Garritan Vs Miroslav Philharmonik

[bump]

About to pick up one of the two programs can someone tell me which one is the better of the two Garritan or Miroslav Philharmonik? I can also be reached at: giljo321@aol.com

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Well, better is a relative question. I have the Garritan stuff and it's very decent. I use the solo strings a lot for my mock ups to send to my players. I'm not to hot on their ensemble stuff. Also, the Garritan uses the Aria Player exclusively and it will not load into any other players. That is kind of a downside. Perhaps others with experience with the MP stuff can add their experiences.

BTW, the key switching in the GPO set works reliably, FWIW...

[cuttime]

I use both, and they each have strengths and weaknesses. I love the Garritan instruments, however, they are in your face, and need a bit of tweaking to behave in a mix. The CC#11 is your friend. The MP (the IK Multimedia edition, (there are others)), is more "out of the box" and loose. Less tweaking is the result; the sounds are more relaxed and less immediate. Not a lot of hard attacks. What I don't understand about the MP instruments is that they provide effects to sounds recorded in a symphonic hall! Effects on top of effects makes mud.

[Frodo]

For the prices, both are great. I prefer Miro. For all the attacks and effects, there are gobs of customizable options with Miro- and tweaking the ADSR is a necessity with the not-so-expensive libraries. I disable the effects and do my own and find this easier to deal with than, say, EWQLSO, where effects and the risk of mud are also something to consider.

Once you get into EWQLSO, you also get into greater hardware demands, so EW has to be considered a different ball of wax for the price difference. VSL and the new Audio Impressions stuff also fit into that different ball of wax and price difference--- but they sound amazing.

Don't know what good it'll do, but I'll offer this for the record: I don't use either Miro or Garritan for final audio production. The beauty of both is that they can be used on one single machine without having to deal with gobs of hard drives and a network. I can start either on one machine and just go to work. I find much merit in that. Being able to do early drafts of mockups is nice without having to turn one's nose up at the sound. Miro and Garritan enable me to do that.

[Movies]

I've not used Garritan, but I've definitely spent some time with MP.

As far as augmenting projects in which orchestral instruments are NOT the main focus, I think it works really well. For downright full-on orchestral pieces, however, I think it really falls short. Still, for the money, it's a pretty nice thing to have.

It's also worth noting that, with the included effects, one can produce some super interesting, non-traditional textural effects.

Really, at this point, I mostly use it to put together demos of compositions for performers in the off chance that my notation is in some way or for some reason inadequate.*

*Which would NEVER happen.

[Frodo]

Youtube remains a decent resource. Here's the first of a five-part tutorial on Miro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZA6HoHM3TE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Garritan--- don't let this video turn you off. The guy is just playing as a keyboardist and the results sound very keyboard-y:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHeD9tl9z34" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here's a rather sleepy "MTV dude" sort of bedroom review of Garritan, but it proves to be a decent walkthrough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15jlliX2ZLY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In terms of sound quality, this is a little more to my liking:

VSL