Upgrade to sampletank 3 vs upgrade to komplete 9u

[BlakeHeartsMusic]

With the pre-order ik deal and the ni sale it's got me wandering which way to go. I'm a current komplete 9 user, but got sample tank 2xl through a promo, and just started using it. I like the workstation aspect of it for quick realistic sounds to add into arrangements. The genres I work in are primarily hip hop/ RnB/ pop but on the darker slightly ambient side.

I'm not too concerned with hyper realistic playability, but having good quality go-to sounds, that are well recorded/ well mapped/ warm/ not sterile is important to me. Also instrument organization is big for me, to streamline workflow.

Wondering what others think?

[dredd i knight]

It depends if you have Maschine or not.
With Maschine the Komplete integration makes for a really good, smooth workflow, because EVERYTHING is browsable from the controller. Your reasons for liking the look of ST3 make a lot of sense though, and for an upgrade it's a good price, I think, and would be well worth it for such a huge amount of bread and butter sounds.

[Timman]

Workstation is so '90s...I would go for Komplete indeed. At least their update cycles aren't 10+ years long.

[BBFG#]

I'm starting to get a 'workstation' flow in Kontakt now just by doing everything in the files view instead of the library. For me, it's the sound of the samples, so both are good. You could get Kontakt and add Infinity player to it to get the STank sound, but for the price as it is now, you'd be paying the same as you did STank. Another consideration is the price of those sounds. If you don't want to get into a place where all your favorite sounds cost as much as the player, I suggest STank. But if you need more than just a sample player, than Komplete is the better choice, since the synths included are quite a bit better with them IMO. And regardless of the price of those Kontakt third party sets, they are worth it when you find the 'right ones' for your taste.

Choice is yours, but having Komplete didn't stop me from buying into this STank preorder. And I can't see doing without Komplete either.

[BlakeHeartsMusic]

well I already have komplete 9, it is whether or not the upgrade to komplete 9 Ultimate for 250. I also like how light Sample Tank 2.5XL is on cpu. In kontakt, I've started roughly creating a workstation-esque flow with the quick browser, and I also like the searchable tagging system. Obviously I haven't explored every inch of the komplete 9 sounds for kontakt, but there are definitely certain sounds that I feel the library is not particularly heavy on, like choir patches, bass guitars, couldn't find an autoharp.

How does sampletank hold up piano-wise compared to instruments like Alicia's Keys? I felt like the acoustic keys w/ kontakt didn't have much warmth/ appeared well suited for scoring, but I'm looking for a good warm/ punchy piano sound for say RnB ballads. Also, not that things have to be inherently expensive, but I was wondering why sample expansions run in the $20-30 range, while a lot of kontakt libraries are $150-200. And lastly, is it difficult to sculpt SampleTank sounds into dense arrangements? Meaning, are the sounds themselves overprocessed, or are they pretty clean, just with ST effects chain presets engaged?

[cowby]

I was upgraded from K8 to K9U. Happy!

But by just listening to Mr. Rudess's demo... The Piano is just a bit better than those old Roland's modules and no wonder someone said it just similar to GM sound.

Price reflects the sound quality ?

v=qeYaHx-lkHE

[BBFG#]

I like the basses in STank quite a bit. So much so I bought the Infinity Player from SR @ eSoundz for K5 when they had a special on them (they do sounds for both STank and K5) and I found when I layer them with the Scarbee basses I get pretty much what I'm looking for. But if STank3 comes and plays the STank2 as I hope for, I'll probably go back to using it for bass.
Pianos are a different story. I found the K5 pianos to be atrocious for practice or solo playing but they are okay as sporadic hits in the mix. Alicia Keys takes tweaking to get a decent grand out of, but the first sound that comes up reminds me of an old church spinet, so again, not bad as an effect.
The pianos in STank are not bad to practice with, and smoother velocity range without any sudden 'step offs'. They do mix well with the other sounds in STank, but I haven't used any of them in any real way. Personally I think for ITB, I'm eventually headed for Pianoteq. But I use my Kronos a lot for piano and electrics.
There's a lot in Ultimate that I think I really will never use though. Most of libraries are just okay or worse (I kind of hate loop phrasing like the George Duke set). But I wanted the drums you get in Ultimate and find I use a couple of the effects too. I also had to wheel and deal to get the upgrade under 300, so 250 with not stress or mess would have been nice.
In your position, (but from my perspective) I'd probably get STank3. Maybe K10 Ultimate is coming quicker than we think?

[BBFG#]

Oh, and those last questions I'm sure Evil Dragon knows more about than I do.

On a side note: I bought a pack of samples last month for about three bucks from SoundIron and a couple of the patches were a nice boys choir. Was pleasantly surprised to find it in the mix. It's called Iron Pack or something like that I think? (I got the elvish choir too for like a buck and they're rude and kind of fun also).

Correction: the elves were three dollars too, Holy Ambiances was a buck. And it is Iron Pack 04. (just checked the receipt). Any way, they seem worth the 7 dollars I paid.

[BlakeHeartsMusic]

Awesome, I'll check out those choir packs. I ended up preordering ST3. Probably hold out until Komplete 10, as it appears that a lot of the ultimate material is cinematic/ score focused.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Wow that is great to hear, thanks for preordering! I notice the pianos were talked about, that's a natural focal point in a large stock library like this, and it has been mentioned elsewhere that it will be good to also know how they "feel" vs how we know some of them sound (I'll post the link to those audio demos below if you haven't heard them) which will be possible upon release. I know Jordan Rudess (who performs these) doesn't look as good as Alicia Keys (but has mad skills) so I spared you the videos
http://soundcloud.com/ikmultimedia/sets/st3-piano

[murnau]

vs. ?

[Vovique]

But keep in mind - with ST you get nothing more than a bunch of pre-recorded samples (however good they might be), whereas NI route gives you such synth classics like Massive and FM 8, plus hundreds of top class sample based instruments. There is absolutely no way you could pull out complex synthetic (read EDM and Dubstep-ish) stuff out of Sampletank, remember - its samples only

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Yes they are samples but there is, of course, and edit page though where you can manipulate the sounds and we have some great synth/EDM/etc sounds available. Here's an assortment of those:
https://soundcloud.com/ikmultimedia/sets/st3-synth

With an edit page as so:


From http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/sa ... ank-3-edit that explains some of the tools you have at hand to manipulate the samples

[ATS]

That's like saying do I want to drive a Ferrari or a Kia

[BBFG#]

That's like saying do I want to drive a Ferrari or a Kia

Or which one I want to pay for the maintenance on...

All things considered, I would want both. But I would drive the Kia more than the Ferrari for 'everyday stuff'.