So I was working on a song, things were going great and decided that I could maybe use a patch from Sampletank. That was the end of my evening of creativity.
 
For no apparent reason, Sampletank crashed my DAW. It was working fine the last time I'd used it. As for the rest, my DAW is a dedicated machine with only the strict essential on it, and I usually steer clear of updates. I do my best to avoid creating conditions which can cause problems like this.
 
Anyway, as I've learned from experience, ST will crash the host if it can't locate the sample library - which in my case shouldn't really happen because my sample library has not moved since I first installed ST. And yet, it is not the first time that I have to go through the tedious process of re-pointing ST to the directory and watch it take its sweet time to rebuild the library...
 
In order to do that, the solution is usually to open ST in standalone mode. However, that didn't work tonight. It crashed immediately. So I switched to my laptop and verified on IK's website and saw that there was indeed an update.
 
Reluctantly, I enabled internet on my DAW and downloaded the update. Installed it. Launched ST in standalone mode and went to feed the cats while it was rebuilding the library yet again...
 
The good news is that ST no longer crashes Logic. The bad news is that I lost another 10 minutes trying to figure out why I couldn't play it with my MIDI controller. I could "play" it with the mouse and the GUI's keyboard, but that's it. Yet, my controller definitely works, as I could control other instruments.
 
That's when I noticed that whenever I pushed a key on my controller, the channel number 8 on ST's interface blinked. As it turns out, for a reason unknown to me, the newly updated Sampletank suddenly communicates with my controller on channel 8.
 
At that point, I simply gave up troubleshooting. My job is to write music, not to waste my time trying to figure out why some lousy piece of software repeatedly hijack my creativity.

On the other hand, I may just have saved some money - it had been a while since I'd checked IK's web site and I saw some cool things - upgrading Miroslav could have been an option at that point. Not anymore I'm afraid.

Rain I couldn't tell you how many times I have been disrupted during getting an idea down by software BS.
 
Yes, I lost the idea. I mean I knew the chords, but the feel just wasn't what I remembered it was when I was trying to get it down.
 
And like you, I keep my music PC with just what I need to make music. And I have found that this does limit my exposure to these "disruptive/hijacking" episodes.
 
Still, it happens too often.
 

Of course that might be the case against Sampletank rather than third party software. The VST3 version of ST3 bluescreens of death for me regularly. On other hand Pianoteq loads lightning fast for me and is rock solid.

Larry?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(J/K )

I'll sub for Larry on this one...
 
ST3 was the biggest letdown of any product I've ever purchased. That came as a surprise, too, because ST2.5 had been an indispensable workhorse for so long. That's where I'd go first if I needed something out of the ordinary such as a hurdy-gurdy or a sitar. They weren't the greatest samples, but the breadth of instruments was impressive. Miroslav was a favorite.
 
But I never got ST2 to work under a 64-bit O/S, so when ST3 came along it was the proverbial "no brainer". Lesson learned: don't put your brain on standby just because a deal sounds good. Don't be the first on your block to buy a new product, wait for reviews from real users.
 
ST3 imports the old libraries, so I thought of it as a paid 64-bit upgrade. But it had far fewer instruments than ST2 had had. Worse, some of the Miroslav instruments did not import, and the ones that did didn't sound like they used to. I have no idea why that might be, but I stopped using Miroslav as a consequence. When I eventually rebuild my DAW, I may not even bother reinstalling it.
 
No complaints about other IKM products, though. The Fairchild 670 is quite good.

I think it depends on the music you make. There are pros and cons to everything you do. If you limit yourself to the sounds you have inside the DAW already, you're limiting yourself to, in my opinion, rubbish. I'm of the opinion that companies who make the DAW should stick to making the DAW and the control functionality inside it and leave the sounds and processing to the companies that do it best.
 
That said, sometimes there are stability issues with certain companies. Plus, you have these meanies like @cclarry that constantly post these amazing deals on plugins which, of course, we all buy then spend hours of time going through them and learning them which kills all productivity. ;)
 
If you mainly record live instruments, it's not as big an issue but myself... a lot of what I do is sampled and I want the best quality I can find.

Sampletank 3's VST3 seems to have a lot of problems with Sonar, problems the VST2 version doesn't seem to have.  I finally gave up and just removed the VST3 version from Program Files and I'm only using the VST2 version.

msorrels
 
Sampletank 3's VST3 seems to have a lot of problems with Sonar, problems the VST2 version doesn't seem to have.  I finally gave up and just removed the VST3 version from Program Files and I'm only using the VST2 version.

 
What is the drawbacks of not using the Vst3 version?
 
 

I don't believe there are any feature differences, at least not with Sonar.  Perhaps vstpreset load/save support?  Not sure, never bothered with that.
 
Some versions of Sonar and some versions of Sampletank's VST3 were better than others (over the last year).  The most recent versions of both (2016.04 and Sampletank 3.6.5) right now started crashing more often than ever.  Crashes the VST2 version doesn't seem to have.  The callstack on the crashes were all Sampletank but getting IK to look at or fix something is a futile quest.

msorrels
 
...but getting IK to look at or fix something is a futile quest.

Thanks for the info.
 
Getting them to do anything about ST3 is a crap shoot at best!! I think they have it in for us SPlat users cause of the company we keep!! LOL : )