IK Multimedia SampleTank 2L VST PC

I'm a professional musician and songwriter. I've been using computers, MIDI, and more to create full production scratch demos at home for many years. I write everything from country to rock and folk so I go a lot of places to find the rythm loops and sounds I need. I'm using a Dell laptop currently with Mackie Onyx inputs for audio and M-Audio MIDI devices. KRK monitors provide audio output.

Completely confusing. They included every single function the application can posibly perform on one jumbled screen. As a result, it's imposible to figure out. Thankfully it comes with no obvious user manual, help button, or even a button with a question mark on it. There's no way to learn what all the buttons do. I'd love to use the loops, but I need more than a button that says "loop" on it and does nothing but light up when it's pushed. This is the most poorly designed application I've seen in a long time.

Sounds like every other midi driven WAV player on the market, so why would I fight to use a bad application when there are so many good ones out there?

They have to be insane to think this garbage is worth that much money!

I'm a hobbyist composer/producer. I've been into music-making since early 1990s, my primary field being electronic music (drum'n'bass, in particular). My DAW is a Core2Duo-based PC running WinXP and Cubase SE3 as the main production tool.
The plugin is SampleTank L version 2.2.

Complex interfaces put me off, and the reason why I went for SampleTank rather than for Kontakt was that its interface is really straightforward. I knew how to work with ST within minutes. However, I must admit the letters are a bit smallish, especially in a 1600x1200 resolution, so I guess some people may complain about the interface not being very ergonomic. It definitely helps to use a more contrasting colour setting than the default one.
I had little need to dive deep into the printed manual (which is, by the way, fairly well written and contains lots of pictures).
The installation was trouble-free.

ST is fully multitimbral, with 16 layerable parts, which can be routed to 16 independent output channels for mixing and/or further processing. Polyphony is fairly generous (256 notes).
I haven't gone through all the sound categories included with ST because I'm interested in certain sounds only (mainly basses, synths and loops). Some of these are hot, some are not :-) I also have a couple of ExpansionTank and Sonic Capsule libraries, which give me a plenty of quality material to work with and build upon. I like what I've got.
However, compared to other samplers, the choice of sounds on the market is very limited. ST uses a pretty much closed fileformat so major sound developers (Big Fish Audio, eLab, ModernBeats etc.) do not produce sounds for ST. Actually, it seems that the only professional developer to currently offer ST sounds is Sonic Reality. They say everyone is free to develop for ST but they are the only ones to have the appropriate tools! Can anyone say "monopoly"?
Editing sounds is limited in a way: you can use envelopes, LFOs, filters and the built-in DSP effects (some of which are nice; I often use the amp simulation and distortion FX for my basses). You can sync loops to tempo but both the pitchshift/timestretch and the STRETCH engines are a major disappointment, producing artifacts and not being very accurate (compared to, for example, Ableton Live's timestretching algorithm).
Once you load/import an instrument, you cannot edit velocity layers, change loop points or remap samples. You cannot load a loop and play the individual segments: you must cut the loop up in a wave editor and import the segments separately, mapping them to different keys.

Was it worth the price? Yes, and no. First, SampleTank 2 is a very nice tool to work with. It is addictive in a way I cannot describe. It lets me sketch my tracks quickly and easily: I can often compose a track having just SampleTank and Battery in the VST instrument rack. Unless you load up the FX slots with the built-in DSP effects or waste polyphony, it is very light on the CPU. After being used and misused for three months it appears to be very stable and reliable.
On the other hand, I am very disappointed by IK Multimedia's marketing policy. For one thing, SampleTank is anything but an "ultimate sample workstation" as they advertise it. It is a very, very sophisticated sample player but that's where it ends. You also have to take their claims about "availability" and "expandability" of sounds with a pinch of salt: in reality, you are stuck with less than 30 sound libraries, some of which have already become rather long in the tooth.
The import capabilities are very limited, designing your own instruments is tedious and unintuitive so there's little chance you'll make do with DIY as far as new sounds are concerned.
So all in all: yes, I like it, I consider it money well spent, but I'd give it a better rating if IK stepped up and made SampleTank what they claim it to be.

I'm a hobby musician, mostly singing and playing the guitar, and doing some home recording. I have discovered the possibilities of modern samplers and sample libraries just half a year ago. In most cases, I'm not into sound shaping, but I rather try to get small bands of virtual players. I am happy with a library when it sounds very natural, including the emotional power which real musicians can put into their works.

I'm mostly playing high-brow traditional folk music, or pieces from musicals.

The SampleTank 2L software is identical with SampleTank 2 XL, except for the sounds (XL has twice as many). I use the software's most recent version, which is currently 2.0.6. My sequencer is Tracktion.

I have a WinXP Centrino 1.5GHz notebook with 1GB of main memory. Sound hardware is a Tascam US-122 soundcard, and Sennheiser HD 200 headphones.

The user interface is a mess. In some important cases you have to hit very small icons with the mouse to get your work done. The design is not consistent. Keyboard control is not possible.

Under normal circumstances, I would label such a user interface 'pretty bad'. Since that is my judgment on most available music software, however, I rather rate it 'average'.

The manual of the software is good. The sounds seem to be completely undocumented, though, which is a pain, especially on the large percussion libraries.

I bought this software because I got an opportunity to get it cheap, and because I thought from all the STRETCH hype that it contained natural-sounding instruments. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

SampleTank is clearly addressed to electronical musicians. You get lots of bass, guitars (mostly electric), percussion, and synth. Unfortunately, I cannot judge the quality of those sounds.

The quality of the sounds which I /can/ judge is very bad. Most of it sounds artificial and electronic. STRETCH is nice where it works, but on most sounds, it doesn't work and produces extremely loud artifacts instead. I've communicated with IK Multimedia about this, and it appears that this is not a bug, but working as intended. To judge for yourself, I recommend downloading SampleTank 2 Free and the 'Ooh Baby' sound from IK's website. Play this with STRETCH a few tones around the root key and observe how the 'Ooh' is distorted, compared to the 'Baby'. This is the wekest form of those artifacts - on many other sounds, the artifacts will be much louder than the sounds themselves.

Voices and woodwinds are in my opinion completely worthless. The accordeons are very nice, but there's almost nothing else in the ethnic section. There are a few good strings (both solo and section) and acoustic guitars, and acceptable pianos. Two of the saxophones sound nice (but not really like saxophones). Everything else (with very few singular exceptions) sounds either electronic or distorted. This is probably intended: most of the presets have lots of reverb and delay activated.

I got the product for 1/3 of the list price, but I still feel I paid a bit more than it's worth. I also own Plugsound Vol.6 and NI Kompakt, and I feel that Plugsound is actually the best of the three (even though it is the lowest suggested retail price), and that SampleTank 2L is the worst of them.

Things could change if SampleTank had a better STRETCH algorithm, and generally less bugs. SampleTank has crashed several times on my system (even causing BlueScreens, but for that Tascam's to blame), and loop sync does not work reliably. If these issues are addressed, SampleTank 2L might become worthy of the 99 Euro I paid.

Also, things could be different for you if you are into sound shaping and electronical music. But if you love natural sounds of real instruments, SampleTank will not make you happy.