IKM SampleTank 3 (ST3) Now Available

[Rajah]

Hi Anybody compared Halion Sonic 2 to ST3 sound quality wise?

I will give my take on this...

It's like a Les Paul and a Strat.. They are both great guitars with different sounds... Many guitarists have both..

I think that ST3 has a more 'in your face', distinct sound . I can only imagine what the up-coming sample libraries will do for it.. Was messing with keyswitching sound in the stock library (Those Nylon Strings are superb), I must admit, I love ST3.

I think that Halion Sonic 2 is an incredible piece of software with a smooth silky sound.. and some incredible synths... I must admit, I love HS2/H5.

I think having them both is a wise decision..
I guess the ST3 demo will be here soon.. so you can tell for yourself..

[BBFG#]

Do we have a date on when the demo download will be available yet Peter?

No hard date but it should come very quickly after the first maintenance release.

And when is that?

[Rajah]

Del

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Do we have a date on when the demo download will be available yet Peter?

No hard date but it should come very quickly after the first maintenance release.

And when is that?

Soon. I don't have a hard date but I know that there has been testing etc on a maintenance release. That is up to our devs and support team to coordinate release but it should be soon.

[DarkStar]

- 1 - Navigate to and open the "SampleTank 3.settings" file in a text editor:

• C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\IK Multimedia\SampleTank 3\SampleTank 3.settings

• To open this file, right-click on it and select "Open with..." from the context menu and choose your text editor.

And- what if one (say like me) has just installed ST3 to my WIndows 7 x64 machine and I have no SampleTank 3.settings file to speak of? I cannot find any files in the location mentioned above.

Right now - if I click on the icon that was placed by Setup - I get nothing at all.

Wow. This is horrible.

VP

The files might be "hidden", so you may need to make them visible in Explorer / Tools /Folder Options / View tab. That's where they should be after a successful install. Or, try Searching your complete disk for the file(s).

[DarkStar]

Pretty funny that IK is everywhere when it's time to hawk their latest sale, but when it comes to fixing their bug-riddled software, where dey at?

Hardly bug-riddled. But maybe they are fixing the bugs, dealing with support tickets and responding to forum questions.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Pretty funny that IK is everywhere when it's time to hawk their latest sale, but when it comes to fixing their bug-riddled software, where dey at?

Hardly bug-riddled. But maybe they are fixing the bugs, dealing with support tickets and responding to forum questions.

The rest of them are just relaxing on the IK yacht, lighting cigars with $99.99 bills.

[BBFG#]

Pretty funny that IK is everywhere when it's time to hawk their latest sale, but when it comes to fixing their bug-riddled software, where dey at?

This seems more appropriately applied to Wusik than IKM.

[blueman]

It's like a Les Paul and a Strat.. They are both great guitars with different sounds...

I would argue it's more like a Les Paul vs. a Far Eastern made Strat copy; ST3 is not exactly blazing a trail here. I wouldn't call anything about this particular release innovative for 2014

Don't get me wrong; I'm happy to be able to use the legacy libraries (Sample Moog et al.), and some things do sound good (pianos and basses). It's just not a stellar release on the level of a Strat or Les Paul, imo. Of course, ymmv

[BERFAB]

Hi Anybody compared Halion Sonic 2 to ST3 sound quality wise?

I will give my take on this...

It's like a Les Paul and a Strat.. They are both great guitars with different sounds... Many guitarists have both..

I think that ST3 has a more 'in your face', distinct sound . I can only imagine what the up-coming sample libraries will do for it.. Was messing with keyswitching sound in the stock library (Those Nylon Strings are superb), I must admit, I love ST3.

I think that Halion Sonic 2 is an incredible piece of software with a smooth silky sound.. and some incredible synths... I must admit, I love HS2/H5.

I think having them both is a wise decision..
I guess the ST3 demo will be here soon.. so you can tell for yourself..

I have to disagree. HS2 has much more polish than ST3. Starting with the interface, HS2 has those great macro instruments that don't just give you a sampled representation of the instrument, but give you a good approximation of the actual instrument. The Organs, the Beatbox, the pad synth and the ethnic percussion all get their own spotlight instruments that sound amazing and are great to play and tweak.

Overall, the sounds in HS2 are pristine and easily tweaked to taste. It's also apparent that thought has been given to each patch as to how it would sound in a mix. All my favorites are as close to production ready as you can get.

ST3 is a bit more [IMHO] hit or miss. Much attention has been paid to drums and beats. The kits (and there's lot's of 'em) are some of the best you'll find in a package like this. The included MIDI beat library is also quite plentiful and diverse. And the drum kit controls are smartly arranged (the volume of each kit piece is instantly accessible) for instant gratification. And, if the kits and midi's aren't enough, there are endless (it seems) loops in a variety of popular genres, both processed and dry. Plus, the 55 top o' the line effects (all your faves are here) really give you a lot to work with.

And, on top of that, there are a number of ethnic percussion sets and genre construction kits. These work similar to the Heavyocity concept: just play any combination of keys, and you'll get endless combinations of beats, suitable for a variety of uses.

But, like I said, it is hit or miss. Others here have complained about the included vocal sets. I concur. For the most part, they're awful. The one saving grace is the Gospel choir set, and even that suffers from some artifacts due to stretching. Fortunately, the ST2.5 legacy vocal set is on hand, and, though limited, sounds much better than the new stuff, to my ear at least. (Even better, if you have Sonik Synth 2, re-visit its vocal set. The choirs especially are head and shoulders above those in ST3.)

The guitars are ok, but nothing that knocks you out. In fact, I'm completely puzzled as to why, given the top-drawer FX arsenal on board, there are no convincing solo gain patches in any genre. How hard would it be to have a few convincing blues leads (with a touch of dist, a bit of delay and a verb tail)? The samples are clearly there. Ditto high-gain face melters. Where are they?

The acoustics are ok, but not a giant step up from ST2.5, as they should be. Compare HS2's "Solo Nylon" lead as just one example.

The basses are very nice (hit!), and there are a lot to choose from in both electric (fretted and fretless), synth, and upright styles. On the other hand, many of the synth patches - the leads especially- sound digital and lifeless, even the FM emulations (miss!).

The rest of the instruments are good, (as expected, the acoustic pianos are well sampled and programmed), but lack the final pro gloss of the HS2 sound.

And finally, there is that interface. To my eye, it's clunky, and takes too much clicking to get to what I need (i.e. you have to go back and forth from the macro to the fx pages way too much, and there's no easy way to see what's in your effects rack for tweaking).

Overall, I'm glad I have it for the legacy stuff. But I'm fairly confident that I won't have much use for the new stuff.

Other than that, I have no strong opinions on the subject.

Cheers
-B

[dsan@mail.com]

Removed as a courtesy

[BERFAB]

It's like a Les Paul and a Strat.. They are both great guitars with different sounds...

I would argue it's more like a Les Paul vs. a Far Eastern made Strat copy; ST3 is not exactly blazing a trail here. I wouldn't call anything about this particular release innovative for 2014

Don't get me wrong; I'm happy to be able to use the legacy libraries (Sample Moog et al.), and some things do sound good (pianos and basses). It's just not a stellar release on the level of a Strat or Les Paul, imo. Of course, ymmv

EDIT

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

@dsan - I realize I made a joke. Sorry it offended you in some way, but I'll keep the post because I'm pretty sure 99.99% of the people who read it got it.

[dsan@mail.com]

@dsan - I realize I made a joke. Sorry it offended you in some way, but I'll keep the post because I'm pretty sure 99.99% of the people who read it got it.

Oh I got it Peter.

The internet can be a very vulgar place and quite unforgiving.

So it goes.

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[DarkStar]

Good ol' Interwebs: success of humour transmission = 1 / distance travelled