Garritan Personal Orchestra

[fastlanephil]

Iv'e been reading the threads at the GPO site and they say that Native Instruments Kontakt player is half as efficient running OSX compared to XP. This problem is hopefully going to be corrected but i'll keep my fingers crossed as I couldn't even register online because of major errors( a bad sign). You can upgrade to the full Kontakt but i'm not sure if it's any better with this problem. There is a demo but you can only use a few samples that come with it. I hope with Apple's renewed interest in music making all developers will put a major effort into the Mac side of their products and not just a port to get by with.

[fastlanephil]

NI will be posting a free update to GPO and the player next monday. Gary Garritan mentioned several changes for both and fixes for the player.

[Scoot]

Do you think it will make it as efficent as the pc version?

[fastlanephil]

I don't see much difference in efficiency. The load menu is much better, much easier to control. It's just best to use the instruments dry and add effects.The wet instrument mode is just to processor hungry. I wasn't really impressed with the Steinway sample but it sounds very good on a track. You can't beat the price for quality orchestral sounds.

[fastlanephil]

The update was suppose to be more efficient but it looks like it's a buggy mess to me. People with all but the top of the line G5s are reporting snap,crackle, pop after loading so many instruments. I tried seven dry instruments and a string section before it went bad. I can't even load the session now because it crashes Metro. I have also run into a few other weird glitches . Native Instruments is probably testing it on a 2 ghz G5 with 4 GB of Ram and good luck to the rest of you. Several people with Macs have bought a cheap PC just for GPO but I bought this for personal pleasure not torture. Garritan suggests we revert back to the old version and he'll ask Native Instruments for(suggestions??). This really sucks and it borders on product misrepresentation.

We'll it could have been worse. One poor dude just bought a iMac G5 1.8 ghz 20" with 2 gigs of ram just for GPO and is getting very poor results. He's is not a happy man. Don't buy GPO unless you are willing to buy a new DP Powermac G5 or suffer with Windows.

[Scoot]

Could it be they have a PC man writing for the Mac?

[fastlanephil]

Yes. I think that is the problem. There doesn't seem to be much support for the Mac side of this product. I posted a thread asking how best to revert to the previous version because of NI's authorization process and no reply.
One poster suggested that you should get at least a 2.4 ghz Mac to be running up to speed with his PC. I think maybe it's a conspiracy to get you to use a PC or go broke buying Mac hardware. Reminds me of the GarageBand jive-here's some cheap software but to use it you'll need to break the bank. I'd have to rob one to buy a 2.5 GHZ DP G5 Powermac.

So my options are:

1. Wait for NI to recode the Kontakt player which is unlikely
2. Buy a cheap PC just for GPO like those other poor suckers. Maybe.
3. Rob a bank but I think it's all PC in Prison.
4. Ask for my money back which would probably require a few threats like contacting the state attorney generals office for defective product.
5. Sell it on Ebay and get Sampltank2. Bingo!

[Scoot]

There doesn't seem to be much support for the Mac side of this product.

Boy I think Jerm could relate to that a few years ago about a product called..........what was it again Jerm?

[Jerm]

Well, at least no one is saying we don't have good support now.

I love Sampletank II.

[fastlanephil]

I tried the stand-alone GPO player and it makes a pulsing buzz on the right channel with all the instruments dry or wet.

I guess i'll just reinstall from the GPO Cds and see what happens. I hope it won't mess up the authorization patch. You only get two and you can only authorize your system once.

I'm not sure whether to get Sampletank 2 XL or L. It looks like just more variations of the same samples in XL. Audiomidi.com has a sale on XL for $375 plus a free expansion pack of your choice for a limited time. L is $229.

[fastlanephil]

ordered Sampletank XL 2 and a free orch. string. set.

I finally got some tech support using NI's support forum but no real solutions. Gary Garritan posted that Panther caused Kontakt to diminish in CPU efficiency by 3X compared to Jaguar. Panther interferes with Kontakt's complex algorithms. He claims that Apples OSX system upgrades have raised havoc with audio developers in general. I haven't seen any posts any where that support that claim but i'm not a audio developer. I still think the problem is Kontakt specific.

I hope I too can fall in love with Sampletank 2 and it will heal my GPO broken heart.

[Jerm]

Gary Garritan posted that Panther caused Kontakt to diminish in CPU efficiency by 3X compared to Jaguar. Panther interferes with Kontakt's complex algorithms. He claims that Apples OSX system upgrades have raised havoc with audio developers in general.

I would love to see the proof in the form of an actual scientific study. Until then I would tend to agree with Phil. "Kontakt's complex algorithms" some of which are PC only I guess

[fastlanephil]

Over at the GPO support site Gary Garritan started a thread about the Mac mini. There were lots of replies and for the most part it was a civil dicussion but the concensus seemed to be that Apple was doomed- who cares.
He them posted a quite surprising statement that said he just ordered a Mac mini from Apple. Sounds good!

[fastlanephil]

I tried out some GPO strings vs ST2 on some tracks and after reinserting the ST2 strings they sounded like a heavy ocillation effect. Also the plug-in window went bad. To fix the problem I had to delete tracks and reinstall the string patches on a different part number. I'm not sure what fixed the plug-in window. I have read threads that say NI products have a reputation of not getting along with others. This looks like a possible example.

[Jerm]

The newly updated GPO seems to be much nicer, faster and cleaner.