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Can you just buy giga samples with out the engine. I only read a little about Giga and just since Tascam dropping it. I'm a die hard mac person. My understanding is pretty shallow because I never seriously considered that sampler. Seems the cool thing about giga is all the articulations of the layers and sounds for performance. I'm a guitar player and this is a weak area with my old Axon.[ it's the pitch to MIDI converter ] I have a stack of dead plastic expression pedals for that thing.

So, if I understand it correctly the giga files have instructions to make the sounds more like a real performance . I guess this might be thru velocity switching of the layers. Anyway, If it's possible to buy just the sample libraries do they come with the instructions...rules?? I don't know the nomenclature. I am ordering MF 2 next week and am wondering about this since I've heard so much hype about the giga stuff. Is it their larger sample size or the articulation instructions or both or what? Can someone please straighten me out on these questions?

Ron

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If you are, as you say, a die hard Mac person, then I wouldn't bother with Giga format stuff. ESPECIALLY now that it's been dropped by Tascam.

It sounds as if you are a bit confused. Tha Giga format, per se, has nothing to do with that realism of samples you talk about. Well it does in the sense that it makes them possible by "holding" the samples, but what really matters are the libraries that you buy, and the way they were recorded and programmed. It's not that Giga sounds better than say, Kontakt. These are just formats/containers different software developers use (or used) to deliver their libraries.
What you want to really check out are the LIBRARIES that are written using these (or other) formats. And to tell you the truth, every day looks more like every major player is developing his own in-hose format. VSL did. EWSO did. I think that's the future.

If you are going to buy a library of any kind, what you want to check out first is the quality of the samples. Then how they were programmed, and how you will host them. Does whatever interface is used help getting the most out of those samples?, etc.

But really. I see no reason to buy Giga stuff now. If you're into orchestral music, none of the major players use Giga format anymore. Sure, there were TONS of libraries written for that format, but I'm sure Kontakt has as many, and now that it doesn't have Giga's competition, it may be one of the last-standing "universal" formats.
So your priorities should be: Decide if you like a library. Find out what engine or format will have to be used (it can be a "universal" one like Kontakt, or, better yet, an in-house engine developed by the library maker especially to run its samples). Then see if whatever DAW you use supports that, etiher as Plug in, or Rewire, or stand alone, and work out the details (you might need a few external HDs just to run the libraries, as with VSL, for instance), you might need additional hardware, etc.
Then, learn it and go out there and make some great music.

Good luck.