DirectWave

DirectWave is billed as "one of the most complete VSTi samplers" on the market today.

You know what? That claim is 100% true. DirectWave is one of the first of a new generation of soft-samplers that actually SAMPLE AUDIO and do waveform editing. And the difference is amazing. Just download the demo and try sampling some sounds, and you'll see what I mean. Samplers.. need to SAMPLE. DirectWave does!

DirectWave also sports one of the best and most well-thought-out interfaces I have seen anywhere. It's set up so that almost everything is on one page, with a really intelligent and useful tabbed interface. It just has to be seen to be believed. This is how instrument GUI's should be!

DirectWave really sounds great. About the only negative with its sonics I can think of is that its filters are a bit weak. But while others might care about that, I don't. DirectWave's filters are more than good enough for my needs, and DirectWave has really great PER-VOICE (keyzone) DSP effects, comprehensive modulation matrix, and terrific reverb/delay/chorus effects in its "Program" (master) section. The overall sonic results are simply superb, and DirectWave is very CPU efficient as well.

Did I mention the reverb? DirectWave has a really great, dense, "old-school" reverb built in that really sounds great. It makes my samples sound wonderful.

About the only other problem I can discern is that DirectWave's documentation, especially its "online help", is inadequate.

WAY TO GO, IMAGE-LINE!

DirectWave is the best "soft-sampler" on the market today. And, as they claim, it is one of the most "complete". At $99.00, it's an incredible value too. I am anxiously awaiting release of the Mac OSX version so I can use DirectWave on my main DAW. Once the Mac version comes out, DirectWave is going to be my main workhorse.

Goodbye, rack of Akai's...Read Review