Garritan has announced that the Concert and Marching Band Library, a complete collection of concert and marching band sampled instruments, is now shipping.

The Garritan Concert and Marching Band Library features a broad variety of cornets, trombones, trumpets, baritones, euphoniums, mellophones, sousaphones, saxes, tenor horns, clarinets, flutes, piccolo, tubas, marching percussion and more. Also included are drumline sounds from the renowned Virtual Drumline 2 by Tapspace.

The Garritan Concert and Marching Band Library is the only library of its kind and fills a major void in the world of sample libraries. Concert, marching and other types of bands are thriving worldwide and have become an increasingly important part of musical culture and society. It is estimated there are over 17,000 high school bands in the USA alone. Further, there are countless college and university bands, community bands, military bands, drum and bugle corps, bands in sporting events, and parade bands ­ there may be more concert and marching bands than any other form of musical group. There is such widespread interest and demand for a band library of this breadth and scope and Garritan has marched to the beat of a different drum to meet this need.

The Garritan Concert and Marching Band Library is designed for easy playability and features standardized controls for dynamics and expression. Ensemble building enables users to quickly build bands of varying size ­ from both groups of instruments or with individual instruments. The flexibility of the Garritan Concert and Marching Band can create marching bands, concert bands, British brass bands, modern drum and bugle corps, wind orchestras, symphonic bands, wind ensembles, and custom bands of any configuration.

Powered by the Native Instruments Kontakt 2 Player, the Garritan Concert and Marching Band runs on a single computer and/or laptop, Mac or PC platform. A standalone player is included, as well as plug-ins for all major sequencers (VST, DX, AU, RTAS). The library is also optimized for use in Sibelius 5 and Finale 2008 for direct playback from score. An entire concert or marching band can be loaded on a single PC or laptop.

The Concert and Marching Band provides composers, educators, and students with a powerful tool that supplies valuable feedback during the compositional and arranging process. It gives band directors a means of working out drill routines and sectional interplay. It also provides musicians with a comprehensive array of brass, woodwind and percussion sounds to add to their tracks. This library seeks to raise awareness of band music and to encourage and provided needed tools to a new generation of band composers.

Pricing and Availability
Garritan Concert and Marching Band is priced at $239 and is shipping now. It is available from the Garritan website or from Hal Leonard, Finale, Sibelius, Time & Space and resellers worldwide.

Audio demos, drill video, instrument list, etc. are available.