I'm not upgrading to sampletank 3 simply because the audio demos I have heard on IK ST3 website sound.......
 
horrible to me.
 
The Choir sound sample sounds hideous.
 
The act of importing ALL ST 2.0/2.5 sampletank libraries into ST3 and setting that all up sounds tedious just to get them to play in a 64bit environment and engine.
 
I am going to wait for the GAS buyers and wait and see what people have to say about the ST3 once it is out.

I have utmost respect for Jordan Rudess and I personally owe him and his people a lot (for letting me use Grand Illusion to demo City Piano). However in this case I thought that it was Stephan Deriau-Reine rather than Jordan Rudess that really made the ST3 piano shine. This is the demo that got me excited about ST3.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEg81_PhKqU

Glyn Barnes

BassDaddy
There will be a moment of silence Thursday at Native Instruments I would think.

I don't think NI will be loosing much sleep. IK seem to have made a decision to go after a different market and not compete directly with Kontakt or Reaktor. The only head to head competion is between Guitar Rig and Amplitube.

The silence would only be for the end of the era. When I went 64 bit I went looking in other places. The main one was NI. If anything NI is competing against T-Racks with the new effects of the last few years. I do wish NI would take the effects like Reflektor and Traktors 12 out of Guitar Rig though.

BassDaddy
I do wish NI would take the effects like Reflektor and Traktors 12 out of Guitar Rig though.

That used to annoy me too but I've gotten used to it and in fact appreciate the benefits of it now. There are some fantastic tools inside of Guitar Rig for modulating effects with envelopes and LFO's and I use them all the time.

sharke

BassDaddy
I do wish NI would take the effects like Reflektor and Traktors 12 out of Guitar Rig though.

That used to annoy me too but I've gotten used to it and in fact appreciate the benefits of it now. There are some fantastic tools inside of Guitar Rig for modulating effects with envelopes and LFO's and I use them all the time.

That is true.  Additionally, making a track template for Reflektor is almost as quick as inserting a normal VST.

bigcat
I have utmost respect for Jordan Rudess and I personally owe him and his people a lot (for letting me use Grand Illusion to demo City Piano). However in this case I thought that it was Stephan Deriau-Reine rather than Jordan Rudess that really made the ST3 piano shine. This is the demo that got me excited about ST3.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEg81_PhKqU

That was onebof the videos that really impressed. The videos with bad very demo sounding songs like that dreadful ( afro-cuban) one left me unimpressed.

1.  I have ST2.5 and I still use it and like a lot of what it has to offer.  I'm sure there is much better available, but I've been able to get these instruments to work well with my other stuff - sure there are some sounds that are crap, but a lot of good stuff for me.
2.  I still have SonikSynth2 and I still use it (in the ST interface) - as #1 above
3.  I paid full price for these a long time ago
4.  I got a LOT of use and enjoyment of what these libraries brought me
5.  I don't understand why it isn't working for others in Sonar X3 - works fine here in the 64bit version without any weirdness.
6.  I'd like t get ST3, but I can't justify the money for as little as I get to play with my toys.  I think the $99 upgrade price is very attractive, though I'm not entirely sure if it really sounds a lot better since it has all the old sounds in it and some amount of new sounds - net really clear as to what is new vs old on the marketing site and the "numbers" of sounds advertised doesn't seem to be a whole lot more than the old ST2.5 XL set, so it seems like an awful lot of reused material.
7.  Those who feel "ripped off" because they paid for older technology when it was new surely must be used to this feeling.  If I could get all the money back that I've spent on old technology that didn't live up to today's standards, I'd be a wealthy man.  In the 90s, you could get a 386sx system with MB of RAM and MB of disk space and easily pay triple what you get an i5 with GBs of RAM and 100s of GB of hard drive space - forget all the other subtleties of RAM access speed, SSD drives, bus speeds, power usage, etc.  You just can't feel bad about spending the money or you have to wait until it's old and $29.  There's a reason it's only $29.
 
Just a few (well, 7) thoughts.

pentimentosound
@ Kenny    Sweetwater is still selling the prerelease till Thursday and they have the boxed option for the same price.
I ordered the boxed upgrade and they don't charge my account (and I get a heads up)until they have them ready to ship, which is supposedly/approximately a week later.
....if that helps, any.
Michael
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ST3up

Hi Michael, 
Yes, thats sounds pretty cool for you , and a big thank you for the heads up .
I'm just gonna have to sit this one out for now , since I don't have the extra funds ..
I suppose it's all for the best because I don't  do Ramen noodles anymore to buy gear and the only captive audience member I have on hand over here would not take too kindly to me eating up his brand new 38  pound bag of Science Diet  
have a good one ….and enjoy your new synth 
 
Kenny

Somehow the conversation on the IKM Sampletank forums turned to drunken instruments... or instrumenting while drunking... or dreaming about drunk instruments... Anyway I couldn't let that go by. And of course I thought of you guys.
ST2.5 - http://www.mediafire.com/download/vmo1sfo38c366gy/Dream_a_Liitle_Drunk_of_Me.zip
Samples - http://www.mediafire.com/download/e1nke4tbqjbeq13/Dream_a_Little_Drunk_samples.zip
 
Note tihs is Drunkware. It is Public Domain, but if you use it extensively or make money from it, please raise a glass for me (note the glass does not have to contain anything alcoholic).

Lol@bigcat..I will download and grab my flask