KONTAKT vs SampleTank

[jessinator]

Hey. I need a sampler. (or "sample player" more correctly, just something that can emulate lots of instruments). I was considering buying Sampletank, but I have read on the internet that people consider their samples to be low quality, and most people use Kontakt. However, NI's free Kore Player does not run well on my computer. I simply don't have the CPU to run it very well or sometimes at all.

So here's the question: If you were me, what would you buy?

Please don't go over about 300 dollars, and don't get too "passionate" towards the program in your answer. I don't care if you think people who use Sampletank need to be hanged and fed to wild llamas. They're just samplers people, come on.

[eDrummist]

Hey. I need a sampler. (or "sample player" more correctly, just something that can emulate lots of instruments). I was considering buying Sampletank, but I have read on the internet that people consider their samples to be low quality, and most people use Kontakt. However, NI's free Kore Player does not run well on my computer. I simply don't have the CPU to run it very well or sometimes at all.

So here's the question: If you were me, what would you buy?

Please don't go over about 300 dollars, and don't get too "passionate" towards the program in your answer. I don't care if you think people who use Sampletank need to be hanged and fed to wild llamas. They're just samplers people, come on.

I own both.

If you want realism, and especially if you are looking for samples of real-world instruments such as guitars, basses, drums, pianos, percussion, strings -- libraries beyond simple vintage synthesizers -- Kontakt is an excellent choice. It offers a level of sophistication far beyond SampleTank and other samplers and sample players due to some very sophisticated features (round robin, complex layers, etc.) and enabling sample developers to create custom scripts for their sample libraries. Check out some of the demos for Kontakt sample developers such as Orange Tree Samples guitars and basses, SampleTekk pianos, SonicCoture's libraries, Kirk Hunter strings, Steven Slate Drums and Tonehammer libraries (I've given marketing advice to some of these devs, FTR), and you'll hear a level of realism that just couldn't be accomplished with other sampler or sample players.

In my case, I am a long time user of SampleTank too. I think it's great for vintage synthesizer samples or for use on an older PC without enough processing and RAM power to handle the much larger, more sophisticated Kontakt libraries. I recently picked up SampleTron, SampleMoog and Sonik Synth in the current IK group buy order to get the vintage synth and Tron sounds. I think the SampleTank VST is great for those kinds of samples.

I know that you mentioned you have had problems with the Kore Player running on your machine, but I'd suggest that you download the free Kontakt player -- which is a completely different application -- and listen to the included sample libraries. Those certainly are not at the same level as the developers libraries that I've mentioned, but they are more sophisticated than SampleTank libraries. SampleTank doesn't offer the complex layers or have round robin (this ensures when you hit a key multiple times you don't hear the same sample played again and again causing what is often called the "machine gun effect")functionality, among other things.

You can either pick up a used version of Kontakt or currently pick up Kontakt Upgrade if you have any library that comes with the Kontakt player (Sonic Reality sells their Infinite Player with a piano library for under $100, which qualifies for the Kontakt upgrade).

[Great Galactic Ghoul]

FWIW...

I have both Kontakt (v3.5) and the Total Workstation Bundle, which is based around SampleTank. The one I use the most is Kontakt.

The included libraries with both Kontakt and SampleTank (proper, sans the workstation collection) are hit and miss. There's terrific and wholly usable stuff in both of them, but don't expect either to be the be-all, end-all software sampler/library right out of the box.

The advantage of Kontakt is that there are a myriad of sample library developers who develop their products to run under Kontakt. Should you find a sample library you like that isn't available in Kontakt format, Kontakt also has the ability of being able to load/convert a good number of other formats, i.e., EXS-24, Halion, SF2, GIGA, etc. In other words, you can expand the library over time and as you require and have a gaggle of options to choose from. The editing and scripting capabilities inside of Kontakt are also fairly extensive. I rarely scratch the surface in this regard, really, but there are times when it's helpful to dig in and edit samples on an individual basis or play around with the scripting a bit to get the results you want.

SampleTank is a closed system (akin to, say, Reason) for the most part. It can import a couple of sample formats aside from its native ones (SD II and WAV? Don't remember exactly off the top of my head...), but if you want to add anything else to it, you're going to be more limited in your choices, relative to Kontakt. (The bundle I have also includes Sonik Synth 2, Miroslav Philharmonik, SampleMoog and SampleTron, all of which can be run via SampleTank. The content of the lot of them are hit and miss. Good stuff in each library, but not an all-in-one solution. Of course, one could argue that nothing is...)

If I were starting from scratch and had to choose one or the other right now, given what I know, I'd grab Kontakt, no question. However, given what you said about the Kore Player not running well on your machine...I'd suggest you check the specs of Kontakt and SampleTank and decide which is most likely to run best on your machine.

Again, FWIW...

-Jerod

[sauli]

If you have 300 dollars extra and a computer that doesn't even run free kore player, I'd spend the cash to new computer parts.

On the other hand you'll most likely want Kontakt and it's really cheap at the moment, so I'd go for it now (but only because it's in sale, otherwise take the computer parts).

[darsho]

Have you considered getting Independence by Yellow Tools ?

You can try out their Free version to see if it runs on your PC.

Also it would be helpful to mention what exactly you need the sampler for. Do you wnt to use the library that comes with it or not. Which kind of sounds do you need and so on.

[Stomper]

Get the free kotakt player, see how it works on your pc.
if it goes well, put that money on sound libraries of instruments you want.

[Aloysius]

Kontakt! It really opens up a whole new world of sonic possibilities.

[jessinator]

i'm downloading the free kontakt player now to give that a try

btw my computer is
acer aspire 5520-5912
AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-58 1.90 GHz
2GB RAM, Windows Vista 32 Bit

[jessinator]

Also i may be able to post a little today, but then I'm going to be gone until Friday of next week. So don't think I've forgotten about this forum!!

[jessinator]

And you guys have been really helpful so far

[Josmoker]

I have owned Sampletank for a long time, Kontakt for a few months and now also got Independence since it was available so cheap.
I was never all that happy with the sounds and the engine in Sampletank/Sonik Synth and I much prefer what Kontakt has to offer (though Sampletanks GUI is a bit snappier). I did love some of the sounds in Independence Free and so am looking forward to installing Independence Pro sometime in the next few days to see if the whole library is as good...

[jessinator]

OK I downloaded kontakt and it seems to work much better

actually now that I try it out again some of the sounds in kore work, too, but they still seem to use a lot more CPU and I doubt i'd be able to run multiple instances of kore.

so here's a new question - where can I get a good sample library for kontakt???

[Josmoker]

Well first of all the library that comes with it is not all that bad. I would say try that out first and then see what you're missing. Which kind of instruments you are after will make a difference when people recommend sample libraries. There's a lot of specialised stuff out there and I don't know of any one library that covers every instrument to full satisfaction.

[lfm]

OK I downloaded kontakt and it seems to work much better

actually now that I try it out again some of the sounds in kore work, too, but they still seem to use a lot more CPU and I doubt i'd be able to run multiple instances of kore.

so here's a new question - where can I get a good sample library for kontakt???

Why would you need to run multiple instances at all?

Freeze the tracks that are done, and the samples and memory should be gone until you unfreeze it again.

Learn the technology you use and you can make do with much less cpu than you think.

[JavaJ]

In reading all of this- I am thinking you need a ROMpler and not a Sampler. It sounds like you want to have an arsenal of workstation-style instruments- maybe even a good GM bank. So, SampleTank may be something to look at (and that group buy).
Now, have you tried out the free EMU Proteus VX?
Also, I had the kindo of setup you have- mine was an HP Pavillion Laptop with the same Turion chip (and 2 GB). Honestly, Vista blows and blows bigtime. Kore did use up a lot of resources on it- but I was able to get it going pretty well (especialy by dissable wifi). Windows 7 may be a good upgrade for you as well as it definately helped the VSTi's I had (which also included Komplete).
I finally moved to Mac and don't have the same issues anymore but there are some suggestions for you.