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IK Black Friday Deals


Larry Shelby

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1 hour ago, Lee D said:

The ST4 samples in the SE version are great.  The ST3 ones are crap. 

I wouldn't go so far as to call the ST3 ones crap. While the ST4 samples are awesome, they don't cover all instruments, so the ST3 library is an important fallback for bread and butter sounds!

The ST3 instruments will work in the new UI as well. And there is a hidden bonus to using the ST3 library in the ST4 interface. They are less CPU demanding. If you load up all 16 slots of a single instance of the ST4 plug-in with ST4 sounds only, especially the ones with larger sample sizes, you will see what I mean.

I can't even load up 8 slots before things start to fall apart with pops and clicks, etc. And that is with an Intel Core i5-9600K CPU running 4.6GHz on a Z-390 board running 16GB of DDR4 memory. Instrument plug-ins run their audio signal path in a single thread, so even though I have six cores, only one is doing most of the work. The solution is to run multiple instances of the ST-4 plug-in in order to spread the total ST4 load to a few more cores.

Edited by abacab
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2 minutes ago, InstrEd said:

ST4 also lets you load in your  products like Miroslav Philharmonik 2.   ST4 to me has been a good buy especially with the iRigkkeys I/O 49  I brought. Works well for my needs along with my Casio PX5S 88 keyboard.

Yeah I forgot about that but that's also a big benefit.  Also it loads Syntronik instruments.  Having everything in one plugin is great.

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Yep I've been spoiled by it.   Sometimes I think we forget how much power modern software gives us mere mortals :D.   Yes sometimes I get frustrated with Ik but for the most part it has been a nice journey and the more I use it the more proficient I get at it.  

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On 11/25/2020 at 6:56 PM, Lee D said:

The ST4 samples in the SE version are great.  The ST3 ones are crap.  But this includes like 200GB of new ST4 samples so that's what made me pull the trigger.  $80 for this amount of high quality sounds is a super deal.  Plus I like ST4 interface and effects. 

The sounds are good, but I'd rather chew sand than deal wade through all of that content using that SampleTank 4 browser.  Thanks, but no thanks.

Talk about a change for the worse.

ST3 is similar to Kontakt. I like it.  I will sit on that version until it no longer works, and in the meantime I'll take that cash and invest it into Komplete instead of ST4 [MAX] because I would use almost nothing due to not wanting to waste countless hours using that horrible browser interface.

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2 minutes ago, Maestro said:

I'll take that cash and invest it into Komplete instead of ST4 [MAX] because I would use almost nothing due to not wanting to waste countless hours using that horrible browser interface.

I have both and yes 100% agree

ST4 feels like it's from the last century - I'm not even sure how good the sounds are as I don't spend time with it.... the interface is so bad

 

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2 minutes ago, simon said:

I have both and yes 100% agree

ST4 feels like it's from the last century - I'm not even sure how good the sounds are as I don't spend time with it.... the interface is so bad

 

I agree...the interface is clunky and dumb...the sounds are just "ok", but nothing to write home about...
for being "10 years in the making", they wasted their time

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18 minutes ago, simon said:
28 minutes ago, Lee D said:

I dunno, for the price I'm happy.  The browser could be better but it's good enough for me.  I'm not a power user though.  

it's First World problems :)  - NI Komplete is much more $$ IIRC

Agreed.  The browser could be better. But for what I spent, what I get, I think I am coming out on top. 

For me, once I understood how the browser worked it was easier for me to get around. Agreed it's not the most intuitive browser out there, but I do like it better than ST3. And I still use ST3 on my Surface. 

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4 hours ago, Maestro said:

The sounds are good, but I'd rather chew sand than deal wade through all of that content using that SampleTank 4 browser.  Thanks, but no thanks.

Talk about a change for the worse.

ST3 is similar to Kontakt. I like it.  I will sit on that version until it no longer works, and in the meantime I'll take that cash and invest it into Komplete instead of ST4 [MAX] because I would use almost nothing due to not wanting to waste countless hours using that horrible browser interface.

You do realize that you can revert the ST4 browser to the classic folder view like ST3, right? IK didn't make a big deal about that in the user guide, but it works well. That along with the search box, and the browser is better than ever! Just click the little nearly invisible folder icon at the top left side of the library pane to switch browser modes.

No need to chew sand... ?

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9 minutes ago, abacab said:

You do realize that you can revert the ST4 browser to the classic folder view like ST3, right? IK didn't make a big deal about that in the user guide, but it works well. That along with the search box, and the browser is better than ever! Just click the little nearly invisible folder icon at the top left side of the library pane to switch browser modes.

No need to chew sand... ?

I was going to ask him what flavor sand..... nevermind :D

Really all of these programs all have quirks to deal with one way or another. It is up to each user to decide what is their braking point.

 

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5 hours ago, simon said:

I have both and yes 100% agree

ST4 feels like it's from the last century - I'm not even sure how good the sounds are as I don't spend time with it.... the interface is so bad

5 hours ago, cclarry said:

I agree...the interface is clunky and dumb...the sounds are just "ok", but nothing to write home about...
for being "10 years in the making", they wasted their time

Same experience here.  I go to ST4 to find a sound, fight the browser for five minutes, and then give up and go to Omnisphere, Kontakt, Halion, etc. to get the job done.

It really took them 10 years to make this thing?!?  LOL

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36 minutes ago, locrian said:

Same experience here.  I go to ST4 to find a sound, fight the browser for five minutes, and then give up and go to Omnisphere, Kontakt, Halion, etc. to get the job done.

It really took them 10 years to make this thing?!?  LOL

You can easily switch the ST4 browser back to "Folder" view by instrument, similar to the default ST3 view. Agree that the ST4 default "Category" view is confusing...

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On 11/25/2020 at 6:57 PM, Grem said:

I don't use any other sampler. I don't have Kontact, so that helps!! But I find myself reaching for ST4 now instead of any other sampler I have. Instead of EZKeys or True Piano, I grab ST4.

Instead of Garritan Personal Orchestrator, Dim Pro, Or Rapture, I grab ST4.

Just finding that I am learning ST4 more and more and just think of it instead of anything else. 

And my needs are not that extensive/demanding.  

If your needs are not that extensive/demanding, then you'll not see how awful ST/Philhamonik orchestral instruments sound compared to decent 3rd party libraries - most of which either use Kontakt, some other sampler, or their own player.  Garritan PO is a beginner/sketching library designed for people just getting into composition (and want to learn with a library that is very programmable - similar to other, higher end orchestral libraries - making it an amazing learning tool) or who need something to sketch ideas out on lower-resource devices (i.e. Laptops with limited storage capacity and/or processing power).  Replacing GPO with Miroslave Philharmonik 2 isn't much of a stretch.

You would never use either of those over a good Kontakt Library for doing actual paid work, unless it's just some smaller commercial projects, etc.

In any case, I went through all of the ST4 MAX instruments in the list, as well as demoed the sounds in ST4 SE (which comes with TSM2).  I see no reason to get this unless you want more Flutes, Saxophones, and a f*ckton of Synth sounds (which isn't a great selling point [to me] considering TSM2 owners got Syntronik MAX included in that).

Too much practical duplication, and I'm not hearing them sounding markedly better than what I have.  Lastly it's a royal PITA to download that much stuff, and I still have PTSD from downloading and installing TSM2 (ST4 MAX is even more content to download and install). 

170GB+ of SSD storage (and 190GB of archive storage - to avoid having to pay $10 for access when I get new PCs/have to reinstall) can be used for more impactful things.

I can see it being good for someone who isn't upgrading from where I am, though.

Nice price, but I need more value for it, even at this promotional pricing.  I've mostly just upgraded hardware during this Black Friday.  The software sales haven't been that amazing.  Either the prices aren't as great as I thought they would be, or the products simply aren't good enough (to me) to warrant getting even at deep discounts.

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6 hours ago, Maestro said:

If your needs are not that extensive/demanding, then you'll not see how awful ST/Philhamonik orchestral instruments sound compared to decent 3rd party libraries

 

Yep. This is me exactly. It works for me! I don't see it as awful.

The music I compose doesn't require anything more than ST4. And I'm really happy and proud I got it for such a deal!!

I am only letting others like me know that info.

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