SampleTank 2 on a laptop?

[Rabid]

How CPU, memory and bus intensive is the SampleTank 2 engine? I am considering it mostly to use on my laptop which is a low end P4 with 512 meg of memory (I think). Also, can samples be split among drives? It might be nice to have a core set on the internal HD and extra sounds on a firewire drive. I only have a 20 gig internal drive so ST2xl, SonicSynth and a few capsules could quickly fill things up.

By the way, I’m not considering the SonicStation/Kontakt combo because I don’t have an extra license for Kontakt to use on the laptop.

One last question, how well do the users here like ST 2? This will be a big decision as I have decided not to buy anything unless I get rid of something. So if I pick up ST2xl and/or SonicSynth 2 it would probably mean getting rid of my Yamaha FS1r. Not an easy decision but I don’t really use the FS1r that much.

Robert

[Kim Lajoie]

ST2 works best when you have all the sounds in one place, not split across several hard drives.

I like ST2 heaps. It's my main sound source. It's a personal thing though, so you're best to download ST2 FREE and try it out on your computer. You'll know very quickly if you want more, or if you're not interested.

Forever,




Kim.

[Squids]

One of the cool things about ST2, ST2 LE and Sonik Synth 2 is they are different ID plug-ins that can all browse to a different place. So you could have one browsing to your internal and another browsing to an external HD.

Of course, you can also just hit the pref button and browse to wherever you need to go. There are a couple of ways to manage it. You could make a "best of" collection for your laptop but then on the external have "everything". Then you can work off the laptop but then browse to your external drive when you have that hooked up.

The only thing I am not sure of with that set up is what would happen if you loaded up a song that had the sounds loaded from when it was pointing to a different folder... although I think even that will work.

[Rabid]

This is the one problem with using Reason for those same sounds, you cannot split out a "best of" collection to keep on the internal drive. With a refill it is all or nothing. SonicRefill does not take that much space, but add a few more collections and things can quickly get out of hand, or, out of space.

Robert

[Trojan Badger]

By the way, I’m not considering the SonicStation/Kontakt combo because I don’t have an extra license for Kontakt to use on the laptop.

According to the NI website, and I quote, "Can I use this product on my desktop and my mobile computer, or must I obtain a second license for this?
According to the license agreement your product can only be used on one computer at a time. If you want to use your product on your mobile computer as well, but not simultaneously, a second installation for mobile use is included under your main license. Simply install the product on your mobile computer and complete a new authorization by registering the laptop System ID. You will then receive a second Authorization Key for the mobile computer."

So, you can do the Kontakt/Sonic Station thang.

I'd be more interested to find out - if anyone knows - whether Sampletank has a similar authorisation procedure. I'm getting a laptop as an "idea scratchpad" and would really like to use ST as my main tool on it.

I used ST Free (version 1) on my dad's P3 1.2GHz laptop, 256M memory, under Cubase SX and ran 16 instruments on it simultaneously (2 years ago). So it is possible to get good results I think.

[Kim Lajoie]

I'd be more interested to find out - if anyone knows - whether Sampletank has a similar authorisation procedure

You get three authorisations no questions asked. That can be three machines at once, or three primary hard drive[1] upgrades, or any combination.

If/when you run out of the three, you just have to send an email requesting more and with a statement like "I am only using this for my own studio" or something like that.

Forever,




Kim.

[1] I'm fairly sure the authorisation ONLY relies on the primary (boot-up) hard drive, because I upgraded my PC 18 months ago and the only original part was the primary hard drive, and I didn't have to re-authorise!

[Rabid]

I'm using two PC's in my bedroom studio, a primary DAQ and a secondary computer that was dedicated to GigaStudio. It now has EmulatorX and my second authorization for NI Komplete 2. Very handy when the CPU load gets heavy on the primary DAW and I am not yet ready to record tracks to wave. But, that also soaks up my secondary NI lincense.

Robert

[Squids]

Rabid, how do you like that Emulator X?

[Rabid]

Rabid, how do you like that Emulator X?

I have not had time to really dive into it yet and my plan is to take a few vacation days just to learn the program. So far I have done nothing with the DSP effects. My main purpose was to get a sampler with a good synth engine. Thinks I can say so far.

The included samples are ok but nothing special.

I have a large collection of Emu sample disk that it will not import. I have to use Translator to convert them to Giga format, then I can use them in EmulatorX.

I was disappointed that it will not read Roland format CD’s since I have a few for the XV-5080. Emu hardware will read Roland CD’s so maybe this will happen in the future. Translator does not do well with Roland because of the way Roland handles samples and voices. A single CD of Roland samples can balloon to 3 Gigs after going through Translator. Dissapointing since I was hoping to use the Roland orchestral and woodwind CD’s within EmulatorX.

SonicStation worked very well in EmulatorX when I read it as Giga format. EmulatorX has some VERY nice filters and modulation routings. This is going to be the combo I have been waiting for.

The worst patches in the package have to be the organ patches. If you have any experience with the Proteus 2000 line then you know that Emu uses a bit of trickery to fade from slow to fast Leslie speeds. It works great on the hardware but did not translate well to EmulatorX. Using the mod wheel to control speed on the included organ patches makes a mess. Not big deal if you have NI’s B4 then you don’t need sampled organs anyway.

The patch system is a bit difficult to learn, and then very easy to use. I like the idea of setting up banks of patches and it is easy to create multi’s so on a secondary computer EmulatorX works very well as a stand alone multi-channel instrument.

Bottom line, the sound is good. Really good. Emu is blowing out a lot of their hardware format sample CD’s and starting to release Emulator X format CD’s. During the blowout I grabbed about a dozen CD’s for around $150. Not a bad buy. Too bad they are a headache to translate. It does give me raw material to use for patch programming.

Robert

[FlounderEye]

I use Sampletank 2 on a Pentium 4 laptop with 900 mhz and 128 meg memory. It takes a while to load, but once it does, it runs great. It even runs on minihost.

As someone said above, you can try the free version. Lots of nice features and the ability to import different sound formats.