On 29 Jul 2005, at 8:03 PM, David W. Fenton wrote:
If HP works with any GM synthesizer, what's the advantage of GPO, then?
1) Apparently opinions differ here, but I think GPO sounds are clearly *far* superior to the Finale SoundFont, especially the wind, ensemble strings, and percussion instruments. I agree the solo strings are weak, but so are the solo strings in the Finale soundfont (especially the awful new solo violin in the 2006 soundfont). I suspect a lot of people who say the Finale soundfont is just as good as GPO have terrible computer speakers. (I have a pair of M-Audio BX5 studio monitors, and the difference is really dramatic.)
2) GPO + Human Playback support numerous playing techniques not included in the Finale SoundFont, including true legato on slurs, fluttertongue and n.v. flutes, mutes for all brass (except tuba), muted strings, recorded string trills and tremolos, short bows (short, sharp upbows and downbows), automatically alternating bow direction, harp harmonics and sons étoufées, and so on.
3) GPO includes slight variants of each instrument (Player 1, Player 2, etc) so unisons sound like real unisons and not just like a single player. It also includes instruments omitted from GM (alto flute, contrabassoon, bass clarinet, etc).
4) GPO includes massed string samples for each section (including discernibly different sounds for the first violins and second violins), whereas GM just has generic "strings."
5) GPO supports independent volume and velocity, so you can have sharply accented quiet notes or unaccented loud notes, plus very nice crescendos and decrescendos, with authentic timbre differences at appropriate dynamics. (In other words, the pp flute isn't merely a quieter version of the ff flute, it actually sounds like someone playing quietly.)
GPO obviously isn't nearly on the same level as, say, the Vienna Symphonic Library, but the Finale edition contains a substantial portion of the full GPO library (far more substantial than I had predicted, actually) bundled with the 2k6 upgrade.
- Darcy ----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Brooklyn, NY _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
