Will Garritan Personal Orchestra work with PrintMusic?

[chillowack]

I know Finale integrates with Garritan--does this go for PrintMusic as well?

I'm hoping to compose in PM, and then feed the composition into Garritan Personal Orchestra, to get more realistic instrument sounds.

Is this possible?

[ernesto1956]

I'm no expert on this, but a few months ago someone wanted to do almost exactly what you are talking about using one of my PM .mus files. I sent him a copy of the .mus file, then he told me he was not able to open that, and suggested I try sending him a MIDI file. This he was able to use and manipulate it with his Garritan. I was not that impressed by his "improvements" of my music, but that is another point altogether.

[chillowack]

Thanks for sharing this story ernesto, it's helpful.

So from what you're saying, it sounds like a PrintMusic file can be worked on in Garritan, as long as it's in MIDI form.

Question: what exactly was it about his Garritan version of your piece that you didn't like? Was it the sounds of the instruments, or was it more your friend's orchestrations?

Did the instruments in the Garritan version sound more realistic than those in Finale? That's what I'm aiming for.

Thanks for your help.

[ernesto1956]

The guy who re-worked my piece was attempting to rewrite it a bit more to his liking, change a few rhythms, and change some of the instrumentation. No real attempt (that I am aware of) was made to simply enhance the existing instrumentation in order to make it sound more realistic. Whether the instruments sound more real or not, you will need to determine for yourself. It certainly is worth a try.