I'd like to know what is the best soft sampler to invest in. I'm using Pro Tools and need high quality piano, keys, orchestral, ethnic and other 'real' sounds. The synthy stuff and effects I can live without as I tend to use Reason a lot. I compose for TV and Radio commercials so it needs to be flexible, have a large, quality library and be stable within Pro Tools, as well as being the place where I can play and control any samples that come my way.
I'm basically looking at either NI's Kontakt 2 or MOTU's Mach 5, both of which seem to be the daddy as far as soft samplers are concerned. Can anyone recommend another of this kind of quality or give me advice on these two as regards to working in PT?
After doing a bit of research on the Mach 5 and Kontakt 2, I can see that, while they're both comprably impressive, the MOTU comes with 4GB of samples whilst the NI comes with 14GB!! I know that included libraries are not always the definitive set, but that's quite a bit more of an investment in my eyes.
It's also more powerful (with the script processing and stuff) but this is reflected in the price - it's about 100 quid more. However, I just found a place that is doing an offer of the Kontakt bundled with some other library for only 200 quid!!!
However, concerning complimentary libraries, I thought that those samples libraries that come with their own player (specifically those ones that come with the Kompakt front end) would have the option of being played through the Kontakt or Mach instead. Is this not the case? It would indeed be annoying to have a different interface for each library I might use, rather than using one for everything (which would be the whole point of my purchase). I'm not buying it for the included library - I want a great sampler that I can use for all my sample playing needs, whatever sounds I decide to get in the future, so it has to be flexible.
Also, with the extensive import options of both of these players, I assumed that practically any library would be able to be used with either of them with no problems. Is this also false? Are there hidden parameters in samples other than the file name that I am unaware of?
The Kontakt Library seems pretty good, but I only heard the online demo tracks. It's got Vienna Symphonic Orchestra samples as well as a ton of others. I figured that this was probably a better investment than the 4GB of samples with the Mach 5, but then I haven't been able to actually hear them.
It's difficult, because how do you try out these bits of kit? Demos I suppose, but I'd rather just try them out somewhere.
Ooh, it's a toughy, innit? I've heard really great things about both these samplers from a huge variety of people. The Mach 5 has a really nice interface and seems perfectly powerful enough for my needs, but the Kontakt is also very powerful and flexible and would give me the option of mangling my sounds a bit more if I felt the need for some sound design.
Plus, with this offer, the Kontakt is actually cheaper than the Mach 5 and comes with a whole other library of sounds.
Incidentally, I'm aware that Gigastudio is also supposed to be a towering giant among samplers, but as it's recommend that you run it on it's own, dedicated PC, that's not really an option for me right now.
Also, I know that I should install all programs and plugins on the OS drive and record all sessions on the audio drive, but what's the best way to store and organise sample libraries? On a partition on the audio drive? On a seperate drive? On the OS drive?
Phew, long first post and a lot of questions I know! But you guys were recommended to me for this type of question so I had to get it all out.
Thanks a bundle.
the tortoise
x
).
- if that ain't ignorance!!! 
Excuse my ignorance,i,m afraid i,m not well educated .(and obviously not very observant today either)
