KVR Audio

Sidhu · Post by **Sidhu** » Sat May 07, 2005 5:36 am

Hi!

im a novice with samplers, I dont make much music. However, I work with a few arrangers whose sequences I like to remap to the few sample banks I have, rather than use the stock workstation sounds that they sequuence on.

I need a sampler now. I have FL, and have been using SFX free with reasonable results.

Over the pst couple days i have beent rying to use Vsampler. It comes accross as a powerful sampler, but im finding it difficult to use, dont understand it very well. But I still have to read the manual, and im sure ill get to understant it.

What i really like about this sampler is it's ability to import a majority of popular sound formats.

Also available to me, at a cheaper price (locally, compared to vsampler) is Sampletank L. Now im not to happy about it not having any disk streaming, i have 512MB memory, dont plan to upgrade soon, and ususally end up with heavy sessions. However, it comes with a comprehensive soundset, i believe, and is to use?

Besides these there is halion available, more expensive than vsampler, but if i can afford vsampler I should be able to also afford Halion, it's not much more expensive.

what would my best alternative be ?

Sidhu

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sat May 07, 2005 6:17 am

My only experience is with 2 soft samplers,first Giga which was a nightmare but a somewhat manageble nightmare and NI's Kontakt which I like.I like Kontakt for the simplicity and having an explorer to drag in a sample/.wav from anywhere on my HD and how easy it is to make my own sample instruments(just drag your .wav's from the explorer over to the keyboard grid).As far as format compatibility I had no problem converting my .Giga and Akai library and no problem importing .esx(Logic),soundfonts or any sound file and even Halion,but I did have a problem with my old EMU disks with Kontakt,but even CDXtract didn't really do a good job with EMU either so I'll chalk that format up as somewhat problematic.I did try Halion but found it too complicated at first try and I just didn't like V-Samplers GUI/handling or copy protection method.So for me Kontakt is simple and works.

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Sat May 07, 2005 6:23 am

If wav and soundfont are the only formats you need, then I recommend EnergyXT - great for building patches, complex or not!

Sidhu · Post by **Sidhu** » Sat May 07, 2005 6:58 am

I also need Wave and soundfonts... Down the line I would like to invest in some quality sample libraries, strings and stuff.. these mostly come precompiled for a popular format, such as halion or Giga...

Sidhu

declassified · Post by **declassified** » Sat May 07, 2005 7:11 am

Alan wrote:I like Kontakt for the simplicity ...

simplicity?

A great sampler, which is far more simple and intuitive is Shortcircuit:

http://www.vemberaudio.com

P.T. · Post by **P.T.** » Sat May 07, 2005 11:22 am

A lot of sample libraries these days come with their own players.

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Sat May 07, 2005 10:28 pm

My vote goes to Kontakt 2. I've used a lot of different samplers, and K2 comes out on top, IMO (works great in FL also). Built-in library is fantastic too.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sun May 08, 2005 2:20 am

declassified wrote:
Alan wrote:I like Kontakt for the simplicity ...
simplicity?

A great sampler, which is far more simple and intuitive is Shortcircuit:

http://www.vemberaudio.com

Please,on a basic level it doesn't get any easier than dragging a sample in to the play area or .wav's onto a keyboard grid to create a multisample,but yeah,Kontakt can get quite deep if your needs go that far.from what I've could gather out of Shortcircuits web site,both samplers seem identical as far as simplicity on a basic level(playback/sample creation/basic editing),but Shortcircuit lacks import variety and library support which the creater of this thread needs.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sun May 08, 2005 2:24 am

sidhu wrote:I also need Wave and soundfonts...

most samplers read those formats

Down the line I would like to invest in some quality sample libraries, strings and stuff.. these mostly come precompiled for a popular format, such as halion or Giga...

Giga probably has the biggest library support followed by Kontakt then Halion,most quality Rompler disks(East/West etc.)use Kompact which usually can be read by Kontakt if your using the latest version.

Sidhu · Post by **Sidhu** » Sun May 08, 2005 4:19 am

I am i little unsure of the differences between a Sampler and a Rompler. Romplers cannot disk stream and will only load samples into the RAM. Besides ?

Sidhu

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Sun May 08, 2005 4:44 am

ROMpler only uses the built in sounds that come with said software.

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Sun May 08, 2005 5:29 am

I'd say go with Kontakt. It comes with a great, multi-purpose library, loads wave & soundfonts, and you can edit as deep (or not) as you want.

Sidhu · Post by **Sidhu** » Sun May 08, 2005 5:46 am

So sammpletank is more or less a rompler ? No third party development.

Is not Kompact cheaper vis a vis Kontact... with has much functionality as I need ?

I was also reading up on HALion, and they have this feature 'alternate' which emulates the up and down action of the bow while playing strings (works with certain libraries). I think thats impressive.

@Alex

I would want to have a variety of import option so that later i dont feel hindered by lack of support of a soundset that i might want. This is not a must however.

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Sun May 08, 2005 5:48 am

Yeah, Sampletank isn't really what you're after at all.

Bassballjg · Post by **Bassballjg** » Sun May 08, 2005 6:08 am

sidhu wrote:So sammpletank is more or less a rompler ? No third party development.

Is not Kompact cheaper vis a vis Kontact... with has much functionality as I need ?

I was also reading up on HALion, and they have this feature 'alternate' which emulates the up and down action of the bow while playing strings (works with certain libraries). I think thats impressive.

@Alex

I would want to have a variety of import option so that later i dont feel hindered by lack of support of a soundset that i might want. This is not a must however.

SampleTank does have 3rd party support, the leader in this area being Sonic Reality. It also has the ability to import Akai and wav(or aiff in the Mac version), however the control over keymapping and zones in the instrument building process is extremely limited. But it is a damn fine synth. I use it as my virtual JV 1080 on steroids, it's great for that sort of thing.

I like VSampler a lot. Some find it confusing and frustrating, but there is nothing that somebody hasn't found frustrating and confusing. It imports so many formats and is so dead easy to build instruments in, that you will be well-connected to an enormous amount of free and commercial sounds and still have a unique library of your own. If it works for you, the best use of your time would be to get to know it as you are better off being the master of what you have than investing your musical imagination in the dream of what something else can do. VSampler would be one of the high-power apps of the softsampler world if people(myself included) actually took the time and effort to make themselves power users of it.

As a sample playback synth with ultimite bang for the buck, do look at any of the synths using the WusikEngine: Wusikstation, Manystation, Vox'd and the Second Wave. The engine is the same for all these, different soundsets ship with them. Four oscilators, with 2 additional wavesequencing oscilators, with four resonant multimode filters per oscilator voice, topped off with one of the most extensive mod matrices in the plug-in world. Actually, VSampler and Wusik make a great team, because VSampler is so easy to build instruments in, and can export sf2, and then you can convert sf2 to WusikSND format using the excellent and inexpensive Extreme Sample Converter.

You've got a lot of options in this market, but I think that you need to choose your tools based on what sounds and feels best to you. Always demo before you buy, and prioritize the features that most fit what you're trying to do over anything else that might seem whiz-bang, but isn't really about you and your music. Good hunting.

Sampler ?