DirectWave

This SHOULD be one of the greatest samplers around! However with lack of support, a lot of love has been lost by the users. I want go give another review on the good points since I just came across this sampler recently and it has been updated somewhat. Also, it now comes free with the Producer version of FL Studio.

The sound: Supreme! I know that sampler/vst aficionados will say that all samplers calculate 1's and 0's the same so all samples will sound the same, but I really don't agree. I think everything has it's own flair, and this sampler definitely has a great sound to it. It's like a really glossy clean sound that sounds "sturdy". Not over saturated, not too clinical... but pristine. I hope these adjective translate well with those who read it. The sound of the filters, I agree with the previous review suck, but they don't detract away too much.

Features: Being able to import basic sfz files, rex, sf2s & a variety of other formats (even Kontakt 4 files albeit no scripting) means you can have lots of fun giving your samples a new sound & feel. You can record samples (!! YAY !!!), and time stretch as well. The timestretch is not elastique pro quality, but for something like this you may no really want it to be. The loop points, effects, LFOs, filters, timestretch options & envelopes can be automated per zone or global. There are 3 global effects for your preset: reverb, chorus & delay. You can set up a Direct Wave Bank that has 128 different programs, it's multitimbral, 16 outputs, AND it can sample VSTs! Not too mention, everything is pretty much laid on one screen, so you don't ever feel like you're getting lost. On paper, this annihilates a lot of the competition.

Ease of use: And here is the bad part. Directwave is NOT difficult to use, don't get me wrong. There are just things that don't work well, which is surprising for a VST that has been around this long. Sometimes loading different formats doesn't translate well. DW will freeze if the file is too big. But this is working usually in the 32-bit version. In the 64-bit version, I can get larger files to load a little better, but it still takes a minute. Being that this VST was released about 10 years ago, one would expect some disk streaming as standard. Another complaint is that DW doesn't slice or recognize multiple points in acidized wave files. Being that Image Line has so many tools to slice and dice with (SliceX, Edison, Fruity Slicer), you would think that you would be able to incorporate that into DW somewhere. However, DW only deals with regular samples UNLESS it's a REX file (I Haven't checked Recycle files). With REX files. each slice or region shows independently as a zone in DW, and from there you can treat the zones as different samples. It would be nice to have his applied to other samples that are sliced from Edison or SliceX (with drag and drop from those tools specifically) as well to take advantage of the quick workflow.

As many, I wish that Image Line will really just listen to their customers and either revamp Directwave or take some cues from its versatility and make a new sampler. For owners of FLStudio, it would be a pretty basic statement to say that this is the missing piece that doesn't make FLStudio feel complete. They have at least brought it to 64-bit territory which is a start, but this sampler is begging for much more. For instance, there is no aftertouch or MIDI controls in the matrix. Better filters, maybe additional LFO shapes, more sfz opcodes as well would be great. It's a shame, because ideally this could the main sampler that tweakers could use for making their own instruments that is lightweight with a great sound. There are lots of options available now in this territory, but no one has really NAILED the VST Sampler yet besides Native Instruments. As time goes forth, someone has to come up with what people REALLY want. The groundwork is there! Directwave is almost it, but no one can justify spending money on a tool that its developers do not want to support consistently. Personally, I'll use it as is... but I'm always on the lookout for something better.