Garritan Personal Orchestra

by Garritan

Product Features

• Comprehensive virtual orchestra for PC and Mac
• Uses Native Instruments Kontakt Player
• Includes several instruments not found elsewhere
• High-caliber sounds and quality

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• ASIN: B0002VC9JC
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 12, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,427 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #3 in Software > Video & Music > Software > Sampling

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Whether you're a professional film composer who needs to produce orchestral mockups at a moment's notice, a hobbyist who wants to create great sounding orchestral music, or a student who is studying the art and craft of orchestration, Personal Orchestra will simplify creative work at a price that won't break the bank. In the studio, at home or on the road, Personal Orchestra is for every musician.

Personal Orchestra includes a comprehensive orchestral sample library, Native Instruments' KONTAKT™ sample player, GenieSoft's Overture™ LE Notation Program, Cubasis VST™ Sequencer (for PC), GPO Studio and AMBIENCE Reverb.

Highest Quality Sounds
Personal Orchestra contains samples of all the major instruments in a symphony orchestra-strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion-as well as instruments not found in other orchestral libraries-a Steinway® concert grand piano, a Stradivarius violin, Guarneri Violin, Gagliano Violin, Wurlitzer and Venus concert harps, Haynes flutes, Heckel bassoons, a Mustel celeste, a Rudolf von Beckerath concert pipe organ, a harpsichord, and many other exquisite instruments. There is everything one needs to create orchestrations of any size! In fact, as a whole, Personal Orchestra has the most expensive and highest caliber of orchestral instruments of any orchestral sample library ever recorded!

Unique Feature: "Ensemble Maker"
Build ensembles one instrument at a time from individual solo instruments. This allows the user to construct ensembles or sections of any size - solo instruments, duos, trios, quartets, chamber ensembles, small orchestras, or a full symphonic orchestra.

Easy to Use:
Personal Orchestra allows you to create realistic sounding orchestral music quickly and easily, right "out of the box." No confusing list of articulations, no complicated set of controls, and no steep learning curve. Just load an instrument and play. Personal Orchestra makes it easy to express your musical ideas in record time. And it's compact enough to run on a laptop computer for the musician on the go. Imagine orchestrating on the beach, or in a plane or anywhere you can take your laptop computer!

Intuitive Controls:
The controls in Personal Orchestra are streamlined and standardized, so you can become familiar with the library quickly. This optimized system allows you to master all the instruments with relative ease and confidence. Advanced functions, such as alternating bow strokes and automatic variability, help you produce more realistic sounding performances with minimal effort. Personal Orchestra allows you to express your musical ideas quickly and easily.

Universal Format:
Personal Orchestra will run on Mac OS and Windows platforms, either as a standalone program or as a plug-in (supporting VST, DXi, RTAS, and OS X AudioUnits). Personal Orchestra instruments will also load into KONTAKT, Native Instruments' flagship sampler. The entire orchestra can be loaded on a single PC or laptop and is designed to run completely in RAM.

Expandable:
Personal Orchestra will offer new feature sets and will expand as your needs grow. Add-on instruments, features and enhancements will be offered so your investment is protected as technology progresses.

All of the major instruments of an entire Symphony Orchestra are included in PERSONAL ORCHESTRA. Some of the very finest instruments were sampled in Garritan Personal Orchestra: Stradivarius, Guarneri, Gagliano, Montagnana, Haynes, Steinway: these are instruments of extraordinary tone and beauty.

Strings: Solo Stradivari Violin Solo Gagliano Violin Solo Guarneri Violin 9 Violins for Ensembles 1st Violin Section (12 Players) 2nd Violin Section (10 Players) Solo Viola 3 Violas for Ensembles Viola Section (10 Players) Solo Gofriller Cello Solo Montagnana Cello Solo Pierray Cello 9 Cellos for Ensembles Cello Section (8 Players) Solo Double Bass 3 Double Basses for Sections Double Bass Section (7 Players) Gatano Gearta, circa 1921 Perisson, modern	Woodwinds: Piccolo Solo Flute 3 Flutes for Ensembles Alto Flute Bass Flute Oboe (Two Soloists) 3 Oboes for Ensembles English Horn (Two Soloists) Solo Bb Clarinet 3 Clarinets for Ensembles Eb Clarinet Bass Clarinet 3 Bass Clarinets for Ensembles Contrabass Clarinet Solo Bassoon (Two Soloists) 3 Bassoons for Ensembles Contrabassoon (Two Soloists)
Brass: Solo Trumpet (Two Soloists) 6 Trumpets for Ensembles Trumpet f Overlay Piccolo Trumpet French Horns (Two Solo Horns) 6 Horns for Ensembles Horn f & ff Overlays Solo Tenor Trombone 3 Trombones for Ensembles Trombone f Overlay Bass Trombones (Two Soloists) Tubas (Two Soloists) Tuba Overlay Solo Contrabass Tuba	Keyboards and Harps: Steinway Concert Grand Piano Duo 1 & Duo 2 Pianos Concert Pipe Organ (11 Stops / Pedals) Harpsichord (3 Stops) Celeste Harp 1 (Venus) Harp 2 (Wurlitzer) Glissando Harp Package
Percussion: Timpani Wind Machine Grand Symphonic Marimba Vibraphone Glockenspiel Xylophone Tubular Bells Bass Drum (adjustable fundamental) Snare Drum Orchestral Cymbals Gong & Tam-Tam Crotales Triangles Mark Tree Cowbells Hand Bells Assorted Percussion Toys

System Requirements:

• 2 GB of free hard disk space.
• CD-ROM or DVD Drive.
• Windows XP, Pentium 4 /Athlon 1.8 GHz or better is recommended.
• Mac OS X or higher, G4 733MHz or better is recommended..
• The Kontakt Player needs a soundcard for playing the sounds of Personal Orchestra. Standard DirectSound, MME or ASIO drivers required; Windows-compatible MIDI hardware if required.
• A MIDI interface is required if you are using a MIDI keyboard, another MIDI controller or an external sequencer. The MIDI interface integrated in many sound cards can also be used.
• To play the entire orchestra, we recommend 1 GB of RAM. There is a direct correlation between the number of instruments that can be loaded and the amount of available RAM. Loading the entire orchestra requires 1 GB of RAM. The more RAM available the better.

Note: The Kontakt audio engine is designed to make use of the processing power of your computer's CPU. The powerful and complex algorithms of the Kontakt Player work best on modern and fast CPUs. Please also observe the systems requirements of your host application.

Product Description

Whether you're a professional film composer who needs to produce orchestral mockups at a moment's notice, a hobbyist who wants to create great sounding orchestral music, or a student who is studying the art and craft of orchestration, Personal Orchestra will simplify creative work at a price that won't break the bank. In the studio, at home or on the road, Personal Orchestra is for every musician. Personal Orchestra contains samples of all the major instruments in a symphony orchestra-strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion-as well as instruments not found in other orchestral libraries-a Steinway® concert grand piano, a Stradivarius violin, Guarneri Violin, Gagliano Violin, Wurlitzer and Venus concert harps, Haynes flutes, Heckel bassoons, a Mustel celeste, a Rudolf von Beckerath concert pipe organ, a harpsichord, and many other exquisite instruments. There is everything one needs to create orchestrations of any size! In fact, as a whole, Personal Orchestra has the most expensive collection and highest caliber of orchestral instruments of any orchestral sample library ever recorded! Build ensembles one instrument at a time from individual solo instruments. This allows the user to construct ensembles or sections of any size - solo instruments, duos, trios, quartets, chamber ensembles, small orchestras, or a full symphonic orchestra. Personal Orchestra allows you to create realistic sounding orchestral music quickly and easily, right "out of the box." No confusin...

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive results to be had from comprehensive collection, January 23, 2005

By 

Giacomo C. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garritan Personal Orchestra (CD-ROM)

I am surprised that this is the first review for GPO on Amazon, considering the growing following this collection has.
This is one impressive product - a comprehensive list of sounds, that work very well together. Obviously the samples in more expensive packages are more impressive in their basic sound, but if used with skill it is truly astonishing what can be achieved with this set - one has only to listen to the numerous user demos on their web site to see for yourself. The situation here is that the sum is in fact greater than its parts.
In this price range, there really isn't anything that can compare to it. The quality of the results achievable are good enough for professional use, and in fact it is getting considerable professional application in many different areas.

Anyone looking for orchestral sounds, but unwilling (or more likely unable) to the spend the thousands necessary for the big libraries should take a look at what is being offered here.

Really, bravo to the Garritan team for creating such an impressive library at a price point accessible to almost anyone.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good for beginners, December 21, 2007

By 

Nicholas D. Powell (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garritan Personal Orchestra (CD-ROM)

Garritan Personal Orchestra is a great way to step into the world of giga-sampling. It has realistic samples with a relatively easy to learn interface (in Kompakt). However, the samples are better used in another sampler, such as Kontakt 2 (or 3).

Unlike most libraries, the samples are *completely* controlled by the mod wheel. This is both good and bad.

The good: You have complete control over the instrument sound at all times. Volume and timbre are handled very well.
The bad: Complete control must be maintained at all times. Again, this could be a definite up, were it not for the fact that one will inevitably need to go back and re-record particular instruments due to too much (or too little) strength. This can become monotonous and tiring after a while.

While the instruments definitely sound good (some sound superb), there is no automatic or default reverb. Instead, you are given a utility that controls reverb. Honestly, it's better off just to skip this little tool and use a reverb found in another sampler or plugin instead. The ambience it creates is generally unrealistic, and while great control can be maintained, you can never quite reach that sound you want.

All in all, Garritan Personal Orchestra is a wonderful way for beginners to start out. It's an excellent first library. But eventually, one will want to move on to greater things, such as East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra, or even the ambitious Vienna Soundfont Library.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Bang-For-The-Buck, August 20, 2007

By 

R. Schneblin (CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garritan Personal Orchestra (CD-ROM)

I originally chose GPO years ago because I wanted to dabble in orchestral instrumentation. However, I was not a professional, so paying a high dollar for good samples was not a practical consideration. After using it, I was able to get professional results, so the price was a bit deceiving. It was far more than what I thought I was paying for
I work on a Macintosh using GarageBand, and GPO has far more articulation and nuance control over JamPack 4. it is absolutely a joy to have an entire orchestra as close as my own keyboard. I use it to help my kids hear what different instruments sound like and to listen for them in Classical music. Listen to the numerous examples and hear for yourself!