I have absolutely no problems with using the Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO) with Logic. Currently, the GPO uses Native-Instrument's +Kontakt 2 Player+ as do many, many other instrumental libraries. With that in mind, the other instrumental libraries (powered by +Kontakt 2 Player+ ) work just fine with Logic as well. Very shortly, though, the GPO will be coming out with its own "player" called
Aria. To make a somewhat long story short,
Aria works just fine with Logic as well.
As for the sound of GPO's solo string instruments. . . . I tell you, any of the sounds can and do sound unrealistic or synthy if played without manipulation. What makes them sound quite realistic is a tiny bit of effort with controlling the volume, vibrato, and a couple of audio parameters that can (and should) be manipulated during the sequencing process. But this is true for most if not ALL orchestral libraries made by any of the other instrumental software companies. For just a little under $200.00 (USA) dollars, you get a whole LOT of orchestral instruments that sound quite convincing. . . with a little effort! I would say that GPO is an EXCELLENT orchestral library to start with if you plan on doing lots of orchestral compositions for almost any musical situations. If you're like me, than you might want to later invest in other orchestral libraries and use them in combination with the GPO library. Again, with a little effort, one can achieve an even MORE realistic sound using combinations of instrumental software libraries.
But I suggest that you simply visit the GPO site. There you'll find a HUGE selection of demos that show off the GPO library in a very convincing way! I have heard examples by people who put a whole LOT of effort in their sequencing project that just sound very, very life-like! So not only did they put LOTS of effort in manipulating the individual orchestral sounds (including strings), but they put LOTS of effort in planning careful instrumental placement in the stereo field, proper use of reverb, EQing, etc., etc. There truly are examples of very life-like sounding orchestrations using GPO on the official web site! (There are also some very less than convincing examples as well.) So, take some time and explore the web site:
http://www.garritan.com.
You'll find even MORE examples at:
http://www.northernsounds.com
Good luck with your decision. . .
Ted
P. S. Just for a little clarification. . . . the +Kontakt 2 Player+ (that currently houses GPO and many other instrumental libraries) can be a bit of a challenge to configure to work properly with the multi-instrument function found within Logic Pro 8. It's also a bit of a CPU and memory hog. But with some adjustments and some proper configuration, the +Kontakt 2 Player+ and its instrumental libraries that it powers will work just fine with Logic.
