Garritan aria version 4

[Jeremy Cummings]

Has anyone used the new version of Garritan yet? I know it's only $49 for the upgrade, but I was wondering how it differed from the second version. I use EWQLSO Plat and I really liked the Gofriller Cello Garritan came out with a while back and I see it is included now, is it the same or did they dumb it down or what? I'm just looking for something simple to use so I don't have to drive to the studio every time I have an idea.

Cheers

[Jeremy Cummings]

Really, I thought they have it posted on the Garritan website that they included both stringed instruments in the GPO4, I hope that it is the same thing.

[Jeremy Cummings]

New versions of the Strad and Gofriller are supposed to be included in GOS 2, along with some additional solo strings, similarly programmed. No word for now on when that's supposed to come out (soon, I hope!)

The solo strings in GPO 4 are basically the same ones as in previous versions of GPO, only reprogrammed for the Aria player.
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Dan Powers

This is what I got off of the Garritan forum. Oh well, I may still get it so I can have a cheap setup, but now I know not to get my hopes up.

[Chris Rodier]

I'd like to invest in a garratan product but I don't know how they work really, do they have any demos I can try? I've been using Finale Notepad for a few years, but the garritan sounds are much better, and Finale limits My staves ='(

Any help in this dept.?

[Jeremy Cummings]

Chris Rodier said:

I'd like to invest in a garratan product but I don't know how they work really, do they have any demos I can try? I've been using Finale Notepad for a few years, but the garritan sounds are much better, and Finale limits My staves ='(

Any help in this dept.?

Well Chris, I don't know how to answer that fully. There is a lot of info that you're probably missing that would help you get the gist. The first thing I would do is check out the garritan home page. GPO works like a plugin and is VST and AU compatable, but there is a program manager that would allow Finale to control the Aria software, but I don't know if Finale Notepad would do the same things as the full version of Finale, since I haven't used those in a while.

Other than that, if you're looking for a basic and cheap way to get orchestral sounds out of your computer, GPO is great, but it is by no means a professional orchestral sampled or modeled program (not that any of the expensive and great sounding orchestral plugins and programs out there should be called professional or related to as such, but if you were to take a group of plugins that did the job well, you would call these professional) , if you wanted to check out actual professional programs, I would check out Logic/Cubase/Protools, vienna symphonic library (VSL), some east west plugins and check out what people generally use for software and the demos those companies would have.

The most professional thing you could do, is get a simple setup to check your scores, like GPO with Finale or Sibelius. Just remember that GPO doesn't have everything and your final output will be going to a recording studio and hiring orchestral musicians. If you want to do it all on your computer, you'll need to get into software DAWs like Logic, Cubase or protools and get the appropriate endless vast libraries to keep up with new and decent samples or modeled sounds.

[Jeremiah Pena]

Finale Notepad won't work with GPO or any other VST instrument. Only Finale itself supports those.

Jeremy Cummings said:

Chris Rodier said:

I'd like to invest in a garratan product but I don't know how they work really, do they have any demos I can try? I've been using Finale Notepad for a few years, but the garritan sounds are much better, and Finale limits My staves ='(

Any help in this dept.?

Well Chris, I don't know how to answer that fully. There is a lot of info that you're probably missing that would help you get the gist. The first thing I would do is check out the garritan home page. GPO works like a plugin and is VST and AU compatable, but there is a program manager that would allow Finale to control the Aria software, but I don't know if Finale Notepad would do the same things as the full version of Finale, since I haven't used those in a while.

Other than that, if you're looking for a basic and cheap way to get orchestral sounds out of your computer, GPO is great, but it is by no means a professional orchestral sampled or modeled program (not that any of the expensive and great sounding orchestral plugins and programs out there should be called professional or related to as such, but if you were to take a group of plugins that did the job well, you would call these professional) , if you wanted to check out actual professional programs, I would check out Logic/Cubase/Protools, vienna symphonic library (VSL), some east west plugins and check out what people generally use for software and the demos those companies would have.

The most professional thing you could do, is get a simple setup to check your scores, like GPO with Finale or Sibelius. Just remember that GPO doesn't have everything and your final output will be going to a recording studio and hiring orchestral musicians. If you want to do it all on your computer, you'll need to get into software DAWs like Logic, Cubase or protools and get the appropriate endless vast libraries to keep up with new and decent samples or modeled sounds.

[August Champlin]

I upgraded to GPO4. It does not have the Gofriller Cello or Stradivari Violin that you seek (I have these as well, and they are incomparably better than the solo samples included in GPO4). However, it has samples based on a Strad and Gofriller, just as GPO1-3 did. These are not of the same caliber as the solo instruments. For one, they're much smaller samples. For another, they're not nearly as well programed. The good news is that the GPO4 does represent a real advance over GPO1-3, mainly due to the successful design of the playback engine Aria. The samples sound better and different, surprisingly, although still based on the same original sample set.

[Simon Godden]

August. I've just bought Finale 2010. Will that have GPO 3 or 4 in? I'm excited now. I'd better check. Sorry

August Champlin said:

I upgraded to GPO4. It does not have the Gofriller Cello or Stradivari Violin that you seek (I have these as well, and they are incomparably better than the solo samples included in GPO4). However, it has samples based on a Strad and Gofriller, just as GPO1-3 did. These are not of the same caliber as the solo instruments. For one, they're much smaller samples. For another, they're not nearly as well programed. The good news is that the GPO4 does represent a real advance over GPO1-3, mainly due to the successful design of the playback engine Aria. The samples sound better and different, surprisingly, although still based on the same original sample set.

[Jeremy Cummings]

Ok, well to sum up. I have the old version and I bought the new one. Both of them pretty much are unusable for anything professional or semi professional. They are mostly good for just basic outlines of a score, but IMO I am mostly excited about what WIVI is doing. Unfortunately they are marketing to a higher end user, but their engine is superb and very untaxing. Right now they only have select brass and woods, but they are planning on getting a string library together. This with a decent drum sample library will fit the bill for both ease of use and reliability.

When I use my EWQLSO Platinum, I always run into lack of memory and processor. Eventually I would like to get a multiple machine set, but I'm really liking what the VSL is doing with their ethernet abilities. For now, it is a complicated process to use the ESQLSO the right way. I would just love to have all the samples at my fingertips without having all the glitches with the lack of system resources. I am looking to upgrade to a dual quad core i7 or just throw everything on the mac, but for right now, my mac and pc are the same speed, even though the mac is more stable.

This brings me back to the WIVI, their engine is based off of reverse sampling, using sine waves to generate sub samples and sample nuances. It is a good idea, but again something to invest in. I would have done it by now if they had strings and were more affordable, but they are the ultimate goal in the sample field.

Anyway, to wrap up, Garritan is great for a basic sample set, if you don't want a final product ever coming from it. It is good for classrooms and for basic scoring, but if you want to get into complex production scoring with the end result coming from the computer, I wouldn't look into Garritan.