I have about 5TB of Kontakt libraries, from over the past ten years on the sister site. I had never heard of VSL until the week or so ago when their stuff started being released on the sister site - are they better than Kontakt libraries? I have all the Native Instruments libraries and about 500 others, should I be thinking about getting rid of all my Kontakt orchestral libraries and using VSL instead? (I use Pianoteq 9 for all my piano sounds and don't think I need anything else for pianos.)

 

Last edited: Dec 1, 2025 at 7:40 PM

You have a complete NI collection and 500 additional Kontakt libraries. Does it really matter if the VSL ones are better, or are you just looking for the next thing to hoard and never actually use?

Honest/serious question, not meant to be mean - even if it sounds that way.

 

Normal to question getting something else that is huge when you already have something that is huge.
There are a lot of large packages out there orchestrally. BBSO Pro, OPUS/Fantasy collections, VSL, KONTAKT, UVI...
Everyone seeks the one-size-fits-all. It does not exist. each one does something the other does not.

As for whether that validates having more than one or all of them, I cannot answer that, but none of them have perfect renditions of every nuance, every articulation, every possible phrase and use for every individual instrument and ensemble section, in every possible scenario. Some have different areas they excel in and it comes down to personal preference. If you mix and match regularly then that answer may or may not be yes. If you only like to ever use one library then the answer might be that one of them will only take up space. Only you know the answer to that.

 

Last edited: Dec 1, 2025 at 8:04 PM

I'm really asking - is it worth my time and effort, downloading the VSL libraries, if they are believed to be 'better' (which I know is subjective) than the Kontakt libraries. Yes, I have too many Kontakt libraries and I have only now got time to use them (because I was working so much before), and I am going through them and deleting as much as I can. I want to get them all onto about 3TB of space on a 4TB M.2 SSD I have, I think I will just stay with Kontakt, as I know what I'm doing, and I think I have more than enough to keep me going for the rest of my life.

 

The sound itself aside, an advantage to library's like VSL is that it is a unified system. Your brass works like your woodwinds works like your first strings works like your percussion, etc and.... the biggist of biggies imo, said system design wasn't forced into whatever NI exposed for them to create the interface. I'd probably keep whittling down your libraries until you're satisfied. Interface aside, it still comes down to sound. Then you can compare your chosen kontakt libraries directly to see if VSL offers something for ya.

e: But for flat out opinion, yes I would use VSL over most Kontakt libraries purely on sound alone.

 

Last edited: Dec 1, 2025 at 8:43 PM

Kontakt is actually the best player out there(capabilities)- I don't say vienna is bad, and probably you already have the best of the best libraries worth 2000$ a set ... see which are critical ones, just learn to use them and enjoy. (pro tip ... a bad arrangement sounds bad, even if played by San Francisco philharmonic orchestra)

 

VSL is something a bit extra. I never dreamed of doing what vsl can do with kontakt as far as orchestra is concerned.. i personally dumped a lot of kontakt string and horn stuff. most if not all of it is on rutracker. falcon, kontakt , Vsl, Three body, Kong, Nexus all can be mixed and layered.

 

Since you already should have Symphobia 1–4, and every orchestral library from Cinesamples, Cinematic Studio, BBC Symphony Orchestra Professional and of course the stuff from Audio Imperia, I see no point in acquiring VSL.

and

 

Open the control menu and click the '+' button on the bottom left if you have not already. It is a rare thing to see a developer give anyone that much control. Oh, and have fun with it....

 

I'm going to hijack the thread and ask somewhat related question for those who have used VSL.

Can you delete things from a library you don't need or use? Mostly curious about deleting microphone positions because I'll never be using even half of them. Also would be nice to know if you can delete entire instruments too and have everything else working properly or is it all or nothing kind of deal.

This is the main thing that keeps me on the fence about trying VSL. Some of the libraries are pretty huge and if I can't trim and remove all the things I don't need from them, then I don't think I'm even going to bother with it since I'm also pretty much set for everything I need with Kontakt.

Spoiler: Rant

I tried searching Google and the "AI" result said "Yes, you can delete mic positions" and then listed Orchestral Tools support page as the source.
I cannot overstate how much I hate Google, how useless and stupid it has become in the last 10 years, and how difficult and sometimes impossible it is now to find anything using it. But this "AI" is the lowest point of the stupidity. I hate "AI" so much.

 

The only advantage I see is the better microtuning options, which is good since acoustic instruments are not strictly in 12 equal and many can play it outside it easily (Kontakt is limited to 12-notes scales or scripts that are bugged and sometimes don't work at all or cannot be loaded in locked libraries). In modern orchestral works 1/6th tones or 1/4th tones are often found, VSL seems to support scales up to 1/6th tones (36 equal). Many real composers use VSL for this in sheet music notation editors.

 

Synchron, it's only one section of several that I mentioned. The number of options are quite incredible.

 

What I've learned recently with all the recent releases is that there's always the next better thing, but really even the free stuff sounds impressive in the right hands. I was working on a track that uses Tokyo Scoring Strings, and I almost gave in to FOMO with the VSL stuff, but I decided to stick to it. Not only the sound, but the feature set is incredible compared to most libraries out there. I've been thinking a lot about this stuff lately, but the best libraries do not only have a great sound, but they also make working faster and easier.

 

Here goes my "budget opinion":

The philosophy of the two “schools” is different:

Technical realism: VSL = realistic classical libraries, due to their consistency and meticulous construction.
Musical expressiveness: Kontakt libraries = better suited for multimedia, thanks to performance focused on more emotional registers, deliberately “masking” technological aspects.

Kontakt libs (Spitfire/CSS/Cinesamples/8Dio/NI) are more oriented toward dramatic flair, “performative” timbres, using samples with plenty of air, hall, tail, and coloration.
Vienna Symphonic Libs, on the other hand, is geared toward classical recordings that are clear, clean, and controlled. Its timbre is more neutral, legato is mathematically precise, with systematically arranged articulations and it is widely used by classical composers who require hyper-realistic mockups.

So, as I understand it, listening to different mockups: VSL excels in technical realism. However, if the goal is expressiveness and dramatic impact, Kontakt libraries stand out, since their focus is not on producing sterile samples but rather on embedding a strong sense of performance.

In short, both engines are “the cherry on top,” but in different categories…

 

Better is subjective to the target material. VSL is reputable, just like SpitFire Audio, Orchestral Tools, CineSamples, and many others.

VSL is known for more "sterile" sounding libraries, which is not a bad thing. Just listen to their demos.

I use both, and I prefer the "sound" of Kontakt libraries, but prefer the articulation and stage management of VSL Kontakt is provides access to 3rd party development, which enriches the variety of available sounds, so it ultimately wins the majority userbase. I would not lose any sleep if I didn't have VSL libraries. In fact, if I would start from the beginning, I would just use EastWest composer cloud and supplement specific needs with niche Kontakt libraries. My favorite (orchestral) libraries for Kontakt are Spitfire SSO and Albion One. Together they cover a lot of ground. I alrady get the studio sound for Hollywood Orchestra.

 

i compared my "previously-goto" Spitfire string libraries to the VSL's i aquired in the past few days. needless to say, all the spitfire libs went to the recycle bin very quick.

 

The correct answer is buy more storage. Being a collector is way more fun than being a musician, right?

 

I am in the process of going through all of the 900 Kontakt libraries I have accumulated over the past ten years or so. I have already deleted all the 8Dio ones, now I am on Audio Imperia libraries, I am keeping all of them, as they sound great.




Edit - all the below has probably been fixed, so please ignore.

One question - I am using Kontakt Portable 8.7.1 vkDanilov - and some of the Audio Imperia libraries don't appear in my Libraries tab (as well as lots of the others) - do I have to keep the original installation files in order to reinstall the ones that don't work? For example, my Audio Imperia Chorus folder contains:
/Documentation
/Instruments
/Multis
/Samples
/Syllable Presets
Chorus.nicnt

If I use the Kontakt 'Files' tab, and double click on one of the .nki files in the Instruments folder, it says "This instrument belongs to a library that is not installed currently!".
I installed some of these libraries several years ago (Chorus I installed in 2023), so I hope I don't have to find the original installation files (which I no longer have on my hard drive) and reinstall a lot of them. Or should they just work, because I've installed them in the past, and all the required files should be in each folder?

Edit: I've used the Kontakt Portable Library Manager, and manually added the library, and it worked - but I wonder why the manager missed out so many libraries when I initially made it scan the parent Kontakt Library folder, which contains all my Kontakt libraries. Maybe some of the libraries' .ncint files weren't in the root folder of the library name, I know a lot extracted into two or three folders within the original folder name. I will investigate that.

 

Last edited: Dec 3, 2025 at 9:09 PM