Garritan Orchestra Strings Giga

Been writing orchestral music for about 5 years now. Style differs from film track stuff to avante garde.

I use Sonar with Gigsampler 2.5 running in the background...very much a pc music user...hate macs.

I have been using the garritan strings library for about a fortnight now. I play it through headphone usually as I have neighbours.

I think these samples are a little over priced...better to get the personal orchestra set, that way you get some nice brass and woodwind samples too.

The garritan string library sounds "big". Too big for my liking. With samples of 10-14 violins you lose that personal/intimate touch which detracts from the realism of the samples. You must be extremely careful when sequencing these samples too, because even though they are quite well done, they can still come across as "programmed".

Overall, I would say the garritan string library is a fairly good library of useable sounds. I like the marcato bass sounds, most the tremolo string parts and the ensemble trills are quite well done.

I think the cellos are a little lacking in both marcato and "warm" articulations. Violas are nice although bland. 2nd violins are quite good.

Although, due to its desire to be the biggest and the best, it loses out on what essentially should be an "organic sound".