Matthew Sorrels

It really depends on the developer. For example Fabfilter's Pro-Q 3 on Windows doesn't allow free resizing in the VST2 version. Only the VST3 version can be sized to any size you want. The VST2 version just has a menu of pre-set sizes. It was a choice they made when they did the development. If you didn't install the VST3 version you would be missing out. And it's not the only one (sizing features are very often the difference between VST2 and VST3 plugins). VST3 also does a few side-chaining things better than VST2. On the other hand VST2 handles MIDI pass through/generation slightly better than VST3. An example of this is Blue Cat's Plug'n Script's VST3 version which doesn't work very well processing MIDI events but the VST2 version works great (I learned this the hard way). I'd say choice of VST2 vs VST3 shouldn't be automatic, it depends on the product/plugin.

Spark 2 was in V Collection 4 and then dropped for Collection 5+. They did release some bug fixes for Spark 2 not too long ago (a surprise because every one thought it was dead). It's the only thing from Collection 4 I still have installed. It's actually pretty cool, if you have any interest in drum machines/beats/dance music.

Your PC motherboard must have support for Thunderbolt built in. There is no way to add a card to a generic motherboard that doesn't have support to get Thunderbolt on a PC. But if you own the "right" motherboard and buy the motherboard's Thunderbolt card (or it could come with it for some "deluxe" packages or be actually built on the board for some recent motherboards) you can get Thunderbolt on a PC. Your audio interface manufacturer also has to provide a Windows driver. I think most are these days, but older Thunderbolt audio interfaces could be Mac only. You can't just add Thunderbolt to any PC. I don't think many(any?) AMD motherboards have Thunderbolt support (yet), so you'd have to an Intel motherboard.

The ST4 UI and preset loading system is a bit weird at first. Groove3 has a SampleTank 4 Explained video (with Eli Krantzberg) that isn't that bad (if you happen to have a sub). Though I don't think it goes into the included multis all that much, since that section actually was expanded after the initial software release. But if you want to learn the interface and some of the more complex features it is maybe the best video guide I've seen. ST4 is better than ST3 by a good ways. I'm not sure I've ever used the drum kits that much, they don't seem as good as Superior Drummer 3/EZDrummer/Addictive Drums 2/etc. But they are certainly usable. The big thing I wish they might address is that ST4 lost the visible keyswitch guide that ST3 instruments had. This was very nice with the Miroslav instruments. In ST3 you could see the keyswitch guide but in ST4 it's just some red colored keys. You can see what articulation is active in the main parts view (shows up under the instrument name) but that's it. Sampletank has never been home of the deeply sampled super-realistic scripted instruments you can find in Kontakt. But for a rompler its sounds aren't all that bad. I know there are still some outstanding issues with 4.0.9 (check KvR for the thread). But at least for me 4.0.9 and the sounds update that went with it, addressed most of the problems. I still don't trust the VST3 version though and stick with the VST2. For Sampletank 3 this was pretty much required, for Sampletank 4 I believe the VST3 should be stable, but the long history of it crashing (when the VST2 wouldn't) kind of makes me avoid it.

You may need to download each of the Sampletank sound installers, unzip them and run them and point them to the same directory. Trying to get around the installer by "hand unzipping" may result in more problems. There are a lot of downloads and installers for Sampletank content (even more if you are doing the full MAX version) and it takes forever to fully unzip and run all of them. When you are finally done, start the stand alone version and it will rebuild the database. Which takes forever also. When it's all done though you should have a ton of presets even for the SE version.

I wouldn't put too much into Windows icons. The whole system for how that works is kind of broken. Software can be installed and work 100% and still not have the right Windows icons. If you Google around you'll find tons of people with issues and advice on rebuilding the icon cache etc. But it can be a sign something is wrong too. I'm not sure what's in the SE library (I have MAX plus a huge collection of Sampletank 3 libraries that Sampletank 4 loads/uses). You may need to download some installers though. Here's the sound list: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/include/st4/soundlist/SampleTank_4_SE_Instruments.pdf That's a pretty big list of instruments (30gigs). Sampletank 4.0.9 has definitely been better than a few of the earlier releases. You might want to search your computer to make sure you don't accidentally have older versions of the plugins in other directories. If your Sampletank 4 content dir isn't near 30gigs I'd say you're missing something.

Sampletank 4 (and all IK instruments) all use OpenGL for their UI. OpenGL isn't provided by Windows, it's actually provided by your video card driver. Video card drivers almost always need to be updated/maintained by hand. Windows won't do it right. You may want to update your video card drivers. If Sampletank crashes when you first insert it, that would be the most likely cause. If Sampletank doesn't crash when you first insert it, but rather when you try to open a project you saved using it. That's a completely different kind of issue. Your description of the problem is very unclear. Problems with Sampletank once it's open and the other things in your first message about instruments and arpeggios, sounds more like an installation problem, which could very well be your crashing issue as well. Installing Sampletank and all the sound libraries can involve a bit of pain (especially the larger MAX package). You really need to read and install it exactly how IK describes. You should have a Sampletank 4 content directory. You tell Sampletank where this is in the Sampletank Settings dialog, Sound Content panel. It should have the path to your Sampletank 4 content. Which is where you should have installed all the content by downloading and running all the content installers, one at a time. Your Sampletank 4 content library should be stored in a directory you have write privileges on. This can often mess people up, since the installer runs as admin and they stick the content someplace they can't actually write as a user. There are other ways to make this fail also, sadly. If you really have installed everything correctly and you have updated your video card drivers and it still crashes, I hate to tell you this but there is zero chance IK support will be able to help you in the slightest. I have YEARS of history trying to get them to fix bugs where I've given them exact steps to reproduce the problem, which they confirmed would crash for them to only to have it not be fixed. The good news is that it's not crashing like this for most people (me for example) so odds are it's something about your config and installation. But again only you know how you installed it and configured it.

Sampletank 4 does come in VST2 and VST3. But depending on your settings Cakewalk may be hiding your VST2 version.

I could understand the price if it was like 5-10 world class studios, but just one studio?

I think white icons are VST3 (you can see the 3 in the icon) orange are VST2 (looks like a plug), green are 32 bit

Waves Release Notes (this URL is kind of hard to find on their site) https://www.waves.com/downloads/release-notes

Is the software that this will control this? https://www.waves.com/mixers-racks/emotion-lv1-16-channels#emotion-lv1-live-mixer-v11-update It's $1300 for just the software? For only 16 channels?

To be honest at a certain point, more Albion's don't really help you all that much (somewhere around 3 I'd say). But I've wanted a chamber version of Spitfire strings set in AIR Studios and I do like saxophones as part of a woodwinds section (most likely because of junior high band). And the fact it's not Spitfire player seems like a nice extra bonus. There was a time when Spitfire wouldn't discount anything, ever.

None of the new synths are in Mercury. Have to buy Inspire. Which I'm waiting on for a much, much better deal. Sadly you can't get any credit for the parts of Inspire that are in Mercury.

1 Albion - extra 5% off 2 Albions - extra 10% off 3 Albions - extra 15% off 4 Albions - extra 20% off 5 Albions - extra 25% off 6 Albions - extra 30% off *This includes owners of discontinued products; Albion Legacy & Albion II Loegria Not sure 5% off is generous, but OK. Re-Completing the Albion Collection works out the best for me (vs 25% for having 5 Albions). Looks like this extra discount only runs till Feb 6th, so it won't help/change anything for Black Friday/Wishlist sale. Having been burned very badly on BBCSO, I'm kind of leery about buying this now. Spitfire current discounting method isn't as rewarding for pre-orders and early purchasers as it used to be.

A few months ago on one of the zillion threads on VI they mentioned something about knowing who bought their stuff (most likely from NI's registration system) and that it would somehow appear in the new store I'm just hoping they haven't gotten around to it just yet and will work it out -- most likely when they start shipping SINE versions of those products (which I think is the plan but I'm not 100% sure of that at this point).

Looks like it's cheaper at Best Service, plus you'd get Best Coin. $551.48 if you already have the dongle. I wonder if any other retailers can do better?

I do have to give them some props for the SINE player. It's really much better UI than Spitfire's BBCSO player. The VST UI is resizeable (but not the stand alone). It does multis. Can't really tell how well it handles large instruments with just this free set, but it looks pretty nice. The only thing wrong with it is the store and my licenses pages, they either don't load at all or are blank with no progress inside the VST version. The stand alone version does seem to have progress and UI though. Not sure if that's by design or what. It's kind of weird. In order to download anything you have to use the stand alone version to get to the my licenses page. I do really like how you can move the key switches around. The mixer page seems usable. It has potential. Doesn't seem to have presets for sections (though it does have a load/save for whole instance). Certainly seems better than Spitfire's player at this point.

The question is should I just get a full copy of Nuendo for $588 (if you don't need a eLicenser this $615.99 deal is cheaper)? I'd like to have some of the features in Nuendo but I'm not willing to give up the workflow/UI improvements in Cubase 10.5 to get it. Trying to keep both apps is likely to be more trouble than it's worth really (not to mention the expense). Steinberg really doesn't make it easy to be their customer.

Their new store is a total lose as well. I own all four Ark Kontakt instruments but there isn't anyway to register them or for them to even know I have them, since I bought them at Native Instruments when they were on sale. I think sample developers just aren't good software developers. I did finally get this all downloaded and installed. It's worth getting for free, but I wouldn't pay for it. I'm not sure an orchastra that only plays major or minor chords is all that usable. It really is more of a taste/demo than something you could use as a final product.

The Cubase crossgrade also requires you give up your Cubase license completely. Which I'm not willing to do. They were talking about how Nuendo and Cubase would be in sync featurewise going forward starting with Cubase 10/Nuendo 10, then when Cubase 10.5 shipped they pretty much had to admit that wasn't going to be true.

Download the most recent eLicenser driver and see if it works https://www.steinberg.net/en/company/technologies/elicenser.html

The free Big Bang thing is nice and all, but it's not worth buying a dongle for. I only registered it because of Cubase. VSL products may be worth it to some composers, but in my book their product line is far too confusing and just gives me a headache. It also seems vastly overpriced, but again because of the way it's sold I can't really tell. I don't want to buy single instruments plus expansions for each part of a whole orchestra. Though considering what I've spent on libraries the last few years maybe VSL isn't overpriced, it just feels like it is.

For Big Bang they have a player VST, Vienna Synchron Player. I think it's what they are using for these paid versions (including the paid Big Bang expansion and this Black Eye thing) also. Mine is a VST3 called Vienna Synchron Player.vst3 (there is also a Surround version) You do need a eLicenser hardware key to use them I think.

Technically it is an FX/synth, according to the Google Translate on that page. So their version of iZotope VocalSynth: Waves Audio OVox - synthesizer plug-in for vocals At NAMM 2020, Waves Audio present a new FX plug-in called OVox. It is a synthesizer that can be used to resynthesize vocal recordings. Depending on the setting, the sound generator works like a vocoder, a talkbox, a harmonizer or a pitch-tune effect. We can be curious whether this plug-in will bring some variety to the auto-tune productions. Not much is known about the new Waves Audio product. We'll keep you up to date. Author: André Masterati