Here's my reply to GG:
Hi Gary,
Thanks very much for your reply.
My impression -- from reading the Northern Sounds forums -- is that Native Instruments Kontakt player is not very well optimized for G4/G5 compared to Intel hardware, and therefore GPO/Kontakt generally works much more smoothly on Windows machines. In fact, NI's attitude towards poor performance issues with the Mac version of Kontakt was paraphrased by one poster as "Get over it and get a PC."
I don't know how much truth there is to this, and I don't know how much influence you have over at Native Instruments, but clearly it would be in everyone's best interest to have the Mac version of the GPO Kontakt player that was fully optimized for OS X and took full advantage of the G4 (Velocity Engine) and the G5. Especially since -- if I recall correctly -- Berklee is requiring all new students to buy Mac laptops and will also be requiring them to buy GPO's upcoming Jazz Edition (when it's released). So presumably there's a strong incentive for all of you to make sure GPO/Kontakt runs well even on a low-end iBook, which is what your Berklee student is likely to have.
Also, while I am extremely impressed with the quality of the GPO instruments, I feel that the "Recommended Requirements" for Macintosh listed on the GPO box are extremely misleading (733 MHz G4, 1 GB RAM). Based on my (admittedly limited) experience so far, and my perusal of the forums at Northern Sounds, the consensus seems to be that those might be better described as "Minimum Requirements" -- and even then, 733 MHz G4 seems somewhat unrealistic. I really think you ought to consider listing separate "Minimum Requirements" (with a note that you will be limited to chamber ensembles) and "Recommended Requirements" (i.e., what kind of a machine do you need to handle a full orchestra and take full advantage of the software) -- the latter might be, for instance, a dual 1.8 GHz G5 with 2.0 GB RAM.
This would mean, of course, that it would be impossible to meet the "Recommended Requirements" on any current Mac laptop, not even the top-end 17" PowerBook. (Of course, I realize that's Apple/IBM/Freescale's fault, not yours.) However, if it is possible to squeeze better Kontakt Mac performance from Native Instruments, that would be most welcome for those of us who can't afford the latest G5s, or those of us who require mobility.
The new Mac mini? I don't know. You'll be the first I know who tries. Maybe 15-20 instruments?
Is that about what people with 1.5 GHz PowerBooks and 1 GB of RAM are getting? The 1.42 GHz Mac mini has almost identical specs to the top-end PowerBooks, save for the 0.8 GHz difference in processor speed, and Mini's inability to add more than 1 GB of RAM -- call me naive, but I never realized that would be such a problem! (And of course the PB has a better video card, but that should not make any difference.)
Anyway, I'll post my results in the Northern Sounds forums when I receive the Mac mini.
Your current machine is not ideal - Frankenmacs (G3 upgrades) generally don't work because its still the old bus.
Right, I understand that. I never expected GPO to perform well on a 7-year old machine (however fully upgraded) with a 66 MHz bus and just 768 MB of SDR RAM. I'm hoping that the 167 MHz bus and DDR RAM on the Mac mini will make a significant difference.
We also provide a contrabass clarinet for those extra low notes.
Sure, but IMO the plain old bass clarinet should properly go down to (concert) Bb1 by default, since that is actually the lowest note on the instrument. (I know you can get there by pitch-shifting, but that's a bit of a pain to set up in Finale). The current low note limit -- B1 -- is just weird, frustrating, and seems like a mistake. It would be like having a sample of a double bass w/scroll extension that only went down to Db1, or a Bari Sax sample that only went down to (concert) Db2.
Thanks again for your reply, and thanks for creating such a terrific-sounding library! I look forward to the Jazz Version.
Cheers,
- Darcy ----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Brooklyn, NY
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