DZComposer

Don't use my work (at least the stuff I have here) as a make-or-break judgement of GPO. I was using Noteworthy Composer when I did both V to the X Power and Mercenarios de Lobo. Not an easy program to use with GPO, and can't use GPO to it's fullest. I have since graduated to Cubase. Besides, I never claimed that GPO had excellent sample quality. There are definitely areas where it is lacking and performance and post-processing must be used to make up for it. Maybe it's because I used GPO before I used EWQL, but in my experience GPO was better sounding in softer stuff. But I mostly do brass-heavy stuff which is definately a GPO weakness and one of the main reasons I picked up EWQL and have definately had much better results there with that type of music. I'm not trying to say GPO is better at everything, but I don't think it should just be dismissed as an option.

I use both GPO (and most of Garritan's other products) and EWQLSO Gold. Before doing any buying, ask yourself this: What type of music do you plan on writing? These libraries are designed totally differently than eachother. GPO is designed to be musical, so the library is designed for playability instead of sample quality. You can do a lot with each instrument in terms of articulations. You do not need to load separate instruments for staccato, sustain, etc. Out-of-the-box, GPO sounds very weak, but if you take the time to learn it you can create very nice, lyrical, passages that can more than make up for the sample quality. Excellent solo woodwind and string instruments. Especially Violin 3. Beautiful. Note that only the strings are section sampled. GPO uses what Garritan calls "Ensemble Building" to create different sized sections by loading different instruments. The brass, though, is not well suited to aggressive-style playing. GPO is excellent for "softer" music and more traditional classical styles. GPO also has more instruments in it's library than EWQL. Also, Garritan has excellent customer service and a very helpful forum community should you require assistance with something. GPO is not hard to use, it is just different and some of the more advanced controls take a little extra time to use. If you're looking for a film score style sound or plan on using a lot of big brass, look more towards EWQL. EWQL also produces faster results as it is a more traditional-style library and you do not need to monkey with MIDIccs to change the sound. That said, it can't play nearly as musical as GPO can in a softer setting. I often times find myself splitting parts between sustain, marcato, and staccato instruments. I haven't really been overly happy with the solo woodwinds or strings in this library, though. Note that EastWest is implementing a new player for their libraries. Beware: it requires a dongle that you have to purchase seperately. Get the Kompakt version if you can. For this reason I will never patronize EastWest again. Neither library is crap. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know the library well.

Okay, I lied. My idea didn't turn out so hot. It's just too electronic for me.

This song is WAY to electronic for my taste, yet I'm still tempted to try something for it. Hmm... For real this time.

Oh crap, how the hell did I forget about this? Meh.... Maybe next time...

NKI files are NOT soundfonts. They are Kontakt instruments. Finale GPO is not designed to work outside of Finale. You may be able to load the NKIs into something, but I do not know if the programming will work as designed or if it will work at all. It also may be a license agreement violation (if that matters to you, of course). Finale does have a human playback emulation function. Have you tried it? I don't use Finale myself so I can't tell you how to activate it, but I'm sure someone else can. EDIT: Garritan's site has a tutorial on how to use Human Playback. http://garritan.com/tutorial/HumanPlayback_Tutorial.html If you plan to use FL more, you may want to consider getting the full version of GPO.

Oh yeah. Do want. In fact, I already have an idea.....

How else can you really show a company that you disapprove of a decision they made than to not buy a product for that reason? Dongles annoy me. I don't want to buy a damn USB hub and install as many protection device drivers as dongles just to use my software. Plus, it illustrates a mindset that I, the customer, am not to be trusted. Of course, a dongle alone won't stop me from buying, but when a company decides to stick it to their customers to buy a protection device for THEIR benefit (what benefit, besides unlocking the software, do I, the customer, get from that purchase?) then I have a serious problem. I don't want them to stick me, the legitimate customer, with the costs of their paranoid fears of 13-year-olds who couldn't afford to buy the product anyway downloading it over BitTorrent. If we, the customers, keep bending over and taking it, this practice will not stop.

Damn it, why didn't they do shit like this before they pissed me off with their new dongle-sold-seperately crap? Meh.... Oh well, not like I could take advantage of it even if I didn't swear never to buy another EastWest product again. I already spent my samples budget on Garritan and Steinway's new piano library. :/

Hmm... Interesting piece. And I'm getting delivery of a new sample library this week..... If time permits, I'm in.

I didn't think it was too close to the OGC arrangement, which parts do you feel were? While I did intend it to sound a lot like the original, I did not intend it to sound like OGC. There are some major differences between this and the OGC. Notably, OGC removed a lot of the original countermelodies, which I did not, and added a D.S. al Coda to lengthen the piece.

Most of the horn parts actually come from the original. I've always loved them, being a horn player myself. That sample really helps, too. Most of the horn in the piece comes from the Kontakt 2 library, which has a wonderful scripted legato horn from VSL. I had to modify the range, though, as it was restrictive. The edgy and solo sounds come from EWQLSO Gold, as do most of the other sounds. Most of the percussion is from Virtual Drumline 2.5.

This year is the 15th anniversary of Star Fox. From what I gather, "Jyugo" is Japanese for the number fifteen (please correct me if it is wrong). I may change that title anyway. This is an orchestration arrangement of the ending credits from the SNES Star Fox, meaning that it is written as it would for performance by a real orchestra (to the best of my ability, at least, as I have no formal orchestration training). http://www.corneriasound.com/betamusic/sfjyugo002.mp3 I plan to add some more parts, and maybe adjust the tempos in some spots. I would like to submit this, but it may be too much like the original to pass the judges. This is more of a "what the piece might have sounded like if written 15 years later" type of arrangement instead of an "I am going to totally redo this piece" type of arrangement most commonly done here. We'll see.

I do my part to give Star Fox a larger percentage of remix work. Both of my submissions here are from the series, as well as my VGMix stuff and the stuff on my own site (corneriasound.com). This thread at this SF forum has some: http://forums.starfox-online.net/index.php?topic=2888.0 (note that some linked songs are on a site with content some might find disturbing) Yeah, shameless plugs, I know......

I don't have a different username. The reason I didn't make it is that I didn't have much ready (like the intro and three phrases, that's it.), and I had to be at work at 8AM Tuesday. An all-nighter wasn't worth it. If I would have read this thread sooner, it would have been different.

I'm working on something, but I'm having doubts about being able to finish it on time. EDIT: No, I definitely won't be able to finish in time. At least not with it not sounding like crap. I may turn it into a full-fledged OCR-submission-mix, though.

OH YEAH! I'm so in for this one.

I can add a voice of approval for EWQL Gold Pro XP. But, be aware that if you get the PLAY version of one of these, you will need to buy an iLok dongle separately (that there is the #1 reason why I will never buy another EastWest product. Dongles, I grumble. Stick it to me to buy the dongle separately, screw it.).

Moderation. Always use compressors in moderation. The volume knob on your sound system goes beyond 4 for a reason. Here are two waveforms of the same song. One was mastered in 1981, the other in 2005 (pics from Wikipedia, licensed GNU FDL). 1981: Notice how the compressor was used in moderation. None of the peaks hit the clip lines. Also, you can clearly see the dynamics in the bulk of the waveform. 2005: BRICK! BAD! UGH! It may be loud, but it sacrifices sound quality and dynamic range to be so. I mean, yuck. That's one reason why I don't like today's music. The dynamics are stunted. There isn't as much dynamic range. Also, note now that almost all all of the peaks are right at the clip lines. Not to mention, things like the bass drum and bass get their "umph" stolen by the compressor. Also notice how the main song loses it's impact from the intro. The original difference between the loudest peak of the intro and the main song beginning is about a 50 db difference. The brick is only around 20 db difference. 2005 is louder, but sounds like crap. Use your compressor/limiter reasonably, but don't overdo it. If the waveform looks like a brick, you did it wrong. If you want to listen loud, turn up the volume on your speaker system. Great article on the subject for further reading: http://www.prorec.com/Articles/tabid/109/EntryID/247/Default.aspx

Hmm.... I have an idea for this one. EDIT: Oh, and if I win again this time, I promise not to pick something from the Star Fox series.

Happy Pro 88 user here. Great action compared to other boards I had tried. Not 100% like the piano, but it's pretty good. The Pro is heavy, though, so be warned. It also lacks aftertouch if that is important, though it can be assigned to a knob, slider, or pedal if you need it.

Definitely NOT epic orchestral. Not even Orchestral, really. This is some breed of electronic music. It didn't strike me as "epic" either, but that may just be a matter of taste.

Oh, love theme. Interesting. I need to do more original stuff. I may give this one a shot.

My appologies for the doublt-post, but I found something that may be helpful to the original poster (or anyone else interesting in mixing jazz style): http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=107 It is written with the assumption that you are using JABB, but it looks like it should apply anywhere.

I'm not trying to say that JABB has the highest quality samples or that it is better than library x. I'm just saying don't dismiss it as crap without an understanding of how this library works as it is vastly different than most libraries out there. It may not have the best sample quality, but it can do some amazing things performance-wise (some of which can improve the quality of sound if done right) which is the true strong point of the library. What it lacks in sample quality, it makes up for in playability, expressiveness, and musicality.