EWQL Symphonic Library or VSL Vienna Instruments SE?

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Filmkid2003

Well-known member
Hey everyone. I am getting ready to score my short film and I am going to buy a virtual instruments program and I have narrowed it down to either East West's Quantum Library Symphonic Library or VSL's Virtual Instruments Special Edition Plus bundle package. My question is, does anyone have any experience using either software? I hear both are great so, I'm not going to ask which one is "better" because I've listened to the demos on both of their websites and they both sound very close in terms of realism. For now, I am leaning towards EWQL's Symphonic Library because I like the sound of the string instruments a little better than VSL's and also, because I've read that its easier to play right out of the box, where as with VSL's Virtual Instruments you have to do quite a bit of tweaking to get a realistic violin sound. Also, EWQL is having a "buy one, get one free" sale.

My only concern with getting the EWQL Symphonic Library is that you have to use their VI interface called "PLAY" and I've read on a few forums, mainly from the year 2008, that PLAY is extremely "buggy". Does anyone know if the 2011 version of PLAY is still buggy? My system is an Intel quad core 2.3GHz system with three 7200 rpm 2TB hard drives, 8Gb of RAM, Presonus Firestudio Mobile audio interface, and Windows Vista 64bit with Cubase 6. I'm hoping this setup will be powerful enough to run either program without any hiccups.

Anyone?
 
Hey there,

The first thing I'd say is, both require time and expertise to use well, and the far more important thing on creating a realistic violin sound is not the software but the user's musical & technical expertise. The idea of buying one of these packages just to score a film is pretty weird to me. I mean, maybe you're a great musician with experience with music production but you just haven't invested in orchestral emulation software before, in which case you'll be fine. If not, I'd say take up one of the aspiring film composers around here on their offers to help out.

With that out of the way, I use both EWQL and VSL, but strongly prefer VSL for realism and expressivity. EWQL is indeed easier to use out of the box, but in my opinion that's because it doesn't have the flexibility and more depth that is possible with VSL. So it's a tradeoff. If you just want to get going quickly, go with EWQL.

As for bugginess, you should browse the web for the particular combination of OS & DAW with both software packages to find other people's experience. There's many factors. I used to use Sonar on Windows XP, with EW's Play running on the same machine, and it was a nightmare. Constant trouble. When Play became compatible with VSL's VEPro, I moved Play off onto a Mac slave and it worked fine. Late last year I switched my DAW to a MacPro running Digital Performer, and now use Play on the same machine. For the most part it works, but I get the rare glitch with stuck notes or something. The downside of Play on a Mac is it only runs 32-bit, but that's not a problem for me as most of my orchestral template is in VSL. If you were doing a big orchestra in Play, going 64-bit on a PC would be necessary.
 
Sorry, I got off track at the end there... :) Yes, your system should be able to run a decent setup of either package. But you do know they're just plug-ins, not stand alone programs you can record the music in, right?
 
Yeah, make sure that you will be able to run these plugs with your hardware and whatever software you are currently using; a lot of these audio/video and music programs don't "like " each other, and the more you load on, the more potential for problems. If your computer is already maxxed-out with software and a lot of file storage, you might have issues.

If you have problems based on incompatibilities (which shouldn't be caused by simple plugs, but if it's major software-to-software problems), you could add an external drive such as the Glyph and move some to it; doesn't seem to be a problem running audio or video programs directly from the external drive, which leaves your computer's hd relatively free and un-messed with...

GJ
 
Thank you both for your quick and in-depth replies. I greatly appreciate it. As for being a musician and knowing how to compose a melodic score, I do have experience with this. I learned how to play guitar at age 19 and after three months of taking guitar lessons, I wanted to learn how to play "Panama" by Van Halen so, my teacher wrote down the tablature (yes, I know that is spelled wrong) for the beginning riff and also for the lead. Well, after going home and listening to "Panama" and playing what he wrote down, I discovered that he wrote down a couple of wrong notes so, I erased that part and wrote what I knew to be the correct notes that my own ear had heard. My teacher saw that I had "corrected" him and screamed at me for it. That's when I realized I was better off learning on my own so, I did. I taught myself how to play keyboard and a few years later, after filming a super low budget full length horror film, I composed and recorded my own film score using Cubase, an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar, and the orchestral instruments on my Roland XP-30 keyboard. I now want to move on to using a professional symphonic instrument library instead of the "built in" instruments in my keyboard.

That being said, I have read that the learning curve on the VSL Vienna Instruments Special Edition is much higher than the EWQL Symphonic Library. While I don't mind teaching myself how to use a program, I would rather just be able to learn the basics, compose a song, and tweak it a bit. Maybe its just me but, to my ear, the EWQL Symphonic strings seem more dynamic than the VSL strings although, I haven't really listened to the Apasionetta Strings demos yet.

I also plan on getting the EWQL Choir, VOP, Ra, and Hollywood Strings sets as well since they are running a "buy one get one free" special right now. I just hope my computer setup can handle it all.

By the way, I would be buying the EWQL Platinum Symphonic Library since it gives you 3 different mic positions as opposed to just one or two. Do you think the Platinum edition holds up well against the VSL Vienna Instruments SE?
 
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