I've been looking all over and I have yet to find a sampler that fits my wants and I'm looking for suggestions.

I'm looking for something that would be similar to my old Ensoniq EPS sampler with the following feature:

It needs to be like a sampling keyboard and not a drum sampler (It seems that those are the most prevalent right now and I don't use them).

Second, and this is the feature I've been having a REALLY hard time finding, it has to allow you to load multiple samples into it and allow you to set each sample to receive from a separate midi channel.
Every sampler I've found seems to only allow you to load one sample into it and in order to do this, you have to have multiple instances of the same sampler running, each set to a different midi channel.

Do any free sampler vst's exist that are like this ?

I guess what I'm looking for is a free VST that comes close to the functionality of my Ensoniq EPS. I'd use my EPS, but it's old, only has a floppy drive, and I don't have the cash to get the upgraded virtual disk drive for it.

Shortcircuit
http://vemberaudio.se/shortcircuit.php

Why is the trend toward multiple instants of samplers each with one sound loaded into it rather than one instant with multiple samples loaded into it doing the same thing ? This is just messy in my opinion, and with the amount of sampled instruments I use in my music, that can create a LOT of tracks. It's messy. Especially with all those samplers running.

I never understood this trend.

And so-far, ShortCircuit looks exactly like what I've been looking for ! I'm going to spend the night playing with it.

You could check out the free version of Paax too ...
http://www.kotkasuniverse.com/paax_index.htm

alchemy player : http://www.camelaudio.com/AlchemyPlayer.php

highlife : http://www.discodsp.com/highlife/#

but alchemy comes with 1 Gb of sound !!!

Another interesting free one seems to be this:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=326627


Personally i'm mostly using commercial ones like e.g. Kontakt 4, Alchemy, Synthmaster 2.5 and PPG Wave 3.V so i could not really speak about details of the free ones mentioned here (and in the link i posted).


Ingo

So far, ShortCircuit is the absolute winner. It feels like I'm working with an upgraded version of my old Ensoniq EPS !!!

Thanks for suggesting it !!! It's fantastic !!!

big +1 for Shortcircuit 1. absolutely awesome sampler, especially now that it's free.

TX16Wx also looks very cool, but i just can't get used to the workflow.

another one you might want to check out is LinuxSampler:

http://www.linuxsampler.org/

Glad to hear it ...

How such AMAZING thing can be discontinued
Why

Discontinued ? Awww.
I was going to mention on their forums that my one and only wish for any future release of it would be if they incorporated a "sample preview" feature into the "load sample" screen. It would be nice to be able to preview the samples before loading them.
But oh well. This is a minor issue. I'm not complaining. It's a great piece of software and as it is, I can always preview the sounds other ways.

? You have that option

yeah, it's a shame. with several improvements, it could become THE perfect sampler.

on the other hand, we do have a chance of using it for free now - wouldn't be so if the plugin wasn't discontinued.

http://www.yellowtools.us/cp21/cms/index.php?id=783

you can also download INDEPENDENCE FREE 2gb samples included!!!


www.myspace.com/tombalcony