The Vienna Symphonic Library team has announced the release of the first five Vienna Instruments Collections of the Symphonic Cube: Solo Strings, Chamber Strings, Orchestral Strings I, Orchestral Strings
II, and Woodwinds I are now available worldwide from distributors and dealers.

The second part of the Symphonic Cube will be available within the next two months: Woodwinds II, Brass I, Brass II, Harps, and Percussion are in the final stages of production and testing. Additionally, the team continues to improve on the PC and Mac versions of the software and is providing frequent updates on their
website?€™s User Area at www.vsl.co.at/user.

The website also provides a wealth of Vienna Instruments Audio Demos for all of the currently available Collections, illustrating the authenticity of the new Performance Algorithms. Each demo comes with a Tutorial Folder including the respective MIDI file and the Vienna Instruments Presets.

Vienna Instruments integrates intelligent Performance Algorithms
with VST/AU plug-in instruments to orchestrate an inconceivably vast
array of samples. For the first time, hundreds of inspiring
articulations can be combined in one Preset and on a single MIDI track.
Vienna?€™s proprietary Performance Detection analyzes intervals,
repeated notes, patterns, and even speed in real-time and automatically
summons the appropriate articulation or nuance.

10 VIENNA INSTRUMENTS ?€“ 1 SYMPHONIC CUBE

Each of the 10 Collections comes with the Software Instrument,
Standard Library, and Extended Library on DVD. For each Collection?€™s
Standard Price customers get the software instrument (i.e., the audio
engine with its user interface) and the Standard Library. Registered
users of Vienna?€™s existing sample libraries will be granted extensive
discounts to upgrade to the Extended Libraries of the Vienna
Instruments. The price of a Collection?€™s Extended Library depends on
how many single instruments a user is adding and how many sample
libraries he or she has registered. The price of the Extended Libraries
can be easily determined using the Discount Calculator at Vienna?€™s website.

The SYMPHONIC CUBE will eventually contain a combined total of over
550 GB or more than 800,000 stereo samples in 44.1kHz/24 bit quality.
It will include all of the samples that are comprised in the PRO
EDITION and the HORIZON SERIES, plus much more, for example, Fast
Interval Performances, Trill Performances (using the speed controller),
gypsy and harsh styles, ponticello, sul tasto, ricochet, mordents,
arpeggios, etc. New instruments include a small clarinet in Eb, a
triple horn, new timpani, and taiko drums to mention but a few.

Ease-of-Use and Authenticity

The Vienna Symphonic Library website offers Video Tutorials that
make it easy to grasp the Vienna Instruments?€™ innovations. One of the
most intriguing accomplishments is the incorporation of intelligent
Performance Detection algorithms directly into a Patch. Here it seems
the plug-in can virtually read the user?€™s mind, reacting instantly to
the played passages and providing the musically appropriate samples in
real-time. The Vienna Instrument constantly monitors the keyed in
notes, checks for intervals, repeated notes, patterns, trills etc.,
depending on the loaded Patch, and switches automatically between
articulations. Depending on the relative succession of the played
notes, taking into account intervals, velocity, and even playing speed,
the Vienna Instrument provides different articulations. As an example,
you can automatically switch from détaché to portato, to staccato,
and to spiccato the faster you play, without the need to operate key
switches or other controllers. The Performance Tool?€™s original
concept of providing real note transitions for real legatos,
glissandos, repetitions, etc. has been further improved and built into
the engine, resulting in stunningly authentic musical lines. Every
Collection comes with a wealth of pre-configured Presets, so it?€™s
easy for the user to simply start to play and enjoy, without almost no
learning curve.

The Engine

The streaming audio-engine can pre-load up to 25,600 stereo samples
(e.g., on a 1.6 GB RAM Windows system), and play back a theoretical
total of 3,456 Articulations (Patches) on one MIDI channel ?€“
unrivaled figures in the world of samplers and virtual instruments. The
RAM Optimizer kicks unused samples out of memory, and the lossless
real-time de-compression minimizes the use of RAM and hard disk
resources altogether.

The ViennaKey

This USB protection device by Syncrosoft is not included in the box
of any Collection, it is available as a separate item. Users will need
one ViennaKey for every computer they want to run a Vienna Instrument
on. Syncrosoft protection devices not issued by the Vienna Symphonic
Library (e.g., by Steinberg) can be used when they are updated via
downloading the latest Syncrosoft License Control Center from the
Syncrosoft website.

System Requirements

PC Intel/AMD 2 GHz (3++ GHz recommended) with Windows XP

or Apple G4 1 GHz (G5 recommended) with Mac OS X 10.4 or higher

• 1 GB RAM (2 GB recommended)
• VST (PC) or AU (Mac) compatible host, also works stand-alone on PC and Mac
• DVD drive for installation
• Fast separate harddrive
• 88 key master keyboard (highly recommended)
• ViennaKey (Vienna Symphonic Library USB Protection Device)

RTAS and Intel Mac compatibility later this year

More information is available at the Vienna site.