Garritan Personal Orchestra

[fastlanephil]

I'm looking at the Garritan Personal Orchestra and i'm not sure whether it will operate in Metro 6. Is this just a library of samples or a application that I can use in Metro 6. I don't see any screen shots of a application, just mp3 demos. They say it can be used as a OSX audio unit plug-in but i'm not real sure. The site is http://www.garritan.com/

[Scoot]

It does sound like a similar thing to absynth or sampletank.

They must have designed the plugin to load the samples into VST and AU capable programs or you can put them into the supplied Kontakt.

One interesting thing is on the native instruments site, Kontakt has a price of $449US...........maybe with it's own range of samples?

Maybe the Garritan version is the basic shell.


You can always email the company to find out more.

scoot.

[Jerm]

The OS X version of Kontakt still has problems with Metro. The samples from the library should be usable in other samplers but I do not know. The manufacturer was supposed to send me a copy of the orchestra samples months ago and I still have not received them.

[fastlanephil]

Jerm,
I emailed them about the problem with your lack of product to test with. Maybe they will send the necessary samples to you now. They are kind of in my neck of the woods being at the other end of Puget Sound. Orcas island is another tourist trap like Victoria B.C. but it has a small tech industry. Spot a whale, eat food that is bad for you and pay too much for everything.

[fastlanephil]

I recieved a email from Gary Garritan 3/15/04. He said he needs Jerm's address so he can send the materials. His email is gary@harps.com.

[Jerm]

I received a copy of Garritan's orchestra today. Very nice orchestra sounds.

The good news is that it does work with Metro 6. I did experience one plug-in related crash in over an hour of working with it. The library uses the Kontakt player which is a derivative of NI's Kontakt sampler plug-in. I have been using the AU version.

The bad news is the sounds are not in a standard format so you have to use the bundled Kontakt player as far as I can see. Also modulation (CC-1) is routed to volume so if you don't have modulation recorded in your track most sounds will automatically get muted when modulation gets reset. They mention this on almost every page of the manual (slight exaggeration). I don't know why they wouldn't simply use volume (CC-7) or expression (CC-11) for volume since that is what the standard calls for. Also it seems like the player has some mammoth memory requirements. I cannot even load the Steinway piano without a warning message coming up saying that I am out of memory and artefacts may occur. This is on my 667 MHZ 512 MB G4 tiBook which does not meet the minimum system requirements so perhaps I should try it on a different machine. A 1.6 gHZ G4 is recommended!

While this is a great sounding library, I cannot recommend it over other much more usable plug-ins such as Sampletank 2.

[fastlanephil]

I checked out Sampletank 2 and it's videos and it is the killer plugin isn't it. I was very impressed by the GPO sound quality but Sampletank 2 is probably the more logical choice just as the Proteus 2000 was over the EMU orchestral module. Maybe i'll start with Sampletank and add GPO later. Garritan recommended a 1.6 GHZ G4 or was that a G5?

Proteus 2000 for sale.

PS.

I'm upgrading from cable internet to pure 100 Mbps fiber optics. Our rural PUD is laying the backbone and we have the choice of about five local isps that start at $35.95 per month. Cool, huh?

[Jerm]

Make sure you get the 2.0.5 upgrade if you do buy Sampletank.

[frankvg]

Is metro SE suitable for GPO? I am trying the demo but I got a bit lost.

*Since there can only be 1 synth plug-in, does that mean I can only use 1 kontakt player (8 instruments)?

*Does it therefore mean I won't be able to use a full orchestra?

thanks,
Frank

[Scoot]

I don't know how GPO works, so I couldn't comment. I think sampletank will allow 16 instruments under SE so that would be enough for an arrangement, as well as being able to play a couple of audio tracks.

GPO may not be 100% stable yet.

Another suggestion is to grab a complete soundfont of instruments.


scoot.

[Jerm]

Frank,

You are quite correct. Metro SE before version 6.2 only allows 1 soft-synth instance and since the kontakt player only supports 8 channels that is all you will be able to use.

However, as of 6.2 (out this week as a pre-release with an introductory upgrade sale price of $14.99) you will be able to have 8 audio tracks and 8 effects or 2 soft-synth instances bringing the total of GPO channels to 16 in SE and even more if you elect to use LX.

While the kontakt player does seem to be stable in Metro 6 we have not done extensive testing on it. It is the full version of Kontakt that definitely still has problems.

[fastlanephil]

I bought GPO and notice a little latency with the piano. I'm not sure if a G5(iMac?) would help or it is just a sampling trait. I also picked up a M-Audio Radium keyboard as you need the mod wheel for velocity except for the pianos. My biggest problem is trying to register with Native Instruments. I tried Safari, Navigator 7.2 and IE 5.2 and just get an error. I tried to print out a registration form to send and found out Airport Express Assistant won't work with an external HD. And I just got My iBook out of the shop after waiting five weeks for a screen replacement for white spots. I'm probably a glutten for frustration but it does work fine in Metro 6.2. though it dosen't recognize my keyboard as a stand alone application.

[Jerm]

Phil,

The latency can be significantly reduced by reducing the audio packet size in the core audio dialog. However this will have an impact on the number of tracks you can playback so you may need to change it often.

[fastlanephil]

That helped a lot. My Yamaha Clavinova still sounds much better than the sampled Steinway. I'll see how they record and maybe use both layered for a fuller sound. Got my printing problem staightened out. User error.

[fastlanephil]

There is a HUGE difference in CPU usage using dry vs wet instruments with GPO in Kontakt. The full organ uses 4% with four keys pressed dry and about 25% wet. Good thing I have a nanoverb.