Sibelius 4 with GPO and other misc. questions

(I searched but found no results.)

Has anyone here used Sibelius 4 with GPO?

Is it worth it?

I have Sibelius 3 and Kontakt Gold. I really like Sibelius 3. I think it is very advanced software with an intuitive interface. It is also a thousand times faster to compose on Sibelius than writing by hand. The only problem is that the Kontakt Gold samples are far from inspirational. I cannot get inspired by the whiny sounds.

I listened to the GPO samples and they sound very nice. I am seriously considering upgrading to Sibelius 4 and purchasing GPO for Sibelius.

I already have EWQL Gold, which is wonderful, and I can use it in my Logic Express 7 sequencer. My question, besides wondering if any of you have experience with GPO and Sibelius 4, is: should upgrade to Sib 4 and GPO when I already have EWQL Gold? My thought is that running GPO Sibelius Edition in Sibelius 4 would use less RAM than running Sibelius, a virtual MIDI cable, and Logic Express 7 along with EWQL Gold. With the extra RAM I could work more quickly and use more instruments simaltaneously. Am I correct, or would the difference be so minute that it isn't worth the $300 upgrade fee?

Also, I am considering Notion (which will be coming out for Macintosh next month I believe). Notion uses samples from the LSO recorded at Abbey Roads, which could be great. Does anyone have experience with Notion and can they comment on whether or not it is superior to Sibelius?

Finally, when I play a professional recording (with real instruments) on my laptop, it still sounds nice, but when I play a synthesized recording on my laptop, it sounds no where near as good as on my monitoring speakers. Is this because the professional recording is mastered?

Thanks,
Connor

P.S. My computer I run Sibelius on is an Apple iMac G5 1.8Ghz 17" with 1024 MB RAM.

Well, the GPO sounds are pretty nice, and you don't really need to upgrade Sibelius to get the GPO sounds, you can just buy the GPO notation edition from the Garritan site, as there are no differences between the Sibelius Edition GPO and the GPO notation edition... As for the Notion question, I had read the sound list, and they don't have all the sounds you need if you're thinking of doing some serious orchestral work...

Well, the GPO sounds are pretty nice, and you don't really need to upgrade Sibelius to get the GPO sounds, you can just buy the GPO notation edition from the Garritan site, as there are no differences between the Sibelius Edition GPO and the GPO notation edition... As for the Notion question, I had read the sound list, and they don't have all the sounds you need if you're thinking of doing some serious orchestral work...

Isn't the notation edition a smaller version that comes with Finale?

I thought Sibelius GPO is the full version.

If you're thinking of changing your notation software, then go with Finale hands down. While Notion is better than Sibelius, it's too new to be considered a viable competitor so I suggest you get Finale 2006 and use the Garritan version that comes with it (which is NOT the full version! IT has most of the sounds you'll need but is missing a lot from the full orchestra, which amateur orchestrators will not miss).

If, like me, you find that you need the full orchestra, then go ahead and buy the full Garritan Personal Orchestra, it really is worth the money; a full orchestra, quite complete in terms of instruments (check out the site), plus it sounds good and works well with the notation software.

Good luck!

You can buy the rest of the sounds from the full orchestra for like 189 from finale make music site. It comes in a dvd case. And has all the sound that did not make it into the condensed version included free with finale 2006

This is the basic instrument list: http://www.finalemusic.com/finale/features.../garritan2.aspx

And here is the additional sounds package for purchase for 189 dollars: http://www.finalemusic.com/finale/features...onalsounds.aspx

Pardon me for reviving a smelly, rotting, dusty, crumpling, aging, buried, petrified and falling-apart topic, but I had to ask something.

I am considering getting the GPO Sibelius version, and I had two questions--

1. Will it work with Sibelius 4? I'm pretty sure it will, but I had to check anyway.
2. How well do you think it would work with a laptop with 21 Gigs of memory left and 512 MB of standard RAM (not including 2 Gigs disk-shared RAM)

Originally Posted by Alan

Pardon me for reviving a smelly, rotting, dusty, crumpling, aging, buried, petrified and falling-apart topic, but I had to ask something.

I am considering getting the GPO Sibelius version, and I had two questions--

1. Will it work with Sibelius 4? I'm pretty sure it will, but I had to check anyway.
2. How well do you think it would work with a laptop with 21 Gigs of memory left and 512 MB of standard RAM (not including 2 Gigs disk-shared RAM)

I am running GPO with Sibelius 5 on 512 MB of RAM and it works okay as long as I use the dry samples. Occasionally the sounds will jump and lock up when the it's being played for the first time since opening it, but eventually it all runs perfectly.

OK thanks. I have heard that they take a LOT of memory and RAM, so I just had to make sure.

Garritan is potentially good with Sibelius, but it's really, really fiddly. So far, I've been unsatisfied with the results for ensembles of more than five or six instruments, since the setup can take as long as fifteen minutes, and the balance of instruments keeps randomly reassigning itself.

It's clearly not designed to integrate ergonomically, and whilst it's no doubt possibly given enough insertion of command-lines, MIDI functions and what-have-you, I simply can't be bothered. It's nice for doing a harpsichord and flute duet, but I lack the patience or skill to work out how to make an orchestra sound good with Garritan Personal 'Orchestra'.