Countdown to Sample Tank 3, with 64 bit support

[raintalk]

"You know Peter, this new bigger GUI is Fantastic!"

[kodebode2]

My only question is will the promised 64 bit free player be launched alongside the paid new version, or will we have to wait longer for the free player?

And I wonder if Philharmonik will also get a 64 bit version. Since it is built on the same engine (I believe) that should be no big deal and would be highly appreciated.

Its time to retire these old favorites in emperors new clothes, 15 years ago these were the bees knees, no more. Their sale shoudl be discontinued... Period.

Why - no matter how cheap they sell for, the quality is simply not work paying anything for them. It's more about squeezing the last buck from this dinosaur - an unfortunate business ethic. Buyer beware.

Really? People are VERY interested in one specific feature of SampleTank 3, perhaps above almost all others: "Will it import previous libraries?" and it will because these are not sounds that deserve to be discontinued at all and they stand up in many genres and projects (not just hip hop but I appreciate that observation too, as it is definitely more than valid - 8 Mile pianos from ST come to mind when I think of SampleTank and hip hop but that discounts the many users we have making more current hip hop and loving the Powered By SampleTank line).

I understand that you have your right to your opinion but based on the feedback we are getting, these libraries are not dinosaurs and should not be discontinued at all based on the very clear reason I state above. Sometimes fairly passionate and vehement opinions can cloud what should be clearly seen as an objective and market data-driven decision. That's not just good business ethic (contrary to your opinion to which you are entitled) but basic business acumen.

Does this sound bad? I think Miroslav Philharmonik is wildly underrated (though it may be the most popular choice in the Group Buy at the moment so people still do like it):


Plus, if you don't feel they are worth paying for you do have the right to simply not buy them.

While certainly you are close to your product and my less than positive comments may not be what you want to hear - consider this, my first contribution to this thread was an unsolicited glowing and favorable comment on what I found good about your products - the iPad acoustic pianos, which would make me want to buy a similar product as a PC/MAC virtual instrument, if this was available at the same quality. A product that sounded as good as Yamaha digital pianos, and better in some ways than a recent Yamaha Motif or S90, in the same store. I applauded the positive and I commented on the negative - the lack of sympathetic resonance. An objective fair comment...

On the other hand the same person, with the same ears that made the positive comment, me, has listened to Miroslav for many years, including the youtube example you posted(which in spite of it being drowned in a bit of reverb, I can still hear that the samples are not up to date, i.e what I want to hear in 2013) which I would rather wish to create using higher quality samples, and a low pass filter and a bit crusher, to tame the high end frequencies, if I wanted a low fi orchestra.

Fair is fair, in a public forum, which is what we value the internet for, we should be able to express justifiably what we consider to be true. To me, the Miroslav samples sound dated and "fixed" with little variation in tone, as a good sample set of an acoustic instrument should have, from varying harmonics at multiple velocities.

Interpret my comments on Miroslav to read - its time IK gave us new high quality orchestral samples that match the competition, which we look forward to using in a variety of settings, pop, film, etc. and if you include the old Miroslav samples in the new product - fantastic, even better, so everybody can be happy!

As you should be a customer advocate, with me as a potential customer, it would have been better for you that take the critic (both the positive and negative) to identify what people want or dislike in your products to continue to improve them, and why they have these opinions. This is the attitude you should take towards my comments.

If I may add, while at this time, you are not at liberty to divulge the specs of ST3, here's what I would want in ST3, include the ST2 and all the previous expansion packs as well as so that, owners of ST3 do not lose anything. This is what Spectrasonics did with Omnisphere(inlcluding the old product Atmosphere). I expect nothing less from IK. This way those who like the older samples are also satisfied.

I'll close with some positive feedback to you. When I installed your free verson of ST2, it had promise and while it did not prompt me to buy the full version, its shortcomings drove me to layer it with some other samples in Cantabile (a VST host) to create many interesting electric pianos, which use an electric piano from the free version of ST2, as a foundation + a lot of other tweaks which I'd rather not disclose here. I've used this effectively in live music and a clip from a rough demo of a famous song from Sound of Music, can be heard here.

http://soundcloud.com/olakunleodebode/favorite-things

Everything you hear on this link is created with freeware, so you can appreciate that if I can create high quality fresh sounds from freeware, I expect a lot more from payware.

Your product has promise and if you would be more objective, and listen to what potential customers like me are saying, you could lead the market with a product that is all encompassing, with fresh sounds, that we actually will want use for live and studio. This should be your objective. Telling me not to bother to buy your product, if I do not like it, is not the response I appreciate. I am fairly certain - Eric Persing would not respond in this manner, if I made a similar objective critic about Spectrasonics products.

[Teksonik]

its time IK gave us new high quality orchestral samples that match the competition,

Wouldn't that mean the new samples would have to match the competition's higher price ?

Everything you hear on this link is created with freeware, so you can appreciate that if I can create high quality fresh sounds from freeware, I expect a lot more from payware.

Hmmmm I don't hear any sounds in there that couldn't easily be created in Sampletank with a little creative programming. I certainly don't hear any strings in there that are better than Miroslav.......

[Burillo]

Hmmmm I don't hear any sounds in there that couldn't easily be created in Sampletank with a little creative programming. I certainly don't hear any strings in there that are better than Miroslav.......

i think it's obvious that that was exactly the point payware should far surpass the freeware in order to be worth the price tag.

[kodebode2]

its time IK gave us new high quality orchestral samples that match the competition,

Wouldn't that mean the new samples would have to match the competition's higher price ?

Fair comment.

Here's my take on the software based music instrument industry - Once upon a time, IK produced a product Sampletank that changed the industry. It was the first example of a workstation. It had expansion packs, if you wanted higher quality samples. This model works great for the IK and those who produce samples for their products, and are professional musicians.

My personal requirements if I'm allowed to express this without challenge, are - I'd like a single product that allows me to work in one environment, and takes me 90% of the way to what I want.

I'd like to focus on the creating music, composing with inspiring sounds, which is what is the focus after all, rather than spending time tweaking a bad sound to try to improve it.

You will recall I gave some insights into having to tweak ST2 Free piano's and layering to get what I want. It was such a revealing exercise, it took me time, and a lot of effort, many months before I was satisfied(and I had to save my presets when I moved from one PC to another. Saving and recalling presets of a sound layered across multiple VST's, on several PC's, is a cludge. When creating, and composing, I would like to avoid this.

Today I use a Roland XV sound module, and when I want an electric piano, I simply search for one and play, find the closest to what I hear in my head, and which fits the music I have in mind, and within 2 minutes I'm done with sound selection and I can focus on creating music.

When I get to a digital piano, or a workstation such as a Motif or Korg Kronos, same thing - choose and play. Unfortunately the integration with DAW's is poor or non existent, and I miss this.

The iPad pianos which in total cost less than £30 sound as good as Ivory which I have, and in many respects somewhat better for certain genres. When I demoed it in the store, it was exactly the same - plug select patch and play, no significant need for tweaking, rather than tweak, the basic selection of sounds was so good that I simply needed to pick the one nearest to my needs.

I would like this as a VST. In my experience, there's nothing out there like this with a good workstation type variety of good quality sounds(sounds that do not make me cringe) in one package. I'd like a Motif or Kronos in PC version, of course with better quality sounds, as on a PC the memory/hard disk enables much higher quality samples, which is also fully integrated as a multi channel VST in my DAW.

I invested in several versions of Kontakt from version 1 to 4 - its a hoax. hoping to find usable playable sounds. None. When does the buying spree end, probaly until you buy Kontakt libraries. How many will I need to buy?. In a world of software intruments that you cannot return to the shop, if you do not like them, the soundware producers must live up to a much higher standard of user satisfaction.

With Spectrasonics it's a good number of high quality instruments, but multiple products, interfaces, etc. and does not cater for electric or acoustic pianos to any majo extent.

What am I saying?. the IPad piano is so much better than ST2 Pianos and Piano expansions, and literally as good as Ivory for most typical purposes. If IK could do a similar upgrade of their sounds for all other instruments, and include a good smattering of the synthetic (the intention of SonikSynth)

When I heard the iPAD piano, I had hope, that if IK could achieve this on an iPAD, rivaling Ivory, they could do the same for other instruments, I could get even more of what I wanted in a single product in ST3, where I can do 2 things which I think should be the objective of IK.

1. Just sit on the keyboard and play for my own personal enjoyment, with good quality sounds, producing audio that is pleasing to me. I think the music instrument industry is so focussed on producing instruments for the professional musician that the average joe who would have gone out to buy a Yamaha arranger or a digital piano (with many sounds) for their own personal enjoyment at home - has been severely under served. This category of buyer does not care if the sound was used on a hit record as Peter alludes to. Here I am more interested in what I can hear, rather then which hit record the sound was used on!. Here I'm playing purely for my own pleasure.

2. Enable me to work within any DAW, to translate my doodlings into recorded midi and audio, to take the music further and share this with others for profit or otherwise.

If IK can give me an instrument with the "1 ring to bid them all" concept, across acoustic, synthetic and hybrid sounds, coupled with teh layering which they already have and decent effects, with similar "playable" good quality that I heard in the iPad piano, this is what I need.

Hope there's nothing wrong with using this forum to ask IK for what I need?

One more thing - excellent library management, like in Omnisphere, with ability to keep track of the sounds I use more regularly would be great. I will ive you an example. in my XV, when I switch it on, it defaults to the most recent patch which I selected.

How about :

1. A history of recently selected patches, by date, an idea stolen from web browsers.

2. A list of most frequently selected patches, based on number of times, I've used these sounds.

Both of these functions would be amazing in a VST, as there is none yet that has these, to my knowledge....

3. By the way ST needs some massive improvement in the ease of saving and recalling custom sounds, after I've tweaked them...

I would really love to love the ST, the concept is fantastic, the multi layering is great, usable effects, but let down by some inconsistenies in the quality of its sounds.

If I may be quite clear, when you buy a software instrument, which 99.999% of the time, you never have the opportunity to try out adequately in a store, and the product is NOT returnable/refundable, I expect to be a satisfied customer. Period.

If that means that it costs more, so be it. There's no point paying less for what I will not enjoy using. I did not get into music because it was cheap, I became engrossed because it was enjoyable. I heard great music that drew me towards the instruments, and I wanted to imitate what I had heard, or reproduce what I hear(feel) in my head.

It's time we had a good software workstation that was enjoyable and had it ALL in, so I can concentrate on enjoying myself, not finding the next expansion pack or alternative to plug a hole in the sound choice!.

Nothing wrong with asking...IK give me a "Yamaha S90" that can be well integrated in my DAW, with sounds that captivate my audience and I, and we can enjoy. - Plug and Play - no need to tweak, if I do not want to.

Will we have disk streaming in ST3 to support the larger samples needed for high quality, or need to upgrade to large RAM on our PC's which 64 bit can not take advantage of. We need both.

[kodebode2]

its time IK gave us new high quality orchestral samples that match the competition,

Wouldn't that mean the new samples would have to match the competition's higher price ?

Everything you hear on this link is created with freeware, so you can appreciate that if I can create high quality fresh sounds from freeware, I expect a lot more from payware.

Hmmmm I don't hear any sounds in there that couldn't easily be created in Sampletank with a little creative programming. I certainly don't hear any strings in there that are better than Miroslav.......

The example I shared was definitely not intended to imitate strings. I was creating a keyboard sound emulative of tine electric pianos. It took me over 6 months of trial and error to achieve those sounds. Sound design is not my purpose, or intention, I want to create music!..

The point of paying for instruments is to get what we want. If I recall Teksonic from way back, you are a sound designer of some sort, so for you its ok to tweak.

What some of us want is instruments we can play, straightaway, yes with good presets.

IK should give us a good product with excellent playable instruments out of teh box and those of you who enjoy tweaking, will have options to do so.

If IK's target is only sound designers, then I should be looking elsewhere.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

SampleTank 3 will be a great workstation, as SampleTank has been for years. I think my reply was fair to the statement that you made about our product being discontinued, I didn't say you couldn't express your opinions. Also, did you see where I pointed out that those iGrand Piano for iPad sounds were derived directly from SampleTank 3 sessions?

I think we're actually on the same page, but you should probably expect a bit of a reply when something as dramatic and decisive as "x should be discontinued" is made, is all. Can you please put your feature request list into a digestable form (a single list) and PM it to me? Thanks. I can't make guarantees but I can forward feature requests to the Product Manager.

[tosvus]

Reading this thread through quickly, I hope I understand it correctly that the new sampletank will support the instruments from the current generation.

I'm sure it would be great to add some new sounds and perhaps better sampling/bigger samples, but if you do, don't disable the use of the current stuff I will most definitely buy sampletank3 for 64-bit, hope of a better (bigger) gui etc, but it needs to support all the instruments that I got in the current group-buy (great!) deal!

[dsan@mail.com]

Peter has repeatedly stated in MANY threads that you will be able to load all ST2 instruments in ST3. Matter of fact he has stated you will be able to load MSO, Sonic Synth, Samplemoog and Sampletron instruments in the new ST3.

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[tosvus]

Peter has repeatedly stated in MANY threads that you will be able to load all ST2 instruments in ST3. Matter of fact he has stated you will be able to load MSO, Sonic Synth, Samplemoog and Sampletron instruments in the new ST3.

Happy Musiking!
dsan

Thanks! Looks like SampleTank3 will be on the shopping-list then!

[dsan@mail.com]

Mine too!

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[DrumAddict]

SampleTank 3 will be a great workstation, as SampleTank has been for years.

does that means that ST3 has or becomes now an integrated mapping editor , an function to import other formats like sfz and more instead of its own Sampletank format use , an function to use the IR's of your choice , the possibility to tweak the imported sounds like start and endpoint and many more and has becomes or becomes an own Synth Engine ?

sorry if not imho i would not call it "Workstation" , i would call it more Rompler or Sampler these days !

someone here has mentioned before if ST3 can compete with HALion 5 , i personal don't think so

you can't definetly compare ST with HALion 5 , these are definetly different shoes !

sorry to say this and its not meant evil , that are my personal opinion and experience

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Right, it will load/import the current Powered By SampleTank libraries. Since it is a full version release, it won't replace SampleTank directly in your projects so you can migrate your projects on your terms. For instance if you want to hear what your current SampleTank track sounds like with the new or updated ***CARRIER LOST***

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

? I meant workstation just like the workstation term has been used for SampleTank for years and someone else in this thread applied to keyboard workstations that it - in their opinion - goes beyond. Simple as that, not being contrary to your opinion like you may have thought, but I'm hoping my definition of workstation was in line with the most common use. If not, I stand corrected.

[DrumAddict]

? I meant workstation just like the workstation term has been used for SampleTank for years

i understand but the word "Workstation" for ST these days could confusing user or better said the new user , in term what i have said above in the other answere !

again as i said its my personal opinion