Which Sampler do... I mean, How many of you...?

[pough]

So basically the above answers are "no, we don't buy professional sample libs."?

I'm a Kontakt user and I have bought a very few sample libraries. I bought the Frame and Big Bottle from HandHeldSound in Kontakt format, but I found them problematic and switched to the Soundfonts for use in sfz+. I also bought a few others, like the accordion from PrecisionSound and the Macedonia Pipe Organ from Kevin Moreland - it's Giga format but I use it in Kontakt.

I'm not really interested in many of the big sample sets. Too much money for a hack like me. It sounds like your bass samples are nicely priced, but I'm a bass player so I have no interest in buying bass samples!

[meeks]

Going to see if I can salvage a thread without starting a new one, so I'm sort of staying on this topic:

Being a Kontakt user, what exactly is this "giga" format (besides the obvious tascam sampler format)? To be precise, I keep reading references to things called performance parts and other things that I'm not familiar with.

If I were offered different format versions of a sample set, such as Giga or Kontakt, which one should I get (knowing that the most recent kontakt update loads and converts giga files)? Even in this post I see reference to giga being the pro-standard (not that it means anything to me); but what exactly is this difference and should I be stearing towards it, especially if the sample set was recorded for it in the first place?

[cptgone]

Giga stands for Gigasampler. Giga samplesets are programmed for that soft sampler, so they may get the most out of that particular sampler.

The actual sound quality of the raw samples however should be the same.

[gugliel]

I keep buying libraries for gigastudio. Just bought my first kompakt application (ewqlso gold) and must say kompakt is a miserable beast in comparison to gigastudio. Perhaps the full kontakt is better ...

My purchases for gigastudio, in addition to hardware synths (Kurzweil): Advanced Orchestra, Garritan Orchestral Strings, VSL Horizons solo strings, Voices of the Apocalypse, and Sonic Implants Afro-Cuban percussion. Likely to buy organ soon, perhaps piano one of these days, more brass and woodwinds, maybe more strings. Purchase for kompakt, only the ewqlso Gold group buy, with which I'm not terribly thrilled.

So here's a vote to keep making the gigastudio samples!

[tetraplan]

I downloaded some free string.sf2s that came in handy for a production job last summer.
If I get to do more of that stuff I may invest in something like Garritan or similar.
Until then, I have too much fun ripping stuff to pieces in BubbleBlower.

Groet, Erik

[meeks]

I keep buying libraries for gigastudio. Just bought my first kompakt application (ewqlso gold) and must say kompakt is a miserable beast in comparison to gigastudio. Perhaps the full kontakt is better ...


So here's a vote to keep making the gigastudio samples!

night and day.

[lawapa]

SI- String Boxes,Afro cuban percussion,Amps and pickups, Sym Strings mini, Strat Fuzz guitars,

ProSamples-13 Choirs, 31 ethnic instruments, 30 World , 41 Solo Strings, 42 Session Instruments

Sample Heads And to many to list here Sample sets I made myself using Awave and SoundForge.

I'm not a major buyer but I do have a weakness for these things. But I love rolling my own. I got into it because I couldn't find what I wanted. And Once I got started I couldn't stop. The only thing that slows me down is getting my hands on an instrument/musician worthy of the time it takes to do the deed.

[Z3R0T0N1N]

between the modules for Synth Edit (for making quick roll your own specialty samplers), Energy XT, FL Studio, and ShortCircuit Free, I am in sampler heaven - but I only have bought Aural Piercing and War Drumz - Those are the only libraries so far that have interested me. Ocassionally CM releases something worthwhile, but not often; And if you're lucky there will be some nice creative sounds that come free with various hardware.
What I am looking for is a library of samples that are nice and minimal, begging to be mutilated with shortcircuit's filters or in some SE contraption. But what I find too often is that the libraries are really full of 'one note song' kind of loops and sounds; the good drums will have too many sounds layered, and the nice sounding pads are next to impossible to use in a track, because they have way too much happening in them... Of course I know that this is totally dependant on my taste in music and my method of composing.
Anyone else feel like I do?

[pitchdrifter]

I'm getting sample libraries because of their content, not the player they use.
If I can chose between several sample formats, I usually chose giga2 or giga3 (because these are easily convertable to other formats, say sfz in the near future, or they can be played back by sfz+ right away). I simply get more voices out of sfz+ than I do out of giga.
When a library I want to have is in kontakt format, and no other format (or its only available in gs2 format, and has release triggers) then I'll also get the kontakt or gs3 alternative.
All thats basically because I can make the most of my hardware by using sfz+ currently, so I convert stuff that doesn't play 'out of the box' yet over to it, wherever possible.
But what I buy isn't primarily driven by the format used, if I need the content, I gotta find a way to make the library integrate into my setup. When there is 2 libraries with the same attributes, one is available in kontakt only the other in say sfz format (which at this point is unrealistic, as sfz doesn't diskstream, and sfz+ doesn't yet read sfz format, but that might change rather soon rumor has it), then I'll go for the sfz version, because it saves me all the work of porting the patches to the format I need.. although one could argue that most patches need tweaking by the user anyway, so you could do it all in one go.


Markus

[wrench45us]

coverdisks on music magazines often carry samples in Kotakt format
I've bought and used some of these.