I posted the following on a string last week concerning VDL 2 and Giga Studio. I think that the more i think about it i'm ready to give up on giga and go to Kontakt. Tell me what you think:


Jim--i think i'm putting this together in my head. so what you are saying is that purchasing Kontakt Sampler would the easiest option right?

and when i have that......from what you said sounds like i would run kontakt sampler and then run VDL2 (as a plug-in VSTi to kontakt??). Is this correct? Sooooo........ for a marching band score i could put my wind instruments (from a giga library) into slots 1- 10. with the remaing 6 slots in Kontakt i could load the VDL2 keyboard sounds (i.e. 4 marimbas and 2 vibes). then, running VDL2 as a plug-in, i would use slots 1-4 for snare, tenor, bass, cymbals, and still have slots 5-8 available for any other various instruments like, bells, xylo, cymbals, gongs, impact drums etc etc. the VDL2 description says that the sounds will load into kontakt sampler so this should work right? would look something like this:

KONTAKT SAMPLER:
1. flute (giga library)
2. clarinet (giga library)
3. alto (giga library)
4. tenor (giga library)
5. B. Clar. (giga library)
6. Horn (giga library)
7. Trump. (giga library)
8. trombone (giga library)
9. baritone (giga library)
10. tuba (giga library)

11. mar (VDL2 Sound)
12. mar(VDL2 Sound)
13. mar (VDL2 Sound)
14. mar (VDL2 Sound)
15. vibe (VDL2 Sound)
16. vibe (VDL2 Sound)

VDL2 (as plug-in)
1. snare
2. tenor
3. bass
4. cymbal
5. aux
6. aux
7. aux
8. aux

THEN--for a concert band score where more wind instruments are used and and obviously no battery necessary, i could simply use all 16 in kontakt for winds and all 8 in VDL2 for percussion.

THEN--for a concert percussion ensemble I could simply load VDL2 sounds into the 16 slots of kontakt

I also have komPAKT sampler that could probably be of some use somehow in all of this, but I won't try to think about that just yet!

AND.....if it matters.......i'm doing all of this on a MusicXPC S2 with Sibelius 3
Am I barking up the right tree with these scenarios?

Unfortunately, VDL:2 sounds will only load into Kontakt.

thanks Jim--that really clears some things up.

In the VDL 2 description it says:

"All VDL2 instruments can also be used in KONTAKT��, Native Instruments�۪ flagship sampler program."

Can they be used in KomPAKT as well? it's not that i don't want to buy KonTAKT, but i already have KomPAKT and GS3! i think i can make your suggestions work with KomPAKT if it will load VDL 2 sounds.

are we gonna see ya in san antonio for TMEA this year?

thanks for all your help

Chris,

Let me see if I can follow correctly and offer what may be a good method of attack for you. First off, having KONTAKT certainly wouldn't be a bad idea. It's a great sampler. Giga is also great, but you should note up front that Giga and Kontakt are quite different from one another, and both have some strengths that you may be able to benefit from.

Assuming you did have Kontakt, here's what I might suggest. Note - you'll need a good heap of RAM for this.

Run everything from within a VST "host" program (i.e. Bidule or V-Stack). Within that program, you'll run all instances of either VDL2 or Kontakt as a plug-in. The output would then all route to your main output so you'd hear all voices play back together.

KONTAKT INSTANCE #1 (run as plug-in in host program, routed to virtual midi port #1):
1. flute (giga library)
2. clarinet (giga library)
3. alto (giga library)
4. tenor (giga library)
5. B. Clar. (giga library)
6. Horn (giga library)
7. Trump. (giga library)
8. trombone (giga library)
9. baritone (giga library)
10. tuba (giga library)

VDL2 INSTANCE #1 (as plug-in, routed to virtual midi port #2):
1. snare line
2. tenor line
3. bass line
4. cymbal line 18" stadium
5. 20" suspended constantinople
6. aux
7. aux
8. aux

VDL2 INSTANCE #2 (as plug-in, routed to virtual midi port #3):
1. mar medium mallet rosewood
2. mar soft mallet synthetic
3. mar soft mallet rosewood
4. mar hard mallet synthetic
5. vibe medium mallet
6. vibe soft mallet
7. timpani hard mallet
8. aux

Basically, since the above layout is a scenario where you'd obviously need MORE than 16 channels at once, running in the host program would be ideal. If you were working on a smaller project and needed less than 16 channels, it would be fine to simply run KONTAKT in "stand-alone" mode (no host program), and just load the sounds in there.

KOMPakt would also be perfectly useable in the above scenarios. In fact, the library that comes with Kompakt is great for brass and WW stuff. Just as you can load Kontakt or VDL2 as a plugin, you can do that with KOMPakt as well. While this may seem a little confusing up front, it's great to have the option to run these programs in standalone or plug-in mode. It ultimately give you a lot of options depending on your needs or your setup.

I've never used a MusicXPC S2, but it sure seems like a slick machine. I think you'd be able to accomplish all of this.

Hope this helps!