VSCO2 and free orchestra samples

[Paul Battersby]

This just became available today:

Versilian Chamber Orchestra 2 (VSCO2)

There are a few library variations at different prices including access to 1.9GB of FREE orchestra samples that can be used to construct your own orchestra.

[Samulis]

The Community Edition is "open season" for freeware developers too.

[kmlandre]

Congrats Sam!   Glad this has finally seen the light of day!  :-)


Kurt

[Mattias Westlund]

Awesome! Congrats on the release Samulis!

[Samulis]

(06-30-2016, 08:09 AM)kmlandre Wrote: Congrats Sam!   Glad this has finally seen the light of day!  :-)


Kurt

(06-30-2016, 08:41 AM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: Awesome! Congrats on the release Samulis!

Thanks Kurt, Mattias.

I'm hoping the Community Edition will help bring some fresh samples into the mix of freeware out there. I hear already that Bigcat is working on a Kontakt version of it!

[Mattias Westlund]

Samulis: browsing through the samples I noticed that some are 24 bit while others are 16 bit. I understand that library size is a consideration, but wouldn't it have been better to keep everything at 24 bit considering that some of the V1 layers are extremely soft and would probably not take well to normalization?

Sorry for the nitpicking though, just curious! This is an awsome release and I've started creating TX mappings for it

[Samulis]

(06-30-2016, 06:12 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: Samulis: browsing through the samples I noticed that some are 24 bit while others are 16 bit. I understand that library size is a consideration, but wouldn't it have been better to keep everything at 24 bit considering that some of the V1 layers are extremely soft and would probably not take well to normalization?

Sorry for the nitpicking though, just curious! This is an awsome release and I've started creating TX mappings for it

I understand your concern, however 24 bit is pretty much unnecessary with properly dithered 16-bit, which we have done to the extent possible. In addition, the natural noise floor of the recording spaces is almost always considerably higher than the 16-bit noise floor, even after careful noise reduction (especially because I had to record in everything from apartments to classrooms, all in the heart of the city, plus a large auditorium with incredibly loud air conditioning). I very much doubt that any library that totes 24-bit samples actually takes ANY advantage of that extra fidelity, particularly EWQL, which has often quite noisy samples, and Spitfire, which records on tape, which has a maximum equivalent noise ratio of about 14-bit, if I recall correctly.

Keep me posted on the mappings! I hope they come out well.

[Mattias Westlund]

(06-30-2016, 07:51 PM)Samulis Wrote: I understand your concern, however 24 bit is pretty much unnecessary with properly dithered 16-bit, which we have done to the extent possible. In addition, the natural noise floor of the recording spaces is almost always considerably higher than the 16-bit noise floor, even after careful noise reduction (especially because I had to record in everything from apartments to classrooms, all in the heart of the city, plus a large auditorium with incredibly loud air conditioning). I very much doubt that any library that totes 24-bit samples actually takes ANY advantage of that extra fidelity, particularly EWQL, which has often quite noisy samples, and Spitfire, which records on tape, which has a maximum equivalent noise ratio of about 14-bit, if I recall correctly.

Ah! Well I should have mentioned that I haven't normalized anything, I just felt a bit concerned when I noticed some samples were 16 bit yet had barely discernible waveforms. So far I've only boosted the V1 layers a bit in TX16Wx to make the range between V1 and V2 less dramatic, but I have not noticed any problems. I should have known you were fully aware of this, sorry.

(06-30-2016, 07:51 PM)Samulis Wrote: Keep me posted on the mappings! I hope they come out well.

Thanks! I think I'm going to compose something using the CE samples and map stuff one bit at a time, when the need for a certain instrument or articulation arises.

[Mattias Westlund]

Quick and dirty first attempt, only using a small number of instruments.

[Samulis]

(07-01-2016, 03:47 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: Quick and dirty first attempt, only using a small number of instruments.

Wow, that sounds really nice! I almost feel unsafe putting so many samples in for free now, hahahaha. XD