Whats the best VST software sampler?

[robotpriest]

yeah the problem with alchemy is the audio quality is pretty bad. Especially when you play the higher pitches. Also it is a CPU hog doing the simplest things. I like the sounds, all the libraries have great sound design, but its gritty and not in a hip way.

[apolo]

Does fxpansion geist count or is only for drums...?

[popmann]

To trigger some WAVs? Um...can't you just use the built in GrooveAgentOne in Cubase? I mean, it's a "drum sampler"--but, you just map a WAV to a key/pad...or maybe HalionOne, or whatever they're calling it these days?

As to what the "best" one is...too loaded a question, and what you're asking of a sampler is something that anything can do. And you don't actually NEED "the best" sampler by anyone's definition to do that.

My two cents, having worked extensively with Kontakt4 and Gigastudio 2.5...Gigastudio responds SOOOOOOO much quicker to the touch...likely for the same reason you can do more advanced scripting in K4--if you think about it, if Giga just triggers the playaback ofa sample through it's filters...and K4 actually has a input side script that picks random samples or samples based contextual criteria, it's going to take some time to do that. That time? Added latency separating my fingers with the sound.

So, no doubt that some third parties have done AMAZING things with the K4 scripting engine...BUT...there's also NO doubt that the cost for that is latency. I know, I harp on latency a bit more than average Joe, but my estimation is that K4 running the soundcard at 64 samples is the equivalent of running Giga at 256...and K4 at 32 is equivalent to Giga at 128. Kernel mode GSIF rules.

Anyway...just use the built in...or whatever is SUPER cheap...some kind of SampletankLE...you don't need "the best sampler" to trigger linear sample playback.

[electro]

If Tascam would have ported Gigasampler to VST back in the beginning, there probably would have never even been a Kontakt.

[griggorygretbar]

ive been using kontakt and my main use for these kind of samplers is creating my own instruments usually from a one note sample file and spreading it across the key board. kontakt is horrible at this and however you try it you lose the character of the original sound cuz the pitch shifting is wretched . is there any sampler that excels at this activity ? cuz at this point i have to make the notes and tune them from the original file outside of kontakt before importing them. which is a great hassle. thanks

[CoolColJ]

Best VST sampler for pitch shifting is Emu Emulator X3

Short Circuit is not bad, and is free.
The clip below uses a single cycle waveform, taken from a Lyre Bird audio, and through SC's filters and some 12 bit bit crushing

I use a white noise sample I create in Wavelab and load them into these VST samplers and see how close they sound to the original and none of them play it exactly the same - shocking!
Short Circuit loses a little bit of top end.

[griggorygretbar]

Originally Posted by CoolColJ

Best VST sampler for pitch shifting is Emu Emulator X3

Short Circuit is not bad, and is free.
The clip below uses a single cycle waveform, taken from a Lyre Bird audio, and through SC's filters and some 12 bit bit crushing

I use a white noise sample I create in Wavelab and load them into these VST samplers and see how close they sound to the original and none of them play it exactly the same - shocking!
Short Circuit loses a little bit of top end.

can emulator x3 be used as a vst ?

[CoolColJ]

Originally Posted by griggorygretbar

can emulator x3 be used as a vst ?

Yes, it's best as a VST.

But good luck finding a copy now. Although I believe Musical Instruments - Recording Studio Equipment | DV247 said they were getting in some copies back in October.

[griggorygretbar]

im definitely leaning towards short circuit . . these samplers are not visually appealing tho lol , ty

[filipv]

Propellerheads should make a VST version of nn-xt

[abaga129]

+1 to Kontakt. It has so many possibilities. It comes with excellent libraries and you can download many more. I love it for drums because you can route each instrument to its own output. There is also a free kontakt player.

[crabber338]

The best software sampler I used hands-down is the EmulatorX3. It's a rock solid plugin and can handle complex libraries, to simple 'sample/playback' stuff.

It's also the only 'real sampler' that I've seen on PC, it can actually sample input and do playback. I'm sorry but the lack of this feature really made me miss my hardware samplers like the Akai S5000, Emu ESI.

The limiter on the output (which can be toggled) and the filter section give that 'fatness sound' I was used to hearing on hardware. I never got that out of Kontact, but maybe things changed since the last time I used it.

[griggorygretbar]

2 bad emulator isnt available at this point :( im still debating between that and shortcircuit. which one takes less CPU power?
also, i havent been able to find many emulator x3 videos. which is one of the reasons im leaning more towards SC.

[CoolColJ]

SC is probably lighter, dunno
You can get X3 from a few places, just enquire.
DVD247 told me they were getting some in,last month

[AudioGaff]

Yep, E-MU X3 is the real deal. Which unlike most others, is a REAL sampler. Add top notch pitch shifting, SynthSwipe, song/file Mashing capability, killer filters including the ultimate E-MU Z-Plane filters that can not be obtained any other way in software format and you have something that clearly takes Emulator to the next level.

E-MU X3 does lack many modern features and has it quarks like anything does, but for sample processing, audio manipulation, sound design and everything in-between, E-MU X3 is a great and valuable tool in my kit that I constantly use and provides me with great sounding results.

[Lune]

Old threads never die....and they never fade away either

[apartment dog]

I have the emulator X2 that won't install after windows XP,
I loved it but the update to X3 was 200 bucks which is crazy I think.
Nowadays I can play the patches I made with it in the free Proteus VX except for the tweaking.

It was also very good in samplechopping, always accurate, nowadays in Cubase I always have to adjust all the hitpoints and even then I get clicks.
Emulator X2 could analyse complete songs so I could easily edit a song if I needed to, export good slices etc.

On the other hand, for playing I think I like a bunch of Virtual Synths better nowadays,
there are so much affordable good software-synths that I like better than softwaresamplers.
But for editing samples and sampling I haven't found an equal successor.
I also learned a lot from the manual(s) about synths, filters etc. Very informative.