SampleTank 4 on the way

[randygo]

I suggest that IKM take a careful look at Toontrack's Product Manager. It's the best I am aware of. Superior Drummer 3 is about the same total size as ST4, and downloading, installation, authorization and updating are rock solid.

Yes, that is a good one to look at for inspiration. Prior to Product Manager, dealing with Toontrack EZXs, SDXs, and all of their other libraries was quite painful - potentially hundreds of clicks and dialog windows. It almost seemed it took longer to install and authorize than to download! When I upgraded to Superior Drummer 3 recently the experience was very smooth.

Randy

[zzz00m]

I can't seem to find anything for setting the disk streaming? The libraries still take forever to load and the memory footprint doesn't seem to change as I use it. Can you provide some clarification on how the disk streaming is sup posed to work?

What is needed is ZERO load time option that only loads samples as they are used.

I've been wondering about that feature myself. Haven't seen any information yet on disk streaming in the manual or the UI.

But from what I have observed with my system performance monitor, ST4 loads a large amount of instrument samples initially (my sample drive on SATA HDD 7200 rpm hits near 100% disk use when an instrument is loading). Then I can see some additional activity on the sample drive as I am playing the instrument. Nothing extra seems to be read from disk when just activating a different keyswitch key.

So why the big initial load to memory? It seems much more noticeable with the keyswitch (KS) instruments with multiple articulations. The guitar "Black LP Full Keyswitch" is an example that I am referring to here.

[SJ_Digriz]

I suggest that IKM take a careful look at Toontrack's Product Manager. It's the best I am aware of. Superior Drummer 3 is about the same total size as ST4, and downloading, installation, authorization and updating are rock solid.

Yes, that is a good one to look at for inspiration. Prior to Product Manager, dealing with Toontrack EZXs, SDXs, and all of their other libraries was quite painful - potentially hundreds of clicks and dialog windows. It almost seemed it took longer to install and authorize than to download! When I upgraded to Superior Drummer 3 recently the experience was very smooth.

Randy

VSL's is good
Steinberg now has one that is soso but massively better than this
NI has a decent one
UVI even has one the is fairly usable now
Heavyocities is clumsy but far better than this
XLNs is great
I could keep going, but basically if you serve large content both in size and numbers, you need a decent distribution and tracking process. I keep coming across particular patches where something is missing. It's impossible to tell which download I need to download again. And, the only way to know if some particular thing isn't installed correctly is to accidentally try to load a preset.

[SJ_Digriz]

I can't seem to find anything for setting the disk streaming? The libraries still take forever to load and the memory footprint doesn't seem to change as I use it. Can you provide some clarification on how the disk streaming is sup posed to work?

What is needed is ZERO load time option that only loads samples as they are used.

I've been wondering about that feature myself. Haven't seen any information yet on disk streaming in the manual or the UI.

But from what I have observed with my system performance monitor, ST4 loads a large amount of instrument samples initially (my sample drive on SATA HDD 7200 rpm hits near 100% disk use when an instrument is loading). Then I can see some additional activity on the sample drive as I am playing the instrument. Nothing extra seems to be read from disk when just activating a different keyswitch key.

So why the big initial load to memory? It seems much more noticeable with the keyswitch (KS) instruments with multiple articulations. The guitar "Black LP Full Keyswitch" is an example that I am referring to here.

Right, I can see disk access but the memory footprint is fairly static. I was hoping to template miraslov instances in VEP. But, the load times are identical to ST3. So that won't happen and I'll continue not to use MIR, which is a shame.

[gigadreamer]

I can't seem to find anything for setting the disk streaming? The libraries still take forever to load and the memory footprint doesn't seem to change as I use it. Can you provide some clarification on how the disk streaming is sup posed to work?

What is needed is ZERO load time option that only loads samples as they are used.

there are no settings to optimize diskstreaming at all!
Diskstreaming is very bad in Sampletank 4 !!!

I'll give one example:
-ST3 loads Grand Piano 1 (1,2 Gb) fully to RAM and total memory allocation
in task manager is 1,8 GB.
-ST4 uses diskstreaming when loading same piano and total is 2,5 GB !!!
So not very efficient disk streaming engine; 500 Mb for 1 Gb file !

Sampletank 4 needs memory improvements too!
ST4 takes over 2 Gb RAM both standalone and VSTi!
Four times moere than Sampletank 3 !

Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 7:55 pm

[jacqueslacouth]

Garbage

[Hink]

ok, I know you weren't threatening him but this is still no road to go down ok? This has been rough for all, people are angry but if we keep going in this direction it could get out of hand.

[Mkdaws32@gmail.com]

For those having the problem of the LOCKED SampleTank 4 library button, I seem to have found a workaround, but I would consider this most definitely a BUG which should be fixed.

To workaround, one needs both library paths for SampleTank 4 added - the path where SampleTank erroneously thinks the content is, and the path where the user actually installed the content.

To workaround:

1) Add "C:\Users\Public\Documents\IK Multimedia\SampleTank 4"
2) Add "E:\SampleTank 4 Sound Content", or whatever path to the directory where you have installed the content.

I don't know if this is a side-effect of installing the content on drive other than C:. I hope it is fixed soon.

Randy

Thanks Randygo,
I'll try this tomorrow.

I had this problem early on and I think there might be a couple of causes. This solution did not work for me. I contacted IK support and they resolved within 2 days. Make sure you get an auto reply when you open a ticket, otherwise it might not have actually gone through to support.

In my case, I had accidentally installed some ST3 content in the ST4 folder. Once they helped me sort the content into right folders and add both the ST3 and ST4 folders to the library path, everything worked 100% - ST4, ST3, Syntronik and legacy imported libraries.

MKDAWS 32 does my workaround below sound correct?

---------------------------


Let ST4 do the default install on C drive

In my "L" drive, I will create two folders: "ST3 content" and "ST4 content"

Then install the ST 3 and 4 downloads in the two separate folders.
Go into ST4 and under 'settings' and point to the two separate folders for content

What do you think?

That is exactly the way I would approach a fresh install next time. I would expect it would work. I don’t have any affiliation with IK, though, so I would strongly suggest opening a ticket off you haven’t Already. If you have and have had no response, PM Peter and he will get their attention.

[Mkdaws32@gmail.com]

For those having the problem of the LOCKED SampleTank 4 library button, I seem to have found a workaround, but I would consider this most definitely a BUG which should be fixed.

To workaround, one needs both library paths for SampleTank 4 added - the path where SampleTank erroneously thinks the content is, and the path where the user actually installed the content.

To workaround:

1) Add "C:\Users\Public\Documents\IK Multimedia\SampleTank 4"
2) Add "E:\SampleTank 4 Sound Content", or whatever path to the directory where you have installed the content.

I don't know if this is a side-effect of installing the content on drive other than C:. I hope it is fixed soon.

Randy

Thanks Randygo,
I'll try this tomorrow.

I had this problem early on and I think there might be a couple of causes. This solution did not work for me. I contacted IK support and they resolved within 2 days. Make sure you get an auto reply when you open a ticket, otherwise it might not have actually gone through to support.

In my case, I had accidentally installed some ST3 content in the ST4 folder. Once they helped me sort the content into right folders and add both the ST3 and ST4 folders to the library path, everything worked 100% - ST4, ST3, Syntronik and legacy imported libraries.

Well, I definitely did not install any content to my SampleTank 3 folder. I was very careful about this during the install. Our configurations may be different but lead to the same symptom of the locked library button. After I shared my workaround with Support, I was told that I probably installed content to my SampleTank 3 folder, which I did not. I suspect there is something awry with installing the SampleTank 4 content onto a non C: drive in the case of Windows. The application seems to expect certain paths when scanning for content, regardless of the user settings. Something gets messed up.

I am running the 4.02 version of SampleTank 4.

Randy

Not sure - I can only share my own experience where I botched my own installation. I can tell you that both my ST4 and ST3 libraries are on a D: drive in specific folders I created. D: is not my operating system drive, but a second internal SSD.

[SJ_Digriz]

what I've found is that several of my downloads did not create the associated sample directory, even though the installer says everything installed correctly. I don't know if other folders are also missing. And there doesn't seem to be a way to tell.

[glokraw]

IK can post the size in bytes of each installed folder in a readme list.
No rocket science.

I bought Syntronik in the sale, installed the ST3 and Syntronik files
in linux, then copied over the ST3 sounds themselves from
win 7 to the matching ST3 linux location. I didn't use the Syntronik
sound installers, just copied the extracted folders when in the mood,
a few at a time, rather than in a marathon, and rescanned the database.
It was more fun exploring sounds and synths a few at a time,
than grinding through all the Syntronik content at once.

A lot of people complaining about the ST4 epic install could
have done something similar, enjoying their favorite instruments
a few at a time, installing the least used items even _next week_
and making some music in the interim.
Life is short enough as it is, 'be happy'

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

We have updated the lists (I posted a link to the page they were linked on at that time but not the set of direct links that might just be easier so see below), they don't have the sizes but this is what you should have in a full install of each:

SampleTank 4 SE
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... uments.pdf

SampleTank 4
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... uments.pdf

SampleTank 4 MAX
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... uments.pdf

SampleTank 4 Versions Comparison
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/i ... arison.pdf

[mrsugmad]

I've decided to do a clean install.
This time I'm going to let ST4 place ST3 and ST4 content in their default location. I tried. but ST4 wants to install the content on my "L" drive where I originally tried to put the content.

What is the default C drive location to install ST3 and ST4 content??

[bill45]

For the sampltank 4 Max upgrade.Do we just get the Sample tank 4 MAX
Content in the user area? I hope so. So far not seeing any st3 specific contentent
in my ST4 max sounds dowload area.

[mixtur.se]

Question about the ST3 files listed in the ST4 download area:

First - some background. I purchased ST3 but never used it. I did download the app but never DL's the sounds files (my fault - keep forgetting IK's "hold your sound files hostage" policy - which - isn't helped (IMO) by putting the program download files under one tab and the sound content files under another - as, in my "not being careful" case, I downloaded the program and just assumed I had the whole shebang on my computer). O well, live learn. So... if I want to have ST3 running as a standalone copy of ST3 - I know I'd need to pay again to have access to my sounds. (I don't want to do this)...

What I DON'T know is - are the ST3 files listed in the ST4 download area the sound files for ST3? And if so, if I download these will I then have access to the ST3 content once again (but, only in ST4)...or... are these ST3 files only a list of the instruments and I'd STILL need to pay and download my ST3 sounds to have use of them in ST4?

Thanks for any insightful replies.

In short yes. I did something similar and the only caveat is that you may have to rauthorize the libraries if you use them in ST3. I did, however, not have to reauthorize them in ST4 as I bought the Max version that contains everything from ST3 MAX as well