KVR Audio

dOCB · Post by **dOCB** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 6:56 am

I was a Roland sampler user, then converted to Directwave.

I liked it because it is multiimbral, and allowed each part to be changed via program changes. These are essential features. (I'd love to get a Roland s7xx in software, but doesn't exist)

I want to change from Directwave to a larger company, so as to get some support and an upgrade path, but it's hard to look at soft samplers one after another to find what seems right. Kontakt is too big.

Any suggestions????
I'd really appreciate intelligent suggestions!

johnnytluxury · Post by **johnnytluxury** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:17 am

Almost all the avail samplers our there wil do that. the question is: how cheap can they do it, and what extras can I get for it's price? You can look at Kompakt (smaller vers or Kontakt), or discoDSP's Highlife (one of my favs, but youll get lil to no support, and it aint got much under the hood in a ways, but hey, its free!), and of course there are some that just lovveee their Wusik. But why would you want to leave ImageLine, they're about as big as a company can get w/o the snobiness! I've foudn their forums(here!)to be quite complete. If you cnat get your head round Kontakt, then I wouldnt think of using another brand, use what you got until youve ran out of ability.

dOCB · Post by **dOCB** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:27 am

As I understand Highlife was the precursor to Directwave and so I'd assume is now orphaned. I'd like to see a demo of Kompakt but haven't. I like NI's Battery, but not Kontakt. Long paths to do simple things.

johnnytluxury · Post by **johnnytluxury** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:31 am

Oops yeah i think youre right about Highlife, forgot me roots! nonetheles, I'd still say stay with Directwave, its about as full featured w/o being unneccesarily so.

koolkeys · Post by **koolkeys** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:33 am

I would recommend trying the Maize Sampler.

http://www.maizesoft.cn/msp/en/index.asp

It has a free demo version available that can do almost everything, just a few restrictions. But it's very affordable and is on sale right now since it was just released.

Also, Wusik is very nice if you want extra control over synth stuff and such. Very good for sound design, and includes some great samples with it.

www.wusik.com

Brent

dOCB · Post by **dOCB** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:36 am

koolkeys wrote:I would recommend trying the Maize Sampler.

Much appreciated, but Maize doent seem to hear patch changes. That's essential.
Not too bad though.

I also like Samplelord - another nice clear interface - but far too simple for what I need (not multitimbral etc)

And was hoping for a *bigger* company than Directwave offered, not smaller

dougsyo · Post by **dougsyo** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:02 am

For your own patches, DirectWave may be your best choice since you already have it. If you want to play third-party libraries along with provided content, then like it or not, Kontakt is king.

If you don't mind building soundfonts, there are several players that can handle program/bank changes and multitimbral within that, provided they're all in the same .sf2 file. Unfortunately, my favorite sf player (sfz+) seems to have stopped serious development. VSampler can handle soundfonts and its own format, but it too seems to have stopped serious development.

I can't think of any samplers right off-hand that take program changes - the ones I use regularly (Kontakt2, DimPro and Sampletank) use a disk-based tree structure for samples, rather than banks.

What advantage do you see in a multitimbral instrument, for a "less complex" sampler?

Doug

koolkeys · Post by **koolkeys** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:44 am

Maize Sampler is still very new. It DOES support keyswitching, so you can assign patches to different layers and switch to them using keyswitching.

There are features that it doesn't have, but I am pretty sure that it will get better. The developers are very kind and responsive. And they have said that they encourage feature requests, so maybe it will be added soon!

Good luck with your choice.

Brent

johnnytluxury · Post by **johnnytluxury** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:51 am

Dont know 'bout you, but i wouldnt dare touch a sampler named after corn.

dOCB · Post by **dOCB** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 5:05 pm

dougsyo wrote:For your own patches, DirectWave may be your best choice since you already have it. I can't think of any samplers right off-hand that take program changes - the ones I use regularly (Kontakt2, DimPro and Sampletank) use a disk-based tree structure for samples, rather than banks.

What advantage do you see in a multitimbral instrument, for a "less complex" sampler?

Doug

I wonder how Arguru's death will affect Directwave's future. Wasn't he the developer? I asked Image-line, and got no answer at all.

Can you explain what you mean by a disk based tree structure?

I guess by less complex, I meant less confusing. Kontakt seems to have so many steps to load a sample, set it up, and assign it to multitimbral part. Overall I like Battery so maybe I need to look at Kompakt or give Kontakt another look. That dark interface is a drag to me though.

Anyone used Emulator X? I never see it mentioned.

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 5:18 pm

JMC said in the Arguru memorial thread that development should be able to be continued on Directwave as they have the source for it. Too early to say how that will work out, but consider what has become of Renoise since he let the source go, so there's a chance it could work out well.

dOCB · Post by **dOCB** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 5:34 pm

shamann wrote:JMC said in the Arguru memorial thread that development should be able to be continued on Directwave as they have the source for it. Too early to say how that will work out, but consider what has become of Renoise since he let the source go, so there's a chance it could work out well.

It's a terrible tragedy, especially for his friends and fiance.

In practical terms, relying on a small company with one developer on a project maybe isn't the smartest move for a musician.

dougsyo · Post by **dougsyo** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 6:36 pm

dOCB wrote:
Can you explain what you mean by a disk based tree structure?

I guess by less complex, I meant less confusing. Kontakt seems to have so many steps to load a sample, set it up, and assign it to multitimbral part. Overall I like Battery so maybe I need to look at Kompakt or give Kontakt another look. That dark interface is a drag to me though.

Kontakt has a lot of steps to get it up-and-running - there's no question that "with capability comes complexity".

By "disk-based tree structure", I mean that rather than having a bank of patches bundled together, indexed from a program change and/or bank change number, each patch exists in a discrete disk file (or collection of files) with a directory structure - ie c:\samples\kontakt2\violins\solo\ and presets like strad.nki, barn-fiddle.nki, etc within that directory. There's no mapping between the directory/disk file and a program/bank change number - you use a "file selector" instead, and you can't trigger this from your MIDI keyboard. (An aside, I saw a synth that could map disk-based solo presets to program changes, they had a mapper within the software to say "program 1 is "synth brass 1", program 2 is "Wow Yeah" etc - I think it was Vaz).

Emulator X has had performance issues in the past. I don't know if that's still true. I don't see direct support by third parties (although it may import just fine), if that matters. Didn't it use to be tied to a specific brand of sound cards? IF this is still the case (and I don't know that it's true), upgrading to a new sound card - or OS that doesn't support the sound card drivers - may render your Emulator X software useless, along with samples made with it.

There was a post in the ImageLine forum right after Arguru's passing that indicated they had the source and it was fairly well documented. Another programmer with DSP expertise may be able to pick it up and carry on.

Doug

P.T. · Post by **P.T.** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:54 pm

"I'd like to see a demo of Kompakt but haven't."

I think it has been discontinued.

They used to have demo mp3s on their site.

JamminFool · Post by **JamminFool** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:24 pm

you can build intrument banks in kontakt which respond to program change.

please help with a sampler choice!! (ex Roland / Directwave)