Garritan Personal Orchestra, Power Requirements Options

[fastlanephil]

I'm just starting to learn GPO and have a iBook G4 933 booting from a Lacie 80 GB 7200 HD using Metro 6.2. I was quite depressed when first putting down some midi tracks and it choked after three tracks. But if you use the dry samples the cpu usage is much, much lower. It makes it quite usable and I can add reverb with my nanoverb when I move my tracks to audio. But those new iMac G5s sure look nice don't they.

[Dimora]

GPO gobbles oodles of memory. It's recommended to have a full 1GB of RAM to play the full orchestra, although I have a suspicion this number is low. I have a 1Ghz OWC processor, a 128GB Audio HD (only keep audio files and whatnot on it, no proggies) and about 576MB of RAM and it starts maxing out the processor at 3, depending on the sample being used. I upped the buffers to about 1200 and I can do 4 occassionally.

Have you noticed that the harp takes up an ENORMOUS amount of power? I created my own gliss and my computer can barely handle it.

Try

[majn]

I had a g4 with 1.5gig of RAM and it would only deal with 4 GPO's at once - you had to freeze them all the time as well which isn't great.

I now run a dual G5 2.0 with 2.5gig and it flies. GPO is great by the way

The only problem I have had is similar to your glissando problem. It just seems like it can't handle that number of notes that fast. I slowed the tempo right down and played it in real slow and then sped it up - and it got to a certain tempo and just started sqawking at me. again freezing the track solved the problem.

Cheers M

[bogh]

Ok, so you guys wouldn't recomend GPO on a 1 Ghz G4...
I've been thinking about getting it, but if takes up CPU power like you say, then I'll reconsider.

[ROBBO2003]

Hi Guys, re: using large orch. libraries. Everytime a new Mac
hits the shops (G5), sample manufacturers up the ante by
releasing even bigger libraries. There will be a time when this cycle will stop ( probably about a G8!!!), but until then,we're all stuck. Ever thought about buying 4 Macs and 4x versions of
Logic and sync 'em all together? Expensive, but at least big projects could be done. I'm thinking of getting some second-
hand G4DPs and trying this out. Cheers.

[fastlanephil]

Dimora said " I have a 1Ghz OWC processor". That sounds like an accelarator card. I wouldn't recommend them for audio work.

Also I just sequenced eight GPO voices including the harp and organ and it seems to work fine. These are dry voices not the wet ones. It was just some quick noodling for a test. I hope everyone is trying the dry instruments also if you don't have dual giga horse power. An effects box is much less than a G5 but I guess the writings on the wall-MORE POWER!.

I'm using Metro 6.2 which has pretty low power requirements. I also have 640 mb.

[Dimora]

first off...not sure why my msg got cut off like that. I was going to say try boosting your buffers to around 1200K and see how that works for you.

And fastlanephil, you don't recommend OWC processor upgrades? I use DP4.12 which is also something of a RAM hog...

[fastlanephil]

Dimora,

If it's working for you fine but I have had problems in the past with them. It's a individual preference with pros and cons either way.

[Jaysee]

Hi, 'fraid this post sees me veering slightly off topic in my usual meandering way, but all this talk of harp glissandi took me back 20-25 years to when I was a music student at the R.N.C.M. '80 to'84. My then girlfriend, whos principal study was piano, was a product of the specialist music school Cheetams in Manchester(Chets) which she attended as a boarder from the age of *seven* to eighteen! Strangely, that school seems to turn out a steady stream of prodigeously talented technically superb young instrumentalists, supremely confident of their own talent, well.. until their first inevitable lambasting as the latest generation of critic cannon fodder There are a lot of 'players' but sadly few real but very few of what I would term musicians. (she could sight read and instantly memorise proverbial 'fly shit' or 'squeaky gate' contemporary music, all 'hard quantised' into muscle memory until perfect...All the humanity and feeling of that mad piano roll mechanical sequencer pioneer Conlon Nancarrow, and his completely crazy 'player' piano/pianola compositions which sound like Oscar Peterson having a bad acid trip!! hehe. The young classical soloist obviously has yet to experience life, so they have to emulate their elders performances, but second hand emotion aint the same as subjectively experiencing a life! So they play brillianly but with nothing from the heart, only the head, ie coldly clinical precision, quite sterile. my girlfriend admitted that she felt too exposed and self conscious to play any romantic repertoire which calls for genuine emotional input from the performer; Chopin, Beethoven or Tchaikowsky etc left her unmoved.
I guess such intensive competition driven schooling breeds a "classical music is uncool" attitude in its students, I imagined that the RNCM would be an exciting melting pot of fabulously gifted young musos just burning to explore and play with each other. sorry, er.... that came out wrong.... accurate though! (smirk, 'very fine college the RNCM)

That brings me neatly back from my misty eyed digression to er...OK here we go: *HARPS AND HARPISTS*! Apparently a certain 6th form female harp student at Cheetams was popular with her male suitors because she could hide 'Casanova' in her voluminous harp case if their nuptials were interupted by a nosey member of staff on night patrol!!

There, thats it I'm afraid....., actually, back to the Garritan set, I bought the Garritan PO wa-a-ay back in march I think, but I still havent played with or even heard it as I want to put off installation until the G5 2GHz with a 20" 'new style' flat display eventually arrives. I ordered the G5 back in bloody april or may!! together with audio and midi interfaces, a pair of active Tapco S5 monitors and little 6 ch. Tapco mixer, MOTU's DP4 and a lastly a Kurzweil 2661. Even *THAT* hasnt got here yet!! (petulant sulk) That damned computer will be obsolete before I get my hands on it....never mind, patience is a virtue as they say.
regards, Jaysee

[Dimora]

That's hysterical!!! *jots the story down in a mental note* this is good stuff

No wonder I always wanted to learn harp when I was younger

[ROBBO2003]

Re: Stuck notes on Harp. Check to see how much dead air is living at the end of every individual sample clip. If you use a EXS24 this should be easy. But if you're using a package that comes with its own front end (like the NI one for the VSO) you might not be able to edit the separate sample clips. I recently got the first 'drumkit from hell' library and found I had to edit every sample clip to get the drums tight. There was up to 500 samples @ 44.1kh dead air at the begining of each drum hit, and some 2 seconds dead air at the end. The first is critical for timing and the latter for polyphony. Snare rolls can still jam the EXS24 up unless I use over 32 voices. If you own any of these new huge orch. libraries beware you might not be able to improve this situation because of the dedicated and exclusive sampler interface. Cheers Robbo2004

[fastlanephil]

Anyone using one of the new iMac G5s with GPO? Someone perhaps braver than I but hopefully happy with their purchase.

[fastlanephil]

A update to GPO & the Kontakt player will be be posted at Native Instruments on Monday 10/18/04. Many changes and fixes for both and maybe a little more Mac friendly.

[fastlanephil]

The GPO Update has created crackle noise problems for several people with non DP G5 Powermacs. I have a 933 iMac g4 & a FW extenal HD and had problems after six instruments and a string section. I can't open the session now because it crashes Metro. And this is without any effects. It's not looking good. Poor Mac support. It's time move on.

[fastlanephil]

I just ordered Sampletank XL 2 with a free Symphony Strings expansion tank. I don't think it's as good as GPO for orchestral samples and realism but it has a lot of great features and good Mac support. It has a future with the Mac. I'm not so sure about GPO but i'll hang on to it and see what happens.

[fastlanephil]

I found out that the problem of power requirements started with the move from Jaguar to Panther. CPU usage increased 300%! So if you can and want to run in Jaguar(10.2x) then no problem. I can't so i'll cry instead.