Hi,
I participated a while ago in an eSoundz group buy where I ended up buying Sampletank 2 LE. It was really a mistake, as LE's single instance limitation screwed things up for me, since it even had that limitation across two open songs at the same time. Meaning you can't open a second song to compare, copy parts over, etc.
Anyway, I posted a message in the forum and Squids said I should email them directly and they will work with me to "hook me up" or something. So I emailed and never heard back. Oh well...
So, now I really need to get rid of this single-instance limitation, and I'm trying to find out what is the easiest/cheapest way to upgrade from ST 2 LE. But on the website I can't seem to find ST 2 LE mentioned anywhere as an upgrade path. Which option should I choose?
Or should I just wait and upgrade from Kontakt 1.5 to Kontakt 2? Yes, I can't use the ST 2 LE library but Kontakt 2 promises to come with a huge library of sounds anyway...
BitFlipper
Best upgrade path from Sampletank 2 LE?
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- KVRist
- 222 posts since 7 Apr, 2003 from San Francisco, CA
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- KVRAF
- 3476 posts since 9 Apr, 2003 from NE Ohio, USA
I've not had a problem with the single-instance limitation so far, since you can put multiple sounds in one instance.
However, I've given some thought to the current upgrade from ST2LE to ST2L for $199 (which includes Amplitube V1 as a bonus, thru 4/30).That gives you like 4GB of content that doesn't overlap SS1.
My decision depends on the answer to this question:
Is the diff between ST2L and ST2XL only the amount of content? Or is there a difference in the VSTI as well?
Doug
However, I've given some thought to the current upgrade from ST2LE to ST2L for $199 (which includes Amplitube V1 as a bonus, thru 4/30).That gives you like 4GB of content that doesn't overlap SS1.
My decision depends on the answer to this question:
Is the diff between ST2L and ST2XL only the amount of content? Or is there a difference in the VSTI as well?
Doug
Logic is a pretty flower that smells bad - Spock, in "I, Mudd"
For a good time click http://www.belindabedekovic.com/video_fl_en.htm
For a good time click http://www.belindabedekovic.com/video_fl_en.htm
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- KVRist
- 222 posts since 3 Mar, 2004 from Austin, Texas
No differences in the engine. The only difference is that XL has more sounds than L.dougsyo wrote:Is the diff between ST2L and ST2XL only the amount of content? Or is there a difference in the VSTI as well?Doug
And yes the upgrade to L for $199 would be the cheapest route to the full engine. The upgrade to XL runs $279.
I really think the ultimate way to go if you can afford it is to use Sampletank as a comprehensive source of workstation sounds, supplemented with something like Kontakt for specialized libraries. But it does get a little expensive doing this.
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- KVRAF
- 3476 posts since 9 Apr, 2003 from NE Ohio, USA
Or Kompakt, for Kontakt-specific sounds that need little tweaking and there's always EXSC, etc.Frunobulax wrote:No differences in the engine. The only difference is that XL has more sounds than L.dougsyo wrote:Is the diff between ST2L and ST2XL only the amount of content? Or is there a difference in the VSTI as well?Doug
And yes the upgrade to L for $199 would be the cheapest route to the full engine. The upgrade to XL runs $279.
I really think the ultimate way to go if you can afford it is to use Sampletank as a comprehensive source of workstation sounds, supplemented with something like Kontakt for specialized libraries. But it does get a little expensive doing this.
Doug
Logic is a pretty flower that smells bad - Spock, in "I, Mudd"
For a good time click http://www.belindabedekovic.com/video_fl_en.htm
For a good time click http://www.belindabedekovic.com/video_fl_en.htm
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 222 posts since 7 Apr, 2003 from San Francisco, CA
So ST 2 LE turnes out to be a waste of more than $200 for me (I went with the "Everything" option, about $210 I think). I try to stay away from using ST 2 LE in new projects just because I don't want to get bitten by the one-instance-across-all-open-songs issue when I want to compare songs or get parts/ideas from older songs.
Too bad, I was convinced by other people (including Squids) at the time that going with the group buy was going to be the next best thing since sliced bread. But I didn't anticipate the problem I was going to have later on with it. I try to stay away from any crippled versions in general, but made an exception. Oh well, it just proved my point to myself on why it's a bad thing to do.
My experience is that crippled versions look good on paper, but they are designed to be just limiting enough in some unobvious, but important area, that you end up giving in and upgrade to the full version anyway. You basically pay for a demo.
I guess I'll wait for Kontakt 2.
BitFlipper
Too bad, I was convinced by other people (including Squids) at the time that going with the group buy was going to be the next best thing since sliced bread. But I didn't anticipate the problem I was going to have later on with it. I try to stay away from any crippled versions in general, but made an exception. Oh well, it just proved my point to myself on why it's a bad thing to do.
My experience is that crippled versions look good on paper, but they are designed to be just limiting enough in some unobvious, but important area, that you end up giving in and upgrade to the full version anyway. You basically pay for a demo.
I guess I'll wait for Kontakt 2.
BitFlipper
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harmony gardens harmony gardens https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=12815
- KVRian
- 830 posts since 19 Feb, 2004 from Richland Center, Wisconsin
I got Sampletank LE with the first group buy. While it was an interim engine for me, it does work fine for what it does. There's no secret in the forum that Sampletank 2 XL is more powerful and that upgrading is a good deal, and let's give squids a little credit for the $110 upgrade path that Sampletank LE gives a new user. FWIW you wouldn't want to get your sounds and have no player. I think I paid $10 for mine, and I saved $110 on Sampletank when I upgraded. That's not a bad deal in my mind.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 222 posts since 7 Apr, 2003 from San Francisco, CA
The problem is I paid more than $200 for mine (ST 2 LE), and to get a fully functional version I need to pay $200 more. That's more than $400. That's certainly way more than I was prepared to pay when I was asking around for recommendations and were directed to the group buy (at the time not knowing about the real limitations of LE).harmony gardens wrote:I got Sampletank LE with the first group buy. While it was an interim engine for me, it does work fine for what it does. There's no secret in the forum that Sampletank 2 XL is more powerful and that upgrading is a good deal, and let's give squids a little credit for the $110 upgrade path that Sampletank LE gives a new user. FWIW you wouldn't want to get your sounds and have no player. I think I paid $10 for mine, and I saved $110 on Sampletank when I upgraded. That's not a bad deal in my mind.
BitFlipper
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- KVRAF
- 3476 posts since 9 Apr, 2003 from NE Ohio, USA
Did you pay $200 for the ST2LE ? or did you pay $200 for the samples in ST format, and ST2LE came along for the ride?BitFlipper wrote: The problem is I paid more than $200 for mine (ST 2 LE), and to get a fully functional version I need to pay $200 more. That's more than $400. That's certainly way more than I was prepared to pay when I was asking around for recommendations and were directed to the group buy (at the time not knowing about the real limitations of LE).
For example, on http://www.esoundz.com/details/viewDeta ... ductID=124 ... shipping without ST2LE only changes the price by $10 ($79 ATM with, $69 without).
Just an alternative view here. Going with ST2L or XL will get you a lot of samples (which you may or may not need), along with the engine.
Doug
Logic is a pretty flower that smells bad - Spock, in "I, Mudd"
For a good time click http://www.belindabedekovic.com/video_fl_en.htm
For a good time click http://www.belindabedekovic.com/video_fl_en.htm
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harmony gardens harmony gardens https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=12815
- KVRian
- 830 posts since 19 Feb, 2004 from Richland Center, Wisconsin
Bit, I think I see why your feeling bad, but I’ll try to help you feel better about your purchase. 
I have to say that it took me a while to understand the way Squids does things, because of all the different paths you can take to get to the ultimate system. It can definately be confusing. I went through it somewhat myself.
I think the confusion here is that when you got into the group buy, you were buying a sound set. I assume since you say you spent $2oo on a group buy that you got into the Tron buy. What you really paid for was the Tron sounds. Sampetank 2 LE was included, so that you would have a player to use those sounds, and you got into the upgrade path to get a deal on Sampletank 2 full engine. What you need to do, is subtract the value of the sounds you got in your group buy, from the $200 to find out what you paid for LE. Then, subtract the money you will save by getting into the upgrade path., to see the real value of what you purchased. I am saying that you really did get a better deal than you realize, perhaps. I did a post on the current group buy, that explains the extra value you get. I’ll bring it over here, because the same deal applies to you.
We are talking about two things here, our sound collection and our sample engine. Squids sells sounds. We pick from the many choices he offers to make our own libraries of sounds. What you are doing when you get into a group buy, is buying sounds. Even though we might not have the Sampletank 2 XL engine, we get Sampletank LE to use. For you, the limitations of LE are constraining now. You will be so happy when you have XL, because I can see that’s what you really need for your situation. I came to the same point with LE. My annoying limitation was that I have older eyes now, and I couldn’t read the LE interface very well. Once I got XL, I could change the background colors, so now I can read it easily. My problem went away. Once you get Sampletank 2, you be able to use ALL of your sounds in one engine, which is where you want to be. You’ll get a shitload of sounds and when you have it all together, you’ll think, wow, $400 is a BARGAIN for what I got. That’s how I feel, but then there’s the $400,,, lol. HTH you feel better.
I have to say that it took me a while to understand the way Squids does things, because of all the different paths you can take to get to the ultimate system. It can definately be confusing. I went through it somewhat myself. I think the confusion here is that when you got into the group buy, you were buying a sound set. I assume since you say you spent $2oo on a group buy that you got into the Tron buy. What you really paid for was the Tron sounds. Sampetank 2 LE was included, so that you would have a player to use those sounds, and you got into the upgrade path to get a deal on Sampletank 2 full engine. What you need to do, is subtract the value of the sounds you got in your group buy, from the $200 to find out what you paid for LE. Then, subtract the money you will save by getting into the upgrade path., to see the real value of what you purchased. I am saying that you really did get a better deal than you realize, perhaps. I did a post on the current group buy, that explains the extra value you get. I’ll bring it over here, because the same deal applies to you.
As I do the math for your deal, at $200, you paid $90 more than the $389 full price of XL. If you bite the bullet and get it before the deal goes off, you’ll also get Ampltube.Another great bonus of the group buy, for those who are thinking of getting Sampletank, is the upgrade path. Here's how it works.
Let's say you want Sampletank 2 XL. Here's how you can get it.
Method 1
You can buy it at eSoundz for $389. This is a great price for a good set of sounds and the Sampletank engine. And get Amplitube for free, before the end of April. Good value!
Method 2
You get into the group buy, at "hopefully" $179, and you get Sampletank LE. Sampletank LE has an upgrade path to Sampletank 2XL for $279, and you get a free copy of Amplitube before the end of April. GREAT VALUE.
As you can see with method two, Squids is basically knocking off $110 by including Sampletank 2 LE, making the actual cost of these disks only $69 if you were planning on Sampletank and didn't have a way to get into the upgrade path. SUPER VALUE!!!
You also get $5 in epointz for your referral, and if we hit 100 people, (another $10) it will be actually $54 difference. This set has a MSRP of $600!
This is why I can't figure out why this deal is dragging. Squids is offering to give us the store, if enough people get in! This is a great deal, come on people! Sign up!
We are talking about two things here, our sound collection and our sample engine. Squids sells sounds. We pick from the many choices he offers to make our own libraries of sounds. What you are doing when you get into a group buy, is buying sounds. Even though we might not have the Sampletank 2 XL engine, we get Sampletank LE to use. For you, the limitations of LE are constraining now. You will be so happy when you have XL, because I can see that’s what you really need for your situation. I came to the same point with LE. My annoying limitation was that I have older eyes now, and I couldn’t read the LE interface very well. Once I got XL, I could change the background colors, so now I can read it easily. My problem went away. Once you get Sampletank 2, you be able to use ALL of your sounds in one engine, which is where you want to be. You’ll get a shitload of sounds and when you have it all together, you’ll think, wow, $400 is a BARGAIN for what I got. That’s how I feel, but then there’s the $400,,, lol. HTH you feel better.
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harmony gardens harmony gardens https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=12815
- KVRian
- 830 posts since 19 Feb, 2004 from Richland Center, Wisconsin
You could also use a model railroad analogy, Sampletank would be the layout, and the sounds would be trains to run on it. We could think of Sampletank 2 XL as everything we need to build a huge layout, with track, a powerpack, switches, tunnels, scenery, and a bunch of cool trains. Sampletank 2 LE would be more like some track and a powerpack so we have something to run our trains on if we get some.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 222 posts since 7 Apr, 2003 from San Francisco, CA
I certainly don't get you analogy since it doesn't apply at all to my situation. Unless you pay almost full price for a locomotive with wheels on just one side or something.harmony gardens wrote:You could also use a model railroad analogy, Sampletank would be the layout, and the sounds would be trains to run on it. We could think of Sampletank 2 XL as everything we need to build a huge layout, with track, a powerpack, switches, tunnels, scenery, and a bunch of cool trains. Sampletank 2 LE would be more like some track and a powerpack so we have something to run our trains on if we get some.
Bottom line is I want to stay away from using LE in any projects because of the issue I mentioned. If I paid $10 for it like you did, I would not mind, but I paid more than $200 for something that has a fatal flaw. To get it to work properly I need to cough up another $200.
I was under the impression the main limitation for me was going to be the limit on the number of effects I can edit, which is no problem since I turn all LE effects off anyway and use external effects. And that I would have a limited number of total outputs. Those limitations were fine. But the single-instance across all songs because of the brain-dead way this functionality was coded in is the one that I only found out about after it was too late.
BitFlipper
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- KVRAF
- 4692 posts since 28 Jan, 2003 from In these very interwebs
It is unfortunate that you didn't find out about the single-instance limitation sooner. I understand why you are upset about that. It sucks to buy a product only to find out later that you need to buy the next model up to get the functionality you need.BitFlipper wrote:Bottom line is I want to stay away from using LE in any projects because of the issue I mentioned. If I paid $10 for it like you did, I would not mind, but I paid more than $200 for something that has a fatal flaw. To get it to work properly I need to cough up another $200.
I was under the impression the main limitation for me was going to be the limit on the number of effects I can edit, which is no problem since I turn all LE effects off anyway and use external effects. And that I would have a limited number of total outputs. Those limitations were fine. But the single-instance across all songs because of the brain-dead way this functionality was coded in is the one that I only found out about after it was too late.
I think your options are pretty clear though. To get the full ST2 engine, the best way is to upgrade to ST2L for $199 (you also get four discs of general-purpose sounds with that, AND the full version of Amplitube). It's a killer deal, but I know you didn't budget for it. However, if you do the upgrade, I think you'll be very happy with it.
Forever,
Kim.
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- KVRAF
- 12977 posts since 29 Sep, 2003 from Ottawa, Canada
The only thing I'm confused about is this-- what was the total price you paid for the sounds you got and the ST2LE?
In my recent group buy purchase (Combi Kits) included ST2LE, so I don't feel that I actually purchased it at all. In your case, it sounds like you DID make an add-on purchase, but was the add-on a cost of $200?
In my recent group buy purchase (Combi Kits) included ST2LE, so I don't feel that I actually purchased it at all. In your case, it sounds like you DID make an add-on purchase, but was the add-on a cost of $200?
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- KVRAF
- 4692 posts since 28 Jan, 2003 from In these very interwebs
No, the whole package would have been about $200. In BitFlipper's case, it doesn't make sense to separate the sounds from the player, because the sounds require the player. It was $200 for the package. And now BitFlipper is (rightly) annoyed that he needs to upgrade to the next model up because the current model doesn't meet his needs.Lunch Money wrote:The only thing I'm confused about is this-- what was the total price you paid for the sounds you got and the ST2LE?
In my recent group buy purchase (Combi Kits) included ST2LE, so I don't feel that I actually purchased it at all. In your case, it sounds like you DID make an add-on purchase, but was the add-on a cost of $200?
Forever,
Kim.
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- KVRAF
- 12977 posts since 29 Sep, 2003 from Ottawa, Canada
Don't get me wrong, I can see the annoyance, and it seems justified. I just don't think it's reasonable to say that "ST2LE cost me $200" when that's not the case.
I know what you mean about how you can't separate the two since they're both required for the product he purchased (ie. he can't JUST use the sounds without ST2LE), however, I'm not 100% sold on that line of argument since there IS a delivered and working product, and the LE specs were available at the time of purchase.
I'm playing a bit of devil's advocate here, though, so that's about the end of my statement since I don't want to make it seem like I don't care-- I DO feel the pain and his feelings seem justified.
Greg
I know what you mean about how you can't separate the two since they're both required for the product he purchased (ie. he can't JUST use the sounds without ST2LE), however, I'm not 100% sold on that line of argument since there IS a delivered and working product, and the LE specs were available at the time of purchase.
I'm playing a bit of devil's advocate here, though, so that's about the end of my statement since I don't want to make it seem like I don't care-- I DO feel the pain and his feelings seem justified.
Greg