Endorsements

Pretty amazing!… A few years ago, if you’d told me that I could own a beautifully-sampled, truly portable symphony orchestra, I would have thought you were nuts. But today it exists. The Garritan Personal Orchestra is a composer’s dream. Not only are the patches eminently playable, but with my Powerbook and Korg Micro Kontrol, I can write orchestral music anywhere. I love it.”
JJ Abrams

J.J. Abrams is a film and television producer, screenwriter, director, actor, and composer. Some of his credits include, co-creator and Emmy award-winning executive producer of Lost; producer of Star Trek and Star Trek into Darkness; director of Mission Impossible III; screenwriter of such films as Armageddon, Forever Young, and Regarding Henry. J.J. Abrams also wrote the script for the Warner Brothers’ Superman movie.

I get turned-on by new instruments and musical tools ONLY when I sense a master’s touch and TLC behind initial impressions. It helps if you uncover a network of clues which prove that some knowing, gleefully obsessive people are responsible, that they refused to give up until every detail was optimal. That’s the way I feel about the GPO. It’s better than I’d have thought possible only a year ago, based on all the “ordinary” sampled orch tools. The sounds are excellent, and many important expressive “hooks” allow the experienced composer and musician to create most of what a live orchestra can produce, efficiently and with panache.”
Wendy Carlos

Wendy Carlos is a legendary composer and synthesist; creator of the groundbreaking Switched-On albums; performing mixed media scores to Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Disney’s innovative TRON; champion of alternative tunings, as on Beauty in the Beast and Tales of Heaven and Hell. Wendy has composed many other albums and projects over several decades.

The Garritan strings have become the basis upon which I build all of my string textures. I look forward to bringing these sounds onstage as well as in the studio. Well done!”
Yanni

Yanni has received 35 Gold and Platinum Awards and has sold over 20 million albums. His television specials have reached more than half a billion people around the world. He is also the recipient of the United States Leadership Award for Excellence. Yanni’s best-seller, Live at the Acropolis, is one of the best-selling music videos of all time. Yanni was the first Western artist ever to perform at the Taj Mahal and China ‘s Forbidden City . Yanni’s compositions have universal appeal and his concerts draw sold-out audiences in places ranging from the Royal Albert Hall, to China, Europe, Australia, South America and North America.

I use the Garritan library to test my compositions before the recording date. The sound of it is so accurate and lovely. It’s one of the best investments a film composer can make….It is an outstanding achievement in the realm of sampling.”
Jeremy Soule

Jeremy Soule is a composer of some of the most popular interactive games in the world – Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, Chamber Secrets, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (Lucas Arts), Elderscrolls III: Morrowind, Dungeon Seige, and numerous others. He has also been a Featured Guest at the Garritan Orchestra Forum. Read the interview

For years I have been blessed by the fact that I work on projects where I am able to hire live musicians, but I still need to create mock ups of my scores to present to directors for approval. I have found that Garritan Personal Orchestra is the perfect software tool to use when creating these orchestral mock-ups. I am able to concentrate on the composing instead of getting sidetracked in spending time searching through my collection of libraries for sounds. GPO puts high quality sounds within easy reach and in many cases sounds better and more realistic than other libraries I own.”
Hummie Mann

Hummie Mann is a two-time Emmy award-winning film and TV composer. His feature film credits include Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Dracula Dead and Loving It, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Year of the Comet, Cyberworld 3D (IMAX) and others. TV credits include P.T. Barnum (mini-series), In Cold Blood (mini-series), The Second Civil War (HBO MOW) and First Do No Harm (CBS MOW).

I’m very impressed. It truly is an excellent collection of superb samples. The most important aspect of it to me is the expression tool. This truly brings a new level of control and expression to sampled instruments.”
Mark Isham

Mark Isham is a Grammy and Emmy award-winning composer. His film credits number over 50, including Rules of Engagement, Blade, Don’t Say A Word, Life As A House, October Sky, Kiss the Girls, Fly Away Home, A River Runs Through It, The Majestic, Men of Honor and many others. Television credits include Family Law, EZ Streets, Chicago Hope and Nothing Sacred. Mark has also received numerous Grammy, Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his material both as a composer and a recording artist/instrumentalist.

“… a new standard of playability, dramatic range, and sound quality… The sounds combine very naturally and realistically between sections and with each other…I would say the thing I was most impressed with was the playability of the library.”
Jeff Beal

Jeff Beal is an Emmy award-winning TV and film composer. He has scored more than 25 films and TV shows, including Pollock, ABC/USA’s hit series MONK, the 2002 Winter Olympics documentary Peggy and Dorothy, TNT’s Door to Door, Joe & Max, The Passion of Ayn Rand, Guy, Lies He Told, From Earth to the Moon (HBO), and Family Law (CBS). Jeff Beal has released seven solo CDs and has recorded with a number of leading jazz artists, including Chick Corea, John Patitucci, and Vinnie Colaiuta. He has also been a Featured Guest at the Garritan Orchestra Forum. 

Now that film directors and producers often require that orchestral composers create a musical “polaroid” of their scores before the actual recording session, Gary Garritan’s Orchestral Strings and Giga Harp have come to the rescue big-time… Kudos to Gary for a beautifully-recorded and wonderfully-user-friendly product.”
Alf Clausen

Alf Clausen is an Emmy award-winning composer for The Simpsons (FOX). Alf has also been musical director, composer and arranger for many television shows, including The Tonight Show, Merv Griffin Show, ABC Winter Olympics, Mary Tyler Moore Hour, Fame, My Life and Times, The Donny & Marie Show, Alf, The Critic, Police Story. The Emmy Awards, among others, are too numerous to list. Film credits include Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Naked Gun, Dragnet, Weird Science, Airplane II: The Sequel, Mr. Mom, Splash, Wise Guys and others. Alf is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee.

I love the Garritan! I use them everyday”. John Keane uses Garritan Orchestral sounds in the Award-Winning television series ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’
John Keane

John Keane is a composer of the CBS Television Show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, as well as Solomon’s Choice, One Woman’s Courage, and Martial Law. He has also been a Featured Guest at the Garritan Orchestra Forum.

My world of sound is built around acoustic live performance and I am generally very skeptical when it comes to the ‘supernatural’ in sound. Gary’s library is exceptional and a true enhancement of our pallet of symphonic sound colors. I am convinced, that all the love he puts in the detail will pay off and his library will mark an new standard. It will certainly become the companion for many of us sound people. Thank you, Gary!”
Andreas Vollenweider

Andreas Vollenweider is a Grammy award-winning composer and has sold over ten million albums world-wide. Andreas developed the electro-acoustic harp, producing a trademark sound, which he plays for sold-out venues . He has performed with Luciano Pavarotti, Bryan Adams, Carly Simon, Bobby McFerrin and numerous other artists. Andreas is also the recipient of the World Music Award and the Edison Award.

Kudos to Garry Garritan! The Garritan Personal Orchestra is a wonderfully professional, quick and easy to use tool that will earn its place as an invaluable resource for the professional orchestral composer. Having used all of the leading orchestral sample libraries of the past 10 years I can safely say that the Garritan Personal Orchestra is a top of the line, first class orchestral library. It delivers all the essentials and competes very admirably with libraries costing more than 10 times its price.”
Andy Brick 

Andy Brick is an award-winning film and game composer and  orchestrator. He has written scores for animated movies such as Little Mermaid II and Lady and The Tramp II. Other film credits include Awake, Chatham County, Graduation Day, The Story of the Red Rose, as well as the TV movie The Music Man (ABC, featuring Matthew Broderick). Recipient of two ASCAP Awards and a Golden Eagle Award, Brick’s music has also premiered and/or won Best Original Score accolades at the Sundance Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and Sony International Film Festival. Andy has composed music for Merregnon 2, The Far Reaches, Kingdom II: Shadoan, Arc The Lad Collection, and has written extensively in Game Developer and other major industry publications.

I wanted to update you on a particular project that I recently completed in which the GPO played an integral role. You see, I just returned from Prague where I recorded over an hour and a half of library cues which I composed and orchestrated. Using Sibelius with the GPO, I was able to fix and audition any last minute changes right in my Hotel room. A fantastic experience… The company was so impressed with my work (as well as the mobile rig) that they signed me on for another 3 CD’s to be recorded in Prague this May – after the very first day of recording sessions!!! Thank you GPO!”
Didier Rachou

Didier Rachou is an award-winning TV and film composer. Didier has composed music for Sex & the City, Guiding Light, and over a dozen feature film scores. His music has also been featured on 20/20, Drew Carey Show, Jeopardy, The View, Regis & Kathy Lee, Passions, One Life To Live, Lifetime TV’s Intimate Portraits, E!’s True Hollywood Story, NBC, ABC, FOX, VH-1, CNN, and HBO amongst others. Didier has also worked with Ashford & Simpson, David Johansen, and produced Steppin’, a CD by Christy Baron (Chesky Records).

I want to thank you for Garritan Personal Orchestra….It is now a staple in my pallet…The Steinway alone is almost worth the price of admission. I really do think all the “keyboards” are great.”
Danny Lux

Danny Lux is an Emmy nominated TV and film composer, whose music can be heard on many prime time television shows and in the movies. He has composed for the hit series Ally McBeal, as well as John Doe, Boston Public, Hack, and Party of Five. Danny also scored for the film Halloween Resurrection. Other credits include: Profiler, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Dawson ‘s Creek. Danny has also been a Featured Guest at the Garritan Orchestra Forum. Read the interview

Berklee is fortunate to have gained this friendship with Gary Garritan. His Personal Orchestra is a gift to students everywhere, and we are proud to have worked with him on this package designed for our curriculum and our students. The Garritan Personal Orchestra is an incredible opportunity for students to begin their collection of tools for their education and their profession.”
Stephen Croes

Stephen Croes is the Dean of Music Technology at Berklee College of Music. Berklee is ranked as one of the leading music institutions in the country.

Orchestration is important to ASCAP members and now there is an easy and affordable way for ASCAP members to impart high-quality orchestral sounds to their music using Garritan Personal Orchestra.”
Shawn LeMone

Shawn LeMone is Senior Director of Film & TV Music/New Media & Technology for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. The ASCAP has 180,000 members.

The Garritan library contributed an incredible realism to the burning-fast string lines in this sample-based score that you have to hear to believe….the library has empowered me to create a wonderful string part for the Main Titles for the upcoming game “The Sum Of All Fears” (based on the upcoming motion picture).”
Bill Brown

Bill Brown is an award-winning composer. Some of Bill’s recent composing and arranging highlights include director Oliver Stone’s feature film Any Given Sunday, Deran Sarafian’s Trapped, Gus Van Sant’s Finding Forrester, Clive Barker’s Undying, Michael Crichton’s Timeline, Jim Sonzero’s film War of the Angels, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear, and Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World: Trespasser. Bill is currently Director of Music at Soundelux Design Music Group, in Hollywood, CA. He has also been a Featured Guest at the Garritan Orchestra Forum. Read the interview

I really love the Grand Detache strings… I use them all the time… I heartily recommend this as part of every live orchestral producer”s tool kit.”
Chance Thomas

Chance Thomas, is an Academy award-winning composer. He  has worked on some of the best-selling games and has written for such hit films as Men In Black II and Stuart Little II. His original orchestral score for the The ChubbChubbs won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Credits include The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Electronic Arts), The ChubbChubbs (Sony, Columbia ), Unreal II, Earth & Beyond (EA) and many others. Chance Thomas has been honored by the Emmy Awards, the Telly Awards, the Aurora Awards, the Addy Awards, the Vault Network Awards, and featured in SA TODAY, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wired News, Grammy Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Cinescape, PC Gamer, and many others. Chance was the driving force for the Grammys to create a category for videogame music.

The sound quality and playability put it in a class by itself….It is a Library designed with the composer’s real needs at heart, which is evidenced by the continuing updates and additions to the Library, incorporating many user needs and suggestions. Obviously a lot of passion went into this Library. This is a “must have” for every composer.”
Shawn K. Clement

Shawn K. Clement is an ASCAP award-winning film/television/game composer. His credits include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, World’s Wildest Police Videos, Batman: Vengeance – WB video game, We Married Margo, 2004: A Light Knight’s Odyssey, and The World’s Most Amazing Videos. Clement’s music has also been heard on television shows such as Entertainment Tonight, Extra Magazine, The Guiding Light, Ally McBeal, Married….With Children, Another World, As the World Turns, Crime & Punishment, The Iron Mask, and Conspiracy Theory and others. Shawn is a recipient of the ASCAP Film and Television Award.

Groundbreaking! The sheer amount of expression and range of articulations is amazing…this library has “NEW STANDARD” written all over it…Every new library that comes out says that in their advertising, this time it’s actually true….I’d go as far as to say it is the most beautiful sampled string ensemble ever created!!”…”The updates are unprecedented in size, quality and usability. If you purchase this library, be pleasantly prepared to set aside some time to keep ON TOP of this ever expanding, fully user supported library!!”
Robert Krai

Robert Krai is a TV/film composer. Some of his credits include Miracles, Angel, The Hostage, Sliders, and Legend of Billy the Kid. He has also been a Featured Guest on the Garritan Orchestra Forum. Read the interview

I just got some GLOWING feedback from a first-time client – who said upon hearing my first delivery: “do we really need a real orchestra?” (which we’re planning in addition to MIDI ) – I attribute this boon to your exquisite library”and the client’s reaction was totally, precisely what a composer strives for…Gorgeous! Unbelievable library – great job!”
Clint Bajaklan

Clint Bajakian is a 12-year game industry veteran with award-winning credits on over 50 leading titles. He was a composer and sound supervisor at Lucas Arts Entertainment Company from 1991 to 2000. Clint’s music can be heard in games such as Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Unreal II: The Awakening, Battlestar Gallactica, and Star Wars: TIE Fighter. Clint was the recipient of the Musical Achievement Award from Computer Gaming World magazine in 1998.

Garritan Personal Orchestra is invaluable for keeping a creative flow, and allowing us to focus on making music! The Personal Orchestra solo strings sound great by themselves, but also sound beautiful blended with the original GOS full string sections!! Great Job Gary !! Thanks!!”
Melanie

Melanie is a folk-legend, well known for her performance at Woodstock . Some of her hits include “Brand New Key” (No. 1 single, selling more than 3-million copies), “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” and “Look What They’ve Done to My Song Ma”. Melonies sweet voice has been heard in many countries and she has performed on the Ed Sullivan Show, as well as the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

As a conductor, I’ve been working with leading orchestras and soloists from over the world. As far as sampling libraries, only the Garritan Personal Orchestra library enables me to have total control over each instrument I am performing. GPO is a dream library since I can individually conduct each instrument, note by note. There is no another orchestral library that will give you such an experience. Finally, there is no another orchestral library that gives you such high quality instruments such as Stradivari, Gagliano and Gagliani violins…”
Petr Pololanik

 Petr Pololanik is a conductor and music director.

Garritan Personal Orchestra recently provided music for “Ca D’Zan” with the Sarasota Ballet (based on the Sarasota Ringling Mansion ) and was wildly successful. I plan to use it to produce the Arabian Fantasy “Zal and Rudabeh” in the San Francisco War Memorial Hall next January. Many thanks!!”
Dr. David M. Goldstein

Dr. David M. Goldstein is a composer in residence at the Sarasota Ballet in Florida . He has created many scores for works performed by major dance companies. Dr. Goldstein holds degrees in Piano Performance and Music Theory, a Medical Doctorate, and holds post-graduate degrees from Harvard, His works include A Persian Rug for clarinet and piano, Japanese Dances for Robert de Warren’s Madame Butterfly, Snow White – a full-length ballet for children, as well as thirteen ballet scores.