In our first video review, we look at the ADK Pro Audio Vienna Instruments System, the Vienna Instruments, the Vienna Ensemble 3, and finally, the Vienna Suite. The purpose of these videos is not only to review the ADK Vienna Instrument system, but to also teach you what you need to know about digital audio workstations, and the differences between a custom system and a “store bought” system.

ABOUT ADK PRO AUDIO
ADK (Advanced Design Kentucky) is a privately held company located just outside of Cincinnati, OH. Founded in 1998, the company has established itself as a leading developer of computer workstations for both digital audio and video. The company is also an authorized Macintosh reseller and so is able to offer professionals complete production studios on either or both platforms.

Read about ADK Pro Audio’s system building and warranty plans.

The ADK Client List

THE VIENNA INSTRUMENTS
The Vienna Instruments are high quality 24-bit orchestral samples for each orchestral instrument housed in the proprietary Vienna Player. With the Vienna Instrument, there is only one learning curve because once you’ve learned it, it works the same for all the other instruments in the family. Click the picture once for a larger view of the Vienna Player.

The Vienna Instruments cover all the instruments of the orchestra along with additional libraries like the Appassionata Strings 1 and 2, Special Brass, Special Woodwinds, Soprano voices, Saxophones and others.

You can read about them here.

The Vienna Ensemble
The Vienna Ensemble is a proprietary virtual mixing board designed today for the Vienna Instruments. On the ADK Vienna System, the Vienna Ensemble 3 has been installed. With the VE3, you can stream both audio and MIDI from the Vienna System into your main digital audio workstation, whether Mac or PC. Sometime in 2009, Vienna has announced that the Vienna Ensemble 3 will also work with virtual instruments from other companies. Click on the picture once to bring it to full size. Click a second time for an expanded detailed view.

The Vienna Suite
The Vienna Suite is more aptly named the Vienna Effects Suite because it comes with eight high quality plug-ins that can be used on either the Mac or PC. In 2009, a ninth plug-in will be added, Reverb. Once the ADK Vienna System is setup and running, we’ll add the Vienna Effects Suite to both the Vienna System and our Mac System using Logic 8 since the Vienna Suite will work with any sequencing or digital audio program on the Mac and PC. Click on the picture once to bring it to full size. Click a second time for an expanded detailed view.

Vienna Suite currently includes eight plug-ins:

Equalizer – for silky smooth highs and deep and powerful lows – includes an integrated 120 band spectrum analyzer. Extremely low CPU usage.

Master Equalizer – provides 3 filter types on 5 bands and additional high and low shelf filters with 2 filter types. The use of 4x oversampling makes internal calculations extremely precise. The weapon of choice for delicate sonic mastering tasks.

Limiter – with real-time input/output waveform display and auto-mode for transparent maximization.

Compressor – featuring modern and vintage algorithms and a real-time input/output waveform display.

Multiband Limiter – offering 4 bands with transparent crossover filters and an additional full-range brickwall limiter at the final output stage.

PowerPan – for powerful stage positioning of instruments, featuring real-time audio angular analysis.

Exciter – offering 4x oversampling, tone-color sliders for mixing odd and even harmonics, and a high frequency FFT spectrum analyzer.

Analyzer – featuring a 120 band analog modeled spectrum analyzer, a fast and accurate display of bass frequencies, an auto mode for automatic range management, and a loudest frequency note display.