IKM SampleTank 3 (ST3) Now Available

[jsp1979]

*Some* of the (non-IK employed) posters in this thread ought to be embarrassed by their posting behavior.

They won't be, but they ought to.

I mean, the post just above mine *STILL* gets things wrong that have been clarified over and over again (e.g. "you have to have paid regular price for ST 2.5 XL to qualify for the upgrade price"<---wrong!). At some point, you believe folks are just here to bitch and moan toward IK.

Interestingly enough, some of the harshest critics before this announcement are on board for the upgrade. That's pretty neat to see.

[murnau]

*Some* of the (non-IK employed) posters in this thread ought to be embarrassed by their posting behavior.

They won't be, but they ought to.

I mean, the post just above mine *STILL* gets things wrong that have been clarified over and over again (e.g. "you have to have paid regular price for ST 2.5 XL to qualify for the upgrade price"<---wrong!). At some point, you believe folks are just here to bitch and moan toward IK.

Interestingly enough, some of the harshest critics before this announcement are on board for the upgrade. That's pretty neat to see.

1+

feel guilty..

[jsp1979]

lol

I appreciate the honesty.

[mhog]

For those who moan about "no demo"... why the hell you expect a demo before ST3 comes out, when it is clearly stated this is a "pre-order"?! A "pre-order" means: "trust us". Usually pre-orders are like: "the product is still beta, not out yet, so no demo available, but if you want to spare money, buy it now (= "trust us about the quality of our product"); otherwise wait until release date, try the demo and buy it full price".

80€ to upgrade from ST2 to ST3 is a super extra gift, no question, demo or not demo.

[basslinemaster]

80€ to upgrade from ST2 to ST3 is a super extra gift, no question, demo or not demo.

How do you know it's a super extra gift? There is no demo.

Peter, how many of the 4,000 instruments are ST2 or Miroslav instruments?

[LimboLoves]

For those who moan about "no demo"... why the hell you expect a demo before ST3 comes out, when it is clearly stated this is a "pre-order"?! A "pre-order" means: "trust us". Usually pre-orders are like: "the product is still beta, not out yet, so no demo available, but if you want to spare money, buy it now (= "trust us about the quality of our product"); otherwise wait until release date, try the demo and buy it full price".

80€ to upgrade from ST2 to ST3 is a super extra gift, no question, demo or not demo.

So true. The critics always give me a laugh. I bet peters wife is always wondering why he busts out laughing at his computer.

[raintalk]

I bought it!
Sweetwater sweet deal on the boxed set.
Thanks above for pointing that deal out.
I've got 11cents US left on my gift certificate. Maybe I can convert these to Jampoints?

Now I heard that due to popularity of Vinyl that 30gb of samples will be shipped on LP's.
Is that true?

I can't help but think that some great great grandson of mine who happens to get named after me will one day get this mysterious package from Sweetwater. He'll rip it open an find Sampletank 3 - he'll drop to his knees, hold the box high above his head and look up to the sky as he shouts "Thank you Great Great grandfather for this wondrous gift."
The rest of his life he will wonder what he can do with the Jampoints.



Kidding aside, I'm really looking forward to Sampletank 3!

[Tpot]

So I know pricing interest shows people are interested in ordering SampleTank 3, but we've posted 50+ videos and so many audio demos (including one embedded here) and no comments on those? I thought that's what everybody was requesting instead of screenshots?

Honestly, I really don't mind companies trying different business ideas, though I must say that the custom shop initially totally killed my interest for IKM. I never updated my IKM software after the Custom Shop started, but maybe it would be ok and convenient. Like many other users I have reservations about having to install all software, just to get the ones I actually bought.

As for the ST 3, I find nearly all audio demos I've heard so far underwhelming, and especially the acoustic ones, which sounds way to "synthetic", with vocals, violins, woodwinds and brass sounding downright awful. And most demos seems to be made by a keyboard player, playing everything as it was a synth, which makes for an atypical representation of the instrument in question.

I can't hear that much difference from my old ST 2 XL, so what was the 10 years development time spent on? I certainly can't agree with IKM's statement "an unparalleled level of realism when dealing with vocals, woodwinds, brass, and other organic sounds". The competition is fierce today, with so many exceptionally sounding "specialist" sample libraries for a often reasonable price. I'm sure many people will be very happy with ST 3, but for me IKM's ST 3 simply doesn't cut it, even for the good price of $99.

[b15fliptop]

*Some* of the (non-IK employed) posters in this thread ought to be embarrassed by their posting behavior.

They won't be, but they ought to.

+ whatever the number for googolplex is.

[mhog]

As for the ST 3, I find nearly all audio demos I've heard so far underwhelming, and especially the acoustic ones, which sounds way to "synthetic", with vocals, violins, woodwinds and brass sounding downright awful. And most demos seems to be made by a keyboard player, playing everything as it was a synth, which makes for an atypical representation of the instrument in question.

I can't hear that much difference from my old ST 2 XL, so what was the 10 years development time spent on? I certainly can't agree with IKM's statement "an unparalleled level of realism when dealing with vocals, woodwinds, brass, and other organic sounds". The competition is fierce today, with so many exceptionally sounding "specialist" sample libraries for a often reasonable price. I'm sure many people will be very happy with ST 3, but for me IKM's ST 3 simply doesn't cut it, even for the good price of $99.

The competition is fierce today?... Where?... Actually I can't see any other instrument like Sampletank, which is a "bread and butter" workstation having high quality sounds + deep manipulation/editing features + expansion possibilites at a rather low price (200€). You cannot compare it to other existant romplers, apart maybe Halion Sonic (249€ + dongle). Omnisphere? Alchemy? They are everything but "bread and butter". Nexus is "trance oriented". Unless for "exceptionally sounding sample libraries" you mean some absurdly huge "dedicated" ones for Kontakt, like e.g. "Berlin Strings" (254 gb!!!) or things like "beautiful realistic small music box, 10 velocities, 24 bit 3 gb" and such. I mean, I understand the "5 gb kiddy whistle for Kontakt" can sound more realistic than the one included in ST3... This kind of "realism" costs very much, both in terms of money and disk space... and for me it has nothing to do with Sampletank (a "general purpose" rompler workstation... more a sort of Triton/Fantom/Motiv). If you want "extreme realism" (for what it means in computer music...) you need a sampler (e.g. Kontakt: 400€) + some very expensive libraries (not less than 200€. e.g. Orchestral Tool "Berlin Strings": 840€ + 19%VAT). I would not call it "reasonable price". So, I see no competition at all.

[Tpot]

See, this is where we don't agree. I don't think ST 3 has "high quality sounds", judging from the audio demos. So, for me ST 3 can't be "bread and butter" either way, since I would waste 33 GB of disk space on a thing I won't use. I will of course have to pay a lot more to get sounds better than ST 3 provides, and I am willing to do that. But to each his own.

[mhog]

See, this is where we don't agree. I don't think ST 3 has "high quality sounds", judging from the audio demos. So, for me ST 3 can't be "bread and butter" either way, since I would waste 33 GB of disk space on a thing I won't use. I will of course have to pay a lot more to get sounds better than ST 3 provides, and I am willing to do that. But to each his own.

I understand it depends on what we need (objective), not on (supposed) "quality" (which is something subjective, expecially when we talk about sound: see the crappy TR909, nowadays considered "beautiful" and "a must", the unrealistic moog strings/brasses, now a "standard fake", low-fi noises, the "plastic" FM "guitars" and D50 plucks, old electric pianos, the Mellotron etc.). As far as I can tell, ST3 offers high quality sounds, which does not always mean necessary "ultrarealistic". See hardware workstations like Triton, Trinity, Fantom, Motif etc. I would not consider their synthetic sounds "low quality". Of course, if you need ultrarealistic "acoustic" libraries (for soundtracks or whatever in professional environments to replace real players) I guess you have to spend more than 200€ (at least 300-400 € for one single instrument/category), otherwise recording a real musician while playing the real instrument is a better choice in terms of "ultrarealism". So, define "quality"...

[BBFG#]

I understand it depends on what we need (objective), not on (supposed) "quality" (which is something subjective, expecially when we talk about sound: see the crappy TR909, nowadays considered "beautiful" and "a must", the unrealistic moog strings/brasses, now a "standard fake", low-fi noises, the "plastic" FM "guitars" and D50 plucks, old electric pianos, the Mellotron etc.). As far as I can tell, ST3 offers high quality sounds, which does not always mean necessary "ultrarealistic". See hardware workstations like Triton, Trinity, Fantom, Motif etc. I would not consider their synthetic sounds "low quality". Of course, if you need ultrarealistic "acoustic" libraries (for soundtracks or whatever in professional environments to replace real players) I guess you have to spend more than 200€ (at least 300-400 € for one single instrument/category), otherwise recording a real musician while playing the real instrument is a better choice in terms of "ultrarealism". So, define "quality"...

+1

[blueman]

For me, a "high-quality" sample product is innovative (breaks new sonic ground in some area), highly-interactive, and high fidelity; it is capable of a full dynamic range (articulations recorded at all velocities), has sonic depth, and can sound modern OR vintage. There are plenty of sample sets that accomplish this, and set the bar very high.

I would describe the audio/video examples we've heard as fair-quality, but redundant with existing libraries--some of which were released over a decade ago. Sonically, I don't hear anything new here. From my perspective, IKM is just repeating itself. That said, the GUI does look innovative and interesting indeed; I am just not at all thrilled with the sample set

[mhog]

For me, a "high-quality" sample product is innovative (breaks new sonic ground in some area), highly-interactive, and high fidelity; it is capable of a full dynamic range (articulations recorded at all velocities), has sonic depth, and can sound modern OR vintage. There are plenty of sample sets that accomplish this, and set the bar very high.

I would describe the audio/video examples we've heard as fair-quality, but redundant with existing libraries--some of which were released over a decade ago. Sonically, I don't hear anything new here. From my perspective, IKM is just repeating itself. That said, the GUI does look innovative and interesting indeed; I am just not at all thrilled with the sample set

Many people think the same about Kontakt factory library. I don't understand why people expect something "innovative" and not "redundant" (or "assumptive") in factory (= "general purpose") libraries for such instruments (samplers, romplers and GM modules). You need something innovative? You have to buy extra libraries, often more expensive than the instrument itself and way much bigger than the whole factory library (e.g. Kontakt basic factory library: about 25gb. Berlin String library for Kontakt: 253 gb).