Product Reviews by KVR Members

I've done a couple of tracks featuring this instrument, and I'm still exploring it. As of the recently released version 3, it has the following features:

• Up to 5 x independent round-robins per key, for each of the 5 strings of the banjo. Each string was sampled chromatically up to the 17th fret. The first string was sampled beyond the 17th fret.

• All the strings are sampled on 5 different pluck positions of the banjo.

• The Pluck Positions can either be selected via Key Switches or via a very advanced Pluck Position velocity selection system. You can freely adjust at what velocity level the different positions will be selected and make any kind of position combinations. All the settings can be saved as Presets.

• The Bluegrass Banjo V3 also includes 379 MIDI files to help you build realistic banjo arpeggios and chords.

• Banjo resonance via an Impulse Response made from the banjo head.

• Various articulations: Hammer-On and Pull-Off, Half step and Whole step Slide, Harmonic and Scruggs D-Tuner bends. All with 2 x independent round-robin per key.

• A very advanced and intelligent scripted Pitch Bend and Vibrato control.

• Detailed KSP scripted control of Fretting Position on the neck of the banjo, including an Auto Fret Selection feature.

• A Key Switch Page where you can freely assign which key will trigger the various Key Switches and save the settings as Presets.

• 8 different effects - each with its own Preset menus, so you can save and recall all the various parameters.

Bluegrass Banjo requires the full version of Kontakt (v4.2.4 or higher), not the Kontakt Player. It performs flawlessly in Kontakt v5.5.1.451.

If there's a better banjo virtual instrument, I haven't found it yet...and after using Bluegrass Banjo, I'm pretty sure I'm done looking.

I was sorely tempted to give SampleTank FREE a 10 rating just because it's so incredible that anything this good could actually be free. My first experience with the IK Multimedia's products came when I bought Miroslav Philharmonik, whose symphonic instruments exceeded my expectations in terms of sample quality, ease of use, and overall usability in my mixes. Thus encouraged, I figured I had nothing to lose by trying SampleTank FREE. I was right.

I can't say I like all the instruments, but that's true of every virtual instrument I own, so that's hardly a negative. Actually, I'm impressed with most of the instruments. Right out of the gate, I found great drum kit and bass sounds that were immediately useful in my compositions with little or no tweaking. The electric pianos are just OK, but maybe there are better instruments in the full version. I was pleasantly surprised by one of the vocal instruments (Soprano Ahh), which is remarkably realistic for the right kind of part. In fact, I'd say that the key to using SampleTank (at least the FREE version) is knowing when and where to use the instruments for their strengths.

I was dismayed to find that using multiple instances of the SampleTank plugin for certain instruments produces a horrid crackling kind of distortion (in Logic Pro 9.x, at least). I called the bug to the attention of support, and their responsiveness was most impressive. They expect to fix it in the v3 release.

Overall, I'm sufficiently impressed with SampleTank FREE to buy the full version, SampleTank XL, but I'll probably wait until the v3 release.