Personal Orchestra (GPO)

I've been involved in reviewing the three major orchestral libraries in the Garritan Personal Library. Of the three Garritan gets thumbs up on quality, quantity and expressiveness of sounds. I'm on the Win XP version and it's too bad Tennessee Vic is having problems on the Mac though I have not seen others with the problems he's experienced. Even Macs are getting to the point where any given 'non-factory' component may play a factor in how well your synth will work. Then again, there seems to be a continual problem with Macs and N.I.'s Konakt based sound engine on some machines.

Actually, a major thumbs down on the unimpressive Kontakt interface. I understand the idea was getting the included software to work and while that is certainly a good thing, I miss Kompakt's more capable and otherwise similar synth engine. I'm a Kontakt user and was very disapointed with the front end of Garritan. Kompakt is a more appealing front end and easier to work with as it's set up to be a multitimbral synth. Still, the samples are excellent for the sub $300 range and have more than their share of capabilities.

Another quibble boardering on annoyance are the arpeggiations being midi files. Most libraries I've tested including the 32 mb Siedleczeck EMU ROM kills GPO for the number of harp glissandos and techniques. Similarly Prosonus - The Orchestral Collection and East West Silver's musical sounding though limited glisses.

Here's what it boils down to. You get variety and the need to learn how to play orchestral instruments the Garritan way. It's actually a good way, but can be so insistant that at times it's frustrating, especially depending on your mod wheel which is used to control volume and timbre at times. The good side, ride the mod wheel and you can articulate notes wonderfully well, but you will have to aquire this skill, or at least a lot of people will. It's not hard, so it's not that big a problem.

Sound quality and overall gesthalt goes to East West Silver. What it lacks in articulations and instruments it makes up in lush, wonderfully recorded samples in place within the orchesra and with the instrument's acoustic character with hall reverberance. It's the heavier hitter and not as capable at all around sound as GPO. But East West raise the hair on the back of your neck and the sounds are absolutely wonderful if working with emotionally charged material, and of course, film. While I prefer it's sound, I need GPO's variety. You can't do small orchestrations well in East West and forget quartets, quintets, etc. This is where GPO can really shine, but of the libraries I've played, it's the one you actually have to do more work to get the sound.

If you don't want to have time to do so this is a problem. Prosonus and East West do a better job of getting an instrument to sound right and both are very dramatic, more so Prosonus but at a sound quality loss.

And that's what we're here for, to judge how easy/hard GPO is to use, how good it sounds au natural and what you are using a orchestral library for. No offense to the demos but I dislike most of them. I don't use this to listen to demos or other people's work though and if that's your reason just go general midi and don't waste your time. This isn't meant as a eletist, smug comment. The way I see it, you work harder in GPO for a sound, you think more too. And once you get it right, there is nothing in this price range that comes close for many kinds of composition.

If you are positive you'll be doing film there are options you should look into. I prefer East West Silver for broad film work and Prosonus - The Orchestral Collection for it's genuine charm and absolutely wild orchestral effects. If sonic purity is an issue you're back to East West Silver or GPO. But if you are working as a rock musician, film/soundtrack or even ambient with an occasional ochestral vibe, I'd go East West.

If you want to create symphonic works or listen and or write your or other's scores you won't get a better package to work with - period. GPO is as good as Devon says, but only to the degree on which you use it.

For the classical composer on a pipsqueak budget GPO is astonishing and rewarding. It's great for film, even if I went off about East West Silver. In fact, GPO is the most serious program of the lot as it does it all - well.

You can't go wrong with GPO considering what I've outlined, and really, it has so much value added things like scoring software. The only thing that really annoys me is the terrible representation of Kontakt's capabilities, which are vast. I use GPO more than East West Silver, but only because Silver is not currently diversified enough. A new upgrade will change that, at $300 or so extra. That may make East West more useful for a large enough area of works for you, but as a musician you will have to make that decision. All anyone here can do is point you in the right direction.Read Review