What is Garritan Instruments for Finale?
Garritan Instruments for Finale (also known as GIFF) is the default sample library packaged with Finale*. GIFF is an integrated collection of instrument sounds taken from both Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 (also known as GPO 5) and our other specialized Garritan libraries. These instruments are designed to provide our Finale customers with a broad list of instruments that will cover most standard ensembles in classical and modern music. The full list of GIFF instruments can be referenced here.
*Note: GIFF is not included in the 30-day trial version of Finale.
What is the difference between Garritan Instruments for Finale and our other Specialized Libraries?
While GIFF is a comprehensive entry-level library for users of Finale, there are some differences between what it offers compared to our other specialized Garritan libraries. When comparing GIFF to other libraries, It is easiest to compare GIFF with our GPO 5 library as GIFF contains several samples from GPO 5. The primary differences are listed by category below.
Keyswitches
A keyswitch is a MIDI note that triggers a different playing technique for a Garritan instrument — for instance, pizzicato on a violin, or harmonics on a harp.
One of the primary differences between samples offered in GIFF versus other libraries is the amount of available keyswitches for those patches in GIFF. Let’s look at the violin patch Violin Solo KS 1 in both GIFF and GPO as an example.
Garritan Instruments for Finale’s Violin Solo KS 1 patch contains 3 keyswitches.
- Sustains
- Pizzicato
- Tremolo
Garritan Personal Orchestra 5’s Violin Solo KS 1 patch contains 12 keyswitches.
- Sustain
- Sustain Mute
- Auto Alternate
- Upbows
- Downbows
- Pizzicato
- Tremolo Mute
- Tremolo
- ½ step Trills Mute
- ½ step Trills
- Whole-step Trills Mute
- Whole-step Trills
For further keyswitch information about other instrument patches, you can reference our Garritan Instruments for Finale Instrument Details and our Directory of GPO5 Instrument Patches.
Player Count
In both GIFF and GPO, there are multiple patches available for most instruments. These different patches allow customers to build an ensemble with different players of an instrument type to simulate multiple instruments in a section. We will continue to use the same comparison between GIFF and GPO 5.
GIFF contains the following instrument options for single Violin players:
- Violin Plr1
- Violin Plr2
- Violin Plr3
- Violin Solo
- Violin Solo KS 1
- Violin Solo KS 2
- Violin Solo KS 3
GPO 5 contains the following instrument options for single Violin players:
- Violin 1 Pizz Solo
- Violin 1 Plr1
- Violin 1 Plr2
- Violin 1 Plr3
- Violin 1 Solo
- Violin 1 Solo KS
- Violin 2 Pizz Solo
- Violin 2 Plr1
- Violin 2 Plr2
- Violin 2 Plr3
- Violin 2 Solo
- Violin 2 Solo KS
- Violin 3 Pizz Solo
- Violin 3 Plr1
- Violin 3 Plr2
- Violin 3 Plr3
- Violin 3 Solo
- Violin 3 Solo KS
GPO5 Also includes the following violin patches from our once-retired Garritan Orchestral Strings library:
- Violin 1 Col Legno
- Violin 1 Detache
- Violin 1 Lush Forte
- Violin 1 Martele
- Violin 1 Pizzicato
- Violin 1 Sfz
- Violin 1 Spiccato
- Violin 1 Staccato
- Violin 1 Vibrato
Continuous Controllers (CCs)
Garritan instruments depend on the use of many MIDI controllers — for instance, the modulation wheel (MIDI controller #1) — to shape the sound of each instrument. These controllers can be manipulated in the Controls tab of the ARIA Player in a DAW or through the use of Expressions in Finale. While there aren’t differences between available controllers for instruments between GIFF and GPO 5, the presentation of the Controls tab of the ARIA Player is different and allows for some additional equalizing opportunities in GPO 5.
Let’s compare the same Violin Solo KS 1 patches between GIFF and GPO 5.
Here is the Controls tab for the Violin Solo KS 1 patch in GIFF.
Here is the Controls tab for the Violin Solo KS 1 patch in GPO 5.
As we can see, the same instrument controls exist on the left side of GIFF as the right side of GPO 5, however in the GPO 5 view we see additional knobs for fine tuning equalizer settings.