So you don't see the daily quotes from the EWQLSO camp about, "GPO group-buy for $139? It's still crap. I wouldn't even take it as a gift!"? You didn't see the post here telling KVR how Gary Garritan secretly bought NSS? Haven't visited the VI Control or SO forums lately?might be perhaps....the garritan users.they have a little sect-alike ivory-tower opinion about their "community" and their product.
Well, the GPO users have their cultish community pride, but the EWQLSO camp are the ones in their ivory tower lording their sonic superiority. Quite a two-way street.
But they're both in the right, somewhat. They just take it a bit far to extremes. Then again, it's easy to lob bombs over a wall at an enemy you can't see.
The odd thing is, why is there an insistence upon comparison between a $250 product intended for mock-ups with low-resource computing (with looped samples) with a $1000 or $3000 product intended for final rendering requiring a second computer?
Aren't the Gold and Platinum users confident enough in their purchase that they don't have to slag on the "little guy" constantly and take away from the fact that GPO is a great tool for beginners as an all-in-one solution?
On the other hand, can't GPO users recognize the fact that a $1000 or $3000 library with long samples will always sound better than one intended to fit into RAM? Some still try to argue it, or at least point out that it's just as useful for mock-ups (which it is). Some don't, and just point out superiority in community (which I also say it is: because it has ME!
)Comparing GPO vs Silver? That's a tough one, the eternal question, where to drop your cash when making your first tentative step? I always tell people that either is good. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, and anyone who already had $250 set aside for this decision would be crazy not to buy them *both* for $300 while they're currently near half price!
I personally made my choice based on GPO's custom ensemble building and dry samples for chamber work, but I'll agree immediately that I like Silver's brass better and acknowledge that it's the right choice for the Hollywood sound.
Well that's where the comparison fails: GPO was designed to be *close enough* to the real thing *while fitting a resource footprint*. That's how it was designed, period. It's for learning orchestration, for creating mock-ups for arrangers orchestrators that work with real ensembles, and it'll do in a pinch to provide orchestral sound for someone on a budget.an orchestral library has always a big reference: the real thing. you want it to sound like the real thing.
It doesn't walk on water or heal the blind and crippled: it does what it was intended to do, and does it rather well for an affordable price.
EWQLSO Platinum, on the other hand, was designed to *replace* the real thing. It is intended to be recorded as final output, with no real players needed.
And it's expensive. But it too does what it was intended to do, and does it very well.
So what I'd like to know is, why the f**k can't people on *both* sides acknowledge these facts?
- m
(Full disclosure: I'm a compensated Garritan product user. But I also know human nature and the software industry better than most!
Also, Nick and Doug, feel free to send me some product in exchange for custom MFX plugin work: *that's* how you can build community. 
)
