The ARIA Player is Garritan's user interface on top of the ARIA Engine.  The ARIA Engine is used in all Garritan products made since 2008.

The ARIA engine behind the ARIA Player is a highly-optimized sample player featuring efficient RAM usage and cycling, fast sample loading, and low CPU-demand. The ARIA engine is also in use in products from Microsoft, SONY, AKAI and MakeMusic and is stable and thoroughly tested. It works as a Standalone, Plug-in (VST, AudioUnits & RTAS), and with supported notation programs. The ARIA engine also supports 64-bit operating systems.

The ARIA Player also contains the following features:

Auto Legato

Auto Legato programming intelligently detects when you are playing a smooth line with overlapping notes and automatically applies the correct transitions between notes. It functions similarly to (but does not replace) the sustain pedal legato playing technique for solo instruments.

Integrated Ambience Effects Processing

Both the standalone and plug-in versions contain the stunning AMBIENCE reverb unit built-in, with user-adjustable sends on the mixer page to control the level on a per-instrument basis.

Stereo Stage

Stereo Stage breathes even more life into GPO 4’s samples by applying an emulation of a stereo image recording to the sample. The default simulation is “XY.”

MIDI Playback and Recording Features

The Standalone ARIA Player allows loading and playback of MIDI files. You can also make a 16-bit WAV file recording of the MIDI file, or of yourself playing live! Offline rendering support for more complex pieces is also included.

Tunings and Scala File Support

The ARIA Player not only allows you to adjust the pitch by a few semitones, it also allows you to adjust the fundamental tunings and scales of the sample playback engine! In ARIA there is a dropdown containing a multitude of Scala files. These files adjust the temperament of the scales (defaulting to equal temperament). Any Scala-compatible tuning file may be used.

Direct Registration and Graceful Copy Protection

All authorization support and registration inquires are now handled by Garritan. Users receive a Personalized Graphic Card Key to authorize. Simply drag and drop the personalized graphic card onto the ARIA player and it is authorized.You are allowed to use your products on multiple computers, without dongles or challenge response schemes.

A note on backwards compatibility: GPO 4 is not fully compatible with previous versions of GPO. You cannot load previous presets or Kontakt Player multis into the ARIA interface. However, you can run previous versions of GPO that use Kontakt Player alongside GPO 4’s ARIA interface without any problems.