Thanks, Mike. That's the plan - make some music. Cheaper than psychotherapy (but not by much).

Hi Dave
Really sorry to hear of your loss - lost my Sister and Dad over 25 years ago but my mum only a recently - I thought it may get easier, but it doesn't seem to - being busy on one thing or another, especially music, always helped me. Hope all goes well, you are in my thoughts
Nigel

Bit and Bajan, such losses are hard to cope with. Good thing there's music. Always.

Music is excellent therapy for such losses & other tough times, but I'm sure you know that already.
 
For anyone's curiosity I'll chime in with 2 things about GPO.
 
1. I got GPO many years ago in a deal thru Cakewalk here for $99.00. The Key Card license system is just a .png image that you just drag & drop onto the GUI and it's good to go from there on.
 
I don't imagine that's changed since then, as it's all too easy. I wish all were like that.
 
2. The one thing that I [and some others according to their forums] didn't like, was that there was no way to control the amount of vibrato on the solo violins. It's always on. Same amount, same intensity.
 
IIRC, I believe there is a short delay before it kicks in to emulate what most players would do, however in reality, not every player would employ vibrato each and every single time on every passage they play. On rare occasion, they wouldn't.
But this option is not provided.
Even Gary Garritan chimed in on the forum after numerous requests and said that it would be way to hard to implement an update to offer this as an option, so it won't ever be done - not without re-recording the samples - which of course would be way to expensive to do - like basically starting all over. He said that when recording the players, that's how they played it and no one thought to ask for straight none-vibrato samples at the time, so none were recorded.
 
For this reason, I only use it for things other than strings, ie; the piano is actually quite good, as are the flutes, etc.
 
I switched to Kirk Hunter's Concert Strings 2 and the newest Solo Strings. I got them during one of his 2 sales this year - both at 50% off.
I've since picked up Concert Brass as well.
 
@ Bit: If you're still looking, check out Kirk Hunter's stuff - it's actually a pretty good deal - when on sale.
 
[Concert Strings 2 & Concert Brass work in Kontakt 4 while Solo Strings requires K5.]
 
 
 

Thanks, jimusic. I like that authorization scheme; it's clever, simple and reliable.
 
There are pros and cons to the way GPO did vibrato. It sounds like the vibrato is real, baked into the samples. If that's the case, then the pro is that the vibrato is real and sounds real. The con, of course, is that it's not possible to alter the vibrato from whatever was originally recorded.
 
That would kinda be a showstopper for me, because vibrato is so crucial to convincing strings. Each player's going to apply a slightly different delay, amount, and rate, which fattens the sound of an ensemble. One of the problems I'm having with ST3 is controlling vibrato, which seems to jump from barely discernible to over-the-top air raid siren.
 
During my search, the Kirk Hunter stuff kept rising to the top of the pile. Unfortunately, Concert Strings or Pop/Rock Strings would require a Kontakt upgrade for me (another hundred bucks).
 
So I'm just going to have to make the best of ST3's strings. Funny, I just listened to some stuff I'd previously done with ST2 and Miroslav, and it sounds a lot better than ST3. If I can figure out why that is, I may be on my way to stringy Nirvana with ST3 yet.

Hey Bit, I thought you had Kontakt 4.
 
I wasn't even gonna upgrade to K5 - but - last December NI had the upgrade to K5 on for $49.
 
Perhaps you can watch for another upgrade deal for what ever version you have. Chances are they'll do that again in December.

I skipped the K5 upgrade even when it was $49 because the update brought almost nothing new to the game - not even any new factory content - and my favorite library developers were/are still K4-compatible.
 
But I always knew that someday some killer library would come along to force an upgrade. I just hoped K6 would happen first and that they'd throw in Giant or something to sweeten the deal. So far, neither has happened.
 
Plan B: live like a pauper for the next year and then go for the full VSL or LA Scoring Strings package. The first part of that plan is already in motion.

bitflipper
I skipped the K5 upgrade even when it was $49...
...Plan B: live like a pauper for the next year and then go for the full VSL or LA Scoring Strings package. The first part of that plan is already in motion...

Living like a pauper - Haha - I think most of us are doing that or at least have done it.  And you're lookin' at a guy who bought not one but 2 school busses, gutted them out made them into motorhomes and lived in them for a total of 10 years straight. And I built the first one while I was technically unemployed. I was quite amazed at how many people contributed spare parts and other building supplies to the project.
 
So I can sure relate to livin' like a pauper there Bit.
 
Back on topic: If you do have K4, Kirk Hunter's Concert Strings II works in K4. I just fired it up about an hour ago. Just FYI. 
 
That is of course unless he's changed or updated it to require K5.
 
Just checked - 50% off most products until Dec. 15.
 
http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/
 
Looks like Pop/Rock Strings works in K4 too.
http://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/req.html
 
 

You're right, it does still say K4 (K5 "recommended"). 
 
I've just been listening to the concert strings demos again...crap, they sound bloody awesome. They make ST3 sound like a 1970's Casio rompler. Now, just between you and me...how hard is it to make them sound that good, really?
 

Real easy - no Eq, no compression - just straight out of the box is good for me - at least to start with. I like to try to leave everything sounding as natural as possible, and don't mess with it until mix time forces me to do just a bit here & there.
 
But 50% off is awfully tempting, isn't it?