Garritan Orchestral Strings GiGA

P2P | 20 April 2006 | 5.07 GB

Gary Garritan took violin lessons as a child and later studied the harp as a teenager, providing the inspiration for creating GigaHarp, a sample library that helped put GigaSampler on the map in 1998. However, returning to his first instrument, Gary decided that none of the existing string libraries were good enough and resolved to create his own. The resulting achievement is an 8GB library on 16 CDs (or 2 DVDs) devoted to reproducing the performance nuances of orchestra-sized string ensembles — a vast and ground-breaking piece of work. The recording sessions took place over a two-week period at New York’s Lincoln Centre using a hand-picked team of string players with priceless instruments, including a couple of Stradivaris — the Rolls Royce of the stringed instrument world. The 47 musicians were divided into 22 violins (also split into 12 first and 10 second), 10 violas, eight cellos, and seven double basses, and were recorded using B&K, Neumann, and Crown microphones into an Apogee A/D converter at 88.2kHz/24-bit.

The manual supplied with GOS is practically a work of art on its own, supplied in a ringbound folder containing the discs and an extensive, well-written, and beautifully printed guide to navigating and using the library. It also provides great insight into the creation of the library with commendable openness and honesty. As an added touch, the front page of the manual is custom printed with the name of the Maestro (the ego-indulgent title attached to GOS users) who purchased the library.

The library itself is divided into three categories: ‘Long Bows’, ‘Short Bows’ and ‘Additional Techniques’. As you would expect, the violins have the most variations (including up- and down-bow versions of the ‘short bow’ techniques, détaché, portato, marcato, martelé, sautillé, spiccato, and staccato), but the other sections aren’t far behind. In fact, though there are no chords, melodic phrases, grace notes, or runs, the number of styles still far exceeds any other string library on the market.

INFO/DEMO/BUY: https://mage.si/oXE3
Garritan Orchestral Strings GiGA
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