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VSampler

Sampler/Sample Player Plugin by SpeedSoft
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VSampler has an average user rating of 3.60 from 15 reviews

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User Reviews by KVR Members for VSampler

VSampler

Reviewed By Jake Jackson [all]
September 18th, 2007
Version reviewed: 3.52 on Windows

Excellent program. (Notice that all of the reviewers below were using an older version of the software.) VSampler was my first softsampler. I moved away from it and into VSTI's and experimented for some time with Kontakt and others. I've returned to VSampler recently, after learning more about sampling, and I find that it has by far the best interface and the best ability to modulate parameters. (Halion 3 seems to have taken some of its interface design from VSampler.)

The last version came out in January of 2006. As a result, there is no convolution. However, it supports external VST effects, so that problem can easily be solved. I'm not sure that there needs to be a new version of this software--it does almost everything.

The interface is extremely good. Some people may have had trouble with it because the program can do so much, and it presents separate pages for each major set of parameters, such as Filters, Amp, Banks, etc, with many buttons on each page. The pages can be either docked in a rack view or allowed to take up the entire page. There is also a button bar to the right (customizable) that lets you call up any page, and keyboard shortcuts allow you to avoid even these buttons. Press F2 and you have the page for Zones and samples, etc. Press F3 to call up a large keyboard. Once you learn the program, the interface makes perfect sense. The interfaces of other samplers will seem designed to obscure edits and slow your work.

The filter controls: Not just a simple ADSR envelope. You can set the Attack freq, the Decay freq, rate, and shape, and enter up to 68 other points on the envelope, which you can drag around however you want. Veloctiy to cutoff, to envelope, to resonance knobs. Still better, you can set the freq cutoff note by note nonlinearly--in other words, once you've set a cutoff freq, you can vary the extent to which each key is filtered, with widely different settings across the range or across just two notes that are side by side. The display lets you see the amp envelope in an outline behind the filter envelope, so you can adjust the filter to correspond or not correspond with that envelope's stages. Without question the best filter interface and controls.

Almost everything can be modulated by everything. It comes with free envelopes that can modulate whatever you want: delay the entrance of resonance or drop it down fast, delay eq to avoid the attack phase, etc.

The only real problem is that no complete manual was ever written. If you know sample and synth programming well, VSampler is fairly straightfoward, but a manual would still have been nice when I was getting started. This is a program that can do almost anything to a sample, so the number of controls can be bewildering to a new user.

There has been no word recently about a new version of the program, and support seems to have stopped. When the company was active, the support was very good, and my score for support indicates that as well as the current absence of support.

I wouldn't worry about the presets. Use your existing libraries. Much better to have an excellent program than to have great samples with a limited program and a bad interface.
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VSampler

Reviewed By ToddBradley [all]
December 17th, 2003
Version reviewed: 2.75 on Windows

Version 3 of the Speedsoft Virtual Sampler, aka VSampler, is out now. But I still use 2.75. Why? Well, the main reason is that version 3 crashes every time I try to use it within the forte Ensemble host application. So, this review is on version 2.75.

I use VSampler now in very many of my band's songs. It's fairly basic and has a ponderous user interface, but it mostly works and is pretty cheap. The documentation is pretty weak, but if you can find it, there's a tutorial online that explains things pretty well. From time to time, though, something goes wrong and it takes me 45 minutes of trial-and-error clicking to fix it.

For a while, I used the ability to host VSTi's inside of VSampler, but don't need that anymore.
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VSampler

Reviewed By erici44 [all]
June 7th, 2002
Version reviewed: 2.74 on Windows

Lots of excellent features and solid in every day operation.

A couple of negatives - there seems to be a problem with the user interface which causes nasty crackles if the edit window is open. I found it unuseable at 6ms, and migrated to Halion, but have since moved back to 12ms which is acceptable.

This brings me to the second problem, user support is almost non-existent, Maz rarely answers questions in the forum and doesn't seem to reply to emails.
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VSampler

Reviewed By progfusion74 [all]
May 6th, 2002
Version reviewed: 2.74 on Windows

I would not have a softsampler if not for this VSTi. Just the price makes this a must buy, but the functionality and abilities of VSampler, including the ability to stream put it right up there with the big boys. I am not a big soundfont user, but sometimes I have no choice but to go the SF route, which is why the great soundfont support is a big plus. I only wish there were more native libraries, but Akai import does give users access to pretty much anything. I don't see myself buying another sampler in the near future.

I am new to sampling, and the documentation and samples that come with VSampler have been of some help. That said more experienced users might find it sparse.
If I have a negative comment, it is with the user interface but that is more of a matter of personal taste.

Added comment: Since I wrote the original review I have been in touch with other developers and it is clear to me now that VSampler support, while decent, is not at the excellent level of some other VSTi's
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VSampler

Reviewed By nirsul [all]
January 26th, 2002
Version reviewed: 2.73 on Windows

Vistual Sampler 2.73
========================
I use SoundFonts,CubaseVST 5.1 & SB Audigy Platinum card:
That is why this is one of the greatest investments for my humble homestudio.
Until VSampler - I just couldn't route each soundfont to a different effect - not anymore! - with 8 Srereo outputs to Cubase I can route any SF to 8 effects inside Cubase (+ 2 inside VSampler).
One more HUGE benefit - I can stream big samples from the HD
no more RAM limit !
There are some free samples with it but I use mainly SF.(until I get free AKAI samples).

Also reads LM-4 kits - good although most of the free ones are not as good as some of my SFs.

For the small price I paid I got a full DX7 synth (plus a simple analog synth) although I have an original hardware DX7 I use as a MIDI controller.
Many features I cannot even remeber.
What can I say - A GLORIOUS VSTi !

BUY IT - if only for the SF routing issue !

UPDATE: I got the bundled (optional) N#1 instruments - nice fx and some great collection of samples in WAV - may be skipped.

I purchased lots of E-mu & SonicImplants samples (GREAT choice) and one of the SoundFonts could not be read by VSampler correctly (SI's Blue Jay Loose Kit). All other soundfonts I loaded - worked perfectly.

Every time I launch Cubase - I launch VSampler - and I love it !
T H E B E S T ! ! !
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VSampler

Reviewed By [all]
January 12th, 2002
Version reviewed: 2.7 on Windows

Everything a sampler should be able to do is here, for a very very attractive price. The sound quality and verstality (16 vst outputs!!) is very good.

A few mysterious problems though. Redrawing the interface (which is unneccessarily bulky) kills all sound inside Cubase, and surly the setting of loop points was a designers idea of millanium torture. A lot of soundfont files are imported without proper loop points and extra features like the pattern sequencer just don't seem to ever get used.

Although this is the most professional soft sampler I have used, it would benefit from the "less is more" mentality. A disable menu for the extra feautures (pattern sequencer, Fm synth, analogue synth, internal mixer) might make it more reliable in a heavy composition.
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VSampler

Reviewed By x_bruce [all]
December 23rd, 2001
Version reviewed: 2.7 on Windows

Update 4.21.03

16 months later and with Kontakt as my main sampler I still use VSampler. It is easy on resources, easier than Kontakt, and I have a large library of AKAI and personal samples that have been saved as presets. What makes VSampler most impressive to me is that it's value has not depreciated. In fact it has increased! As of this update version 3 is in the last stages of beta testing. The test was substantial and explains why there has not been more features added to version 2.x. To be honest this version is very solid and should be judged in it's own right. All developers should follow this example and take their time before releasing their work. VSampler is still a great sampler at a great price - read below for more details. As for stability, the machine used on the original review was a Celeron 600. On a Athlon XP1700 VSampler is rock solid stable. Good things not mentioned:
multitimbrality
VST plugins can be used within VSampler
VSampler is also a DXi
can be used as a stand-alone unit


Simply put there is nothing of greater value for traditional sampling. The interface is excellent using tabs to save space, good filters, good manual and support. Also a ton of samples available online.

I tried .sf2 files without trouble but there may be problems on certain libraries. I tend to use other formats with VSampler.

I have had a few crashes as a VSTi and in stand alone mode but they could have been my mistakes, still a good program protects users from crashing it.

Pros: flexible and good sounding, total package is good, good value for money
Cons: occasional crashes on my computer
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VSampler

Reviewed By Maximus [all]
October 30th, 2001
Version reviewed: 2.7 on Windows

This sampler, version 2.7, does not correctly import soundfonts; it loses volume/velocity envelope info. It also does not save that information to an exported sf2 sound banks.

Until Maz-sound addresses this issue, it's fairly worthless for soundfonts.

It's really kind of a shame because otherwise it would be an awesome sampler!

Max
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VSampler

Reviewed By musical [all]
October 22nd, 2001
Version reviewed: 2.7 on Windows

For me, version 2.7 has really delivered. The integration with SONAR is now tight, and a lot of bugs have been fixed. This program was always fantastic value and well supported by nice people. Now I think it is really there. Disk streaming is a useful feature, although memory is so cheap now I'm not sure I'll actually bother with it - I have 512MB.

What is great is that the Akai S5000-S6000 is now fixed, so that if you want an awful lot of great banks to play with, and you have a fast internet connection, you should visit:

ftp://ftp.akaipro.co.jp/downloads/sound_libraries/

and download from the S5000-S6000 directory. The 256M piano is sweet.

Have fun!
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VSampler

Reviewed By derek [all]
October 14th, 2001
Version reviewed: 2.65 on Windows

still my nr.1 VSTI sampler by far. i like halion and use it here and there, but for the daily work, vsampler is muuch faster and more efficient. all the real-life oriented shortcuts, customizable defaults etc, you sure notice that vsampler is a 2.65 where halion is a 1.1 :-)

biggest plusses:
-16 stereo outs baby :-)
-awesome mapping features, hispeed prelistening of samples, automapping, tune detection, drag and drop all over the place, you name it
-good interface
-awesome performance
-stability

minus:
-filters
-halions got better akai import

one thing about the features that dont seem as useful for VSTI use (integrated synth, step seq, stadalone and VSTI host capability) - think about the day you will use labtops on live gigs, this is where this will come in handy and vsampler will have no competition at all. add the bank manager to it and there, the perfect softsynth manager for live use. PERFECT.

and the customer support goes to eleven ;-)
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VSampler

Reviewed By Caleb [all]
September 23rd, 2001
Version reviewed: 2.65 on Windows


OK. There's a lot you can say about this VSTi. It does the job pretty damn well and at a price which is quite unbelievable.

If you just want a soundfont player, get bs-1, it's less cumbersome and comes significantly cheaper.

However, if you want a real sampler you're not going to beat this for the money. I've marked it to average in many areas because I believe it has the following 'bad' points:

The filters are really not very special.
The interface can be annoying and hard to work with.
The pattern sequencer seems like dead wood as does the synthesiser section - it would do better to be a perfect sampler rather than trying to reach beyond that.
The loop/sample editor is attrocious.

However, having said all that, this really is my sampler of choice and its real edge over Halion etc. is its rapid and ongoing development.

And it sure as hell beats staring at an LED all day.
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VSampler

Reviewed By venice [all]
September 14th, 2001
Version reviewed: 2.65 on Windows

Clearly a great buy. While the interface is sometimes cumbersome, it sounds great and imports the samples I need. At this point it can't be beat.
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VSampler

Reviewed By midisax [all]
September 10th, 2001
Version reviewed: 2.7 on Windows

Speedsoft fully deliver on value and power and support. Vsampler Holds its place tied right next to Halion and EXS24, each having its own advantages and disadvantages, but Vsampler only costs $75 and is supported BIG TIME! On Vsampler.com user forum you can see a literal record of bugfixes, user requested feature additions, user requested changes that speedsoft has quickly responded to. New versions come out often and user interaction is handled very well.

Speedsoft are a model for all independent vsti developers.
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VSampler

Reviewed By tesla [all]
September 3rd, 2001
Version reviewed: 2.7 on Windows

Pro:
+ many import formats supported
+ full featured demo version available
+ good value-for-money rate
+ good support
+ beginner's tutorial available
+ improvement in progress

Con:
- confusing user interface

I never used a hardware sampler so far, so I was unencumbered of what a sampler should do and how it should be operated. The hardest thing with Virtual Sampler was for me to understand how it works and how all the functions are controlled through the much confusing user interface. The new tutorial is very helpfull with this.

Besides this, it's great how many formats are supported for import (only Halion and Giga is missing so far), you can test a ll functions (except saving) in the free demo version, and for $75 you really get value-for-money, at least if you compare it to competitors like Halion or Unity.
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VSampler

Reviewed By bobb [all]
August 20th, 2001
Version reviewed: 2.7 on Windows

Low cost, top quality, no bundles sounds, easy to use, 16 virtual outputs. Diskstreaming in version 2.7. 100 % Customer support, by mail or forum. Never had a single crash. Loads SF2 good, not tried Akai. Removes unused samples from RAM. Even if you only want SF2, and not a Soundblaster card, this sampler does the job. Demo available. Free sounds at their web-site ( or Hammersound.net) Ver. 3.0 under developement, can't wait..... :-)

Just upgraded to 2.7, with better docs, GUI (now hiding pages I dont need) Even comes with a couple of presets from the VSampler song contest. Some of the actually good. Only users of VSampler has delivered sounds.

Still the best sampler out there.
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