Hi Abilio. Sorry the delayed response. If you don't already have the answer to your question, I can tell you that the current Garritan sound libraries are not Kontakt compatible. These instruments do need to be loaded and played within the ARIA Player, either as a plug-in or with the stand-alone version. 

This has been my understanding as well. 

Can you answer:  Why, in my Native Access installation app (for Native Instruments) is it still offering to Install Garritan Personal Orchestra?

ALSO:

I have GPO4 (2 GB), GPO5 (12GB) and also the Garritan PO for Finale (7.6 GB) all installed. 

ARIA sees the first 2 and not the Finale version.

Any reason for me to keep GP4 installed?

Is GPO for Finale also redundant? Should Finale be able to see and access the more complete GPO 5?

Thanks, Craig

Looking more closely, I see that GPO for Finale seems to have some folders that GPO5 doesn't have, even though overall it's smaller. i.e. 010. World, 011. Jazz, 012. Band, 013. Tap-space Percussion, 014. GM, 015. Instant Orchestra. 

Is there a link or discussion somewhere that explains the overlap and distinctions?

Craig, I have seen that the GPO initial release may show in Native Access for some users. It actually showed for me at one point too but the installation did not work. I could not tell you why this is. You may want to contact Native Instruments if you want more info about it.

You can definitely uninstall GPO4 is you want without losing any instruments as GPO5 contains this and more. I would keep both the GPO5 and GIFF installed as the do fill different instrumentation needs. 

Perhaps this might explain it: the earliest implementations of sampled finale instruments was a brief pre-Aria era; the instruments than ran in Kontakt Player 2 (if I recall correctly); I still see vestiges of that in my late-model Finale, but it is 32-bit and not usable on 64-bit machines / software.

i have used Finale for 30 years, and recently upgraded to Finales V26 on a new iMacPro

I have always used both Garritan GPO and Jazz libraries with Kontact 2 Player and would like to know if it will play the Garritan libraries in V26.  I also have the Kontact 5 Player, if it will play them.

I am truly unhappy with the Aria Player which i think is by far the weakest link in your product line.  In a word, i am supported by many on the internet, finding it to be inferior to most other sample players, not even as good as the original Garritan Player.  I would think MakeMusic would want to upgrade Aria to make it more consistent with the  "world-class" Finale ... is this being considered ?

I use Kontakt and Aria mixed in v25 on the latest MacOS, so I expect v26 is no problem. Personally, I already think Aria is world class - and it does a number of things in a more facile manner than Kontakt, plus it imports sfz files, which occupy quite a few slots in the Aria banks in my screen shot. Reminds me of the early days before Aria, when Kontakt was the library plugin - and, of course, the samples I use sound great. [EDIT: Aria default - and Garritan - is open-source sfz; I believe full Kontakt - not the Player version - will open or import as 'foreign file format' or some such. ] 

David Maurand

Thank you for your reply.  It is very helpful.

Can you tell me if you installed Kontact 2 or 5 or 6 in the Applications folder of your current OSX ... and are you using the current Garritan Jazz (V3) and Personal Orchestra (V4.02) libraries;  (I don't know if they differ)

Any assistance ould be gratefully appreciated

Dave Webster

My versions are Kontakt 6, and Kontakt Player 6, which I use interchangeably though usually it is a 'player' instance in Finale, as Aria already reads sfz's and is easier to work with; the Player reads locked-in nki instruments. When I use K6 full, it's usually in Cubase, where I sometimes do my final mixes. [EDIT: Kontakt 2 is 32 bit so it won't work in current versions of Finale, Kontakt Player 6 is free - give it a shot.]

I use GPO5 and Classic Pipe Organs for 95% of my work, though Finale's versatility is a major creative benefit that I haven't even begun to stretch. (My older pieces are loading GPO 4 in Aria with no problem but the supported version receiving updates is v5.) You can have multiple libraries installed - the impact is on the software overhead required to render the music, as you would expect.

The Aria Engine and Aria Player were developed by Plogue - an audio specialist with a beautiful, minimalist website; their standalone version of Aria is called sforzando.

EDIT - screengrab combo added (on the Aria panel, it is loading both GPO4, labeled'GPO', and GPO5.)

you have escaped from the main theme

is it possible to use the current garritan instrument libraries in kontakt 6?

Abilio, As David Cusick said above, no it's not possible. Garritan works through the Aria player. End of story.