PG Music Home Forums User-to-User Post your own Tips and Tricks here Garritan Personal Orchestra 5/Aria Player

So this may not happen to anyone, or it may...

I recently upgraded to GPO5, but was having a hard time getting the Aria Standalone player to run.

Installation seemed to go fine, but when I launched the Aria Player, nothing happened. It never came up. I tried the usual stuff - make sure I was running the latest version, running as administrator, trying compatibility mode settings, etc.

I opened Task Manager and launched Aria. I saw it was launched and then just watched as it started churning through my memory. It just kept going until Windows gave me a low memory condition.

I stumbled upon the Aria log files and took a look. From what I could tell, it was getting hung up enumerating my audio devices. It thought I had 5 billion (with a "B") audio devices, and then proceeded to query each one, which returned null values, because obviously I don't have enough money or even available ports to hang 5 billion audio devices off my laptop computer.

I finally opened a ticket with MakeMusic, and my new friend Chad at MakeMusic had me send him some log files. Turns out that my M-Audio FastTrack Pro had outdated drivers, so I looked on the web. Of course there are no official Windows 10 drivers for it, but I did find drivers newer than what I had previously installed (I say installed - that was on Windows 7, and they came along for the ride when I upgraded to Windows 10).

So, new drivers in place, I re-launch Aria and what do you know, it launches the interface. It tells me that my GPO5 is not activated yet and do I want to download the keycard. I had already done that, so I answered "NO". I then went to drag the keycard I downloaded over the Aria interface (which is how it works) and it just displayed a "circle/slash" (the universal symbol for "that ain't gonna work, buddy"). So back to MakeMusic. At least we're making progress, so surely there has to be an answer.

Well, there is, so I thought I would share it here. If you can't activate a Garritan library by dropping the keycard over the interface with your mouse, then do this:

• On an empty instrument slot, click empty and choose Import
• In the Please Select File dialog box, locate the keycard on your desktop (or wherever you saved it) and click Open
• Repeat these steps for each Garritan product/keycard you need to activate

Your library should now be activated in the ARIA Player. If the library does not activate or you receive an error message, please contact customer support for further assistance.

MakeMusic support was great. I called them on the telephone and then had an email of the first things to try within half an hour. Since I was at work, I couldn't test it, but I did so once I got home, and so had the next set of instructions the next morning. By afternoon, everything was fixed and I'm up and running.

Now, if PGMusic could fix the VSTi Windows so that you can see the right hand side of the Aria player to reach the instrument tweaking controls, I'll really be in business. Hint, Hint!

I hope this helps someone else.

John, I'm sorry you had so many problems with Aria. I had GPO5 installed in Win 7 pro and when I upgraded to Win 10 pro everything ran perfectly. It sounds like MakeMusic is another customer service oriented company and that is always a good thing. I am glad that you are up and running.

PS-GPO5 is worth it. It is another reason that BiaB and RB should go to 64 bit. If you start adding all kinds of strings, horns and woodwinds you will run out of memory at 32 bit. YMMV.

Interestingly, it installed fine on my desktop computer, which also has a Fast Track Pro. It was just my laptop that have me fits. And yes, I was well pleased with MakeMusic customer support.

This is weird. I installed GPO5 and have not had any problems with it at at all. But I am going NOWHERE near windows 10. No thanks. Everything I have works seamlessley as is and I think I have every plug-in known to man.

I have heard horror stories about windows 10 and I hate the set up I have seen on other people's machines. No way.

I don't think everyone understands that the slow and stealthy move across the industry to getting all of your software "in the cloud" for "your own good" means that soon every single thing you own will eventually be a yearly license fee and there won't be a darned thing you will be able to do about it. Say 100 programs times $100 a year, how much is that??? Hmmmmmmmm..........

That day is coming my friends. The crazy Prophet David Hath spoken!!!!

Thanks for going to the trouble of providing such fantastic level of detail John.
It's sure appreciated.