Gap In The Market: Powerful Sample Based But Inexpensive Workhorse Synth

[egbert101]

Does it exist? No. But it may soon.

You have endless wavetable synths, but not a decent sample based synth in the relatively affordable price range of around $100-$150 range.

The closest thing is Absynth 5, which is pretty ancient and badly needs a GUI update, and is more esoteric than workhorse (although it can be). Then you have Iris 2, which is a bit of a joke, and also badly needs a GUI update and multisample support.

TAL-Sampler is an absolute gem, but is fairly basic and lacks all the bells and whistles from wavetable synths in the price range I mentioned, but it's cheap, so...

EDIT: Before anyone says it, sure Air Structure 2, but it's a tiny GUI and more importantly it's ilok, so a NO GO.

EDIT 2: Tone 2 Electra 2 just may hit the sweet spot, currently on sale at 149 Euros, but full price is still 200 Euros.

[deastman]

So in summary, you’re looking for a top tier sampler at a bottom tier price?

[egbert101]

So in summary, you’re looking for a top tier sampler at a bottom tier price?

No, I'm saying there's a gap in the market for a decent sample based synth in that price range. Yet there are around 20 wavetable synths all competing against each other with the same kind of basic workhorse features.

[Tj Shredder]

There is a free open source one: Hise
And on Mac you just buy Mainstage for 30,- and have not only a sampler you get whole lot of other synths as well...
And there is Equator, but there you need to prepare your samples in any free sfz editor...

[dangayle]

Renoise and Renoise Redux are in that price range. Can generate and export multisamples, include a fine range of built-in effects, extensive options for chopping and editing samples.

[Ingonator]

Synthmaster 2.9 is not really expensive and has tons of features.

[Synthman2000]

As WT synthesis seems so powerful and flexible maybe it is possible to make sufficient differences between so many and still sell plenty (shipping with loads of unique WT's). Some options import samples as well. Maybe that gap is not that big and potentially unprofitable because an inexpensive version would be the worst of all worlds ?

I think TAL has a low cost cut down sampler that is still interesting.

[v1o]

Does it exist? No. But it may soon.

You have endless wavetable synths, but not a decent sample based synth in the relatively affordable price range of around $100-$150 range.

The closest thing is Absynth 5, which is pretty ancient and badly needs a GUI update, and is more esoteric than workhorse (although it can be). Then you have Iris 2, which is a bit of a joke, and also badly needs a GUI update and multisample support.

TAL-Sampler is an absolute gem, but is fairly basic and lacks all the bells and whistles from wavetable synths in the price range I mentioned, but it's cheap, so...

EDIT: Before anyone says it, sure Air Structure 2, but it's a tiny GUI and more importantly it's ilok, so a NO GO.

Like Sampletank, Yellow Tools Culture, Halion Sonic and Xpand!2?

[whyterabbyt]

not a decent sample based synth in the relatively affordable price range of around $100-$150 range.

Nonsense, there have been a decent number. You've had synths with sfz support, from Alchemy to Dimension to Wusikstation. There's also been tons of free stuff with soundfont support, including GreenOak Crystal, and still some current commercial plugins too like Discovery Pro. And many many more with WAV sample support, even back to old plugins like Vaz Modular and Rhino all the way up to the current incarnation of Reaktor.
And that's before the fact that almost all samplers and romplers pretty much have the signal chain to be considered 'sample based synths' in the first place.

Strawman, methinks.

[egbert101]

Synthmaster 2.9 is not really expensive and has tons of features.

I'm not about it's sample playback capabilities. The workflow is horrid, but it sounds great and has a lot of features.

[egbert101]

As WT synthesis seems so powerful and flexible maybe it is possible to make sufficient differences between so many and still sell plenty (shipping with loads of unique WT's). Some options import samples as well. Maybe that gap is not that big and potentially unprofitable because an inexpensive version would be the worst of all worlds ?

I think TAL has a low cost cut down sampler that is still interesting.

As I stated, TAL is fantastic, and comes in at the cheaper end, but what is missing are some more synthesis capabilities, more effects, etc.

[Examigan]

I don’t really use it much anymore, but Wusikstation is another one.

[egbert101]

I don’t really use it much anymore, but Wusikstation is another one.

Wasn't there some controversy over the developer? Still an old old plugin. I'm talking about something new and in the price range mentioned.

[wagtunes]

Actually whyterabbyt brings up a great synth. Wusikstation is really powerful. Download the demo and you'll see. The learning curve is a bit as there's a lot stuffed into this thing (it does granular too) and the sequencer capabilities are off the charts.

I have one demo that I made where I held down one note and had like 3 different parts going at one time. I'll see if I can find it.

Anyway, Wusikstation is really something you should look into.

Otherwise, I'm really not sure what it is you're looking for that you think we don't have.

[wagtunes]

I don’t really use it much anymore, but Wusikstation is another one.

Wasn't there some controversy over the developer? Still an old old plugin. I'm talking about something new and in the price range mentioned.

What's "new?" How far down this rabbit hole with conditions do you want to go?