
I still have them both, mostly to listen to tracks I produced with them. I don't regret for a second either purchase! The way I want to use this is to combine the sounds - I want to be able to. Within the DAW and within Aria, it seems like the instruments are parceled out into different sections eg. I still have them both, mostly to listen to tracks I produced with them. Using Garritan Jazz & Big Band 3 in Protools (or any DAW) I think there's something I'm not getting. I never reached those heights when I was using it. To the question of what can you do with it, well, there are some absolutely brilliant demos, I can't even imagine the hours required to produce these tracks. If you just want to learn about MIDI orchestration/arranging I still think GPO and JABB are good tools. You'll spend more money to purchase them, and you'll spend more time learning to use them. There are much better libraries out there today. I started with the original version of each and upgraded each time, in the hopes that they would get better, and I suppose they did, at some level. Such flexibility, such tone, what a price tag! And difficult to use? You bet! So GPO and later JABB were a bit of a breath of fresh air. I had purchased Garritan Orchestral Strings and it was awesome. To put things in perspective - at the time GigaStudio ruled the world. It really seems as if Gary set out to build a learning tool. I thought both of them were brilliant learning tools! While the sounds may not be quite as good (in some cases) or nearly as broad as those found in the Kontakt Factory Library they are organized in such a way that you will learn a lot about MIDI orchestration and arranging. And it requires the Aria player, which has not received a lot of attention in the ensuing years. And you will be limited in the articulations you can choose from.

The samples in both GPO and JABB run the gamut from brilliant to poor, which is very unfortunate.
