Questions about support/docs and upgrades

[rmaglione]

Hello Moderators,

I bought GOS when it the big deal, and bad luck (both financial and a continuing fight with cancer) kept me from really using the library until recently. Now that I have a powerful PC, some money, and some energy I upgraded to GS3 and sat down to truly learn the product.

I've been frustrated with the documentation, and have been looking on the Garritan site and the Northern Sound forums for some guidance/support. It appears that GPO/A is the only thing getting any attention, so I'm going to try posting my issues/questions here. Btw, I'm using Sonar.

1. I'm going to try going WAY back at Northern Sound, but so far I can't find any examples of general sequencer use concepts. ie. If I need to switch from short to long bows in a piece, are people using two different tracks, sending patch changes in the midi stream, ???. I haven't been able to get key switching or legato to function for me, though exp works.

2. When I load 1st Violins-long bows, many patches are loaded that I could get to with midi patch changes. These could be set up as "banks" in Sonar so that I could see the patches without going on an Easter Egg hunt. Do lists of the attendant patches to each load exist (electronically, I hope)? Is that not how it's meant to be used? I'm confused big time about this.

3. To be fair, let me begin this issue here: my previous circumstances were my problem. The fact that I haven't gotten my money's worth out of GOS to date certainly isn't GOS's problem. That being said, when I bought GOS, part of the way I justified the $1000 was because it was "an evolving library". I know from the forums that this is not a new complaint. I've read some of Gary's responses, and I understand business realities like Tascam's "someday" release schedules and market saturation. But I also understand English... the "24bit when the industry is ready", and updates were advertised as part of the ongoing value of the library. So here's my question: Will there be special consideration for the people who bought GOS in its hayday when it comes time to go to GPOA, or how will it work?

Thanks for your time, and thanks for your libraries. I talked with Gary when I first bought GOS, and I have no doubt that he's passionate about doing things right. That passion made the market leap forward and helped us all. I don't expect a free upgrade...I don't work for free either! ;^) I would just like an upgrade path that takes into account the original intentions of the GOS library. Especially since I spent $250 to upgrade to GS3 when GOS was my only library! (Do I have good timing, or what? Too bad life doesn't have "quantize"...;^)

Peace,
Richard

[Garritan]

So here's my question: Will there be special consideration for the people who bought GOS in its hayday when it comes time to go to GPOA, or how will it work?

A lot has changed since GOS was introduced over four years ago. Since then we had several hard updates (mailed CDs - not downloads). GOS started the trend of the super-libaries. When Giga 3 was slow in coming, and newer technologies presented themselves, we changed our focus. The brute force approach of GOS seemed less relevant. We will eventually be discontinuing GOS as a separate product and wil incorporate it into GPO Advanced. This new library will be based on newer technologie. We are working on things that have never been done before.

There will be special consideration for those who purchased GOS. I don't know what that is yet but we will work something out that is beneficial.

[rmaglione]

Hello again,
>A lot has changed since GOS was introduced over four years ago. Since then we had several hard updates (mailed CDs - not downloads).

Sure, and much preferred by the customers over downloads, and at a higher cost to you. Definitely the classy approach, but irrelevant to my point. Timeline matters here. When I bought the library the "evolving/free updates" was part of the sales pitch. That didn't happen. Period. I'm not saying anyone was purposely misled, but no one seems willing to acknowledge that something didn't go as advertised. My take on this is far from unique, so here's one idea. If you're the only distributor of GOS, then you know when everyone purchased it and what they paid. If there was a special upgrade path from GOS, through GPO, to GPOA that took their purchase date and/or cost into account it would be a nice gesture to your GOS customers. It would allow us to get familiar with the basic usability/controls/setup of GPO so that when GPOA is released the learning curve would be less. It would also be a way of saying, "We know the promised upgrades didn't work out for you folks, so how about this?". Just a thought.

> We will eventually be discontinuing GOS as a separate product and wil incorporate it into GPO Advanced.

So, for at least the near term, if I'm having issues with GOS I can call for help to get them resolved?

> There will be special consideration for those who purchased GOS. I don't know what that is yet but we will work something out that is beneficial.

Good to know, thanks.

Peace,
Richard