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lordvader48 · Post by **lordvader48** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:23 pm

Hello, we've been evaluating soft-samplers for much of the past year. We've tried almost all of them, and we own (sadly..) most of them. DirectWave is a breath of fresh air.

Massive kudos go to Argu/Image-Line for DirectWave. The interface is fabulous, it sounds fantastic, it is extremely easy to use with really good workflow, and it SAMPLES. By God, a soft-sampler that samples. HALLELUJAH!

We have one chronic need, my Image-Line friends: We need DirectWave on OSX. When can we have it?

IMAGE-LINE: THANK YOU FOR DIRECTWAVE - IT RULES.

gassle · Post by **gassle** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 9:12 am

I think it would be perfect when it has polyphony control with a proper voice allocation, proper envelope curves (both release and attack curves are very unmusical), better filters yet less CPU (current sounds OK to me but too much CPU), loop crossfade function, etc...

gassle · Post by **gassle** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 9:15 am

P.S. I also think that you are way too much obsessed with "Sampler that samples" idea on your reviews.

Toxikator · Post by **Toxikator** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:35 pm

Well, they kind of should. Think about the hardware paradigm, this is one of the first that can actually do what the hard samplers used to.

I can imagine that's a boon to some workflows.

Frankly I love DW but it makes me uncomfortable. I think it's just that Argu's GUI and parameter design is so different from gol's that it makes working with it feel out of place. It's certainly capable (though not so much as, say, Kontakt) but then again it's not supposed to be a massive ROMpler synth of any kind (with filters and FX and bells and whistles)...

In conjunction with Edison for things like proper EQing, Sample Editing, Looping, etc; Directwave makes a great tool. You gotta learn to use them together, though (IMO).

bluepride · Post by **bluepride** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 5:35 am

Sorry, but I think Vader is right. Soft-samplers that don't sample or do wave editing really are a scam. Back in 1999, maybe that was the best that PC/Mac hardware could do. There's no excuse for such lameness now.

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:45 am

Well, many people don't actually CARE about sampling in the traditional sense. If I need to mock up a score, why do I need the ability to record sounds in my sampler? I just need the ability to intelligently load 5gb of orchestral samples and have lots of nice features like auto-alternation, key switching, mapped parameters etc. That's how people can "get away" with it.

bluepride · Post by **bluepride** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:42 am

Well, that's the thing. There are probably many more people who DO care about sonic creativity than don't. If you want to nit-pick about the demographics, you'd better take a poll. Because your "many people" claim is meaningless. Not everyone wants to use the same canned orchestral sounds. There's more to sampling than reproducing strings and oboes.

"Soft-sampler" products will not suffer one bit from providing the creative features musicians need: DirectWave has already shown that, in fact it's a much better product than any sound player already. Adding sampling features to these non-sampling "samplers" is going to be good for everybody. As time goes on, you may even find yourself (!!) doing something a little more original!

gassle · Post by **gassle** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:19 pm

Well...

The problem with Directwave is that: It samples...cool! But it still misses a lot of essential functions of a sampler (other than sampling) or some essential functions working wrong. I stated a few of them on my previous reply above.

I do lots of wave editing, wave designing vs. while doing sampling work. I use my wave editor for recording and editing. And already many soft samplers that don't sample can integrate with audio editors like Soundforge on the go.

If you want to see a real experimental-musician friendly sampler.. see Ableton's Sampler: Excelent filters with lots of variety, ultra CPU friendly, lots of creative looping options with crossfade, musical envelopes, AM/FM oscillators, great polyphony management, etc.

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:48 pm

bluepride wrote:Well, that's the thing. There are probably many more people who DO care about sonic creativity than don't. If you want to nit-pick about the demographics, you'd better take a poll. Because your "many people" claim is meaningless. Not everyone wants to use the same canned orchestral sounds. There's more to sampling than reproducing strings and oboes.

"Soft-sampler" products will not suffer one bit from providing the creative features musicians need: DirectWave has already shown that, in fact it's a much better product than any sound player already. Adding sampling features to these non-sampling "samplers" is going to be good for everybody. As time goes on, you may even find yourself (!!) doing something a little more original!

You need only look at the massive success of products like QLSO and GPO to see my point. The amount of casual composers and hobbyists who just want to use sounds better than their soundcard's GM sounds is enormous. I personally know several dozen people use "canned" orchestral and ROMpler products exclusively for that purpose. Taking a poll here on KVR specifically would not yield meaningful results; there are countless GPO users that are teachers, students, amateur composers, songwriters, and so forth, for example. You will not find most of them on forums like these.

Additionally, the personal attack is not appreciated. I was not criticizing DirectWave nor was I implying that it would be better off without additional features. I was simply (and objectively) explaining why other companies can "get away with" not including recording/sampling functionality in their samplers. For the record, I myself rarely do orchestral music and specialize in breakbeat/big beat. I do a great deal of editing, recording, and tweaking.

riley4reason · Post by **riley4reason** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:56 pm

For those of you that don't have it, and want it, and want to save 10%.
Just use this link to buy it!!
http://www.flstudio.com/promo.asp?p=HJFFGJ431

afreshcupofjoe · Post by **afreshcupofjoe** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:19 am

gassle wrote: If you want to see a real experimental-musician friendly sampler.. see Ableton's Sampler: Excelent filters with lots of variety, ultra CPU friendly, lots of creative looping options with crossfade, musical envelopes, AM/FM oscillators, great polyphony management, etc.

It kills me that someone finally meakes my dream sampler a reality and it's not a VSTi! I refuse to switch to Live just so I can use it's sampler, but it is very tempting. Arrrrrghhh!

lordvader48 · Post by **lordvader48** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 3:41 am

You know what? I agree with you completely. Ableton's "Sampler" just might be the best sampling tool ever. But "Live" is probably the worst VST host ever. Because "Sampler" can't be used without "Live", it has absolutely no future here. "Sampler" might as well not even exist.

It's tragic, because Sampler would be front and center in my studio and in our productions if only it could be freed from "Live".

I just can't imagine what those Ableton people are thinking wrt "Live". What a horrible interface! What the hell are they thinking? I have never, ever encountered such a baffling and difficult-to-use music production program. And I've pretty much seen and used them all...

Fortunately, DirectWave has the right mix of features, not to mention VERY GOOD SOUND QUALITY. Ableton can keep their "Sampler" - at least until they liberate it from "Live", as a VSTi. We are very happy with DirectWave now. I hope you skeptics out there will bother yourselves to try it.

marvotron · Post by **marvotron** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 11:49 am

directwave is ok but is definitely lacking in the modulation department, the real bonus for me is that it can capture VSTi's easily.

Sampler is great but unfortunately the filter section is global, not per zone which for me is a real downside. although you can just create a rack with multiple samplers and there you go...

Also i think Live has got a great interface, you're probably too locked into one way of thinking.

Now what I really want is directwave to take some hints from Sampler and Shortcircuit, then it would be THE BEST. At the moment its simply one sampler among many that has a slightly differentiated feature set.

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:18 pm

Hey Lordvader: if your sole criteria for judging a sampler is whether or not it "SAMPLES", then you should be using this. Your prejudicial review of Independance was not in accordance with the review rules, btw - did you even try the software? For all you know, it does SAMPLE.

And remember: many VSTi's are limited by what the VST routing will allow. For instance, I can't sample with DW in Cubase.

That being said, Directwave is a great little sampler, but is seriously lacking in some advanced features that other "SAMPLE PLAYERS" offer. It may match your sole criteria, but it isn't a full replacement for Kontakt, HALion or Gigastudio. But it's damn close for under $100, and I'm proud to own it. It even leads the pack in a few areas.

marvotron wrote:Sampler is great but unfortunately the filter section is global, not per zone which for me is a real downside. although you can just create a rack with multiple samplers and there you go...

That's what I thought at first too, but here's a useful button on the lower right of the "Zone" page.

riley4reason · Post by **riley4reason** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:27 pm

bduffy, that looks like a screen snap of DW, not Sampler.

Edit:

http://www.flstudio.com/promo.asp?p=HJFFGJ431

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