iDevGames

Introduction

Coming from a background of traditional hardware synthesizers and sound tools, it has taken me a long time to be convinced of any reason for using software synthesizers and sound playback modules. Most of the first breed of them substituted sound quality for low CPU usage and couldn’t be compared to many of the traditional hardware synthesizers and samplers. With the advent of faster processors however, many of the new software synth packages are utilizing this extra power to boost the sonic potential of synth engines and bring the quality level up to par with a dedicated DSP hardware synth.

SampleTank XL is one of these new breed of synth engines, although it is basically just a sample playback module for its tonal selection, and is not trying to emulate discrete analog oscillators or circuitry. It has a playback quality that claims to surpass what you get on other branded sample players, a whopping three CD library of bundled sounds, and a whole slew of high-quality effects to boot.

Essentially it gives you an instant palette of sounds to work with, and with the onboard effects it is comparable to many decent hardware synthesizers. Add to that an expandable library of sounds through the addition of add-on packs. With the addition of an Akai¹ conversion utility on the XL version, you also have the ability to load masses of sounds available from the Akai format CD libraries.

The SampleTank product line currently comes in three different flavors, all of them available as VST, MAS, and RTAS plug-ins:

• SampleTank LE — A light version with four midi channels, one stereo output and a selection of sounds (Axe version shown)
• SampleTank L — 16-channel version with multiple outputs and two CD library with 200 sounds
• SampleTank XL — Reviewed here, it is the top end of the range which includes four CDs of over 450 sounds and Akai sample format conversion (this comes as a separate application on the CD)

The VST plug-in format is a standard set by Steinberg that allows additional audio effects (VST) and software instrument (VSTi) plug-ins to be installed on a host sequencer. Along with these standard packages, IK Multimedia offers a range of add-on sample packs to replenish SampleTank with more sounds.

Installation and First Impressions

Installation of SampleTank XL as a VST Instrument was not without a hitch. Registering the plug-in required obtaining a digital ID code from installing the program the first time, which was then entered along with a printed serial code onto the web based registration site to receive the full authorization code. Seems pretty standard, although the printed code that comes with the package is printed in a confusing font that makes it near impossible to distinguish the Os from zeros, and the Ls from ones. Even after following the guidelines on the website, it still took a long time for me to finally enter the correct serial code and fully authorize the product.

My sequencer of choice is Logic Audio (Logic), which was recently purchased by Apple. Logic has had reasonably good support for Cubase VST instruments for some time, but only with the recent 5.2 update has it had support for multiple outputs from VSTi plug-ins. This is an important factor in these kind of plug-ins; a plug-in with only single outputs would have multiple instances running to create multiple sound outputs. This swallows up lots of valuable memory and processor resources, whereas SampleTank only has to instance once to give you 16 channel outputs. That said, you can, of course, instance SampleTank many times itself to give you 128 channels of sounds — pending processor power.

Launching an instance of SampleTank for the first time, you are presented with a glowing red file browser screen surrounded by various controller knobs and effects settings underneath. I was quite impressed with the file browser, which seems clearly laid out and a bit easier to navigate than the pull down menu in Logic’s own built-in sampler, and still somewhat simpler than many other software samplers I’ve briefly tested. Hats off to IK Multimedia for their GUI design.

Moving on then, simply double clicking in a chosen sound in the file browser loads it up into one of 16 selectable MIDI channel slots. These are displayed as buttons laid across the bottom of the plug-in, and also display midi receive information. Just below the file browser screen you also have a row of controller knobs; on the left hand side are several knobs that are specific to that sound, and on the right hand side a row of knobs used for setting effect parameters — nice and simple. The sound controller knobs are very similar to how a lot of the rack-mount Waldorf synths work. In SampleTank you get up to five knobs that have been preprogrammed to do a specific function. For example, in a guitar patch one knob might control pluck amount or tone, in a synth patch it might be assigned to a filter. This is a very simple way of getting useful control from a sound without having to dive into major synth programming, something I’m sure SampleTank was never intended for. This doesn’t by any measure mean you cannot shape a sound to very high amounts of the extreme. The large effects section does a good job of mangling a sound into something from another planet if need be.

Sound Generation and the Library

In comparison to Logic Audio’s EXS24 sampler, SampleTank seems to have a noticeably smoother quality to it, which is a boon to those who require playback of pristine quality orchestral and classical instruments. It also lends a hand when backed up by an excellent library to get you started. Some of the acoustic drum kits were noteworthy to me. They had a definite airiness to their sound that made production of realistic sounding acoustic drums a breeze. In addition, I found they are a great starting point for creating your own drum loops. The selection of bass sounds all had nice body to them, requiring very little tweaking of EQ to get them to sound good in a mix. The only sounds I thought were mediocre were some of the synth lead patches; some more patches based on raw waveforms might have been useful to me there. But again, you can easily add these on as extra. Overall though, all the supplied sounds are nicely sampled and set up to get the best performance out of them in an instant. What you’re getting sounds more like it came off a decent hardware synthesizer than some mediocre patches that came off a sample CD.

Effects and Controls

Part of what lends a real helping hand here is the effects section. Any recent hardware synthesizer of the last decade usually has included a built-in effects unit of some kind, be it a simple chorus and reverb, or a multiple effects block allowing a selection of multiple insert effects. The effects are that final extra polish on a sound, and always prevent raw samples from sounding dry and lifeless.

Normally I would frown on the addition of effects within a sound playback plug-in because of the extra processor hog, and would add them through the sequencer’s built-in effects. However, as it is stands, SampleTank’s effects have actually proved quite handy, as they offer a few extra effects that are not available as standard in most sequencers.

The “lowfi” effect is quite fun; as a traditional sequencer effect this is usually there to drop the bit depth and sample rate of sounds, making them sound older and grainier but usually still quite digital like. SampleTank’s implementation works more like an instant vinyl record effect and dirties up the sound nicely with some filtering. Frequency and Amplitude modulation effects are there, and just great for mangling sounds into something entirely new. They were definitely my favorite, and something I’ve only found in more extensive effects packages like Arboretum’s Hyperprism.

Automating or recording of SampleTank’s controllers allows you to change the effects parameters over time and increases the diversity of the built-in effects and sounds. After choosing some basic sounds and creating some loops for a tune, I tried automating some of the controls. One of the short test songs I made, for example, used the low-fi effect with the filter and stereo width controls recorded by Logic to create a drum pattern that starts off crunchy and opens up to a wide realistic stereo drum pattern. Other effects like FM or AM modulation can create nice changing overtones when recording into a song.

In Use

Putting a song together with SampleTank is as simple as assigning sounds to MIDI channels and selecting the necessary outputs to send the sounds to Logic’s audio channels. Due to Logic having only just updated to multiple VST output support at time of review, I was unable to figure out how to get this working properly with VST plug-ins. Thus, the test tracks I did with SampleTank used purely the single stereo output and no effects within Logic itself.

This was actually a good test of SampleTank, as all EQ and effects would have to be done within the plug-in to really benefit from only a stereo output into Logic. Alternatively I could have bounced down stereo/mono track at a time into Logic and rearranged there using Logic’s effects. However, as it happens, SampleTank’s built-in effects and EQ proved up to the task.

I’ve created two MP3s to demonstrate SampleTank XL’s sound. Both these songs were created using one instance of the plug-in, a maximum of four channels, and using only the stereo outputs. You can download the songs from iDevGames’ download resource section.

Conclusion

For the price, it would have been nice to have some of the other features you see on certain of the straightforward software samplers, like simple WAV/AIFF file playback, rather than being limited to the built-in libraries and Akai conversion alone. I say this mainly because I like the FX so much and would like to chuck my own sounds through SampleTank. Alternatively, it would be good to see the FX section available as a separate VST plug-in, which I think would double the handiness of the whole package to me.

As it stands, I think SampleTank delivers on its purpose of having a palette of professional quality sounds “on tap” in the same way you would get from a decent well-filled hardware sound module. With everything set out so simply as far as sound browsing and automation, it provides a much more direct and trouble-free route to getting a song together than a conventional software sampler or synth. Add the great effects section to boot, and it has enough flexibility to shape the sounds into something entirely new.

• Rated 8
• Version: 1.1.4
• Category: Professional VST Sound Module
• Developer: “IK Multimedia“http://www.ikmultimedia.com
• MSRP: $499 (USD)
• Suggested Requirements: 128MB RAM, Power Mac G3/G4, 2GB free HD space, ASIO card with low latency, VST compatible sequencer
• Reviewer’s System: PPC Dual G4 500MHz, Mac OS 9.2.2, 832MB RAM, Standard internal IDE drive for audio, Digidesign-001 audio interface (using direct I/O on Logic)

¹ Many commercial sample CDs are in a proprietary format created by hardware sampler manufacturer Akai.

Further Resources

• Impact Game Audio Targets iPhone Developers
• Looking for Free Sounds? Try Soundsnap