IK Multimedia SampleTank 2 XL

I have been laying since I was six, gigging since I was 8 and making a living at music since i was 20 years old. I am using sampletank 2.5 and I am running it in PT 7.4 on an intel dual core 2.16 Macbook Pro using tiger (because PT 7.4 wasn't compatible with leopard when i got it).
I record daily. Though i am concentrating on writing, i still record Cds of my own material, demos of all kinds for myself and others, and I do some jingle work as well. i monitored this material through my crusty but trusty NS 10s.

For some reason at first, i have great difficulty understanding the interface, I must have needed some coffee because once i "got it" everything was easy.

I have only used Sampletank on a few projects so far. I find myself needing to tweak many of the presets. fortunately, this is VERY easy and the effects are VERY good. that is lucky because the sounds are very hit and miss, ranging from "pretty damn good" to "why would someone bother to keymap that crap?"

Sampletank supports stereo and I think, higher resolutions (than 16 and 24 bit), but i think that using some of these sounds at a higher resolution would be like taking a grainy, low res pic in photoshop and upping the pixel count. It still wouldn't improve the picture. I think many of these sounds are of no better quality than my old Roland S550 (12 bit) sampler. Sounds are very meat and potatoes and nothing really hip or modern (and some of the taters are missing - ONE wurly sound?????)

I should not even say anything about this product since the people at IK let me have a free copy because I was considering repping for them a couple years ago (but i didn't have a laptop and my computer at home was way too slow) and they were kind enough to upgrade me for free to the latest version so that makes me kind of a jerk (but an honest one). I rely on user reviews at HC to help me decide on purchases, so i wish all people would do the same.

i have heard complaints that it is a CPU hog. That CAN be true. Since there are a max of 5 effects for each sound (of 16 sounds per instance). if you pick effect intensive sounds for all 16, you could end up running 80 plugins within Sampletank alone. I was sure that nothing could slow my PB Pro down, but having "Strike," "Structure," and 16 channels of sampletank open plus a few plugins for audio tracks, i could really feel everything going into bullet time. if you have sampletank and are experiencing this, take off some of the plugins from the sounds. Many need nothing or just 1 or 2.

I have been making music for the last 15 years. Nowadays, I use a P4 3.2 dual threading, with 1 g ram, dual screen ( well 3 but my third is a copy of the second screen set up on edit windows in pro tools on my workstation (ease of use less traveling)). I use Pro tools le 7.1, routed thought a mackie 1604 (no effects no eq no nothing) with a pair of mackie hr824 mk 2. And a pair of audio technica studio headphones... ( will stop thee cause I could fill a web page with my stuff)

Its pretty straight forward, but I really hate the authorization codes. I am giving it a very low mark due to that. There is also some instance of the note staying on until you reload the instrument, distortion and the analyzing window now do not display if its working or not and have to abort the process to be able to continue working. This happens with Pro tools. the not staying on for ever and the distortion happened with cubase and pro tolls.

I have found no solution for this, these happened on all computers I have installed the software, so it is not computer related. And so I am giving it a very low mark again.

Some of the instruments sounds good. But since I am multi versed in many instruments, piano, guitar (classical, electric) bass, trumpets, drums, violins ( what can I say, I come from a musical family where each of them showed me how to play the instruments they learned) I can say that I am let down by most of the sounds.

The piano are nice, some violins to. Most drums I would actually throw away and I always have to go through the entire selections to get the sounds I want for toms, snare etc (even though I have some preferences for different styles). The trombones lack presence and the tremolo you hear from the lfo on sustained notes is unnatural.

Legato? what legato. You can only use legato on monophonic instruments... Piano uses a lot of legato, which means I can never use legato. The sustain pedal is non existent.. well actually yes it is, but its either full on or full off, there is no control on how much you want.

I could go on and yes I am very picky.. I do this for living.

I have heard and used better programs and sounding material for lower price tags.

I had read reviews, and heard samples that seemed interesting and I needed an broader vst instrument for orchestration.

On its own, its not that cpu hungry, but if you are like me, in the composition stage I can come up with 30 to 40 tracks of instruments at times (which usually means i will be having 3 to 4 sT2 working at the same time 16 channels used on all of them) It gets to be very cpu hungry and ram hungry at that stage (not even mixing yet).

It has crashed many times and have undesired sound effects many times as specified before

A decade ago... seriously . I play guitars, piano, synths, flute...

I have the v. 2.11

I use it in Traktion and standalone.

I do avant-garde jazz

I use Imac G4. osx 10.2.8

I use headphones, AKG.

Tedious. Not intuitive. Very little letters interface...

I can??t use it now, because the Autorization Code is generated for each new installation you do with it, and now it isn??t recogniced...

I used it very little, just enough, but the bugs in the re-installation mode, and others make me ignore the good -if it??s- of it.

when the instruments are charged, it??s easy to do sound with it, but now I can??t charge any instrument... The application dont respond...

It??s not very good

The sound really is good, with the Stretch function, but not very good at all, specially if you don??t use that function . There is not comparation with others samplers soft like Kontak , this is only normal sound, decent sound to do proofs with midi or live instruments in a sequencer, but nothing professional ...

the price it??s fine -because I have the L version- , but the results are cheaps too ...

I have been a musician for about 3 years, and a studio owner songwriter for the last 20.
I purchased the XL2 for the library of sounds that come with.

I am primarily a guitar player and songwriter, and was looking for an all around tone engine, besides my Alesis unit that I used for years , the S4 Plus.
I run it in a P4 1.7 right now but are looking to upgrade soon.

I monitor in JBL 4411's and Soundcraft Absolute 2's, and AKG Studio Headphones.
I run everthing through the Mackie 2408.

I think its an incredibley easy interface, if you know anything at all about software. I think those that complain, are not adept on the PC.
No problems installing, but I think that they should give real buyers a better break and not limit installs. If you use your PC as much as I do, somethimes you do a good cleaning and even reformats. This will spend your reinstall codes, and that's crap. The sounds are tweakable enough to be unique if you want. I am giving an 8 simply because of the Paranoia and limited install codes.

There isn't a program out there that doesn't have some dogs. Overall I love the sounds.

Again, because of the coed limits, but I did get a bonus of a free Amplitube package.

I have been playing keyboards for about 35 years. This is the first softsynth that I have purchased- primarily because of the quality of some of the free synths (Crystal, Synth 1). These free synths excel at synthetic sounds, however. I own an Alesis QS7, and was thinking of upgrading to a Triton or Motif rompler. I read some reviews of Sampletank and decided to go for it.

In addition to the QS7 and softsynths, I have a Yamaha TX81Z, Yamaha AN1X, Casio CZ-3000, Moog Satellite, acoustic piano.
I make a variety of music- jazz, classical influences. Been dabbling a lot in DnB recently.

I bought Sampletank 2L. I have upgraded to revision 2.0.9 (see below).

I have a Windows XP PC w/ an Athlon Processor (2GHZ), 512mB Ram. I run Sonar 2.2 primarily, but also use SoundForge, Tracktion. I use an M-Audio Delta 44 soundcard. I monitor through a Mackie 1604 mixer, JBL monitors.

I think that the interface is pretty good, easy to use. I do wish that the printing was bigger- I have a hard time reading it with my bifocals (I'm an old guy).

Installing the software went OK. Oddly, IK Multimedia did not include any installation instructions. Sampletank L comes with one disk (with the program, manuals) and 4 disks with sounds. For some reason, some disks did not autorun and I had to manually move files to the system.

Once I installed it, (as a VST because i was told that Sample tank did not implement the DX correctly), It crashed quite a bit. It then occured to me that it would crash when I was loading certain sounds. After two days of frustration, I solved the problem by loading the latest updates. This solved all of the problems. Here's my question for IK Multimedia- after making me go through the authorization process and the web signup, etc, why didn't you tell me that I should immediately load updates. Also, the website, said that the update was for XL version, I own the L version. In addition, the FAQ section of the website didn't mention any of the problems that the updates fix.

Other than the installation, the manual is very good.

This thing sounds great. In fact, I wish I would have bought the XL version to get the extra sounds. I am really impressed by the orchestral instruments, acoustic pianos (way better than my Alesis board), electric pianos(although there are not enough of them in the L version). This is the first time that I have been able to get decent electric guitars out of a synth, also. They are really great.

For specs, your best bet is to go to the website.

I think that it is worth the price tag. If I had more hardware synths, I would probably sell them.

I chose this plugin based on the Craig Anderton review in Keyboard magagzine. He was correct.

On my system, I have had six different channels going at once, and the CPU meter hovers around 25%. I have not tried to see if I can have all 16 running at once. I have yet to have the Sonar Audio Engine crash with Sampletank running.

I have been doing music since 1980. Started learning organ then went to piano and accordion. I'm running a Mac G4 based system with a Digidesign 001 (Protools LE 6.4) and Logic Pro 7.01. I must say I'm bloody impressed with the new version of Logic Pro and all the synths, fx and presets available right out of the box! I also have other plugs from Waves, Antares, IK Multimedia and Bias. I'm using Sampletank 2 XL as a virtual replacement for my old Roland and Korg modules most of which were sold last year and I've not regretted going this way although I was apprehensive at first! Thanks to the Sonnet dual 1.3gig CPU upgrade in my Mac and 1.25gig of Ram and some new big hard drives, the system is working really nicely! I currently run Mac OSX 10.3.5. I run everything through the 001 into my Yamaha O3D mixer (via ADAT lightpipe) and out through my Alesis Monitor 2's which are in need of some new tweeters!!!!

I think that the interface is quite well done. I do have a visual impairment thought and would have appreciated a GUI with larger characters. They are extremely small even for a normal sighted person! I also didn't like the red background but thankfully you can change the background colour- mine is now light grey! Installation was very straighforward although initially it was a bit tricky to get ST2 to locate the disk directory where all the sound library is! Once that was sorted out everything was fine! :). Yes the plug in is fully automated It is easy to get some great musical results but the plug in is very CPU intensive. A helpful hint is to make sure the each part you use has the minimum amount of polyphony you need assigned to it- for example- dont use more than 1 or 2 notes for a bass part. This helps to reduce CPU usage in a major way IMHO! The manual is not bad and the support online at the IK Multimedia website is also very good.

I must say that the sound of this plug in compares very nicely with the best hardware synths and modules out there when it's being used in a system thats powerful enough. My Mac was a G4 466MHZ before I upgraded it and honestly I couldn't get more than about 4-5 instruments out of that without having to freeze tracks in Logic or converting those sounds to proper audio tracks. You do need a decent computer. IMHO the presets are a mixed bag in the quality department. The drums, basses and guitars are mostly very good to excellent. The choir presets are also nice. Piano's are also acceptable and sound similar to those in my Roland XV3080 and Korg Triton. I'm less thrilled by the strings and orchestral sounds and honestly the world/ethnic section is quite a joke (although there are a couple of nice accordion presets there which gave me quite a pleasant surprise!). If I can say anything, the sound library is not entirely consistent IMHO. Yeah, brass sounds are also not that great and the same applies for alot of the woodwinds- although some of the saxes are decent. I have read online that IK are bringing out Sampletank 2.1XL later this year that will have a larger and better library than the 4.5gig's that come with ST2XL. That's not to say that what comes with ST2 is 'bad'! There are literally thousands of great presets to work with and the great one's can more or less make up for the less than steller ones! Yeah and there is an absolutely fantastic sound library out there from IK and Sonic Reality that you can tap into. Ive also purchased Sonic Synth 2 which IMHO has a vastly superior sound library (8GB of sounds) compared to ST2XL. The great thing is that I can use all these SS2 sounds directly from within ST2XL!!!! And I also have the 'Groove' Capsule' and some other extra sounds I purchased when I bought Sonic Synth 1 (pianos, guitars, drums, bass, strings). These sounds are a mixed bag IMHO and some of them actually crashed my system before I went in and got rid of those 30 or so presets!!!!!!! I'm very dissapointed that the library doesn't make more use of controller routings such as creative use of modulation from different hardware controllers etc. Oh well this is where the user must get creative. I must however mention the absolutely fantastic effects built into Sampletank 2!!!!!! You can use up to 5 fx at once for each part and their quality can't be under estimated!!!! I love the amp simulations and the reverbs as well as the delays and modulation effects. I honestly hope the IK decide to allow users in a software update to use ST2 just as an fx plug in within their host sequencer! These fx are just sooo musical sounding even if the reverbs don't cry out Lexicon or TC Electronics!!!! ST2XL operates in mono, stereo and as a multichannel plug in. I use it in stereo most of the time. Each instance of the plug in has up to 256 notes of polyphony depending on the computer being used and up to 16 multi timbral parts. My rating for overall sound library is 7 out of 10. The fx are 11 out of 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:).

I bought the IK Multimedia Studio Bundle which came with Sampletank 2XL, Amplitube and T Racks. This bundle is well worth what I paid for it and I got a great deal. I initially was seriously looking at Steinbergs Hypersonic but after comparing demos of both this and ST2, I came to the conclusion that Sampletank has the edge in overall quality- although Hypersonic is very CPU efficient. Hypersonic is not very expandable and I don't think Steinberg have done much to improve it's weaker areas so far. Also I hate its dongle protection which IK don't have! :). Now that I have Logic Pro 7, I use the ESX24 sampler (built in with Logic) and it's fantastic 3gig sound library alot. I also use alot of Garageband instrument and loops (I own all 4 Jampacks). These sounds are very comparable in in some cases superior to Sampletank! However I must say that the Sonic Synth presets are marvellous also! I believe that IK, whilst being generous in giving us 4.5 gig of sounds, should make their ST2 library more consistent in terms of overall quality. Lets hope this happens in the next version! Saying this, I think that ST2XL is a great plug in that I haven't regretted buying and use very often. It takes a while to load but thats because I have such a sound libary for it stored on another partition of my system drive. I can't say I hate anything in particular about this plug in. I treat it as a virtual replacement for my now sold Roland JV1080's with EXP boards, Korg TR Rack, Korg Wavestation SR and Roland Dance module. ST2 crashed only when I selected a few 'fantom' presets that came with Sonic Synth 1! This was really bloody annoying and Sonic Reality told me that they new about the problems. Thankfully SS2 seems much much better in this department!!!! Many bemoan the fact that ST2 is not a true 'sampler' like Halion, Kontakt, Mach 5 and ESX24. However IMHO this is not the point of this plug in. The point here is that you have easy multitimbral access to a huge number of great presets that can be easily selected from within you choice sequencer. Here ST2 performs admirably! If you want a virtual sampler, get anything that is listed above! For me, I'll be a happy Sampletank user for many years to come! :).

I guess you could say I've been on the bleeding edge of technology for a few years now. I dont normally review stuff on HC but saw a lot of people butchering this plugin, and since I've had really good luck with it, I thought I would share my experiences. I use it on both a dual 2ghz G5 and a 1 ghz powerbook G4. The G5 has a fully blown Pro Tools HD system, and the powerbook uses a Digi002 Rack. I use both Pro Tools and Logic (different tools for different jobs, right?), mackie HR824 monitors, m-audio controllers.

The interface is far far far more intuitive than my motif was! And no, I havent had any problems with ST being "buggy" or "causing blue screens". Read between the lines below and figure out everyone who can't get ST to run right is using a PC (and the one guy using mac OS 9). Runs just fine with all my host software in OSX. Installation was breeze!

Simply put, it sounds great. Not every preset is great but the vast majority of them are usable. Sounds all sit well in a mix, and the categories are especially convenient for working on a quick arrangement. I wouldnt hesitate to use most of this stuff on a project. I could see how you might need better orchestral sounds if you were say, composing symphonies for big budget hollywood films, but for the rest of us, all of the "real" sounds do their countepart well.

Show me something better at this price level. Period.

Windows xp, soundcard : Audigy 2 , 750 MHZ , 256 of RAM (POOR SETUP).

Sampletank 2 is very easy to use. You start it and you work with it. All easy to control.

Features 7

I will compare this product with others and make a fair overall. Solid 7 is my overall to this product.
When you compare it with synth like yamaha motif es or roland fantom it would be 5 but since this is
a software and when I compare it with the best Native Instrument KONTAKT ( Still best in features )
overall is 7 (NI KONTAKT 9). New feature is STRECH but you can use STRECH only with some of the
sounds like some brass and some orchestral. I dont use STRECH it is a computer crusher.
You must have 500 of RAM and 1500 GHZ minimum to work serious with sampletank 2.

Sound overall is fair when I compare it with other great products. Still issue like on sampletank 1 - NO SPECTACULAR SOUND ON THIS SYNTH. ONLY SOME BASSES AND SOME ORCHESTRAL ENSEMBLES ( SOME ! ).
I will compare it with the original Sampletank and I see NOOOO STEP UP ON SOUND CATEGORY.
I can say that sampletank 2 is sampletank 1 with STRECH ( CRAP ) , few FX and some of the good new sounds ( SOME OF THEM ! ). You can say that some of the sampletank 1 sounds sound better on the sampletank 1 than on
sampletank 2.
Like chello, violas or some guitars. On the ST 2 they sound too quite. This is my big issue: Some sounds are too quite when some of them are to laud. More work on the sounds that you get from other disagners IK MULTIMEDIA !!!!!
Only thing better on the ST 2 when you talk about sounds are some brass, piano and some of the orchestral but all the best sounds (add few more like exspresion saxes, some orchestral ensembles ) that you can found on the sampletank 2 are the sounds from original sampletank. There, I telling you all when I saing that.

OK LETS SEE ...

BASS 9 - Best sounds on Sampletank top quality . Again almost all sounds from the original.

PIANO 7- solid pianos but you can found crapy sounds in this category too. Not spectaciular sounding piano here. almost all useful but not very good only good , so 7.

BRASS 6- more than solid brass sounds. I especially like exspresion tenor,soprano and alto sax.
And trumbet falls are prity cool. Still NOOOOOO REALISTIC TENOR SAXOPHONE ON THIS SINTH.
Exspresion tenor sax is cool but not that sax that we usualy hear on pro records. Because
of that ( tenor sax is one of my favorite instrument sounds ) I give it 6. STILL NOT SPECTACULAR SOUNDS IN
BRASS CATEGORY FROM IK MULTIMEDIA ONLY BASSES ARE SPECTACULAR.

GUITAR 7- Still no realistic acoustic guitars. They give me some FINGERED SHITS not someting nice.
I would say only realistic guitar is 12 string, banjo (in their leaguage ban jo he he)
and maybe nylon guitar.
Some cool electric gutars but then again TOOOO MUCH CRAP ON THIS AREA THAT YOU CAN FIND.

ORCHESTRAL 8- You can hear when orchestral is made in the studio or on the stage and when it
is on the special designed hall.
In this area sampletank 2 and synth like Yamaha motif or any other, they lose in
this area because they have been recorded in the studio or on the stage. So you can
not get that authenticy like VIENNA SYMPHONIC LIBARY or EW SYMPHINIC LIBARY. Their sound was recorded in special halls to get natural sound. And I will say that
you can`t make natural orchestral sound with studio and stage recording! Sorry MOTIF, SAMPLETANK 2 ....
AGAIN I SAY TOO MUCH SOUNDS FROM SAMPLETANK 1 NOT BETTER SOUNDING SAMPLETANK 1
SOUNDS.

ORGAN 7- Good organ sounds but NATIVE INSTRUMENT are better producers in this department by far.

DRUMS 8 - again you can find crapy sounds here especialy electric drums. That is why I give it 8 not 9.Very Good drums.

LOOPS 7- better loops on sampletank 1 or you can say THE SAME LOOPS ON Sample tank 2 but they
sound better on the original sampletank.

Accordion 8- good stuff

Ethlic 8 - NICE

Percussion 9- very good and natural sounding.

synth 3- NO Interesting synth sounds. Unusable pathes.

Vocals 8- good vocals but limited.

Woods 7- good sounding but too small libary.

Overall 7
As I say before no big step on sound disagne - to much sampletank 1 sounds and what is worse
sampletank 1 sounds are the best sounds on the sampletank 2 and some of the new good NEW sounds.
Good sounds for serious work but I have better stuff at home in many categories but I use sampletank 1 and 2
all the time. And when it comes to featuries I think that Native instrument KONTAKT IS still NO 1.

I have been writing music for approx 21 years. I play guitar, drums, bass, and keyboards. I use Sampletank 2 XL with Sonar 3.1 studio edition on a P4 3.0 ghz 1 gig ram(DELL COMPUTER) w/ Windows XP Home edition. M-Audio omni studio. HERES SOMETHING RARE.!!!! I PLAY ON A DDRUM4 ELECTRONIC DRUM SET TRIGGERING DRUM SAMPLES FROM SAMPLETANK(the ddrum module allows me to perform drum rolls flawlessly)AND I USE A ROLAND MIDI CONVERTER FOR MY FENDER STRAT GUITAR.

INTERFACE IS EASY TO DEAL WITH AND ALLOWS FOR QUICK THINKING WHEN WRITING MUSIC.
INSTALLATION SUCKED BECAUSE IT WAS LENGTHY.
IM NOT INTO AUTOMATION CAN'T HELP YOU THERE.
I USE THE DDRUM4 BRAIN AND ROLAND GUITAR MIDI CONVERTER TO TRIGGER THE SOUNDS. WORKS AWESOME!!!!!
I USE SAMPLETANK PRIMARILY FOR THE DRUM SAMPLES BECAUSE I PLAY THEM IN REAL TIME W/ MY DDRUM SET.
THE MANUAL NEEDS IMPROVEMENT.

The sounds are pretty damn good. When playing guitar,i use amplitube in conjunction w/ sampletank to create some excellent tone. I do not use the guitar samples. Heres how it works folks. I have a midi pickup on my strat going into a Roland guitar to midi converter. The Roland unit also has a guitar direct out to that I may simultaneously plug into an input to my omni studio instrument pickup. I can play tones from sampletank and amplitube at the same time. I don't use keyboards much at all.

I will say. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES USE THE DXi VERSION. FOLKS IT DON'T WORK. USE THE VST VERSION. IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM ALTHOUGH IT IS A CPU HOG. I RARELY GET CRASHES. I WISH I HAD THE ABILITY TO PERFORM INDIVIDUAL MIXES OF INDIVIDUAL DRUM SOUNDS ON THE KITS. THE HIGH HATS AND CYMBALS ARE A LITTLE TO LOUD AND THE TOMS ARE TO SOFT IN VOLUME. ALSO I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO EQ THEM SEPERATELY.

Slapping keys since 1959
Slapping "soft"keys for 3 years.
Compose symphonic electronica style for fun, at home.
PIV-2,4gigs, 1 Gig RAM, Win XP
M-audio 24/96
Cubase VST32/5.1
Previous pruchase XPhraze, been using SampleTank2 XL for 2 months now.

Nice looking interface, I like looking at it while wondering what to load up or tweak, makes me think I have something modern. I like the basic color of the "tank" and the redoable colors available on the library screen.

All sounds are fairly good for a workstation. The ease of tweaking and multiple effects makes most quite nice.
All except the synths sounds, this remains a dissapointment.
I like the drum kits and loops.
Voices are fun but limited.
Too many of the "sounds" are simply the previous sound tweaked for me. How nice of them to do that, ehh??? Well, I thought there were 1500 "sounds" not 1500 "patches".,....
I particularly like the trombone, and bass guitar sounds.
I use the pianos, but am not in heaven about it.
I particualrly dislike the pads.

Too expensive for tweaked patches to be "silently" included without admitting such.
Although I'm using it all the time now as a source of real-like instruments, it remains a matter of opinion as to its worth in a particualr situation.
Has crashed occasionally but mostly when I'm impatient searching sounds and load a sample while Cubase is playing my song.... don't do that at home kids.

Would I buy it had I used it first? Maybe only the L version not the XL, and save money while getting a nice ROMpler anyways.

Updates helped a lot and am looking forward to more to come.

.5 years of music making
. version 2 . the latest update
. cubase sx 2 (PC)

i doint get how people here have stated that this interface is complex - and then want to go and use a hardware set up LOL

its all on screen in front of you (almost) - it takes seconds to get it up and working

all the sounds are tweakable - so its all down to your own ability - but planty dont need a whole lot of tweaking

solid as you want - and if anyone tells you that all patches on a workstation are good they are lying - their is none of the hyped korg sound going on here (ie a deliberate compression and eq applied to the outputs to make everything sound more exciting when you demo it in a shop - shit to mix with tho) so some sounds might appear plain - but most are useful

OK i dont use the synths presets - but ive got actual synths so I dont use vsts as synths very much at all

yeah - its a big step up from sampletank 1 - stretch is useful if not infallable - but now its got user definable midi automation of ANY parameter - and you can save banks, adjust the number of outputs (and who was the idiot who said it only had one ouput RTFM, which is also fairly easy), the effects are better (and they were good to start with)

has it crashed - yes - but VERY rarely

is it a cpu hog - no - compare it to kontakt or emulator x and it uses a fraction of the cpu for a just as good sound

i guess a velocity layer - loop point editor so it became a full sampler so i can reduce the number of instruments I use - and the emulator x filters please (but then i say everything should have the emulator x filter s!)

I've been making music with computers for more than 10 years. I have 15 years experience in software and computer design.

I'm using SampleTank 2 XL with Sonar 3.1 Producer Edition on a 3.0 GHz P4 with 1 GB of DDR Ram and 2 120 GB SATA Maxtor Drives using RAID 0. The operating system is Window XP Home Edition.

I use a M-Audio Delta 1010 with a Mackie 1624VLZ for Audio I/O and my MIDI gear is controlled using a MIDISport 8x8/s.

In the last three years I have been going more software than hardware. I've been very reluctant because until recently software effects and synths sounded like 1985 Casio keyboards.

With all the standards, two operating systems and what is still a small market I'm amazed that some companies like Cakewalk, Steinberg, IK Multimedia, MOTU and others can make software that works as well as it does.

I needed to write this because for the first time I'm using soft synths and effects more than my hardware synths and effects. Specifically, SampleTank 2 over my JV-2010. I also needed to write this because I'm sure there's a crowd out there making the same decisions about software vs. hardware that I'm making. Sometimes I try to use these review forums to help in making decisions (usually big money decisions) but most of them are filled with crap from moronic assholes that can't spell or write and that babble about concepts they don't understand. Maybe I?m one of them.

Come on! How can you give this program 5 or a 1. It can't be anymore straight forward! As soon as the program popped up I knew exactly what to do and I was making music a minute later. Can you say that about any other soft synths or samplers? Compare this to what you find in Reason or Project5 or software like VSampler, Kontact or GigaSampler. When I try to use the other stuff I spend 95% of my time fiddling with software, 4% of my time yelling "FUCK" out the window and 1% actually playing.

If you have used hardware sound modules you know how to use this program. Changing settings, selecting instruments, etc. is easy.

I had no problems with installation. There are 8 CD's and it takes about 30 minutes but I'm glad the program's not asking me for a CD when I make an instrument change.

I have yet to come across software with this wide a range of quality sounds. Sure, there are some that may be less than what we hope or are use to, but you can tweak every sound. I have been able to make every instrument I've used sound interesting. There's a lifetime of sounds with infinite possibilities. I'm already bored with Project5 and Reason.

With all other soft synths I've purchased their main focus was to provide a huge range of options with very little effort in providing sounds and presets. If your a sound designer you might want something like VSampler but if you want to actually create music use SampleTank.

This is the first software synth that is a integral part of my setup. I use it for drums, basses, keyboards, effects, etc. I have produced songs were I've swapped a well recorded live drum kit with a track made with SampleTank2 and the musicians didn't say "what's that crap?".

I love the program because it has the feel of an outboard sound module. In many way it is much better than an XV-5050 or a JV-2010 at half the cost.

It does crash occassionaly but no more than my sequencer or other plug-ins. I think it is more stable than most but it could be improved, especially the DXi version. Like it or not, DXi is the future. (Another MAC vs PC like argument.)

I wish it worked as seamlessly with my MIDI controllers and sequencers as hardware modules do. Instrument lists for Sonar, Cubase, etc. and presets for MIDI controllers like the A-37 would be nice.

Overall, I have proven to myself that this is the best option if you want a software equivalent to your hardware sound modules. I think the route IK has taken with SampleTank is going to copied by many other manufacturers: Probably, the best way to determine whether something is worth buying.

I have been making music seriously for over 7 years. I play Drums, Guitar and Keyboard. I produce HipHop & RB mainly. I Recently purchased Sampletank 2 L. and I use a PC AMD 2100 and a delta 1010 lt card, My main programs are Logic 5.1 and Reason 2.5.

THis product seemed good in the adds, and online demos from IK multimedias website. But I pulled about all my hair out with this crap sofware. I get stupid errors when trying to import my own audio samples, and I don't know why, all it tells me is Error.

The sounds are good, but I'm taking this back and investing in a Motif, better sounds more reliable.

THis program is doo doo. YOu can only use it in ONE Instrument track in Logic! With in Sample tank you can creat up to16 parts of seperate sounds, BUT it can only be output to Audio Instrument 1.. so all those sounds are being output to ONE audio track!!! SO not proffessional.

I've been making music on computers for about 15 years now. Started on Midi Sequencer for Commodore 64 (believe it or not, a distant ancestor of Emagic Logic!) I'm using Sampletank 2 as a general sounce of sample material for composition and production. Music is a mixed bag -- rock, electronica, atmosphere, etc. Using a PIV 2.8 with Win XP pro.

Interface is very easy to use though I agree with others that the fonts are too small for most hi-res screens. Other than that, it's pretty straightforward. I've never read the manual and I've been able to figure out what I need to know to use it.

Sounds range from top-notch to awful. The orchestral instruments and drums are my favorites. Pianos are OK, not spectacular. The synths are a load of rot and unusable to me -- I can't imagine why anyone would bother sampling some of these ugly and uninteresting synth sounds. The effects are very good, and Sampletank can be a decent source for wierded out sound design if you want to twist the raw material using effects. Actually I think this is probably a better ST application than using it like a GM module or something like that. All in all, it's not horrible, most if it is usable, but I think something on the order of used Roland JV unit would have been a better use of my $300 upgrade fee -- it would just sound better.

It's usable, but it's overpriced, somewhat buggy, and very spotty sound wise. I love a lot of the virtual analog VSTi's out there but nobody seems to have done a real good ROMpler emulation yet. I think it's because the Rolands and Korgs of the world invest in great sound design and that's why they can make a 32MB module sound better than this 8 Gigs of sludge.

I been playing 25 years, about 5 years using computers to make backing tracks for my band
I'm using a p4 2.2 Ghz with a gig of ram on win xp. Have Behringer truth studio monitors
I bought Sampletank 2.03xl to record backing tracks for my group in Cubase 2.01 sx

The interface is mediocre once you get the hang of it, providing you have a magnifying glass to read the text in the interface. I am simply tanking midi files I have used for years with my old Korg o5r/w and playing in sampletank, so that I can record to cd. It generally takes 2 hours per song to get an already perfectly mixed song to sound almost a good as it does on my Korg. I had been looking for a gm sound set (oh yeah, no gm sound set here) that sounded better then the old korg, and this was the recondmendation of the salesperson at Long & McQuade in Toronto. The copy protection is an outright pain in the ass. It provides a digital ID from your computer and you must authorize by email. Three authorizations is the max, so if you need to upgrade your computer to run this piece of crap, you've just lost one.

Strings are incredible, pianos are fine, pads are pathetic and I assume they've never even heard a clavinet, because the piece of crap they put in there for a clav, doesn't even come close. The rest of the sounds sound well not really as good as my $100 Korg

This thing crashes my computer constantly. I have visted a number of web sites where everyone is complaining about the same thing. I have not read a positive user review on this product, yet before I bought it I had read some pretty impressive reviews from the magazines (oh, do they get advertizing money) They've got a long way to go before I'd reconmend this crap.
I wish I could get my $700 back

-been making music for 10 years
-trip-hop, hip-hop, punk, pop, post rock, ambient, whatever
-sonar 3.0 & acid pro 4.0
-i've had sampletank 2 for several weeks
-yamaha NS-10ms

Sampletank 2 is quite simply.... STUNNING.

You HAVE to get it if you are into REAL sounds and tweakability, and effects that completely rule.

I had Sampletank 1 L, and was impressed with a few sounds here and there but version 2 and with the XL package (over 1500 patches/presets), there is a VAST
improvement.

To sum it up:

bass guitars- REAL... great, tons of variety

guitars- several suck, but a lot are really cool and usable, especially the tremolo ones and the acoustic stuff

synths- tons of variety, lots of cool atmospheres, cool leads, etc.

strings- ALL OF THEM are INCREDIBLY REALISTIC. ensembles, solo strings, slow strings.... have to be heard to be believed.

drumkits- LOTS! all of them are usable in some way. the acoustic/studio kits are PERFECT. they sound REAL. dynamics and everything. amazing.

i have to cut this review short because i'm running out the door, but this is definitely a great investment.

pros: the SOUNDS! the EFFECTS!
cons: you need at LEAST a pentium IV 1.5ghz system to have Sampletank 2 run smoothly without problems. I have a Pentium 4, 2.4ghz with 1 gigabyte of
RAM... and it runs flawlessly.

Great stuff. Highly usable sounds, all around.

singer, songwriter/guitar player for over 20 years/

it's not very difficult but i'm still trying to come to grips with the stretch. From what I understand though, is that MAC users are not getting it to work. My producer got this for me because it was suppose to be both mac and pc compatible. i could do a lot pre production arranging at home. and we could use the same session at the big protools studio. no suck luck. but as a writing tool. it's great (on pc platform). i can satisfy just about everything i can imagine, fast, when inspiration hits.

I don't love it, I f(*&^g love it. Love the drums. The strings, pianos, rhodes. and i love the effects. I can actually get decent guitar tracks, even leads.

worth it: yes
what do i love about it:near instant gratification
cpu hog:kinda - so what?
crashed:my shit never crashes
anything i wish it had:beer and a set of tits

Addendum to previous review.
(HC- Please consider posting this, I think people need to know that 1K's advertising is misleading)

Pasted reply from Sampletank Support
_______________________________________________
Mark,

Hey, ST 2 is not a full blown sampler, you cannot change loop points, etc with it. You would need to do this before importing into ST 2.

You would need to get your velocity settings correct in the file name before you import them into ST.

ST 2 is designed more as a sample player and writing tool then a full blown sampler.

If you need specific ways to import sounds please let me know.



Hope this helps
Please reply to me here:
http://www.sampletank.com/STSupport.html


My reply
_____________________________________________________________


In regards to your answer to my questions you clearly advertise this product as the "ultimate sample workstation". This, to me, implies that you can actually work on samples. A sample workstation is a hardware or software solution for *work*ing on *samples*. Working on a sample means being able to see and manipulate, to some degree, a waveform or to edit loops and loop points etc. At the very least you should be able to interactively edit keyboard mapping and velocity. Or simply turn a loop on and off. You do not describe your product as the "ultimate sample player". This is far too much money to pay for something that does not allow a person to edit a sample. It should be made very clear in your advertising that this is *not* a sample workstation and is basically a sample playback device.

-Mark

I've been making music for more years than I care to admit. I just purchased Sampletank 2 XL to plug-in to our HD Pro Tools system. I and a group of composers write music for royalty free music libraries, commercials, film and video. We are using the software on a 1.8 gig G5 running Panther.

When I bought Sampletank I assumed it was a sampler and not just a sample player. As far as I can tell you can't get under the hood (the documentation is among the worst I've seen, the page numbers in the table of contents are wrong). If someone can set me straight please do but how do you set/edit loop points? what if you want to loop the middle of a sample and trigger the end when I release the key? And velocity editing? You have to rename each and every individual sample to change the velocity range? This is ridiculous. Their documentation tells us that they've replaced a "tedious graphical interface" with this renaming of samples procedure.As far as I can tell all editing of a sample has to be done outside of the program and/or in the sample file name. I'm constantly searching or some hidden window that will let me see a waveform or simply change a loop point or loop direction.

This could all be due to my ignorance but I have read and re-read the very small users guide and cannot find anything pertaining to sample editing. If someone knows please contact me.

The library is ok. I'm ending up using it quite a bit. I pretty much agree with previous reviewer's assessment of it.
Orchestral samples are very useful and real sounding.

It is definitely not worth the full price. I chose Sampletank because I could convert a huge library of ASR-10 and Roland sounds into it. It has been very beneficial for this purpose.
It was probably my bad to assume that I could edit samples in Sampletank but it was a rather expensive mistake.
I love the stretch technology but if I can't create a performance what good is it? I feel like they just want me to purchase other designer's sounds instead of creating my own.
It has crashed many times and has gone through quite a few upgrades in the very short time I've owned it. I feel like a beta-tester.

I will now be purchasing Kontakt to actually do my sound design.

I've been making music as a spare time project for some years now; where i play guitar, piano/keyboard.
I'm using a Macintosh G5 currently with Cubase SL 2.0.
In the past a few months after I begun using the computer to make music; I found this program called SampleTank Free; and decided to order it; and I've been using it for almost a year when finally the long anticipated sampletank 2 was announced. SampleTank 1 worked really well for me; it has some subtle bugs but nothing that would normally interfer with my creation process.
So I decided to order SampleTank 2; the expectations was very high due to my experience with the previous sampletank product.
When I finally recieved the package I quickly installed it to try out all new neat features; that's where the happy side of this story ends. (I will tell more about it later)

The interface is OK; I don't have anything to complain about regarding the manual either, cause it's well written and most things are properly explained and documented.
I didn't have any major problems with the copy protections either.
I dislike the way midi events are attached to controls now though; I wish it could be handled a bit more inituive than it currently are.

To be honest; I expected more of the sound quality, some sounds are excellent in particular some orchestra samples; drums, bass and acoustic guitar samples are really good.
The rest is what you could expect of a middle class synth; and a few sounds are worse than the equvalients of a $99 toy synth.
I also gotta say even though I bought SampleTank XL (8 CDs of sample data) I think it has very few sounds; and considering the sound quality I can't see why they're so huge; I mean most proferssional synthesizers with a 32 Mb Rom has better samples in general.

Another thing I was anticipated to try out was the new S.T.R.E.T.C.H algorithm; a formant perserving pitch/time stretch algorithm. however to my big disapointment it's almost unusable; on some factory installed samples it works... but the sound quality is not at all that amazing or realistic as I thought it would be judging from the sound demos published at IK's homepage. I also tried to apply STRETCH on some of my own samples; but mostly it results in a useless instrument that randomly beeps and bops (also happens if you activate stretch on some of the provided instruments); to me STRETCH is very over advertised and not solid enough to be included in a proferssional product. and be aware STRETCH eats CPU like a kid eats candy; for polyphonic sounds I found I generally have to limit polyphony to 12 tones before the CPU gets overloaded on this G5 1.8 Ghz.

The insert effects included with sampletank are generally of really good quality; however most of them seems to consume a significant amount of CPU; but they do sound really good.

Also; some sounds don't load AT ALL; this has been comfirmed by IK Multimedia to be faulty instruments on the disk; so far no update fixing this problem been released though.

Ok now to the real flames;
This product is very very buggy; and lot of users been writing about that on the kvr-vst forum; however any negative posts gets deleted within a day or two; and so far it seems the company ignores complaints about the product, and the most common reply been "it works here; check over your setup", and sure if one or two individuals would have a problem with the product it's likely it's something user specific, but it's alot of users who reported problems and so far very few of the reported bugs been fixed afaik.

The product crashes quite often (I'm not kidding if I say it crashes about once every 15 minutes of use; especially when STRETCH is involved).
I also had alot of problems with notes gettings stuck once and then.

I'm terribly disapointed with this product; and it's DEFINATELY not worth it's price tag.
If this piece was released by some shareware developer selling it for $50 or so I wouldn't complain; but this is a product that's considered a proferssional tool; but according to me it's really not of proferssional quality.

IK Multimedia can kiss me as a customer goodbye; I waited more than 5 months for an update to fix problems with pops and clicks and dead sounds; but so far it has not been fixed; and I'm running out of patience. I didn't buy this product to beta test a new software sampler/synth plugin, but to have something to support my songs; but that's not what I got.
And obviously IK Multimedia is not interested about fixing these problems so I'm really not interested in dealing with them again. (also I agree with the previous review; if I had to play with a demo version of this software; I would not have bought it)
This product could been great if things was working ok; but it's not.
My advice is to skip this product and buy something else instead; from a company that cares about it's customers.
Personally I think I will go for a Korg Triton Studio instead; sure the price tag is alot higher but I also know I get a piece quality equipment.

Ive been making music for about 8 years now. I make anything from Heavy Metal in my band to
electronic/techno myself on my computer with my M-Audio Ozone midi keyboard, cubase or logic and
sample tank as my sampler. Sample tank can sample my own sounds and it also comes with 4.5 GB of
samples ranging from pianos, synths, guitar to loops. You can also use effects on all samples. I usually us
my midi keyboard to the computer and i connect monitors to the keyboard but when i use my DM-5 drum
module i use my MOTU fast lane midi interface with my computer.

Sample Tank is great!! It comes with 4.5 GB if sample ready to use which are excellent samples too. From
acoustic drums to ethnic instruments you have it all. on top of that you can import more samples and even
create your own. For the price it's great, i compared sample tank to HALion and Mach 5 but neither of them
had nearly a good library as sample tank does and you can do in sample tank what you can do in the other
programs too.

computer : Pentium IV 2.8 mhz 1 gig ram ASUS P4P800 DLX ... SOUND CARD M-AUDIO FIREWIRE 410 ...
sONAR 2.0 DAW ... AND YESTERDAY ''''''''SAMPLESTANK'''''

MY MUSIC IS SOUP TO NUTS OR WHATEVER THE UNIVERSE PUTS PAST MY MINDS EYE CLAIRE AUDIENTLY

Well guess its 'easy to use' enough. And of course did the hoop jumping of all the 'REGISTERING'
I installed it and then realized this is a plug-in not a stand alone... so i wondered where my icon was. This is my first attemp at plug ins. What did i know. Well in Canada i paid $505 plust 15% tax.
I get it home and I was just so happy cause i read the GOOD reviews on IK's site. I mean come on. endorsed by Rick Wakeman himself... that was good enough for me. THEN THE NIGHMARE STARTED.... OH YES KIDS..... A NIGHTMARE... (read on)

Well... i downloaded disk after disk after disk. and got sicker and sicker and sicker inside. You know 'that moment' when you know you got TAKEN? Here's what i experienced (now keep in mind i saved for months for this 'thing'. After i finally got the AUTHORIZATION CODE i fired it up and this is what happened. It wouldnt play in more than 4 notes polyphony.. and the more i played chords the more it sounded like a duo-phonic trying to decide which notes to play... then.... MIDI STUCK NOTES GALORE...ever patch got a stuck note. Some patches wouldnt even play... or start to play then fade then a POP SOUND..... then S I L E N C E !! Then aliasing sounds everywhere... uneven tempering....id call up a patch and a window kept popping up saying PERFORMING PRE ANALYSIS...... what the $#@! is that? Many patches went into pre analysis and never went out of it. Lots of the patches have 'breathing' aliasing.... i just about died.... THIS WAS A WORLD CLASS AWARD WINNING SOFT SYNTH SAMPLER.And when i played some chords over and over it went into a kinda RANDOM note generator..... (feeling even more sick now) I had downloaded DEMOS of Moog Modular V and CS80V and they played full polyphony JUST FINE. and also other 'demos' of NATIVE INTRUMENTS STUFF...

Now... lets see SOUNDS. Well the orchestral stuff wasnt too too bad.... some real nice smooth rosin on the bow stuff etc.
GUITARS.... OMG..... HELP ME, IM PAYING FOR THIS CRAP?
DRUMS .... GOOD....
Loops of ethnic stuff etc.... very nice pleased
Synth? omg.... SHAMEFUL SIMPLY SHAMEFUL.. i WAS HOPING this is where it would shine... what GARBAGE !!

vOCALS .. some nice synthy smooth oohs and ahhs but nothing earth shattering... useable indeed

organs...... NO THANKS.. GIMME native instruments
percussion is rather well done
piano's 'useable'
woodwinds PASSABLE
brass is very uninspiring
synth leads..... gimme a break sounds like a cheap kiddy toys.

SO FAR IM JUST SICK TO MY STOMACHE.. i really had high high hopes..... i knew i shoulda listened to my instincts and got 'the other guys'' I traded in a proteus keyboard and a brand new feedback destoyer and 145 dollars on top of this for 8 disks of mediocre disapointment. I couldnt sleep all night. Now i guess im STUCK with a NON returnable peice of crap. I may just mail it back to IK Multimedia and they can resell it to some other sucker. I asked the stores i bought it from to get a copy from IK so i could demo it first.... but they said the company wouldnt send one. Now i know why.
They dont want you to know and just take the word from the ENDORSERS.
If they 'really' endorsed them or not I dont know. its just print.
BEWARE YOU HARD EARNED DOLLARS KIDS.... go the OTHER ROUTE... 'ANY' OTHER ROUTE. iM on a small disabilty and i saved a long time and got burned..... CAVEAT EMPTOR !! NEVER AGAIN 'IK' NEVER AGAIN ! eNJOY MY MONEY.......

I'm a musician/producer, playing bass, Chapman Stick? and various keyboards.

I bought SampleTank2 XL and downloaded the lateste upgrade (Version 2.02r)

I use the plugin with ProTools V 5.3 (MACOS 9.2 - G4 computer - 750 MB RAM) on a full ProTools HD 192 system.

The music I make might be categorized as perverted hip-hopized french "chanson".

I uste Quested VS2205 active monitors with a Quested active subwoofer.

The interface is VERY scattered. Too many things that don't work!

The copy protection scheme is a pain in the neck. Specially when you try to register with a french computer keyboard. You run into mucho trouble if you type info in. The only way to register is copying and pasting. It's cumbersome.

Yes, yes, the manual says there's midi automation but since basic functions don't work, I'm not gonna dig into this.

The sounds are quite OK when they play.

The manual is terrible.

The sounds are quite OK when they play. You can tweak them until your system crashes (after a few minutes).

It is NOT worth the price tag!

This not a professional product. It interferes with the creative process. I cannot work with it. I will forget it and not even try to resell it. I have enough compassion for my human fellows to spare them such annoyance.

This thing is crashing al the time.

I wish it worked!