How many of you have been there? I'm wanting to like this Speedsoft VSampler, I really am. But this has got to be the most impossible interface I've seen since the 70s! I'm no newcomer to MIDI, samplers, computers, and audio engineering in general, but I've spent the last three hours wasting time because their manual is unclear -- occasionally contradictory! -- and the GUI was designed by a warthog. The whole design screams at the new user -- PLEASE, GO BUY ANOTHER PRODUCT! THIS ONE IS INSANE!

Please pardon me -- I've wasted a good hunk of my precious Saturday.

Would any kind soul please be good enough to outline just how one, utilizing this software as a VSTi in Cubase, would go about triggering the drum *pattern* -- and yes, I believe my zones and my presets are all in order. It's not triggering the pattern, just individual hits, and resetting the MIDI key does nothing -- I've been trying all sorts of combinations, really I have.

PLEASE God, give us Fruity as a VSTi! Fruity's been out for years, can't these Speedsoft folk learn SOMEthing about ease of use from those guys?

Thanks lots, folks. And please excuse my EXTREME frustration.

I gave up on VSampler and moved onto Halion. I complained about the VSampler UI for a long time and they supposedly are going to do a whole new sampler with a new UI for 3.0. Instead of adding in useless features like the pattern sequencer they could be cleaning up the UI and making the program better. They are constantly improving it but it's like trying to build a skyscraper on top of foundation built for a house.

Fruity as a plugin would be nice. Or at least the Sampler module they have. It is simple and works and sounds great.

But Halion is here now and it looks and works well. If we lived in a perfect world Halion would support VST FX for its filter. Now that would be awesome. Until then...

bioroid

Get yourself a DR-008. Its pattern sequencer gives you intuitive, easy-to-use Fruityloops-like sequencing from within Cubase.

Regards,
Angus.

cant say much about the drumpattern sequencer, i guess that one was intended for standalone use anyway. never tried it.

as far as the rest goes, well, its programs and assignments to midi channels, and parameters that can be set either individually for each sample or for all within a program at the same time ("change all splits" on/off). nothing too complex IMHO...just what every sampler does. dont see a huge difference compared to halion really. personally i even think vsampler is much easier to use cause it doesnt use that &&(%(/&)/ "fxp" plugin setting scheme from VST to save programs. but thats probably just a question of taste.

btw, since vsampler 2.7 you can "hide" parts of vsampler that you dont use. like...the drumpatternsequencer

The pattern sequencer of VSampler is just crap, better use a dedicated drum-sampler. But who cares about the pattern sequencer when using VSampler? About the GUI, maybe you dealt with hardware samplers *too* long? The GUI of VSampler (2.7) is very effective, really. I'm sure you invested a bit more than 3 hours to learn how to use your hardware-sampler/synth(s). VSampler does things with a few clever mouseclicks where you would need hours with a hardware-sampler.

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Hugo Ball: PLEASE God, give us Fruity as a VSTi! Fruity's been out for years, can't these Speedsoft folk learn SOMEthing about ease of use from those guys?
Thanks lots, folks. And please excuse my EXTREME frustration.

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Hey, Hugo, don't be so frustrated...
I am not God, but if you want an easy to use drum-pattern sequencer as VSTi, you should give ruction (www.ruction.de) a try.
It's just in beta-stage atm, but v1.0 will be finished soon...

Cheers,
Stephan

Hey, Thanks Zapman!

This is exactly what I was looking for. A great down and dirty sample player with a pattern for getting a beat going! There are some good ideas in that thing, like the ability to scroll through your samples as you're playing -- provided you've got your kicks and snares and such in separate folders. Perfect for finding just the right sound. Even easier than Fruity -- dare I say it -- in this regard.

I was up and running in minutes. That's intuitive design. I like your no-nonsense docs, too -- "The one thing you gotta know is THIS...."

I wanted something to paint in broad strokes with. I'll do the tweaking on the rhythm groove later -- this thing gets me into the tune I'm writing right away and leaves me free to concentrate on the tune.

Thanks for the lead! I'll probably be tossing a few bucks your way when its released.

Hugo

Stephan;

I find I was too sparing with my praise. I've spent some more time with your software and I'm impressed. There are some truly elegant design solutions in that thing.

Nice job!

Vsampler is total crap. It's the furthest thing from a pro sampler there is. It sounds awful. The samples track terribly up and down the keyboard resulting in some nasty "chipmunk" effects and other aliasing. Avoid!!! Halion sounds great.

This is ridiculous and very snobbish. Some folks simply can't make a difference between their own unability and the software they get their hands on.
Virtual Sampler is really great for what it does (look at it's price)! (Sorry, i get really upset by these generalisations)

I can't change the way some people feel about certain products after having a bad experience with it, but I Totally Disagree that V-Sampler is a worthless VSTi...That is FAR FAR from the truth....V-Sampler has made 2 of my most hardest projects a breeze, ... V-Sampler is well worth taking the time to familiarize yourself with the interface, I personally havn't found anything hard about it...Few of it's features may have been a bit hidden, but I have no problem with it at all as yet...

As far as Halion goes, Sure it's going to get nice praises now as it sqeezes into the market, but after I had taken a few looks at some of it's interface sets, I still find V-Sampler much more flexible and applyable feature wise... Anyhow, with a bit of patience and time, V-Sampler is very Usable and flexible VSTi...It has proven that to me on my last 2 projects...

Sincerely AJ

well actualy until now vsamplers been well ahead of the game. its got a bit cluttered as of late but halion doesn't even have sample browsing which means if you dont know exactly which samples you want to load its just a drag. 1st update is out and still no browsing. useless

look forward to vsampler 3, im sure with their experience its going to be good.

I love vsampler,
I just load it up in cubase, click the import wave
button, click use next key option, select some or all of the waves in the window, or one of the many kits I get from this great site.
Open the drum editor and use it like fruity loops.
Or just load one of the many soundfonts out there.
Quick and easy.
I also drag samples from windows explorer or the fruityloops
browser if i want to load a sample at a time.
It really is easy program minus the pattern sequencer.

I think people's love/hate for this app has a lot to do with what they're using it for. It's apparently easier to do somet things than others. As I said, I was all eager to like the app, it's wave manipulation tools look cool, among other things, but while all that's true, there are still principles of design and ease-of-use that one ignores at one's peril.

It used to be normal for applications to all have their own "code," as it were, their own rules for navigation and file manipulation and such. But that was a while back; these days there are design conventions that have gained wide acceptance -- for the good reason that they make the use of software easier. This interface in my opinion seems a bit stuck in the past -- but hey, if it works for you that's great.

I have no problem learning complex software, but the documentation must facilitate that learning, not hinder it, and for the uses to which I was putting VSampler, the documentation was positively lame. I'm happy to grant that I was trying to use a mack truck to lift a kleenex box, it was a silly attempt, but my experience with VSampler was not a happy one. And it appears I am not alone.

Is the designer interested in developing a product that's useful to a truly wide range of musicians? If so, one would think he or she would heed the frequent outcry over the GUI that's become part and parcel of the VSampler package, sadly.

Anyway, if it works great for you, great! We're all just looking for things that help our own process, and vive la difference as far as I'm concerned.....

Cheers!

Hi Hugo Ball,

Ok, you definately have a right to feel the way you do about the program, and yes, at some of your points I agree some parts of the instrument can be a bit challenging, but as you mentioned, it may be the question what are you Primarily using it for? As far as simple midi (Note) playback it has no problem doing that, and I must say it is about one of the easiest Samplers for actually sampling the wave you want before importing it.. Not to mention the ease of using the Volume and Envelope pages for making any neccasary adjustment to your selected wave...

On the other hand, if you are trying to get into the Loop (Pattern) sequencer, then yes, it can be a little tricky, it took me about 20 minutes to actually learn how to assign a wave sample to the selected instrument on the Pattern page, but once I figured it out, it has been no problem, actually quite easy now...

I Agree the Sampler can use a few changes in certain areas to improve it's functionality and ease, and I have requested certain things to be changed or modified to make the Sampler more Appealing and faster editing... The creator of the Program Is very Nice and Listens to Users input on Making the V-Sampler Improved.. He even told me that they may not do too much more to the present version, because the 3.0 Version is right around the corner and many of the suggestions many of the users have regarding 2.7 will be applied on the latest 3.0 version....

Keep in mind V-Sampler was one of the first Instruments to have all the great features for implementing a full Featured sample machine for VSTi's, so I surely try to assist and help them in staying in the game because they surley have a lot under the hood of V-Sampler, Just need some updated modifications...

So, If you have time feel free to email "Maz" at Speedsoft and let him know what is surely frustraiting you about the instrument, I'm quite sure he'll give you some great feedback and let you know more about the 3.0 version on the way...

Anyhow, I hope some of this will relieve your anger about the program, I just hate to see a program condemned that is so far working ok for me, I would really like to see V-Sampler be the best on the market because it surely has the potential, especially for the price -vs- these new samplers and their short commings...that's all, see you..

Sincerely AJ

Hello all ... just back from hols.

I might be a bit late in this thread but I didn't care for Hugo taking out his anger on VSampler.

Damaging threads due to lack of self control can really hurt small design companies who are really trying hard. It was good to see a lot of people rally round.

VSampler ain't perfect yet, and I've wasted days with it, but I still use it all the time to write toonz that I get paid for, and it works.

I'm not prepared to buy HALion yet, as cubase.net forum still reveals too many doubts for the money. Maybe v2?

Also, Speedsoft have v3 of VSampler in the pipeline. So let's wait and see.

Meanwhile my sympathy goes out to any sampler designer. It's a bloody hard application to write, with a zillion different types of user to please.

Afterthought: Maybe Maz would like to give us some hints as to the v3 feature list?

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Originally posted by kevvvvv:
Afterthought: Maybe Maz would like to give us some hints as to the v3 feature list?

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Hi kevvvvvvvv, I'll put a poll online soon asking users what they hate at the current VSampler (I'd bet I know the top3 )) ) and what they want VSampler3 to be. We got thousands of user feedbacks since the release of VS2 a year ago, and I think we (=I) know what the users want. I just hope Rene (the coder) will listen more than in the past.

And just to make this clear (somebody wrote "maz at Speedsoft"), I do not work at Speedsoft, MAZ and Speedsoft are just two (more or less) one-man-companies working together, but VSampler is a Speedsoft program, so if Rene (the man behind Speedsoft) wants to do things *his* way I can't do much about it. I didn't know about the pattern sequencer, for instance And my vote still is to remove it, but as you can see, it's still there :/

Excuse Me Maz for associating you with Speedsoft, I have just always used your name when I emailed certain issues about the V-Sampler...I'll put a Check on that...

Anyhow, I think the Pattern sequencer is quite cool and it would be a shame to have it removed.. I do however feel it would be more useful if you could export your pattern as a midi file as well as the wave file...(Something like Fruity loops)...Just a thought, whatever pleases the people, I'll be sure to address Rene in the future for these types of concerns, later..

AJ

i love vsampler it has all the features i require in a sampler
although i wont turn my nose up when any updates arrive

Since it's open season on samplers, it's worth mentioning that Muon say they have a sampler in development, the Tachyon ... and Muon do have a reputation for pro-quality products.

People like Linplug and FXpansion also have a good understanding of sample coding.

Maybe they've got ideas on the drawing board too.

Either way I suspect both Vsampler and HALion will have competition around next year to give them a run for their money.

Oh ... and Tascam have just taken over Nemysis' Gigasampler. Will they move into VSTi too?