# Using the Garritan Aria Library

**URL:** <https://forums.steinberg.net/t/using-the-garritan-aria-library/965638>\
**Category:** Dorico\
**Created:** [January 14, 2025, 5:29pm UTC](https://forums.steinberg.net/t/using-the-garritan-aria-library/965638 "2025-01-14T17:29:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wfrayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/da6949/32.png) [@wfrayer](https://forums.steinberg.net/u/wfrayer)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 5:29pm UTC](https://forums.steinberg.net/t/using-the-garritan-aria-library/965638/1 "2025-01-14T17:29:10Z")

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New to Dorico. I want to use the Garritan Aria Sound library instead of the Halion sound library. How do I do that? Newbie question!

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**Author:** ![benwiggy](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/steinberg/user_avatar/forums.steinberg.net/benwiggy/32/1715_2.png) [@benwiggy](https://forums.steinberg.net/u/benwiggy)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://forums.steinberg.net/t/using-the-garritan-aria-library/965638/2 "2025-01-14T17:38:10Z")

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First of all, are you on a Mac or Windows?

Have you bought any of the Garritan libraries, like GPO5, Jazz and Big Band, etc? Or do you just have the Finale-bundled sounds?

First of all, I’d make sure you’re up to speed with basic Dorico usage, before you start complicating things with additional third-party libraries.

There are some playback templates for GPO5 (which I made), and for the Jazz library (JABB); but not for most of the others. However, the Garritan libraries rely on fairly similar principles, so it should be easy to adapt expression maps and templates for other libraries.

I would make sure you read through the documents I’ve written, which you can download in this thread, along with some helpful Dorico files and expression maps.

> [@Dorico Expression Maps for GPO5](https://forums.steinberg.net/t/dorico-expression-maps-for-gpo5/158064/43):
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> Here are revised Playback Templates and/or Expression Maps for GPO5 with Dorico 5. As above, note that Windows users may not be able to load the VST state, because the Mac version is a higher number. Sadly, this negates a lot of the work I’ve done of selecting instruments for Dorico Players. In order to make use of Dorico’s Stage and Space templates, I’ve turned off GPO’s Stereo Stage (CC103) in ARIA Player, set the Pan to 12 o’clock, and assigned the Small Studio Convolution (NB: turn off Amb…

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**Author:** ![laughreyg](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/steinberg/user_avatar/forums.steinberg.net/laughreyg/32/242575_2.png) [@laughreyg](https://forums.steinberg.net/u/laughreyg)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://forums.steinberg.net/t/using-the-garritan-aria-library/965638/3 "2025-06-21T18:53:06Z")

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[https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/steinberg/original/4X/9/a/1/9a155f4812027f3f1bc1818a8f6e0e6438949bc2.mp3](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/steinberg/original/4X/9/a/1/9a155f4812027f3f1bc1818a8f6e0e6438949bc2.mp3)  
Here is another arrangement using your Dorico GPO5 Playback Template (not the NP One). The only ‘tweak’ I made was to turn off compression. I am so grateful that you made-and shared-this with us. I think this sounds VERY nice; I’d be hard pressed to get better-sounding playback with my VSL or Spitfire Libraries. The Garritan Libraries may be old, but they’ve got some ‘good bones’ which you have used to great effect.  
Thank You! 🙂