The effects options have been considerably improved in this release. The effects selection has been considerably expanded and draws from IK's AmpliTube and T-Racks software, which is shorthand for saying there are some great options covering all the obvious categories of effects processing, both corrective and creative. The Effects Rack allows you to configure up to five insert effects for the currently selected Part. While previous versions of SampleTank excelled as preset playback instruments, in the Edit Panel and Effects Rack SampleTank 4 has undoubtedly upped the stakes when it comes to sound tweaking.
The Mixer window provides more comprehensive mixing options, while also providing one route by which to access the effects available for each Part, including up to four send effects. The Instrument Browser provides the usual options for finding sounds, with filters for library, category and type. ST4 makes building complex layered sounds very easy. Flip to the Layer Editor and, for the same 16 Parts, you can constrain the MIDI note range each Part responds to. As expected, the Parts View provides an overview of the (up to) 16 instruments (Parts) you might have loaded in an instance of SampleTank 4, with simple controls for setting such features as MIDI channel, mute/solo, pan and volume.
SAMPLETANK IPAD REVIEW WINDOWS
Keyboard splits and layers are easy to create within the Layers Editor.The functions and features of some of these windows are fairly obvious. And, despite some changes, existing SampleTank users will find much that is familiar. However, the workflow is generally very logical and the controls on each window sensibly focus on a particular type of task. The revamp of the UI means SampleTank's feature set is now contained within eight main windows Parts View, Instrument Browser, Edit Panel, Effects Rack, Player Panel, Layer Editor, Mixer and Live Mode. This is a virtual instrument that all but the most technophobic of computer-based musicians ought to be able to handle.
Users also get access to some content from earlier SampleTank releases with, again, different selections for each edition. The expanded content offers plenty of 'new for v4' samples including acoustic pianos, bass, brass, strings, guitars, acoustic and electric drums, percussion, synths, voices and woodwinds.
SAMPLETANK IPAD REVIEW PDF
Usefully, the IK website has a PDF document that details the content provided in each edition so you can see exactly what you will get. SampleTank 4 runs as both a stand-alone application (useful for live performance) and as a multi-format plug-in. For the SE and standard versions, those numbers are 30GB/2000 instruments and 100GB/6000 instruments respectively, reflecting their different prices. For this review, I had access to the fully-loaded MAX version which offers 250GB of samples spread across some 8000 instruments. All use the new front-end but are supplied with different sizes of sound library. SampleTank 4 is now available in three editions SE, the 'standard' and MAX. However, while IK have delivered lots of new features and refinements to the user interface, they have also done a pretty good job of retaining SampleTank's 'easy-to-use' tag. Alongside the collection of samples, therefore, it provides a sample-based virtual instrument with 16-part multitimbral capabilities, support for multi-layer, multi-articulation, sampled instruments, and playback of audio and MIDI loops (patterns). Let's start by confirming that the underlying SampleTank concept remains firmly intact. So, what does v4 bring to tempt the music producer looking for that perfect sound source workhorse? What's In The Tank? IK Multimedia have now introduced SampleTank 4 with new features and new samples. That's not a criticism simply an observation because, for certain groups of potential users, that's exactly what they are looking for. It perhaps lacked the glamour, cutting-edge quirkiness, or sample-editing depth of some more targeted, genre-specific virtual instruments, but the sounds span orchestral to EDM and it ticks the 'jack-of-all-trades' box very firmly. With its easy-to-use interface and broad, very useable sound palette, SampleTank 3.5 provided a workmanlike virtual instrument that would make a great starting point for those building a music production system. We last looked at SampleTank back in the SOS August 2015 issue. IK Multimedia's newly updated one-stop sample shop is bigger and better than ever. Parts View allows you to load up to 16 individual instruments into a single instance of SampleTank 4.
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