Okay, I will admit I had dismissed this little groove making application from IK Multimedia.

For one, it was only available for an iphone/ipod and though I had plans to purchase an iPod touch specifically to test and use the various music applications, I don’t have one yet.  I could “borrow” my son’s but you know…that aint my style.

This is where events and shows like NAMM are important, because had I not been there, I never would have had a chance to spend some hands on time at the IK Multimedia booth.

No time at the booth means….I’d still be dismissing GrooveMaker as a “toy to pass the time with”.

Honestly, I was quite amazed at it.  Let me tell you why

First off, there’s a basic GrooveMaker system, but each “style” comes as it’s own application. Reggae, Drum n Bass, Hip Hop, Reggaton, Electro, etc. Heck there’s even a free version.

Second, you get tons of content in these apps, something between 120mb – 300mb of sounds in each pack. We aint talking about cheap, cheesy sounds either. You get bass, drums, synths, pads, etc.

Everything is synched to the tempo so you can mix and match whatever you want at any tempo. You also get control over the mix, yes, there is a mixer section so you can tweak it how you want. Control the pan, pitch, etc…of each sound.

There are 8 slots for sounds, so you basically get to mix 8 loops or riffs together at once. After you create different grooves (think patterns) you can go into song sequence mode to string them together into songs.

After you’re done you can export them! Full wave file, which are rendered on IK servers….you then get a link sent to you for downloading your files.

This made my eyes light up, all I could think about was creating samples out of the included loops while away from my gear…then downloading them once I get back, chopping them up, and making music.

Having access to various styles of music will allow a person to create tons of customized samples…at least that’s how I would use it. But there’s nothing to say you can use it to make a full track in.

With the announcement of the iPad, I’m even more excited to get my hands on this and really test it. I will definitely be purchasing an iPad, as it’s got a larger screen/surface and still runs the same iPhone apps.

Of course I’ll have a video for ya when I get it, but def wanted to let you know to check it out…I think it’s a pretty dope way to come up with some nice sample material.

Check it out, I basically look at is as a sample pack, that comes with it’s own app for quickly mashing stuff up. Starting at $4.99….definitely another sound source to look into! GrooveMaker.com

Definitely look for more to come on this app, as soon as I get it….I’m posting a video lol.

What you think?

First Impressions…

The first thing I notice about SampleTank 2.5 XL is the layout. I think they were one of the first ever
“virtual workstations” and they make it easy to layer or use multiple sounds.

You get 16 instrument slots right on the front panel.

Another thing that is pretty slick about the layout is that you get 5 insert fx on each instrument! I
think that is amazing and it’s only limited by your cpu.

Browsing samples, importing samples, and all other system options are handled easily from the front panel, making it very quick to get in and get working.

Quick Specs:

• Content: 2036 sounds 6.43gb of data , 33 dsp multi- fx
• Format: Standalone, vst, rtas, audio units
• Price: $399

The instrument layout:

In the left side of the screen where all 16 layers or instrument channels reside, you also get quick overview of the mixer section. You can see the volume levels, pan, which output the sound is going to, as well as the polyphony setting.

You can easily lower polyphony to save cpu cycles. It also shows you exactly how much memory each instrument is taking up, as well as gives you a quick button to empty that channel. You have solo and mute too.

Changing settings is as easy as clicking on the value and moving your mouse up or down.

The sampling engine:

You get three types of sample playback, re sample, pitch shift/tempo shift, and stretch. The re sample is the basic playback of most samplers, pitch shift and tempo shift are also pretty self explanatory.

The stretch engine is pretty unique, you can manipulate the pitch, tempo, and timbre of a sample or instrument independent of each other…it can get pretty freaky.

There’s also the standard filter, envelope and lfo settings.

The sound browser:

If there is one thing I don’t really care for, it’s the sound browser. Being the first to do something usually means you get piggybacked by a lot of others, and SampleTank 2.5 XL set the standard for software workstations.

unfortunately they haven’t updated that standard the browser shows it, it’s very cumbersome in my opinion. You have a basic top level folder for each sound category, which then opens a tree for the instruments in that category. However, some of the instruments have a default sound, as well as a tree beneath them which holds other presets!

This tree in a tree browsing sucks big time…it’s definitely not as quick as native instruments characteristic driven sound browser or many other companies like arturia.

Left to right browsing is definitely becoming the preferred way to browse for sounds in software, each move to the right should bring you closer to what you need, allowing you to narrow down the further right you go.

Main category on the far left, then individual instruments, then the presets to load…much faster than opening and closing a tree of folders.

Cpu resources and loading the sounds:

I really like how fast most of the instruments load in SampleTank 2.5 XL, especially compared to the slow loading instrument sin Kontakt. It’s very cpu friendly and allows you to work by quickly scrolling through sounds.

You can also assign midi numbers to the previous, next, and load buttons for browsing sounds directly from your midi controller.

You can import some sample formats like akai s1000-3000 and some sample cell stuff, but it definitely doesn’t import all the files that kontakt does, it can’t even import my z4/mpc 4k files…

How does it sound?

The sounds are good, remind me of a hardware workstation, many are drenched in fx but that’s okay because the fx are actually pretty good.

You have pretty much everything covered from acoustic to synth and drums. I just wish the browser was more user friendly because there are a lot of sounds here.

Some may say the sounds are dated, but I never can agree with that, unless it’s a very genre specific module, I don’t see how a sound can be dated…it’s all about how you use the sound. How can a piano be dated?

What about strings, brass, guitar, woodwinds, bass and flutes? I don’t think so!

That said, Sample Tank 2.5 XL has been riding this wave for many years and I think it’s about time for a rehaul, I’m confident they’ve made some advances in sampling as well as synthesis and fx processing, so I’m looking forward to the next workstation.

I also like the fact that it can load all the “powered by SampleTank” instruments like Miroslav, SampleMoog and SampleTron.

Since those are a bit newer than the SampleTank 2.5 XL library, I’m definitely looking forward to bringing you a review of those instruments.

The bottom line, is it a good workstation?

I love this instrument, the quickness with which it loads paired with the quality of the sounds is good enough for most production work. Even if you use it as a sketch pad to flesh out ideas quickly, then come back to replace sounds later.

it’s like anything else, it’s all a preference, and I love alot of options, SampleTank 2.5 XL has a good sound, plenty of fx options, and other tweak-ability to allow you to get in a make music.

the interface for loading and managing a multitimbral setup is very easy, though the sound browser is not very good in my opinion.

I also hate the fact that you can’t resize the window, those of us with larger screens may find the small window size useless, especially when you start getting into the 30″ screens and high screen resolution.

I can’t say for sure, but I have a feeling we’ll see IK come through with the next version of SampleTank and it will once again set a standard for sofware workstations.

go check out the demo at ikmultimedia.com, tell em I sent ya.

peep the crazy sale at ZZounds.com all 4 of their workstations for $349 plus they have the 4 payment plan going IK Total Workstation Sale