GPO and EWQL

[AVBunyan]

Hi folks - still leaning towards PO but then I find that EWQL is now half price ($145) - Can you nice folks help me see the advantages of PO?

Thanks

[LouisD]

GPO and EWQL
Hi folks - still leaning towards PO but then I find that EWQL is now half price ($145) - Can you nice folks help me see the advantages of PO?

Thanks

You'll have an infinitely better library...:|:

Kind Regards

LouisD

[AVBunyan]

You'll have an infinitely better library...:|:

Kind Regards

LouisD
Thanks Louis - when you say say "better" do you mean "more" or better "quailty" - From what I've heard thus far PO seems to sound better to me. I can only buy once and I want it to be right.

Your thoughts?

thanks

[Jakadoo]

I've owned GPO for quite some time and recently bought EWQLSO Silver because of the low price.

I haven't spent alot of time with EW, but I don't think there is a way to get great expressiveness out of it. I may be wrong, but I believe it only responds to velocity and has no mechanism for crescendo and diminuendo the way GPO has with the mod wheel. If this is incorrect, somebody please correct me. I'd love to get more dynamics out of EW. GPO can be very expressive because of the mod wheel control.

As for sounds, I like the piano on EW better. The choir included with EW is not so great. Just a couple basic sounds. This was one of the reasons I bought it, but was disappointed. Some of the EW sounds are a bit more aggressive than GPO and will come in handy. But I love the GPO woodwinds and strings.

Overall, I love GPO and was underwhelmed with EW though I did get some new sounds that I will use down the road. I'd say go with GPO and supplement it with dedicated instruments such as a piano, choir or brass libraries depending on your needs and desires.

Hope this helps.

John

[Styxx]

Continue to scan this forum, read users comments, listen to demos, and free updates. Not to mention unheard of support not only from the developers but the plethora of intelligent, competent, talented users of GPO!

[LouisD]

Thanks Louis - when you say say "better" do you mean "more" or better "quailty" - From what I've heard thus far PO seems to sound better to me. I can only buy once and I want it to be right.

Your thoughts?

thanks

Well, I also own Silver, and like John says, I was very disappointed with it's quality. It's got some good points, but in my opinion, GPO is way ahead in terms of sound quality, expressiveness and ease of use. Silver is downright tedious.

Kind Regards

LouisD

[newmewzikboy]

I have GPO, Silver, Gold. If you need to get one overall library - get GPO. Silver is dissapointing. Gold is good but too heavy to carry around, and takes a lot of work. If you get GOLD, you will want to also get GPO

[loogoo]

Silver has some very good points. I think the solo strings sound very good but they are not looped so it is hard to get long sustains out of them. The winds in GPO are superior to Silver in my estimation and as someone already said, the articulations in Silver are pretty limited (i.e., no pizz for individual string sections or even a solo viola or contrabass). in this regard, GPO has more consistency across the boards. Of course, there is a Silver Pro expansion coming out which addresses several of these articulation deficiencies. But then, GPO Advanced will be coming out (soon, I hope) which will add even more value to an already amazingly comprehensive library.

[newmewzikboy]

I could not get any of the strings to work convincingly with Silver. Gold to me was a totally different animal. They were both difficult to use.

[Jerry W.]

You are going to get a lot of Pro-GPO responses here, for the obvious reasons, and I cannot legitimately tell you about silver, since GPO is the only lib I own.
But - let me say this: listen to the user demos of both libraries and ask yourself which sounds the best TO YOU. You are the one that has to be satisfied. There are some libraries (like VSL) I would love to get. There is no reason this has to be an "either this or that" issue. Well, it does if you are short of money. ;) But rather than asking which is better, ask which sounds the best to you.
That being said,
In terms of PLAYABILITY and expressiveness, GPO cannnot be beat! It is easily worth TWICE as much as the current pricing. You will find immediate playing satisfaction when playing with these samples.

This forum is the second half of the value of your purchase. You will never find a more friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and supportive group of misfits ANYWHERE! :D Some are downright PROS, and others are very good amateurs, others are just starting their journey into sample libraries. And chances are, if you have a question, either it has already been asked and answered in this forum - (which is one of the easiest forums to navigate, search and etc., I have ever found), or you'll get an answer soon by someone.

Post a demo and get immediate and helpful feedback and constructive criticism. The depth of the constructive criticism depends upon what you are asking for in terms of feedback.

The whole goal of Gary with his products and this forum is to help YOU become a better musician. You become a better orchestrator and arranger by learning how to effectively use his fantastic libraries, your compositional skills can be improved in the GPO Academy. And besides, where else will one find the humor of Styxx? :D If you haven't already discovered him, do a forum search and you'll soon see why I say that!

Anyway - wow - long tagent there. :)

Choose which best will serve your needs and tastes. But IMO, you can't get a better lib for the money than GPO.

Jerry Wickham :)

[AVBunyan]

Thanks a bunch fellas - thus far the demos in PO sounded better to both me and my son. And, this forum is difinitely a wonderful bunch of folks.

Many have mentioned ease of use for PO. This is vital to me. I don't have a lot of time and not a programmer. I'm a 50 year old guitar player who just wants to record some old hymns with his family.

All I want to do is to be able to add some simple violins, cellos, simple brass and woodwinds to hymn tracks consisting of real piano, bass, real flute, and acoustic guitar - that simple. Right now I cannot see using more than 3 or 4 instruments from PO at a time for these hymn tracks. My daughter will be recording the piano, then I will do the guitar and bass and then my son will add the fulte and then I just want to be able to add the different instruments from PO to fill in and give some life to the tracks.

We will not be doing any orchestral work but my son may as he learns more in music theory at school (which is one of the main reason we are gettin this).

Thanks again for the feedback - any more thoughts based upon what I've given is always appreciated!http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

God bless

[GigaLove]

I haven't spent alot of time with EW, but I don't think there is a way to get great expressiveness out of it. I may be wrong, but I believe it only responds to velocity and has no mechanism for crescendo and diminuendo the way GPO has with the mod wheel. If this is incorrect, somebody please correct me. I'd love to get more dynamics out of EW. GPO can be very expressive because of the mod wheel control.



...just two mouseclicks and you can do the same. seems as you havn't really worked with silver...

[newmewzikboy]

Well, look.. I was a total skeptic about GPO. I have GOS, and a TON of libraries. With the group buy, I said sure...why not. It blew me away. I can run it on a laptop...

Still skeptical, I went out and bought Silver and Gold...I have them, but hardly used them because GPO is easier to work with.

So, you might think that this is a bias thread, but it isn't. I am NMB. I tell you to go spend the $ and get GPO, you wil not be dissapointed.

[Garritan]

AVBunyan,

The right choice for you can depend on many factors.

If you need individual instruments and you make your own ensembles, then GPO is unique in this regard. You build your own instrumentation from solo instruments (individual violins, cellos, winds, etc). GPO is unique in this regard. Also, if youy work with notation then GPO has no equal. If you need to do large sections and full tutti passages often, you may look to other libraries as well.

If you can, try to go to a music store that has both and compare what works best for you. If you can, it is best to work with various libraries.

Hope this helps.

Gary Garritan

[newmewzikboy]

dont listen to gary. he doesnt know anything about GPO. get GPO. I swear. You will not be dissapointed. I love GPO. Looking for GPOA!

[southportJim]

Still skeptical, I went out and bought Silver and Gold...I have them, but hardly used them because GPO is easier to work with.

I agree...I've had GPO for about a year and then got Silver a while back on sale. There are "pieces" of Silver that I might use in the future, but GPO is the main work horse.

Make the jump...you will not be disappointed.
;-)

[AVBunyan]

dont listen to gary. he doesnt know anything about GPO. get GPO. I swear. You will not be dissapointed. I love GPO. Looking for GPOA!
That's funny - http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Folks - you've been a great help!

You people seem to have a passion for the PO and that says a lot to me. Plus the fact that Gary has personally helped me on my threads twice has meant a lot to me.

If I can record my basic tracks in Sonar and then sit down, and then play along with those tracks using some real-sounding strings, woodwinds and some brass and then be able to add them to the existing tracks without being a rocket scientists then I'm sold.

I've always wanted some real-sounding instruments and that is why I bought my JV1080 back in 1996 but it never really sounded that great for orchestral sounds. When I heard the PO I was just blown away and here I am.

I now just have to decide if I want to go for the full-blown PO or wait for the Lite that Gary told me about. I'm leaning for the full blown for the future.

Fellas - you make a good sales team!!

Thanks for being so patient with me http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

God bless :|:

[AVBunyan]

AVBunyan,

The right choice for you can depend on many factors.

1. If you need individual instruments and you make your own ensembles, then GPO is unique in this regard. You build your own instrumentation from solo instruments (individual violins, cellos, winds, etc). GPO is unique in this regard. Also, if youy work with notation then GPO has no equal. If you need to do large sections and full tutti passages often, you may look to other libraries as well.

2. If you can, try to go to a music store that has both and compare what works best for you. If you can, it is best to work with various libraries.

3. Hope this helps.

Gary Garritan
Thanks Gary:
1. Makes sense - I'm mainly interested in using indiviual instruments to use on individual tracks for now until my son and I learns more about orchestration.

2. Good idea - but there are none here set up for that plus....

3. Yes - a great help - I'm sold. As mentioned earlier - now trying to decide if I want to wait for the Lite or go for it with the PO.

God bless http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Haydn]

GPO makes a great foundation to get started with. There are many instruments missing in Silver (and Gold) that you would have to purchase the upcoming Pro release to get.

GPO has all the basic articulations in ALL the string sections which is Silver is very lacking in. Silver at the $149 price might make a good add-on after getting GPO.

[newmewzikboy]

Save your money...dont even THINK Silver or Gold until you have GPO for a good while. You will be endlessly satisfied with it

[rpearl]

Maybe this isn't the place to ask this, but as it concerns both programs, can they be run together? That is, a few instruments from GPO, some from EW? My guesss is that I would need Sonar, or something equivalent. At the moment, I am triggering GPO from Sibelius or Overture.
Sure would love to have the choir, and the sale price of EW is pretty good...
Wait for GPOA?
Thoughts?

Thanks.

R. Pearl

[Christopher Duncan]

I don't have any of the EW products, so I can't comment intelligently on them. I was looking for easy access to realistic sounding orchestration, and another of my priorities was ease of use. Although you can do serious tweaking to GPO (and you should give a listen to the demo DP Dan did switching back and forth between GPO and a live orchestra to show you how real it can sound), I've enjoyed the fact that you don't have to spend countless hours tweaking to get a good sound. So, for me, the product itself was more than worth the price.

The other thing that I learned after the fact was that these forums are among the most friendly and helpful that I've encounterd. I'm also impressed with Gary's business ethics and dedication to his customers. The things he gives away for free, like significant upgrades to GPO, any other business would charge for.

The combination of these two factors led me to be not only a happy GPO customer, but also a supporter, hence the radio station. As for lite or full GPO, my personal philosopy is that when you can afford it, get the extra goodies. The wallet heals quickly, but limitations will live on session after session.

Hope this helps!

[Robert P]

Speaking of continuous dynamic changes (=Mod CC), does anyone know whether GPO is the only library to offer this? I mean realistic dynamic change (not Volume+Velocity!!) with both strength and timbre change. That was basically the main reason why I got interested in GPO, and I couldn't find anything similar in any other library (EWQL? Vienna? ...)

Robert

[M.A.S>]

That's funny - http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif



If I can record my basic tracks in Sonar and then sit down, and then play along with those tracks using some real-sounding strings, woodwinds and some brass and then be able to add them to the existing tracks without being a rocket scientists then I'm sold.



This in itself points directly to GPO.

GPO is much more a collection of playable instruments, as opposed to a library of collected samples, due to its structure and programming.

Many traditional libraries, while powerful in their own way, are better suited to the cut/paste/tweak method. Playability isn't really their intended strength.

(which is not to say you can't C/P/T GPO, you can. You just may not need to)

Others are trying to play catch-up, but GPO was there first.


Michael

[newmewzikboy]

huh? Why was my post deleted:


You can run GPO and EW ...or any NI based sample library in Finale.

Since GPO is NI VSTI, you should be able to utilize it with any VSTi in a sequencer