Sampletank 2.1 vs Kontakt 2?

[Hawkon]

Hi,

I own Sampletank 2.1 .... and I am fairly happy with the sounds (although not with the sounds of the long-awaited ST2.1 upgrade, which was a bit of a let-down

Just wondering if anyone would care to compare the sounds in Kontakt 2 with Sampletank... is buying Kontakt worth if you already own Sampletank? I know Kontakt is a *sampler*, not just a sample *player*, but I am not planning on doing much else than using factory sound sets....too little time!

Comments/comparisons anyone?

-håwkon

[dougsyo]

I have both (and some others).

I find ST2 easier to use, but unless you use EXSC then you're limited to content provided by IK or Sonic Reality (if ST2 has any import capabilities, I've not tried it). ST2 is not a major-name sampler like Kontakt or Halion, so you're not as likely to find other vendors that support that format (this was an issue for me for some commercial sample sets from PMI).

For third-party sounds Kontakt and Halion are the "big names". Some other samplers (VSampler3, Kompakt, etc) may be able to import them satisfactorily. 50% of the reason I got Kontakt was for third-party sample support, and 50% was because of the included content (I went through a SAS - Sample Acquisition Syndrome - phase). If I could've gotten K1.5 instead of K2, I probably would have, but I wasn't complaining about the content for K2, it was much better than what K1.5 came with.

So ... I probably didn't answer your question directly, but there's some reasons to consider using both. As long as you're not working with K2 samplesets or monolithic sample libraries, VSampler3 (without content) may meet the need for third-party stuff.

Incidentally, I had the advantage of being able to get ST2 on an inexpensive upgrade because I bought SS1 via group buy, and I was able to get Kontakt reasonably because of academic pricing, so I paid less for both than the MSRP of K2 alone.

Doug

[kovacs]

I have both and tend to use neither...for whatever it's worth. If you're just after playing included sounds I can recommend Kompakt, for example (I use it a lot and it has a great library). Only problem is there hasn't been an update to Kompakt for ages and I'm afraid NI is shelving it.