Good sampler recommendations?

[MarcW]

Hello,

I've just thrown away $80 on Symphony Strings. Now, the samples are nice but Sampletank LE is so buggy that I can't use it. Tracktion either crashes or the whole computer locks up when I use it. I haven't had this problem with all the other VSTs I use. This is SampleTank LE v2.0 that came with Symphony Strings.

Sometimes free stuff is better.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good VST sampler where I can find a decent array of samples for it? I'm looking for symphonic stuff mainly.

Marc

[SampleStream]

Either Dimension Pro or Kontakt2 would be worth investigating further.

[MarcW]

Thanks for the advice. They both look nice and quite powerful.

What about Kompakt? How is this different from Kontakt2 other than the price?

Thanks,
Marc

[cyanogen]

Kontakt 2 has more effects (including convolution reverb) than Kompakt. Also, Kontakt 2 imports more sample formats. (For some reason, Gigasampler is listed for Kompakt, but not Gigastudio 2 or 3.) Kontakt 2 will let you edit the key-switching assigments, but Kompakt won't. However, Kompakt will still respond to key switches, according to the NI website. I'll find out how well that works in a couple weeks when I buy Lyrical Distortion and run it through Kompakt. From what I can tell, Kontakt 2's included sampler library is better than Kompakt. I have heard that some older Kontakt samples don't work correctly in Kontakt 2, however.

[james0tucson]

Point of information, Sampletank 2LE has not given me the slightest hiccup under FLS or eXT, or both.

[Neil G]

another vote for kontakt although im still on 1.5. didnt see the need to update since 1.5 does everything my old mpc 60 did and way way more.

[M'Snah]

Make sure that "real-time priority mode" in Tracktion's settings panel is switched off. It is known to freeze up Sampletank.

[P.T.]

There are some Vst that just don't work well in tracktion. I don't know if Sampletank LE is one of them.

Actually, I think most hosts have problems with some Vst's or others.

[M'Snah]

Tracktion (LE) works perfectly for me within Tracktion 2. After I configured Tracktion right, I never had problems. Except that it can be slow loading the patch list... especially for the Drum Combis

[P.T.]

Good to know. Some of the sampletank stuff that comes with LE as a player is quite good.

[MarcW]

Ok, to be fair, I installed SampleTank LE on my laptop. It seems to work fine. My desktop, which is the one that has problems with SampleTank LE, is more the more powerful machine all around. The main differences are that the desktop is hooked to my Tascam FW-1082 using ASIO direct mode. The laptop just uses DirectSound. Could this be the prob?

I think I'll be going for Kontakt since it has a pretty good rep.

Thanks,
Marc

[jsavin]

I've had lots of problems with SampleTank crashing on my Macs (both PowerBook G4 and G5 DP). It may be that the Windows version works pretty well and that the Mac version is buggy.

I've noticed that crashes usually happen when changing samples during playback, or changing the play head location during playback. Hitting stop before making changes or locating the play head seems to avoid most but not all crashes.

Also, FWIW, I hate that my mouse's scrollwheel doesn't work in SampleTank's sample browser panel. If they fixed the crashes and lack of scrollwheel support, I'd be a much happier SampleTank user.