soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass saxophone.

Many articulations are included, including those specifically required for jazz and big band writing, such as bends, tongue slaps, growling, screams, extended flageolets, key sounds, etc. Also included are long and short downward ending phrases triggered as release samples, along with breathy tones.

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 utility 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.

Vienna Symphonic Library's Recorders contains instruments including soprano recorder, alto recorder, tenor recorder, and great bass recorder.

Compared with its close relative the flute (flauto traverso), the instrument range of the wooden recorder (flauto dolce) is more limited in terms of pitch and dynamics. This is one of the reasons why the recorder was replaced by the (traverse) flute in orchestras around the 18th century. However, recorders were very popular during medieval times and into the renaissance, and even in the baroque era famous composers such as Telemann, Bach, Handel and Vivaldi wrote pieces for these instruments.

Due to the absence of upper harmonics and a predominance of odd harmonics, the sound of recorders is soft and mellow. The instrument is often unfairly marginalized as a toy for children or amateur players, with its main application being music pedagogy and domestic music. However, contemporary composers of all genres (from Luciano Berio and Mauricio Kagel to Keith Jarrett) have written demanding pieces for the recorder, expanding its timbral range in a virtuosic way. Recorders are used as solo instruments in modern film music, adding a particular exotic timbre with references to ancient or far eastern worlds in orchestral scores. All four recorders of this Instrument Collection were played by Austrian flute and recorder virtuoso Leopold Eibl, a sought-after soloist and chamber musician.

Vienna Instruments - Brass I from Vienna Symphonic is a sample-based virtual instrument, featuring the basic brass instruments of the orchestra, both as solo instruments and the corresponding ensembles. These include the Trumpet, Viennese Horn, Tenor Trombone, Tuba, Trumpet Ensemble (3 players,) Horn Ensemble (4 players) and Trombone Ensemble (3 players.)

The four original performers are masters of their trade. Trumpet player Freddy Staudigl, Horn player Marcus Schmidinger and Trombone player Johann Schodl are not only founding members of the renowned ensemble "Brassissimo," but are also active as soloists and orchestral musicians on an international level. The Tuba player Christoph Kiene is also internationally known as a lecturer.

Apart from the usual articulations, this Vienna Instruments Collection also provides fast Interval Performances in legato and marcato, Performance Trills, arpeggios (major, minor and diminished in legato and staccato) and mordents. Trumpet and trombone offer the complete muted playing techniques, not only as solo instruments but also in the ensembles.

Another specialty is the trumpet ensemble's "out of tune" sustains, as they occasionally happen in real orchestral situations. The three trumpet players don't hit the note exactly at the beginning of a part and a beat frequency ensues which is corrected as the tone progresses, eventually resulting in a clean homophony. The trumpets also feature "rips and falls."

The trombone ensembles also offer a specialty. Clusters of three notes with half tone intervals are available in staccato (two variations,) sustained, crescendo and diminuendo (in two tone lengths,) sforzato, and even as Repetition Performances.

Brass II from Vienna Symphonic is a sample-based virtual instrument, containing the instruments needed for large-scale orchestral arrangements, such as those required by a Wagnerian score for example. Oriented toward Wagner's Ring Cycle, the collection includes the bass trumpet, the contrabass trombone, Wagner tuba and contrabass tuba, all with the standard single note and Performance articulations like Interval Performances, Repetitions and Performance Trills, etc.

As an alternative to the Viennese horn, Brass II contains a new solo horn, the triple horn, Yamaha's master instrument in F/B♭/high F, recorded down to the lowest register (A1.) Also included are the piccolo trumpet, cimbasso, and the "Epic Horns" from the Horizon Series, an impressive sounding body of eight double horns that not only fulfills the sonic ideal of the theatrical late Romantic orchestra, but also meets the challenge of "larger than life" scores for modern cinema.

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 64 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.

Vienna Instruments - Special Brass from the Vienna Symphonic Library is a sample-based virtual instrument, that covers the more esoteric, but none the less essential elements required, when writing for orchestral brass.

Instrumentation includes "Fanfare Trumpets" (six players,) that provide impact with their sforzato and sforzatissimo playing techniques. Also included are solo cornet, an alto trombone that expands the VSL trombone family to its highest register, and a euphonium.

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 utility 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.

Vienna Dimension Brass I from the Vienna Symphonic Library is a multi-sample based virtual instrument delivering the sound of several brass quartets. Four ensembles are presented with the Low Brass ensemble featuring a mixture of instruments, while the other three present trumpet, French horn and trombone ensembles.

Recorded in Vienna's famed Silent Stage,the virtual instrument goes beyond just using multi-samples. Every note was played by a well-rehearsed ensemble of four brass players, but with each instrument recorded separately. Access to each individual voice is available, but the result is not the sound of four soloists. Rather, the "ensemble-sound" retains its cohesiveness, whether playing in unison, divisi, or even in four-part harmony.

Vienna Dimension Brass includes the free Vienna Instruments player. To make the most of these unique multi-dimensional samples, the optional Vienna Instruments PRO is recommend (a fully functional demo is included with the software). The PRO version provides much great creative control over the huge content.