Spent most of the day dropping GPO5 in to older projects that had 4. I'm not noticing much difference when using the 5 string sections. Pretty much no difference. BUT, I have been using the Garritan Orchestra Strings library and there are tons of articulations that are going to prove very useful! I can't really comment on the woodwinds and brass, etc., because I have not gotten around to any projects that use them yet but I will say that the GOS new versions are really well done. They are worth the $50 upgrade on their own.

Believe the main brass, strings and woodwinds are the same. A lot of it is the same samples as before, but the new stuff they added is really good. The extra project SAM brass is a nice addition. The GOS strings sound much better than the old ones, although the small section violins have way too much vibrato. I don't know why they did that. The harps are a nice addition and new pianos sound good too. I was really surprised at how good the new choirs sound. One disappointment however the fact that we can't control the vibrato on the new solo strings. It's a simple feature to add, I wish they would just throw that in there instead of having the baked in vibrato. Although at least it is usable unlike the small section violins. Otherwise this is a great upgrade. Definitely worth the $50.

I agree, many of the sounds are the same, but they sound better to my ears, smoother, cleaner, purer. Esp. the woodwinds, always GPO's greatest strength.

+1 on the GPO woodwinds, as EW Hollywood woodwinds are not the best.

Fleer
+1 on the GPO woodwinds, as EW Hollywood woodwinds are not the best.

 I have SO Gold, and only use their flute. As for their brass, it's good, as are the strings and perc. I find that the two libraries compliment  each other well. I was also using Vienna Sp. Ed. but the problems outweigh the benefits. Their Eng Horn and Trumpet are wonderful, but all their instruments have a lag that is very hard to adjust, and get them to be in sync with other libraries. It also takes forever to load, and when I create a midi1 file to export, and I want to delete all the synths except GPO, my system crashes repeatedly when I try to delete their's. I have found you first have to delete every inst. And even then it takes several tries. So I've given up on it. Not worth it for just a few good sounds.

Just another thumbs up for GPO 5.
Significant upgrade from 4. Upgrade price of $50 is a no brainer for anyone still sitting on the fence. Even the full entry price is probably worth it.
 
John

I did not feel that Garritan 3 or 4 were worth the full price but still filled the bill well enough that I jumped on it. GPO 5 is definitely worth every penny now! Although, Miroslav 2 is still ahead but the full price is what you may expect for their asking price.
It is now very hard to pick between those two. And I still have Peter Szeidlaczak and DSF St. Thomas HD strings for DimPro sitting around.

I use several Dim Pro sounds. I have a theory that some of them are really souped-up GPO insts. If you listen to the flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon "in the venue," they sound like better versions of the GPO solos for those insts. As for DP strings, I occasionally use some as well, esp very high and very low. Their Horn solo is also very nice, and also sounds like its really GPO. When you say Thomas HD strings, are those the DP strings, or an expansion pac?

Sid    Have you checked out the free IK Harp for MP2? I have to install it this am.
 
I got the HD strings for DP(those are the St Thomas?), but realized I haven't used them yet, nor done much of anything with Siedlaczek, either.
Too focused on other stuff, I suppose.....
 

First review: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U8yelOl_rLU