SampleTank 4 on the way

[Burillo]

Just curious, how’s the new guitar samples? Are they any better than American Acoustic? I don’t own any SampleTank products though.

I also wonder if American Acoustic is worthy to get.

Are the new guitars going to be very comprehensive with articulations like hammer on, pull off, harmonics, mutes, slides, strums and round/random robin?

And can I just get them on their own for a lower price? Otherwise, I wonder which edition will the guitars be in: SE, Normal or MAX.

i don't think you should expect quality of samples in ST4 to be on par with halfway-decent Kontakt/UVI libraries in terms of authenticity and being able to emulate actual human performance. the scripting ability of SampleTank engine is just not there to handle it.

that said, they do sound good IMO. think of it like this: if you're doing music for a mobile game, chances are no one is going to pay attention - as long as it doesn't sound like outright shit, you're OK to use them. SampleTank sounds, to me, are like that - they're great for demos and for creating sounds that sound great but have no requirement to fool people into thinking they weren't samples.

[rollasoc]

I think not having esoundz/Dave Kerzner do sounds for ST3 made the sounds for me useless.

i thought he was?

Kind of.....
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=503405

He mentions Kontakt. They had the infinite player for a while, but that has (I believe) been discontinued now.

[jsp1979]

Just curious, how’s the new guitar samples? Are they any better than American Acoustic?

They mention this specifically in the video in the original post. In the video, they say that this an improvement on the American Acoustic (and there's a strum setting in the arp).



...and in the video, they also point out that GUI is resizable and ready for 4K screens and many other things that people are asking.

[Elektronisch]

Just curious, how’s the new guitar samples? Are they any better than American Acoustic? I don’t own any SampleTank products though.

I also wonder if American Acoustic is worthy to get.

Are the new guitars going to be very comprehensive with articulations like hammer on, pull off, harmonics, mutes, slides, strums and round/random robin?

And can I just get them on their own for a lower price? Otherwise, I wonder which edition will the guitars be in: SE, Normal or MAX.

i don't think you should expect quality of samples in ST4 to be on par with halfway-decent Kontakt/UVI libraries in terms of authenticity and being able to emulate actual human performance. the scripting ability of SampleTank engine is just not there to handle it.

that said, they do sound good IMO. think of it like this: if you're doing music for a mobile game, chances are no one is going to pay attention - as long as it doesn't sound like outright shit, you're OK to use them. SampleTank sounds, to me, are like that - they're great for demos and for creating sounds that sound great but have no requirement to fool people into thinking they weren't samples.

Well in video about sounds in ST4 it was said that guitars are better then American Acoustic...

I have American Acoustic and to be honest i havent heard a better acoustic library, the guitars in there sounds just briliant. Also its a matter of taste, but from what i heard American Acoustic was the best (and still is)

[BERFAB]

Peter,

Will this new version still import the older libraries like Sonik Synth and Mellotron? Are the new sounds from existing libraries not before included, or actually brand new instruments and sounds created for this software? And lastly, will the irig keys (not the I/O versions) come with a version of ST4SE after it is released, or still only qualify for ST3SE? Wonderful to see this, looks great!

Thanks, glad you are looking forward to it!

If you had already converted these pre-ST3 libraries with ST3, yes you’ll find converted instruments from these libraries on SampleTank 4. You’ll find these instruments already as you will be able to add ST3 as an additional library path (yes you will also be able to specify multiple library paths).

At this time there will be no change with what comes with iRig Keys products, but I will pass along the suggestion.

I have Sonik Synth and ST3. With my last PC upgrade, I didn't install Sonik Synth, so I didn't do a conversion into ST3. If I would like to get Sonik Synth into Sampletank 4, is there a way to install and convert it directly, or do I first have to convert it in ST3?

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Can we use our Gear Credits to upgrade in the Custom Shop?

The pre-order is not available via Gear Credits in Custom Shop.

[BERFAB]

Just curious, how’s the new guitar samples? Are they any better than American Acoustic? I don’t own any SampleTank products though.

I also wonder if American Acoustic is worthy to get.

Are the new guitars going to be very comprehensive with articulations like hammer on, pull off, harmonics, mutes, slides, strums and round/random robin?

And can I just get them on their own for a lower price? Otherwise, I wonder which edition will the guitars be in: SE, Normal or MAX.

i don't think you should expect quality of samples in ST4 to be on par with halfway-decent Kontakt/UVI libraries in terms of authenticity and being able to emulate actual human performance. the scripting ability of SampleTank engine is just not there to handle it.

that said, they do sound good IMO. think of it like this: if you're doing music for a mobile game, chances are no one is going to pay attention - as long as it doesn't sound like outright shit, you're OK to use them. SampleTank sounds, to me, are like that - they're great for demos and for creating sounds that sound great but have no requirement to fool people into thinking they weren't samples.

Well in video about sounds in ST4 it was said that guitars are better then American Acoustic...

I have American Acoustic and to be honest i havent heard a better acoustic library, the guitars in there sounds just briliant. Also its a matter of taste, but from what i heard American Acoustic was the best (and still is)

I own at least a dozen comprehensive guitar libraries. American Acoustic is a solid instrument with (to my ear) a warm sound and with some interesting articulations. It definitely provides a new color to the sound pallet. It is definitely very "playable." I have found it to be a worthy purchase. YMMV.

[zzz00m]

3. Can we use gear credits or jampoints towards the purchase of ST4?

4. How long is this intro pricing

Peter says:

3. jampoints

4. end of the year

[Angle Loss]

Is there anywhere that shows what the content difference is (and not just how many GBs you get) between the different versions?

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

My main questions... sorry if these have been asked by other users:

1. Is the GUI resizeable or have multiple size screens?

The GUI is fully resizable.

2. Are the only automations available to the host still just the macros 1-8 for each channel or can there be more?

In SampleTank 4, you can automate all of the 1600+ parameters.

3. Can we use gear credits or jampoints towards the purchase of ST4?

You can use JamPoints toward your purchase of SampleTank 4

4. How long is this intro pricing and is there any special pricing to long-time IK customers who have multuple products?

This pricing is through the end of this year, and the upgrade pricing and other details are available at this link

5. Can we save the mod matrix as a preset(s) to use in other instruments?

Not at this time but it can be done in future updates.

6. In ST3, the ability to save effects combis was unable to load user combis from the browser. Is this fixed or has that feature been erased from ST4?

Please provide more details here, are you talking about effects chain presets? If so, those are available and also are already available in SampleTank 3.

7. Is the disk streaming just a simple cache knob or is it a little more complex?

It is disk streaming, similar to how disk streaming works in other products. SampleTank 4 will stream sounds from disk instead of loading them into RAM and will thus have the benefits of disk streaming vs loading into RAM.

8. Are we still only able to import waves & aifs? Still no drag & drop files to ST4, no support for rex files or midi files (for use in the patterns page)?

Those are still the file formats for importing, there is no drag & drop or REX/MIDI file import.

9. Still no ability to access ST's round robin feature for making our own instruments?

This is something that is not available at the moment during import but it is under consideration for the future.

10. As far modulation sources there are a lot included, but does ST4 include "alternate" as a source? That could possibly substitute for lack of round robin in instrument creation

You shouldn't need an alternate as source. You can modulate parameters such as pitch or cutoff filter with an LFO or any modulator to do the job.

11. Will there be any support for Midi Bank change for the live page or is does ST4 still only support program changes?

SampleTank 4 uses Program Changes.

12. Sampletank's library is mostly great: Keys, Basses, Drums, synths, percussion. Are there going to be any better versions of brass & choirs? The brass really needs trombones with slides for example, more articulations, not just for orchestra. And the choirs (even the new ones with ST3) sound horrid. And... to add... if there are any new brass instruments will they be available in the SE and full versions?

There are some great new brass and choirs in SampleTank 4

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Peter, i still can't figure out whether SampleTank 4 MAX is a "bigger SampleTank 4" (as in SampleTank 2 vs. SampleTank 2 XL), or is it a SampleTank 4 full + all expansions? other bundles with MAX in their name (e.g. Amplitube MAX) are product + expansions, so i'm assuming SampleTank 4 MAX is a bundle as well.

SampleTank 4 MAX contains a huge amount of new sounds (not existing expansions or similar).

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

A quick question...will this be a part of Total Studio Max? If so, when. I was considering upgrading to that, but am glad I waited with this news. Any details about an ALL IN ONE is appreciated if you foresee it.

My problem is that I own SOOO much of IK products but because it is not bundled, I only qualify for crossgrade (product valued at $99 or higher, when I have everything but MODO bass, some sound and amp modules and some T-Racks modules).

Sorry I missed this one. SampleTank 4 MAX is not part of Total Studio 2 MAX. We do not have news of any specifics of a future Total Studio bundle at this time.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Looks like a solid improvement on the unuser friendly ST3. As someone with all but the last ST expansions, not sure I can afford to upgrade at the moment (will need to check Jam points) this close to Christmas. Can the pre-order price be extended to release date (like ST3 was) or is this going live on Jan 1st?

Happy Birthday Peter, btw.

I wasn't sure I wanted to answer this since you outed my cake day Just kidding, and thank you for that.

I know we state early 2019 and January 1st is probably a very bad day to release so I wouldn't expect it then. Also, there are holidays in our HQ's country to consider as far as potential release dates, and such so I think that's safe to say no to January 1 Plus, just "things"... However, the pricing is stated as ending January 1st but I will inquire about the possibility of an extension but I can make no guarantees so best is to lock it in before the end of the year because it may not happen.

[Teksonik]

Is there an option to update just the plugin from ST 3 to 4 without any additional sample content ? I don't see such an update offer in my Account.

Has the ability to bypass certain midi controllers per layer been added ? E.G. the ability to bypass the Sustain pedal on a Strings Layer while still allowing Sustain to work on a Piano Layer etc ?

[DarkStar]

A few things that I spotted in the screenshots
-- each Mixer channel has an FX sidebar with thumbnails of the (up to) 5 FX GUI at the top and one FX alongside the channel
-- some Mixer views had non-sequential channel numbers (e.g. 1, 2, 5 ,6, Master) suggesting that some channels can be hidden
-- the tiny red on dark grey scroll bar is an improvement on the grey on dark grey scroll bar in ST3, but not much; being so small it will need precision to grab it for dragging.
-- 8 instruments can be layered, with separate note ranges and velocity ranges for each.
-- Automation: "You can define your personal parameters to control SampleTank 4 directly from any host device. Easily add SampleTank to your setup without having to change the setting you’re used to, thanks to its host automation functionality. " Am I being optimistic to think that this might mean plug-in parameter automation, not MIDI CC automation?
-- "Quick Parameters: These 8 knobs can be customized to control any parameter in SampleTank 4". Assignable Macros. At last!
-- the Play page only shows 8 instruments at a time (ST3 has all 16); the level meters are stereo.
-- the horizontal FX chain (a la Syntronik) looks snazzy
-- ST4 and ST4 MAX also come on USB drives; downloading 200GB would take over 40 hours here

Now, perhaps Peter could persuade his colleagues to publish a full list of instruments (yep all 8.000 of them!) and their articulations. And, make the User Manual available before the software release - both of which would save a lot of questions.