Garritan Orchestral

[SynthManDan]

Anyone using Garritan products with Cakewalk?  I’m really interested in the Garritan Personal Orchestra, but unless I’m not seeing it.., does Garritan not offer trial versions for potential customers?

SMD

Edited July 18, 2019 by SynthManDan

[Variorum]

I don't believe Garritan (or MakeMusic) offers free trials for anything but Finale. Seems they had a big problem with piracy of their sound libraries in the past. That may also be the reason why they seem to be getting out of the sound library business... they haven't had any new releases in a long time, and there's a rumor (from an ex-developer?) that there is no longer a development staff for libraries.

GPO5 is pretty good if you put a lot of time into it, but it seems unlikely there will be any new versions or further updates for existing versions.

[SynthManDan]

Thanks for the reply!  Maybe I’ll hold off to see what happens with the software development.  

Interesting..., there are price drops starting for their products now.  You can get GPO-5 at PluginBotique for $95 and just a few bucks more at Sweetwater.

SMD

Edited July 18, 2019 by SynthManDan

[Sidney Earl Goodroe]

Of the less expensive orchestral libraries, GPO 5 and Miroslav 2 are my goto instruments. Of the two, GPO 5 gets used more but it is an absolute necessity to learn the use of the vast controllers included along with the mod wheel controlling expression. There is no velocity control for the strings so you must record mod wheel or edit it in a controller lane. I can give you a lot of tips if you decide to get GPO 5. I have used Garritan since version 3.

[SynthManDan]

Thanks!  If I get it I’ll certainly take you up on your offer.  The violins not having velocity is interesting.  It does make sense though using the mod wheel, as that will allow for more expressive playing.  At $95 I will probably pick it up.  That’s a really good deal.

SMD

[willard cottrell]

I've been using GPO5 since its inception.  I have no qualms, but I'm not producing professional quality stuff.  For me, a professional musician for 60 yrs, I think it is good stuff.  Sorry to learn there's no effort to improve.  (another reason to dislike makemusic!??)  I used finale way back, but I always had trouble with it.  I upgraded to the newest Finale and went back to Print Music 2014.  I felt they tried Finale to be all things and it wasn't good at either.   I never really liked make music as a software supplier or developer.  I stayed w/ it because I wasn't interested in learning a new GUI.  There are, I'm sure, better companies and software.

[Variorum]

GPO5 is definitely worth the $95. It's made up of 11-12GB of samples (some of which are very good).

One huge bonus is that, while the actual wave files are encrypted, all of the instruments are actually SFZ's, which means you can edit the text based definition files. I've fixed a couple errors with one of the violin patches in the Orchestral Strings block, and I have plans (one day ?) to add ADSR controls to many of the instruments. Most of the strings use velocity to control the attack, but I'd like a lot more control over the envelope. Even the individual GUIs for the instruments can be modified. It's not for the faint of heart, though... backups are your friend!

I just wanted you to be aware that updates and upgrades may not be available, but if you have an extra $100 laying around, you should grab it while it's on sale.

[Grem]

On 7/19/2019 at 6:37 AM, Sidney Earl Goodroe said:

I can give you a lot of tips

Would you be willing to take on another pupil? : )

[abacab]

Sonic Scores, the developer of Overture 5 has released an orchestral library for Kontakt and the Kontakt Player, that appears to be fairly complete.

Amadeus Symphonic Orchestra  - Sample Library   https://sonicscores.com/amadeus/

Click on the features tab to see the list of instruments included. Audio demos are available on the Audio Demos tab.

It was developed to integrate with their notation program, but since it is a Kontakt instrument it should work fine with all DAWs and notation software.

Normal retail price is $149, but is $99 for Overture 5 customers. I haven't tried it yet, but it does look interesting! The user interface was created by Indiginus: http://www.indiginus.com/amadeus.html

[SynthManDan]

Ugh.., what the crap!  I went to purchase GOP-5 today from PluginBotique, the original sale time ended July 31’st.  Well, apparently someone there decided to end the sale early.  Back up to $129, Sweetwater has it for $119, so probably heading over there to get it.

SMD

[Max Arwood]

Sweetwater is the best current price,  not too bad for a nice orchestra plugin

It works well with Cakewalk. Instruments samples are nice and load rather quickly.

Max Arwood

[jerrydf]

I quite liked GOP5 for a basic quick start and overall background orchestra.  So much so that I went for their Jazz and Big Band set.

However - warning - as you proceed down this road its quite likely that you'll be tempted to augment the orchestra with better individual instruments costing as much as GOP itself. I did.  The main issue I had with GOP5 was that the solo violin sounded a bit synthy.  So I went for EastWest solo diamond, and also Embertone (plus a selection of folky fiddles from all round the place). 

Otherwise GOP is very usable and sounds good.

jdf

 

[Johnbee58]

I've been using Jazz & Big Band ver 3 for horn sounds for years and it runs fine for me in Cakewalk.  No problems at all.

?John B

 

[David Baay]

On 7/19/2019 at 2:29 PM, Variorum said:

I've fixed a couple errors with one of the violin patches in the Orchestral Strings block

I don't use a lot of strings in my music, but hate to think there's a flaw lurking out there.  Would you care to share the corrected SFZ?

[David Baay]

On 7/19/2019 at 5:37 AM, Sidney Earl Goodroe said:

There is no velocity control for the strings so you must record mod wheel or edit it in a controller lane. I can give you a lot of tips if you decide to get GPO 5.

Here's my tip for that:

- Record from your keyboard, playing with variable velocity as you normally would though the patch doesn't respond to it (applies to most Garritan  instruments).

- Select the whole clip/track.

- Show the Controller lane in the PRV, and add  a CC1, Modulation lane.

- Right-click the CC1 button, and choose  'Copy Selected Values to this Lane'.

The velocity values will be copied to the CC1 lane, giving you basic starting volumes for each note that you can leave as-is or use as a reference for manually drawing in more controllers for swells, etc. The same can be done of CC11, Expression as needed.

It may be helpful to layer some other instrument that does respond to velocity so you have an audible response to guide you while recording.

Edited August 22, 2019 by David Baay

[JoeGBradford]

That's a great tip David!

Thanks

[David Baay]

Glad you liked it, Joe. I'm not really accomplished at performing in real time using wheel/joystick/aftertouch inputs, and I try to avoid doing a lot of data entry with a mouse at all costs. So this is a quick and dirty solution I came up with when I first got GPO, and later JABB.

[Variorum]

3 hours ago, David Baay said:

I don't use a lot of strings in my music, but hate to think there's a flaw lurking out there.  Would you care to share the corrected SFZ?

Hey @David Baay... I'm afraid to upload the SFZ files. Even though they are editable by the end-user and do nothing without the encrypted wave files , I'm sure somebody would whine about copyrighted material, or something ?

But I can show you what I changed in the files
Be sure to make a back up the Instruments folder (C:\Program Files\Garritan\Personal Orchestra 5\Instruments) before editing any of the files. It's not very big (only contains the SFZ's), only 16-17 MB. The line numbers below should be correct, but double check that you're modifying the correct line...

 

FILENAME:
C:\Program Files\Garritan\Personal Orchestra 5\Instruments\Orchestral Strings\Violas\Violas Mappings\Vla Martele Alt 1.sfz

ORIGINAL (Wrong Sample): Line 36
<region>  offset=500  lovel=001  hivel=127 key=074  amplitude=100  tune=15  loop_mode=no_loop  sample=27f5kD5_1$EXT

MODIFIED:
<region>  offset=500  lovel=001  hivel=127 key=074  amplitude=100  tune=15  loop_mode=no_loop  sample=27f5kD5$EXT

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FILENAME:
C:\Program Files\Garritan\Personal Orchestra 5\Instruments\Orchestral Strings\Violins 2\Violins 2 Mappings\2nd Vln Sautille Alt 2.sfz

ORIGINAL (Wrong Sample): Line 17,18
<region>  offset=2000  lovel=001  hivel=127 key=063  amplitude=100  tune=7  loop_mode=no_loop  sample=09p4iD#4$EXT
<region>  lovel=001  hivel=127 lokey=064 hikey=064  pitch_keycenter=065  amplitude=100  tune=10  loop_mode=no_loop  sample=11p4iF4$EXT

MODIFIED:
<region>  lovel=001  hivel=127 lokey=063 hikey=063  pitch_keycenter=065  amplitude=60  tune=10  loop_mode=no_loop  sample=11p4iF4$EXT
<region>  lovel=001  hivel=127 lokey=064 hikey=064  pitch_keycenter=065  amplitude=60  tune=10  loop_mode=no_loop  sample=11p4iF4$EXT

[David Baay]

Perfect! I understand your reticence to upload the file. Thanks for taking the time to detail the changes. I'm not surprised to see  incorrect samples being referenced; it's a common error, probably due to copy-pasting lines to build the file.  Sometime obvious on auditioning the instrument, but sometimes not. I've done it myself.  ;^)

Cheers,

Dave

Edited August 22, 2019 by David Baay

[chris.r]

Back many years ago, I think maybe even before the fist GPO, when the Garritan Orchestral Strings was an independent library, there was a scripting tool added to it called Maestro Tools that could produce very convincing articulations like alternate bowings, legatos, portamento and many more. Today, when you buy GPO5 with Orchestral Strings added, is there anything inside, alternative to Maestro Tools, that will take care for the articulation?