SampleTank 4 MAX

What is the point of buying a software like ST4 Max, with so many sounds?

Look away from the shiny thing you just bought, and focus. Focus on one kind of sound Ignore the thousands of others, or they will blind and bury you in the same grave with your muse.

You don't have to install everything, let alone everything at once. Have a good plan, and a good purpose, and you will achieve good results. Max includes the SampleTank 3 sounds, so there's a goodly warehouse of sounds to deal with.

It's like having a sports team in some ways, star players, surrounded by good players, with a few average players, and you hope to win a few times, when everyone contributes.

My initial focus is on acoustic guitar sounds. Someone else may seek cellos, pianos or drumkits or fill_in_the_blank. I may want some choirs, brass and bells in December, but they can wait, or I'll lose focus, and learn nothing about which guitars are the stars, and which are role players.

Beware, some who buy Max may already own SampleTank 3, and perhaps Syntronik, or a legacy of ST 2.5 sounds. Enter the dilemma of preset tagging mania, with a hundred gig of sounds in the tag lists, before Max has even taken the boots off, and put on the studio slippers. I have not read the manual yet, so I'm hoping it will be easy to remove IK products from the browser system if desired.

If one has a vast number of sounds, the tagging can be too good of a thing, and by relying on it, rather than actually becoming familiar with the sounds, you might easily miss the best choice, simply because you quickly found a 'good' one.

Easy to miss the star, and make do with a role player. I plan on a leisurely year, rather than a manic month, to study what I paid for.

In my case, I'll sometimes put Syntronik and SampleTank 3 on tracks, before loading Max, simply to avoid the browser clutter, and start with familiar things. Then, cherry-pick new sounds in an uncluttered ST4, easier when stress is minimized. Plenty of time to peacefully get familiar with the collective of new ST4 sounds. ST4 also has a strummer and arpeggiator waiting, as well as a bundle of effects and deep editing possibilities.

More advanced users will of course be able to accelerate faster. For many users, there will be a dozen or two simple actions used repeatedly, to build enjoyable and diverse combos of sounds. The interface won't be hard to master, some icons, some lists, some panels, a mixer, and plenty of sounds to choose from.

Take off the racing gloves and goggles, put on some coffee, and enjoy making something special you'll want to hear over and over again.