Vienna MIR PRO 24 is a network-capable mixing solution for Mac and PC, based on Multi Impulse Response convolution. Paul Steinbauer, Product Manager for Vienna Symphonic Library shows you how to capture the sound of some of the world's most amazing concert halls and add realism to your orchestrations.

• Symphonic Orchestra Music

Vienna Symphonic Library GmbH (VSL) is one of the leading developers^[1] of sample libraries and music production software for classical orchestral music. The company is located in a landmark protected building, called Synchron Stage Vienna based in the Austrian capital's 23rd district.

The Vienna Symphonic Library provides virtual instruments and the digital recreation of the acoustics of famous concert halls such as the Konzerthaus and the Große Sendesaal at Austrian Public Radio ORF's broadcasting house, both in Vienna, and the Sage Gateshead concert hall in England. The technique used is impulse response resulting in an authentic digital convolution reverb. The virtual instruments are based on digital samples of solo voices and instruments as well as orchestral ensembles. The VSL software acts as an interface for the music composer to play the real instruments on a MIDI keyboard.

Symphonic Orchestra Music

History[edit]

The company was founded in Vienna in October 2000 by Herbert Tucmandl.^[2] In the 1990s, Tucmandl, a former cellist (as a substitute member with the Vienna Philharmonic, amongst others), later cameraman, director and composer used some of the available first-generation sample libraries for the creation of his own film scores. He was unsatisfied with the sonic results of those products, mainly because they sounded too static and lacked of natural variations of the real instruments. Tucmandl began to develop a concept for a more realistic sounding orchestral sample library. In his research he concluded that single note samples were not sufficient to create a convincing musical performance. He realized that note transitions (e.g., legato) and multiple note repetitions were also needed. Tucmandl tested his concept with his own cello and managed to convince an investor to fund the new enterprise.

As the first step, the company designed and built a custom recording facility, called “Silent Stage”, for recording orchestral samples. The studio is located in Ebreichsdorf, a village near Vienna. Over several years Tucmandl invited singers, musicians, ensembles, orchestras there. Many of the musicians whose playing is featured in the final VSL products are or were members of Viennese orchestras.

The first product was released in December 2002, including modules for strings, brass, woodwinds and classical percussion. In 2005 the company released their own sample player, the “Vienna Instruments” player, which during the music production on a PC (Digital Audio Workstation) runs in the plug-in formats AU, VST, AAX Native and RTAS under Mac OS X and Windows. The reverberation application was released under the brand name “Vienna MIR”.

In March 2016, the Vienna Symphonic Library business offices moved into the new recording facility at Synchron Stage Vienna.^[3] VSL ushers in a new era in April 2017 with the release of “Synchron Percussion I” that was recorded at the newly revitalized scoring stage. 16 percussion instruments were captured with a phase-controlled multi-microphone set-up, making it the first sample library that provides several available microphone positions also for Auro-3D mixes.^[4]

Current Products (excerpt)[edit]

• Software packages: Vienna Instruments, Vienna Ensemble, Vienna Suite, Vienna MIR.
• Instrument categories: string instruments, strings instruments for chamber music, harps, woodwinds, brass, saxophones, the pipe organ of the Vienna Konzerthaus, Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano, percussion, choirs
• The solo instruments range from flutes to plucked strings.

See also[edit]

• Michael Cooper: A Digital Orchestra for Opera? Purists Take (and Play) Offense in The New York Times, June 11, 2014 [1]
• Jacob Hale Russell, John Jurgensen: Fugue for Man & Machine, Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2007 [2]
• A roundup of the company's history in the German Recording magazine, May 2012

References[edit]

1. ^see Sound on Sound magazine, March, 2014
2. ^Herbert Tucmandl in the IMDB
3. ^'Synchron Stage Vienna'. Vienna Symphonic Library. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
4. ^'Vienna Symphonic Library releases Synchron Percussion I - Multi Audio Format Percussion Library'. www.kvraudio.com. KVR Audio, Inc. Retrieved 2 May 2017.

External links[edit]

Vienna Instruments in an Affordable Collection!

NOTE: This product requires a Vienna Key (not included) to operate. Contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer if you have questions.

The Vienna Symphonic Library Special Edition Vol. 1 Bundle brings together the complete orchestra - and more - in an affordable Collection. You get the entire contents of Vienna Symphonic Library Special Edition Vol. 1 and Vol. 1 PLUS in a single package! It's the ideal, resource-saving companion for orchestral arrangements on your laptop, or for newcomers to the world of Vienna Instruments, offering a useful cross-section of Vienna Symphonic Library's over one million samples. Special Edition Vol. 1 includes 28 instruments and ensembles, covering large post-romantic instrumentation. It contains solo and ensemble strings, solo instruments and ensembles of the brass section, woodwinds ranging from piccolo flute to contra bassoon, harp, drums and percussion as well as celesta and the Bosendorfer Imperial grand piano. Vienna Symphonic Library Special Edition Vol. 1 Bundle is the quintessence of the Vienna Symphonic Library in a single, affordable software package!

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The Vienna Symphonic Library team not only recorded single notes for all instruments and ensembles, but also comprehensively captured what happened in between the notes, where the real nuances of a live performance occur. When you play a Legato Performance Patch of a solo violin, algorithms that are built into the Patch check for the intervals you're playing and automatically provide you with the proper note transitions - just as a gifted musician would play them. Other built-in algorithms detect your playing speed to trigger the right articulations, or automatically detect repeated notes, and alternate samples so the orchestration doesn't sound mechanical.

Imagine you're working on an instrument in a song and you're loading various playing techniques for this instrument - say the ensemble violins. For every playing technique, several octaves of chromatically sampled notes are now living in RAM, even though you actually need only a small percentage of them to perform your violin passages. To make the best use of your resources, Vienna implemented a 'Learn' button that you can click when you're finished composing with the instrument. Just start your sequencers, and Vienna Instrument flags each sample that's used. After stopping your sequencer, click 'optimize' and Vienna kicks the unused samples out of RAM, retaining an average of only 3% of the samples that you originally loaded for the performance.

Vienna Symphonic Library is known for their painstaking, golden-eared approach to recording the superb-sounding samples that comprise their highly regarded library. It's the jaw-dropping sonic quality and the broad selection of virtual instruments that makes Vienna Symphonic Library instruments staples in top studios worldwide, but it's the company's cool software innovations and ease-of-use that'll have you singing their praises next time you're composing to a tight deadline!

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• All the contents of Vienna Symphonic Library Special Edition Vol. 1 and 1 PLUS
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• Contains 28 instruments and ensembles
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  VST (OS X, Win XP), AU or RTAS (Mac)
• RAM optimization only loads required samples into your computer's RAM to conserve resources
• Amazing sound quality, recorded in the custom-built Silent Stage recording facility