CreamWare PowerSampler

I used this in a small project studio a few years back. Software version was current in 2002. Editing the PowerSampler is moderately difficult but not more so than a traditional sampler. It's jsut a bit different. Once you get how the mixer works, it's actually pretty neat.

About the crashes: yes, due to the idea of this product (which I don't find quite compelling) to use the computer's RAM as the sampler RAM, the PCI has its hands full handling the data traffic. I used the card on an underpowered system and it still worked with occasional freezes needing a reboot. Still useable.

Features should be enought for the application it is designed for. What previous users forgot to mention is that it's also a capable soundcard, so the least you get is a quality audio I/O for your studio.

Apparently it reads AKAI-format CD-ROMS, which is a welcome feature. You can also import WAV, which is expected from a device of these specifications.

I can't rate the sound quality because I didn't have very good monitors at the time I was using the system. Sounded adequate.

If you "build your system" around the powersampler, which will take some time and expertise but not necessarily a lot of money, it probably can be stable. There must be a lot of info on the Web about how to make it possible. Due to the fact that a run-of-the mill home computer will have hard time handling it, I can't rate it too high. But it's not terrible either, in my experience.

Didn't have to deal with them.

I've been playing for 6 or 7 years and have a few pieces of synthesizer gear. Since hardware samplers are inexpensive these days, and some feature software editors, they might be a preferred solution for some, including myself (I became proficient enough to program patches on my A3000 rather quickly). If, however, you want to save rack space and get a tight integration with your audio data right on the main hard drive, nice GUI tools, and have stomach to debug and tune the system, the PowerSampler might be worth a try.

This software crashes a lot of time.
And is very difficult there is no manual included.
When i tried to install the software it would crash all the time
because it was not compatable with my other soundcards. I had
to disable them first to get this thing work.

Much polyphony. No effects except for a muffy filter and simple chorus.

The sound quality is good. And there is lots of storage space.

It crashes and hangs again and again

There is not much info on the site they have.
I spent hours figuring out why it didnt work.
Then i disabled all other cards and then it worked.

DONT BUY THIS ! It is really not worth your money

I'm running PowerSampler on a Mac, LunaII software 2.5.
Now... the software is about as un-Mac as one could imagine...

and yes, I do get freezes, screen redraw weirdnesses, and the like. I do a lot of closing and re-opening of windows, which luckily solves the problem 80% of the time.

I do sense something wrong when the upper 1/4 of the screen "shifts" pixels horizontally upon launching the application...

One thing that really bothers me about this card that I was not aware of before purchasing the card was how much PCI bandwidth it gobbles up. If you have a PCI graphics card or a SCSI card, good luck... there was documentation on a recommendation of either using an AGP graphics card or slowing down the SCSI transfer rate, but... oh my. Creamware's description on the web that this is due to Mac's inefficiency is something I find difficult to buy, since I was getting much more I/O going (48 I/O) before I swapped it with a PowerSampler... stupid me. Even if inefficiency on the Mac may be part of the game, I suspect board design to be a much larger portion.

One really nice touch is the Akai import, although the UI makes it a pain for me to create a library of converted files. Perhaps I still haven't spent enough time on the thingie... although my patience is beginning to run out.

I bought the ADAT expansion board as well, whose installation was really simple... meaning: I've never used the D/A, so I can't testify.

Ooff... I haven't been able to get it reliable yet. In various settings, I've used MOTU, emagic, RME, Digi etc. soundcards, all with varying degrees of "stability" that I was able to attain; but I'm having the most difficult time with this beast.

A quick trip to their web site/forum will prove that they really don't have any info available for Mac users. However I have no direct experience contacting their staff, yet.

...which all leads me to think: my PowerSampler is most likely to find a second life as a 2 x ADAT audio merger/submixer if I don't get used to the software in the coming 2 months.

...Adding an Emu with an ADAT out option would be perfect, really...

If it works, the software is workable, but very slow.

This card has 3 Sharc DSP's which are capable of quite nice stuff, providing someone takes the time to write a descent software-package to make proper use of both the DSP's and the host computer.
Has only 1 type of (fairly disappointing) Low Pass filter.
AD/DA convertors are kinda noisy, though an output expansion might solve that problem.

See above for filter criticism.
Sound quality (when using the digital out) is rather good.
Total expressiveness can be (thanx to multilayering) quite far, though not any further than the least you'd expect of a 'professional' sampler.

Bought this thing with v2.03 software. Running on a Mac G4 256MB Ram, this thing is a obviously a recompiled windows version. The software takes up over 250MB of Harddisk space (mind you, this 250Mb doesn't include sound) and is very slow. Memory indicators are ridiculous, indicating 0.0% free when empty, when i fill it with a samplebank of 0.5Mb, it's still 0.0% free, and 7200.00% used. I managed to get some 40Mb of sound in the sampler.
Crashy as it is, I installed v2.04 as soon as it came out. It never did anything but crash.
Btw, I consider myself an experienced computer user, and I know I tried to find reasons outside the Powersampler software that caused the crashes. No good.

After first getting jerky replies to my (very friendly and polite) e-mails I tried to phone the German helpdesk. The one guy that speaks decent English AND knows his way around a Mac is always busy. Never really got to talk to him after I ordered it from him.

I would never, ever buy this card again. (wanna buy it from me?)
Hope someone steals it actually. It doesn't really add anything to for example Bitheadz Unity DS-1 (apart from troubles, that is).
It absolutely got in my way severely when I wanted to make music. Buy a hardware sampler or use a software sampler. NOT THIS!