Dear Jim,
I don't know the answers to most of these questions. I'm happy to ask Gary, but you can probably send him an email and get a cordial response directly from him. I have no experience with other synths and samplers. This is the first time I've gotten involved in anything more than what Andy Homzy calls his "little kazoo band" in General Midi, and I'm wary of becoming so involved in the necessarily limited orchestral/band imitation that the computer puts out that I end up spending more time on a false and misleading picture of music than it's worth. GPO seems to be an intermediate step that promises somewhat better results at a price (financial and temporal) that I think might make it worth working with and tweaking a little. My results, at the moment, are hardly wonderful - bassoons (which run out of range) for tenor saxophones, and limited brass and pizzicato bass sounds, but it's OK, and I have hope for the jazz library. I know for sure that the string bass sound should be good. It's my instrument, and the attack and shaping of the notes are mine, and idiomatically in the ball park. How that will turn out after the sounds are put into the software remains to be heard, but I know they are trying to get it reasonably right.
Still, this has little to do with how music really sounds, and I am troubled by the emerging practice of supplying demos made with these devices. I don't know if I will be able to listen to the results of my own arrangements played through GPO's jazz band library with much satisfaction. Gary is considering using some of my things for demos of the software, and I'm curious, but skeptical of the results producing anything more than a "sketch" to give me a general idea of what I've done. Also, in my own case, the instrumental colors and balances are pretty accurately stored in my own memory, and sometimes my mental playback is better than the computer's. We'll have to see how this turns out. I am both curious about it, and happy to be somewhat involved so that I'll be in on the ground floor of the project.
I have heard that there is work being done to improve the Kontact engine, though I am quite ignorant of how this affects the overall working of the Finale/GPO combination. I don't really know what Kontact does, or why it's needed.
I remain cautiously optimistic.
Chuck
On May 11, 2005, at 8:34 AM, Jim Williamson wrote:
Chuck,
Do you know if the Garritan Jazz Orch and the marching orch are both coming
out this summer and, if you want both, is there a special deal for that? I
assume they'll be separate programs. Also, is the Kontakt engine going to be
beefed up a bit?
I write for the Nashville Jazz Orch and also school jazz bands but I still
get more work writing marching shows. Actually the march thing is the most
critical because I provide a demo for the band directors. I still do it the
old fashioned way by triggering hardware synths/samples and sometimes
playing one real pass of the 1st trumpet part in Cubase.
I'm not sure the Garritan thing is going to be better.
Another advantage for me, at this point, is that running hardware with 6 or
8 outs each through a mixer allows me to reach up quickly to turn Tbn down
or Hn up or whatever.
Of course that makes desk top real estate an issue.
Any thoughts?
Jim Williamson
----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck Israels" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 1:47 PM Subject: Re: [Finale] TAN: Garritan Question
Hi Dennis,
No, it's a separate application (in the $300 range), but I'm told there will be improved integration w/Finale 2006, FWIW.
I am peripherally involved with the helping create the new jazz instruments sample library and in contact with Gary Garritan. It's an interesting project that attempts to fill the gap between General Midi sounds and expensive sample libraries that still don't sound like orchestras with something that gives a decent "sketch pad" sound image.
Hope that helps.
Chuck
On May 10, 2005, at 11:39 AM, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:
At 06:25 PM 5/10/05 +0100, Simon Troup wrote:
just wondering if anyone knows if Garritan Personal Orchestra is about to be updated or something?
Was this supposed to come with Finale 2005? There's no mention of
it in my
package, and I don't see it installed. I was figuring I could move the
soundfonts over to my soundfont library directory.
Dennis
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