Recently, I finally picked up several of the sound collections from the Vienna Symphonic Library. Each collection of sounds comes with an installation set-up that easily allows that particular collection to be used within the Vienna Virtual Instrument itself. The instrument interface is pretty nifty looking and great to use, and it can be used as stand-alone, or within a VST host music software program. In my case, I run the Vienna instrument within my Nuendo music software on my desktop PC.
These are some of the best and most "real" symphonic sound samples that I have ever used in the recording of my compositions. The varied harp collection sounds extremely "stringy" and "plucky", and most of the harps have a very pleasant tone to them-aggressive, without being too in your face. No plastic or toy-like sounding plucks here! Also, I found that the Orchestral Strings Vol. 1-Violins and Violas, especially in their section forms, are amazingly natural and intuitive sounding. Furthermore, the wind sections and solo winds from the Woodwinds 1 collection, especially the flutes and clarinets, have great articulations and "realistic" stuff happening between each note right out of the box-like someone is actually playing these instruments and slurring them together via the nuances of embouchure. 
In fact, each of the three collections I bought have particular instrument "noises" and "peculiarities" that make the performances that much more real sounding, and they often happen between the notes. Sometimes I have found that many of these "realistic" sounds, such as the clicking of the keys on an oboe, can make things tricky in the mixing and/or mastering. So, be careful how you E.Q. your instruments and how much verb, or what kind of verb you bathe them in. Note that those factors can amplify the peculiar sounds in an unpleasant way.
Each collection from the Vienna Symphonic Cube can be bought separately, or as part of the whole cube. My advice, when buying individual collections, is to spring a little extra dough and get the FULL Library, which comes with the complete set of articulations and single note instances for each instrument in the collection. VSL sounds can be heard and bought from Ilio at: www.ilio.com. The VSL company site is here : www.vsl.co.at.
Each collection from the Vienna Symphonic Cube can be bought separately, or as part of the whole cube. My advice, when buying individual collections, is to spring a little extra dough and get the FULL Library, which comes with the complete set of articulations and single note instances for each instrument in the collection. VSL sounds can be heard and bought from Ilio at: www.ilio.com. The VSL company site is here : www.vsl.co.at.
