Have you ever wanted to have a specific set of sounds at all times?

Maybe you have a favorite old school synth that you love, but you just don’t love carrying it around.

Or you like everything software has to offer, but you haven’t found anything to replace your favorite string patch from that roland xv 5080!

The answer is sampling the sound…but really, who wants to spend the time to do all that? Sample all the notes, trigger them one by one, etc…

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.

Luckily for us there’s SampleRobot!

What is SampleRobot?

It’s basically your personal software, hardware, acoustic instrument cloning, recycling, re-mangling, ninja sound design system.

It will automate the process of cloning ANY instrument that can receive midi, and will even help automate sampling and instrument creation of acoustic instruments.

It can export them in various popular formats like Reason’s nnxt, or Cakewalk Dimension format, Wusik format, or Emulator X, Kontakt, EXS, you get the idea.

It’s a simple way to automate the creation of your own custom virtual sound library made up of any instrument you have laying around, or your friend has laying around, or your friend’s cousin’s uncle Steve has tucked away in his Ghostbuster van!

You get the idea!

So is it easy to use and does it give good results?

I don’t wanna sound like the infomercial dude but it’s really “set it and forget it” lol.

It’s VERY deep, you can do multi layers, automatic sound looping and crossfades for perfectly playable instruments.

You can send all the attack parameters, midi cc, program changes, or anything else you need to make sure you capture every subtle characteristic of your favorite sound.

In my tests, the auto-loop and crossfade was spot on! Very seamless and I couldn’t even tell where it looped.

It can record up to 192kHz at 24 bit dependent on your interface.

Has a very nice built in wave editor, and a ton of presets for common projects like sampling bass, piano, synth, rhythms, pads, etc.

This will give you various options, and tell you how much space it’s going to take!

So what’s the bottom line?

You know I REALLY wish I could have tested this out when I had my hardware, but you know me, I look for various uses!

Even if you don’t have hardware I can see using this to create your own instruments, since you can drag any wave/samples into it.

But also, if you have some cpu hungry plugins, you can sample your favorite sounds and load them as samples into your favorite sampler, making them much lighter on the cpu.

If you have a monster computer in your studio, but your mobile rig is a little less powerful, you could clone your favorite plugin sounds for use on the laptop.

Clone your keyboards, your synths, your drums, sample acoustic guitars, make your own custom library.

I really was impressed with how easy it was, because when I first opened it, it really didn’t look so simple, but it is.

If you’ve ever wanted to clone, combine, create, or make your favorite sounds portable then definitely check this one out.

I first heard about SampleRobot many years ago, me and a bunch of friends where going to sample each others keyboards, synths, etc….

Things happened, we never got around to it, and now most of us have sold all of our hardware!

That’s okay though, this software is flexible enough to be used in many different ways.

There are many flavors of the program, the full featured version is $419 while the essential version is $159.  Depending on what features you need, will determine which one you go with.

Check it out if this is your type of thing. http://samplerobot.com/index.php

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

Big Fish Friday…on a Saturday?

I know it’s late! But it’s still Friday where I’m at while writing this! How long the video will take to upload is a different story!

I had some crazy stuff going on today (Friday)…but I couldn’t leave ya hangin!

Technical difficulties…but I still got it done…the video took forever to export/render for some reason. The review and video was done on Friday, but everything with the video export and upload didn’t finish until after 12 midnight lol. I still had to post it!

Anyway…today we aren’t looking at a sample library, per se…. it’s a sample based workstation instrument that big fish sent me!

What is VI One?

Well just think of your fantom, motif, triton, kurzweil, etc.. and all around work horse of an instrument with sounds covering every different instrument type from pianos and orchestra to drums and synths.

This collection comes in the popular kontakt player format…so you don’t need the full version of Kontakt to play it.

The Kontakt player can be loaded as a plugin in your favorite host.  Of course if you have the full version of Kontakt then this library will show up.

according to the site:

Far more than just a sound library; consider this a major studio upgrade.

Vir2 Instruments’ VI.ONE is a massive multi-disc sample library encompassing over two thousand instruments, kits, and other sound effects, and is designed to be of maximum usability to musicians across a wide span of genres.

What’s in VI One?

Everything! lol..like I said this is basically your all in one rack module.

If you’re just getting into virtual instruments this is a great place to start because you get tons of sounds.  If you have a lot of specialty instruments but need a general bread and butter workhorse this is your instrument as well.

It’s great

How does it sound?

Vir2 is a division of Big Fish Audio, so you know the quality is where it needs to be. I am really a fan of the Vir2 instruments, they are easy to use and a very high quality.

Multiple velocity layers and nice fx are a good touch.  The recordings are done right so everything sounds tight with no weird artifacts.

How about the value?

I think it’s a great value… this instrument drops in at 199, pretty normal for a virtual instrument.   Folks like me that come from the school of $1000+ instruments welcome a plugin like this with arms wide open.

The amount of sounds you get for the price is incredible..and it’s not like a collection of loops and riffs…these are sounds that will remain useful forever, synths, pianos, bass, horns, strings…that stuff doesn’t get old, or you can’t “overuse” it.

What’s the bottom line?

I don’t really give a sub rating on virtual instruments…I just tell weather or not I like it.

If I put it on the site and take the time to give you information on it, then you can pretty much bet that I highly suggest the plugin.

This is a must have, 5 star plugin… if I had to rate it with subs it would definitely be a 5 out of 5 and would be on my “must have” plugin list.

If you need a good collection of quality instruments that can last you a long time, and give you a great alternative to all those thousand dollar rack modules you keep buying…look no further.

Vir2 Instruments’ VI One is that workstation… cuz I said so!

Every once in a while you can catch it on sale at places like musiciansfriend for 99 bucks… either what it goes, it’s a great workstation to have.

let me know what you think about it. Leave me a comment below