Sampletank 3 Overview, A legacy reborn.

Thanks for the compliment! We are excited about it too!

I just found two more videos about ST3.  The first is Jordan Rudess showing a few presets; the second is Stephan Deriau-Reine with a fretless bass preset.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeYaHx-lkHE
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08k2bOmzxWk
 

Leaving the endless delays in the release and business model issues aside.
 
IK have said "Its all about the content" and its becoming clear that the content is their primary focus.
 
The "Reborn" video did not impress me but sounds being auditioned in the other two videos are rather good. Trouble is I already have a lot of really nice pianos, basses and guitars in my collection of Kontakt instruments.
 
The organ Jordan Rudess demonstrates sounds nice, but it appears there is no drawbar control like Native Instruments Vintage Organs and some of the modeled products such as VB3. Fine I guess for the person that casually wants "organ sounds" but I want to be able to tweak and automate the drawbars so that sort of patch is worthless to me. Will the guitars have a strum engine? I doubt it.
 
If I want to use Amplitube, CSR or T-Racks on them I can do that in Sonar's mixer, so having the effects built in is not a big advantage to me. I rarley use Kontakt's (or Toontrack's or FXpansions) built in effects much prefering manage effects in Sonar.
 
The loops will be of little value to me. The midi may be of some use if you can drag it into a track on the DAW, but less so if it just works inside ST3.
 
I think ST3 will be a good product if you are in need of a bread and butter library and do not need the more complex features of Kontakt. For those of us that already have extensive Kontakt libraries and are used to scripted control ove the instruments it may be hard to justify the upgrade cost.
 
There seems to be hints that there will be third party content available which could make it more desirable.
 
 

Glyn
Think you said more or less exactly what I thought once I watched the video - I mean Jordan Rudess!!! Is there ANY instrument / product this man hasn't endorsed!!
I have Kontakt but more importantly for me, Mach 5. From what I've seen of SampleTank 3, if they ever release it, it will not compete with either of these products - all I ever wanted was 64 bit and a better GUI - all the other stuff they seem to have done is inconsequential for most people now. Perhaps not first time buyers, but I wonder how many of these would jump for sample tank 3 over well established market leaders such as Kontakt??
Say they had done this when they should of about 5 years ago, well that would be a different story.
For me, I will wait and  see what upgrade options there are - the more I read and see about SampleTank3, the cheaper I feel the upgrade will have to be for me to even think about buying it.
Otherwise I shall stay with my current set up, which is very stable now and will remain so as I have it set up on an old 32 bit machine and link it to my main 64 bit machine.
I have also started to consciously think (and remember) how many times I use my SampleTank.
To be honest, it's less and less - I use the Mellotron stuff and some of the third party stuff I have, occasionally Moog synth etc, but really, first port of call for me is always now Mach 5, then Kontakt.
Nigel

JohnKenn
 
Got a keyboard channel to do. Where is the go to app you migrate towards. 

For sampled parts Kontakt is my goto, followed by Independence Pro, the Dimension Pro, and the Sampletank.
 
For synths I will tend to use emulations such as Minimonsta, Arturia V collection, Korg Monopoly & M1, Z3ta, Pentagon, XILS3 LT, Massive and Reaktor before turning to a sampler, the exception being some the Hollowsun and Hidaway Studios stuff.

lol, Don't give IK any ideas about the multi-touch icons. They may decide that it would put it over the top, then it would take another ??? years before it gets released...
 
Couple of days ago I saw on their Facebook page they were polling people about IF there were just an ST3 engine available, without the st3 library, how much would they pay for it. Around 50+ responded anywhere from nothing(most) to $99. Will be interesting to see where this goes. Kinda makes you wonder if the hold-up is that the entire library is not finished yet.

cclarry

The Kontakt Player is FREE...
 

Yes, it's free but it's really not free.  Kontakt sound developers have to choose between making their offerings compatible with Kontakt free player or not.  For the former, they pay NI a king's ransom for the privilege and then pass those costs on to the customer.  For the latter, the developers can charge much less but the customers must own the full version of Kontakt.  Sonicouture is an example of the former.  Hollow Sun and Hideaway Studios of the latter.  Check out the huge difference in prices.
 
I don't know the details of NI's contractual agreement with developers but it would appear that they do not allow for the developer to offer dual versions at different prices, one for which they've passed the cost through to the customer and a cheaper one for customers who've already paid NI money for their own full Kontakt license.  This seems very short-sighted on NI's part IMO.  Developers get screwed because they must forcibly choose one market segment while shutting out the other.  Customers (at least Kontakt owners) get screwed because there are fewer low-cost libraries to choose from.  Ultimately I think NI screws itself by discouraging more Kontakt sales as a result.

cclarry
Again they would shoot themselves in the foot 
if they charged for it...

The Kontakt Player is FREE...
Alchemy Player...FREE
Reaktor Player...FREE
Elastik Player...FREE
Guitar Rig Player...FREE
Every sample "Player" is free
 
So, if they DON'T release a player...EPIC FAIL
If they DO release a Player and charge for it...EPIC FAIL
 
ST 3 at $300 ...EPIC FAIL
ST 3 Upgrade at $149 (or even $99)...EPIC FAIL
(personally, if anyone buys this after the way IK handled the 
 last version...they need their heads examined...and THEY WILL and DO)

However, IK knows that GAS will take over and everyone will have to have it...


GOTTA HAVE...CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT....HE HAS IT SO I HAVE TO HAVE IT TOO...

Just shoot me...

UVI workstation ....

bigcat
From the perspective of a 'freebie instrument maker', I'm very curious to see what approach IK takes to 3rd party developers. I really think that it is the plethora of 3rd party instruments that drives Kontakt. Even in the freebie world K5 is basically the musical instrument equivalent of Windows 7. You have to release for it or you would loose a vast portion of your audience. You would think that since Kontakt costs some good coin and is more pro that you wouldn't get as many folks interested in freebies, but when I've released multi formats, Kontakt 5 always comes out on top significantly.  Free Maize VSTi is next, but likely would be higher if I bought the full version and released better VSTis. Then SFZ which has a solid following and finally Sampletank 2.5 Of course, ST 2.5 is long at the tooth and some folks are gratified to find something new for it, but it just feels like IK never got their foot in the door with 3rd party guys.

If you contact us directly at http://www.ikmultimedia.com/contact-us/ContactIKForm.php you will be routed to whoever can help you with any 3rd party requests, info, etc.  Thanks.

bigcat
Oh thanks was not really expecting a response.
I sent off a little message, look forward to hearing from your company.

I was asked about it so it has been received and the Project Manager is aware.  Thanks for your interest.

IK are tweeting they are going to have a "really big" newsletter coming soon. There is even a pixelated picture of the said news letter.
 
Mind you soon seems to have a different meaning at IK and we have seen plenty of pictures.

<YAWN>