Player Variations

Staff Names

First, an important disclaimer - when you choose Garritan Personal Orchestra, Garritan Personal Orchestra Finale Edition, or Garritan Jazz and Big Band in the Setup Wizard, you are choosing instruments, not staff names. Since you probably don't want your solo violin staff to be labeled "Violin 2 Strad KS Solo" (for example), the Setup Wizard automatically assigns a more appropriate staff name - like "Violin." You can, of course, edit these staff names afterwards if you are unhappy with the defaults the Setup Wizard selects for you.

Player Vs. Player

Garritan Instruments like Flute Player 1, Flute Player 2, and Flute Player 3, etc. are best used when your score has multiple instruments of that type — for instance, if your score calls for three flutes, you would probably want to assign the Flute 1 staff (or layer) to Flute Player 1, the Flute 2 staff(/layer) to Flute Player 2, and the Flute 3 staff(/layer) to Flute Player 3. These Player Variations all have slight differences in timbre and intonation and are designed to be used together in a flute section — this way, unison lines played by two or three flutes sound like authentic unisons, instead of sounding like a single flute.

Player Vs. Solo

Garritan Instruments like Piccolo Solo, Flute Solo, Oboe Solo, etc., are designed to be used when your score has only one instrument of that type — for instance, in a piece for wind quintet, you would normally use Flute Solo, Oboe Solo, Bb Clarinet Solo, Bassoon Solo, and French Horn Solo. The Solo instruments use more memory than the Player instruments. This is because almost every note of a Solo instrument is a separate sample (i.e., recording of that note). On the other hand, each Player instrument is derived from a Solo instrument, and contains only a subset of all the samples used in that Solo instrument. (When a Player instrument needs to play a note it doesn’t have a sample for, it uses a pitch-shifted version of a nearby sampled note instead. This all happens automatically behind the scenes, and is not something you need to worry about.) Moreover, each individual Player instrument uses a different subset of samples — in other words, none of the samples used in a Player 1 instrument are shared by the Player 2 or Player 3 instruments, etc. That’s why when Player 1, Player 2, and Player 3 are all playing in unison, it sounds like three different players — because each GPO Player instrument uses a different sample when playing the same note. However, since all the Player Variations are derived from a single Solo instrument, you should avoid mixing Solo and Player versions of the same instrument in the same piece. Again, if your score calls for one flute, it’s usually best to use Flute Solo. If your score calls for multiple flutes, use Flute Player 1, Flute Player 2, etc.

Another difference between the Solo and Player instruments is that the Solo instruments sometimes have a more soloistic timbre — this is especially true of Flute Solo, which has a much more pronounced and expressive vibrato than any of the Player flutes. One final difference is that the Solo instruments all default to 1-note polyphony. See the entry on Performance Tips for more information about polyphony.

Instrument 1 Vs. Instrument 2

In Full GPO, there are sometimes multiple Instrument Variations as well as Player Variations. As discussed above, the Player Variations are all derived from the same Solo instrument — for instance, Bb Clarinet Player 1, Bb Clarinet Player 2, and Bb Clarinet Player 3 are based on Bb Clarinet Solo.

On the other hand, Instrument Variations are literally samples of different instruments, often made by different manufacturers, and usually played by different players. This means the timbral differences between Instrument Variations are much more pronounced than those found in the Player variations. (Sometimes, instrument variations even have different ranges — compare full GPO’s Bass Trombone 1 Solo with Bass Trombone 2 Solo!). For example, in Full GPO, you have Bassoon 1 Player 1, Bassoon 1 Player 2, and Bassoon 1 Player 3 — all derived from Bassoon 1 Solo — but then you also have Bassoon 2 Player 1, Bassoon 2 Player 2, and Bassoon 2 Player 3 — based, as you might expect, on Bassoon 2 Solo. The Bassoon 2-based instruments all sound very different from the Bassoon 1-based instruments. Other full GPO instruments that feature Instrument Variations (as opposed to just Player Variations) include Oboe, English Horn, Contrabassoon, Horn, Trumpet, Bass Trombone, Tuba, Harp, and Violin.

Keyswitched Instruments

Keyswitched instruments have “KS” at the end of their name. They are instruments that contain multiple sample sets and can therefore play back using multiple performance techniques without having to switch instruments or channels — see the entry on Keyswitches for more details.

Note that keyswitch instruments have higher memory demands than non-keyswitch instruments.

When a keyswitched version of an instrument is available, you will normally want to use that instead of the “regular” version of the instrument — otherwise, many playing techniques that are normally automatically interpreted by Human Playback, such as “pizz.,” “arco,” etc., will have no effect. So you generally want to choose Viola Solo KS instead of Viola Solo; Cellos KS instead of Cellos Arco, etc. In GPO Finale Edition, only the harp, timpani, and strings (solo and section) come in keyswitched versions.

In Full GPO, flute, brass, and some percussion instruments also have keyswitched versions — In JABB, all of the trumpets and trombones come in keyswitched versions. Again, see the entry on Keyswitches for more.

Lite Instruments

Lite instruments are only available in JABB. Since the full JABB instruments demand vastly more processing power than the GPO or GPO Finale Edition Instruments, they are also available in alternative versions that omit some of the advanced features found in the full JABB instruments (such as growl and fluttertongue), and use less RAM. Use the Lite instruments if you are having trouble playing back your score with the full JABB instruments. You can also mix and match Lite and full JABB instruments - for instance, you might assign a solo part to a full instrument and ensemble parts to the Lite instruments. Don't forget to use the Lite Instruments found inside the Notation Folder - not the "regular" Lite instruments.

Choosing Instruments

Now that we've covered the difference between Solo Instruments, Player Variations, Instrument Variations, Keyswitched Instruments, and Lite Instruments, we're ready to go over the process of choosing instruments for your score in more detail.

GPO Finale Edition

Instrument selection in GPO Finale Edition is relatively straightforward because you have fewer choices than full GPO. Here are some general guidelines to follow:

• Always choose the KS string instruments — for both solo strings and section strings Provided you are are not restricted by system or memory limitations.
• Use Solo instruments when your score calls for only one of that instrument — for example, if your score has only one flute, use Flute Solo instead of one of the Player Variations (like Flute Player 1).
• Use Player Variations when your score calls for multiple players of that instruments — for example, if your score calls for two trumpets, use Bb Trumpet Player 1 and Bb Trumpet Player 2. Do not use Bb Trumpet Solo in this situation.

Full GPO

Full GPO gives you many additional instrument choices. Here are some tips that will help you choose intelligently:

• Use KS instruments whenever possible — this will give you the most flexibility and ensure that Human Playback can always interpret expressions like “pizz.” and “mute.”
• Use Solo instruments when your score calls for only one of that instrument — and use keyswitched solo instruments (like Flute Solo KS) when available. If the Solo instrument is available in several Instrument Variations (e.g., Contrabassoon, Tuba, Solo Violin etc.), choose the variation with the most appropriate timbre and/or playable range for your piece.
• When possible, use Instrument Variations when your score calls for multiple players of that instrument — for instance, if your score has two bassoons, use Bassoon 1 Solo and Bassoon 2 Solo. Or if your score has three bassoons, use a mix of Instrument Variations and Player Variations — like, say, Bassoon 1 Player 1, Bassoon 1 Player 2, and Bassoon 2 Player 1. Use keyswitched instrument variations (like Violin 2 Strad KS Solo) when available.
• Use Player Variations when Instrument Variations aren’t available — for instance, if you have two clarinets, use Bb Clarinet Player 1 and Bb Clarinet Player 2. Do not use Bb Clarinet Solo in this situation. Use keyswitched player variations (like Trumpet 1 Player 1 KS) when available.

JABB

• Use KS instruments whenever possible - this will ensure that Human Playback can always interpret mute change expressions like "harmon" and "bucket."
• Get to know the instruments - the instruments included in JABB are all very individualistic and have a lot of personality. Tenor Sax 2 might be too bright for your tender ballad, while Tenor Sax 4 might be too mellow for your R&B horn section. You should try them all before you decide which instruments are right for your score.
• Don't worry about Player vs. Solo vs. Instrument variations - JABB doesn't use those labels, because almost all of the JABB instruments are distinct solo instruments. The upshot of this is that if you need to, you can use all four JABB Tenor Saxophones in the same piece with no restrictions.
• Use Lite instruments if your are close to the minimum system requirements. JABB requires the equivalent of a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 or a 1.8 GHz G5, plus at least 1 GB of RAM, and that's just for basic playback of a small group of instruments. If your computer just barely meets the system requirements, you will likely want to use the Lite instruments exclusively.

Re-using GPO Instruments

Despite the many instruments and variations included in the Garritan libraries Finale Edition and full GPO, you might still sometimes find yourself in situations where you need to re-use the same GPO instrument multiple times in a score. Here are some of the most common situations that require this:

• You are using GPO Finale Edition and you have a score that calls for first and second violins. (GPO Finale Edition has only one section violins instrument, Violins KS.)
• You are using GPO Finale Edition and you have four or more horns. (GPO Finale Edition has only three Player Variations for the horns.)
• Your score calls for multiple flutes, but you would prefer they all use the soloistic vibrato used in the Flute Solo instrument (both GPO and GPO Finale Edition).
• You are using full GPO and you have multiple flutes that require the “fluttertongue” or “n.v.” keyswitch. (In full GPO, only the Solo flute comes in a keyswitched version.)
• You are using full GPO and you have four or more horns, all of which use mutes at some point. (In full GPO, only the three Player Variations based on French Horn 1 Solo are keyswitched.)
• You are using the JABB Lite instruments, and you need five fluegelhorns. (JABB has five non-Lite flugels but only three lite versions.)

These are just some of the situations where you might need to re-use a GPO instrument. While this is generally best avoided, sometimes - as in the cases above - you have no choice. To make the best of the situation, first make certain Use a Separate Channel for Each Staff is selected in Page 2 of the Setup Wizard (this is always a good idea, but it's especially important when re-using instruments):

Also make certain each staff is assigned a different pan value — the Setup Wizard does this automatically, but if you want to know about customizing pan values, see the section on The Mixer and Studio View. This will create some stereo separation between each version of the instrument.

You may also be tempted to try to slightly detune one of the duplicate instruments using the Kontakt Player controls to try to create more convincing unisons, but this is not recommended, as it tends to create very bad phasing problems.