Add on "Sampler" or just upgrade my Kontakt?

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:12 am

dkcalifornia wrote:I started this quest because SampleTank XL 2.x and Live don't play together well (ST crashes Live like clockwork). Neither Ableton or IK have an answer and it's been months from what I've heard.

So, I bought ST for the large library and it would be nice to add my own samples (wavs, .nki, sf2, etc.)

Am I right in understanding that for the USD $199 i just get the Sample, then I have to pay another $100+ to get the sound library? If so, that changes the pricing balance drastically. Unless, of course, anyone knows how to convert the ST 2 library to Sampler format!

Yes you would have to pay another 100+ for the sound library. You just named plenty more reasons to spend less on getting Kontakt 2 upgrade, and skipping Sampler. Live itself makes a great simple sample mangler, I just don't get why people are all exited about Sampler, you can use ANY plug in in a rack, it simply is not a feature of Sampler. I use Kontakt for serious twisting, and the libraries. I think Live + Kontakt is great!

continuous · Post by **continuous** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 5:16 am

Kontakt is pretty bitchen.

Convolution, modulation, various effects, imports other formats well and sounds great to my ear.

Rogue Scrunt · Post by **Rogue Scrunt** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 5:31 am

dkcalifornia wrote:Unless, of course, anyone knows how to convert the ST 2 library to Sampler format!

Well i think chicken systems translator will do that, PC only

Rogue Scrunt · Post by **Rogue Scrunt** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 5:31 am

maybe not though.

I'm no help, sorry.

jasefos · Post by **jasefos** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:52 pm

Sampler is quite awesome and can get you ever closer to the convenience of the "Sample" button I enjoy on my Ensoniq ASR10. On the ASR10 within 2 button pushes I've recorded the incoming audio sample and then after pressing the note to use as it's root its immediately playable.

Something important the Kontact misses out on compared with Sampler is the fact you can quickly record a one shot into a slot on session view and immediately drag it into Sampler. That's hot.

Other things I dig with Sampler ...

- Low CPU consumption per instance ... created nested racks of Samplers without killing your computer's CPU.

- Live's Collect All and Save is TOTALLY aware of the file dependencies (very important if you like gathering up all your dependent files into a separate folder for each project).

- Variable state morphing filter sounds excellent.

- No restrictions with parameter modulation

- Stacked keyzones seem to fire off with consistent phase
(e.g. if you create a kick drum in a drum kit with several stacked samples, each time they're fired they don't phase off one another but rather they slam ... nice).

Things that shit me off with Sampler ...

- Most parameters aren't local to a single keyzone but are global. You can get around this by using separate Samples stacked in a rack to create Instrument Rack based keyzones however this is wasteful. Almost every other Sampler I've used (including my old Ensoniq and even Reason's NNXT) lets you define things like different Filter types on each key. This issue is a biggy in my humble opinion however, thanks to instrument racks, I can get around the problem.

- no exclusive groups across keyzones (for getting achieving choking hi-hats for example). You can simulate the feature by clamping polyphony down to 1 voice however it isn't quite the same.

- It would be nice to have 2 sets of filters (per keyzone if the user wishes) which could be set up to be series/parallel ... good for those situations where say you wish to create a kick drum shaped with a low pass filter but then wish to have some hi pass to shelve out the frequencies which will cause trouble.

- No "round robin" triggering like what is possible with Reason's NNXT

Otherwise Sampler is totally worth the buy. It's DEEP INTEGRATION the host application is unlike any other sampler instrument I've seen elsewhere in VSTi land. Because Sampler is part of the host you can trust the Collect All And Save will definitely create a robust project. After many frustrating years with Cubase appearing almost totally oblivious to the obvious integration opportunities when hosting HALion, Live + Sampler's integration is tremedously good for workflow.

Sound quality and fast workflow mean everything to me.
Ideas are precious things ....

stratusseeker · Post by **stratusseeker** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:47 pm

what's "round robin" triggering?

Add on "Sampler" or just upgrade my Kontakt?

Buy "Sampler" add-on or Use 3rd Party sampler?

Re: Thanks for the feedback

Re: Thanks for the feedback