TAL Sampler 4, new look - free update!

[EmptyVessel]

Patrick has done a major re-write and as part of that a visual update to bring it in line with the appearance of his other more recent plugins. IMO it's a positive move as much as I liked how it was, the new browser is a much nicer experience for loading samples and presets, we now have velocity mapping and TAL's lovely Chorus (plus a global HP filter for last minute bottom end cleanups)

tal-sampler-4.jpeg

Backwards compatibility should be fine, the libraries of mine that I've checked seem to be ok (as far as I can remember them originally sounding anyway!).
Development is active and more features will continue to be added in the future.
This update is free for current users.
https://tal-software.com/products/tal-sampler

[Echoes in the Attic]

A few observations:
-Nice new browser. Would have been fine adding that as an optional window or tab on the old UI though.
-Now can't see the whole mod matrix. Scroll bar is annoying, was much better before.
-Tabbed lfo's and envelopes very unfortunate. Major benefit of the previous UI was seeing most things at once.
-The Resample page is now a tab as well with filters, doesn't make sense, should always be visible.
-Lots of wasted space in the Effects/Controls section.

There is nothing improved here at all. I can understand creating a tab at the bottom to add more effects, that's all that was needed.

[EmptyVessel]

hey thanks for your thoughts, I'll pass them on.

[masterhiggins]

I'm a fan of the new GUI and browser. The last browser was utter crap so this is a huge improvement.

[poseidal]

I like the new velocity options but I preferred the old UI.

A question: There used to be an option in the layer section to import an SFZ but it seems to be gone from there now. Has it moved location or been removed?

[ToguAudioLine]

A question: There used to be an option in the layer section to import an SFZ but it seems to be gone from there now. Has it moved location or been removed?

At the moment there is only a full SFZ import possible to all layers, depending on the groups in the SFZ. We have planned to add SFZ layer-based import with drag and drop in the next few days.

[dellboy]

Can you no longer drag and drop a newly recorded audio wav file from the DAW audio track straight onto the sampler? Or do you now have to hunt around in the browser for your newly recorded audio file just like you have to in Kontakt?

[Michael Sage]

-Lots of wasted space in the Effects/Controls section.

This space is prepared for future features

[EmptyVessel]

Can you no longer drag and drop a newly recorded audio wav file from the DAW audio track straight onto the sampler? Or do you now have to hunt around in the browser for your newly recorded audio file just like you have to in Kontakt?

You can still drag and drop from finder/explorer or the browser in your DAW. It used to be possible with recorded items from the arranger in Reaper but currently, on OSX, is not. This is related to Reaper and doesn't work in any sampler I've tried. I'm able to do it in Live Lite 11 just fine though.

[FapFilter]

to be precise, it's Reaper on Mac causing the trouble at the moment.
On Window, everything is dandy!

[fladd]

Not a big fan of the new GUI for multiple reasons. Changing the colours does help a bit visually, but of course not usage-wise: viewtopic.php?p=8510646#p8510646

[EmptyVessel]

to be precise, it's Reaper on Mac causing the trouble at the moment.
On Window, everything is dandy!

damn, sorry, I should have stated that. Edited

Not a big fan of the new GUI for multiple reasons. Changing the colours does help a bit visually, but of course not usage-wise: viewtopic.php?p=8510646#p8510646

I'm more of a fan of a dark UI but I'm fine with how it looks now.

Screenshot 2022-09-12 at 10.08.29.png

Usability, sure if you are very used to quickly clicking round the pre-update version the immediacy of having almost all parameters available on one page does leave it feeling a bit slower after the update. The old UI was getting a bit cramped and busy though and I've had a lot of new users tell me it was very overwhelming for them where the new interface should feel more approachable, which IMO is also very important. For those of us used to using Sampler I think we can adjust but there is a benefit to many to making the UI less cluttered and clearer, the re-design has also been conceived in order to leave room for planned feature additions in the future.

[neverbeeninariot]

Overall, I like the new look. I don't have a problem with the additional tabs as it feels less cluttered than the old interface. It also sits well with TAL-Drum's look, but there are a few areas of the UI that are quite janky.

In the mapping editor, the controls for Sample Start/End & Loop Start/End overlap - When creating a new patch, you need to drag the Loop Start/End controls out of the way to get access to the Sample Start/End controls. To be fair, it has always been that way, but still...
Making the handles smaller and putting the Sample Start/End controls at the bottom of the display, and the Loop Start/End controls in the middle would make it a lot easier to use.

The knob ranges that overlap with the layer headers, hmmm...

I agree also with the comments about the Mod-Matrix being partially hidden. In TAL-Drum, there is an additional tab in the browser for a mixer. Could the Mod-Matrix be moved over to the browser area in an additional tab? We would be able to see all the slots, and perhaps a few more could be added? The space left under the Layers could be used to de-jank the overlapping knob ranges : )

[phreaque]

FWIW, the tab GUI layout is not hindering the workflow, this style has been implemented in many plugins, which means it's useful approach.

Also there's nothing wrong with the design of the mod-matrix, most of plugins offer scroll-able slot entries (e.g. Serum, Avenger, Dune, Rapid & Vital).

It's weird nobody complains about other important & obvious things like numbered slots & having the pitch bend hardwired (pre-assigned) to global tune without sacrificing a precious mod-matrix slot.

[neverbeeninariot]

[snip...] having the pitch bend hardwired (pre-assigned) to global tune without sacrificing a precious mod-matrix slot.

Yeah, that is a strange one, I could have sworn that it was hard wired before ?