Hi - Just been checking out the Garriton. Personal. Orchestra #4. Does anyone have any thoughts about it?
Listened to the demo's - read all the advertising copy but still can't find out if the instruments are real samples or synthesized???
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G.P.O - any thoughts on?
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It really all depends on what you want to do. If all you want to do is at a very occasional hobby level, GPO will be fine. It is also fine as a composing tool. It is certainly a library that many started with (myself included), and one can make some decent personal demos with it. In short, it can be a great learning tool and some serious composers do use it. Obviously, it is very budget friendly.
But... and it is a very big but...
What are your long-term goals? If you eventually want to produce high quality demos/mock-ups, it is very possible that if you purchased GPO, you would soon be looking to replace it. In terms of orchestral sound/realism, there is simply no comparison between GPO and VSL, including the SE libraries. If your goals are more long-term, and you have the budget, starting with VSL's SE 1 could prove to be the better option. The overall sound of the SE libraries is far better than GPO, and in addition, the techniques you would learn using one of the SE libraries would transfer to the full VSL libraries.
Again, GPO is very good for what it is, and it "might" be what best suits your needs. The problem is simply that if you have higher long-term goals, it possibly would be better to start with a library that you could integrate into your future plans, rather than having a library that ends up sitting on the shelf, gathering dust. In the long run, in the VI world, to buy cheap usually means you end up buying twice.
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@Jackmon said:
Listened to the demo's - read all the advertising copy but still can't find out if the instruments are real samples or synthesized???
Doesn't matter. They're cr*p.
DG
DG got that right. I am still pissed off at Garritan for the wretched string library he created and I bought for $1,000 I could have used on food. And then he popped in here and chastized me for complaining! That makes me mad and I wish he'd pop up again.
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I use G.P.O.4 with Sibelius as an additional sonic feedback for my work, and oftentimes it provides better results than the default Sibelius sounds (even with version 7), at least when untweaked. Of course I only paid ~€85 for that library and it is worth more than that for what it offers. For myself, I orchestrate long before I load Sibelius for the first time, and I find G.P.O. a better initial yardstick for checking spacing, huge harmonic blocks, or complex polyphony. However, one should not depend on it (or any sub €800 library, or ideally any library at all) for subtle orchestrational decisions; it can throw you off if you're not very confident about your inner ear. It might make you believe you've made an "error" when you actually haven't!
So, use only as prescribed, and see your doctor in case of unwelcome side-effects.
P.S.1: Noldar12 is right though when he says that G.P.O. is a great learning tool. If you are looking to learn orchestration through using a cheap library, be wary of confusing what the library spouts out, to what a real orchestra would sound like. There are so many other considerations involved in orchestrating that go beyond what everyone sounds like when playing together... G.P.O. for example won't tell you that the brass can't play at the top of their lungs for 10 minutes straight (even most books won't tell you that)! It will faithfully reproduce your scribblings in any superhuman fashion you desire; hemi-demi-semi-quavers at any speed are possible both in Finale and Sibelius on any instrument of any library... Harps can play any chord, modulate at the speed of light, and so forth...
If you are a beginner of sorts, then buy this library at this point in time, instead of a 'reliable' expensive one (sorry Dietz [;)]), and spend the difference on actual lessons with a 'reliable' teacher. Not an Internet tutorial or course, an actual teacher.
P.S.2.: I was really unimpressed with Garritan bringing out that composition package for charlatans, but my feelings on that, yet another crime against humanity, were expounded sufficiently on another polemic thread.