On 02 Jul 2005, at 12:03 PM, Johannes Gebauer wrote:
> Since GPO has been the subject on this list a lot recently, I would
> like to voice my own opinion: Not nearly as good as I hoped.
>
> I am particularly disappointed with the solo strings, which are in
> fact worse than Finale's own soundfont. I think I may go back to that,
> even putting up with the dreadfully out of tune violin, just because
> at least the sound is vaguely like a violin. GPO's solo strings don't
> seem to come even close to a natural solo string sound, or am I
> missing something? If I compare especially the cello with Finale's
> soundfont, the soundfont wins by a large margin.
>
> The ensemble sounds in GPO are much better, though I can't quite
> follow the hype.
>
> Johannes
> --
> http://www.musikmanufaktur.com
> http://www.camerata-berolinensis.de
Johannes,
I'm sure you've read posts by new Finale users, they just bought Finale but they don't understand why their music doesn't look like engraved music. The answer is always that they've scratched the surface on what the tools can do, but it takes study to get elegant results. The same is true for GPO. Fortunately the learning curve doesn't take as long to learn as Finale does, but it does require study nonetheless.
The GPO manual provides basic information, but as you've found out, you'll need more info. Posting to a Finale discussion group that the GPO sounds worse than a soundfont won't solve your problem. I'm assuming that you listened to GPO demos before purchasing. Then you must have liked what you heard, or you wouldn't have bought it.
There are people here who use GPO and will offer advice. But go to Northern Sounds, that's where the experts are. Search the forum. Post questions. Most of the answers you'll need are already there.
If you string attacks are too slow, the first thing I'd do is increase the base key velocity in the Finale playback engine.
I provided the Keyswitch _expression_ files on the GPO website. For future reference, the one library file that you said was not useable for you, is not true. It's a Finale text _expression_ library in a text file format. You can download to your HD. When you want to load that library to a document, choose show "all files". It should load correctly. If it doesn't download correctly it might be a browser problem.
The GPO tutorials and help files have all been created by users who want to share their expertise with others. As you work thru your problems and discover the solutions, I would suggest that you document your discoveries and post your experiences to the GPO forum. Others will benefit from your lessons.
Good luck.
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