STS Series Highly Underated

Zer · Post by **Zer** » Fri Jun 21, 2002 4:52 am

Oh - please - NO! I better run my audio sequencer which does a better job.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Tue Jun 25, 2002 6:14 am

I don't see how they can be that expensive to produce. I think there just isn't enough demand for them because in the past samplers had a very limited amount of RAM. Hopefully with more and more people using computers for samplers this will change. I think a lot of people are not aware of what is available and how incredible it sounds.

Prospero · Post by **Prospero** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 4:44 pm

I have thousands of Akay samples...and I've converted all in giga format
would you be good to share that
contact me at lemura@libero.it

Robert · Post by **Robert** » Sat Nov 23, 2002 4:31 am

For those of you that are interested, there's an advert for a whole new orchestral sample library in this month's Sound-on-Sound.

Info and demos can be found at:

http://www.vsl.co.at

Only for Giga and E-magic though.

Isn't it about time Creamware started to produce their own sample libraries if they want their Power Sampler to be taken seriously. At the moment, they rely on Akai libraies to do the job.

It seems to me that they are going to get left behind by Tascam and the HDD streaming game.

Anyway, this was supposed to be an announcement, not a rant.

Robert

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Sat Nov 23, 2002 10:33 pm

you can still convert giga or exs format to sts without problem... CDXtarct do it quite well.

I use Bosendorfer and GigaHarp on STS.

But it is true they should have streaming soon or else, they'll be totaly left behind. The VSL librairy is gonna be available on DvD... It is like a 'gigantic' lib !

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Sun Nov 24, 2002 12:59 pm

That is true. The giga libraries tend to be enormous.

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Fri Dec 20, 2002 5:01 am

one thing I don't understand though... ok, the HD streaming sounds mega-realistic. They've got a million samples of all the minute nuances and characteristics that the instrument can produce. But how the heck do you play such a sample? (I haven't tried yet) Is there any possible way to control such a large sample pool? Or do you look through the million samples to find the exact tone for the next note on the flute? Sounds to me more like cutting and pasting, rather than playing an instrument. Haven't tried, so it's just my impression though.

But basically, my question is how much work does it take to get convincing results from one of these HD streaming libraries? It's still not a piece of cake, I'd suppose. I'm at lack of any experience on this though, so I'd like some enlightenment.

The thing is, I just don't see how it's even possible to emulate a piano on any sort of sampler.. cuz monophonic samping totally misses the point of a piano. As most of you may know, you can have a terrabyte worth of piano samples, but the thing is, the moment you hit 2 notes with the sustain, the sampler enters a totally non-realistic mode that has no relation to how a real piano works. Gigapiano does this, but that's a different engine. (I think) I'd suppose this is much more OK on monophonic instruments or instruments that have lower polyphony.. plucked instruments seem much easier to sample anyway.

I'm just very inclined to think that a realistic sampled instrument has more to do with how the samples are triggered, and closely relating the sampler's engine to how the real instruments work. (semi-physmod I guess) And the sheer amount of samples don't really matter quite as much.. I'm just wondering how giga or whatever else plays against this. need info! (cuz I'm considering moving over to giga someday)

and then there's always the problem of double stroking or triple stroking an already vibrating string... ?? How is it possible??

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2002-12-20 05:22 ]</font>

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Fri Dec 20, 2002 2:19 pm

Well, for Garritan Orchestral String, which is said to be the best strings available at any price, you can change articulation (read : legato, staccato, etc) using mod wheel...

Differents layer can be accessed by velocity for example...

But one big problem in giga actually, is modulation possibilities, which are very restrictive...

There is no way to modulate attack at all, same for a couple of other important parameters... Which is a big big problem if your are trying to produce a piano for example.

I can do a better sounding piano in STS than giga, even considering that giga can stream samples of more than 1gigs!

Also, never forget that stream is done from your hd, so forget about recording on the same disk... So if you want to use SFP, Logic and Giga on the same PC, you absolutely need 3 physical HD to work without clicks & pops...

Also, giga is really a resource hog, it install a service that is running in background and using loads of memory it is the MSG32SVR.dll

Giga is good for those that do orchestration, cuz you can drive 64 differents instruments, but to get 'some' performance of a huge setup like this, you need 2 PC for sure. On for giga, and one for Logic (or Cubase, etc)...

That's getting a bit expensive for an amateur like me...

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Tue Dec 24, 2002 3:33 pm

I think Giga sucks as a sampler. Its only attractive feature is the HD streaming. I haven't tried out HALion because Sonar doesn't have ASIO support yet, so I don't know if it's any better than Giga. But for most tasks I think that the STS beats Giga hands down.

Do any other samplers support HD streaming besides Giga and HALion? I don't think so; so the STS isn't being "left behind" at all -- because Kontakt doesn't do it either.

CreamWare does need to figure out a better Iout system though!

Shayne

Skunker · Post by **Skunker** » Thu Dec 26, 2002 5:36 am

the sts still lack portamento, very bad for basses and violins, and a few other special effcts that you can get only with a portamento on sample....

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:23 am

The STS sounds great and performs well but I find it takes so long to create your own sample sets with it. I wish they would come up with better software for the GUI. It's really horrible the way it makes stereo akai sets mono and then you have to turn them into stereo again which is tedious as hell. Does anyone else hate this as much as I do about the STS series?

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Wed Jan 01, 2003 5:44 pm

On 2002-12-24 15:33, Shayne White wrote:
Do any other samplers support HD streaming besides Giga and HALion?

Yes, EXS24 of Logic does play Giga files of over 1.5gig without any problem.

sandrob · Post by **sandrob** » Wed Jan 01, 2003 6:15 pm

On 2003-01-01 17:44, marcuspocus wrote:
On 2002-12-24 15:33, Shayne White wrote:
Do any other samplers support HD streaming besides Giga and HALion?
Yes, EXS24 of Logic does play Giga files of over 1.5gig without any problem.

newest kontakt should

Herr Voigt · Post by **Herr Voigt** » Thu Jan 02, 2003 5:33 pm

Skunker, you can use the pitch wheel for "string portamenti" or you can set the sound to mono/legato or you can create a simple sampler with the Modular.
Braincell, of course the making of a multisample is a bit ennoying, but you have the advantage to make it at a computer screen, a keyboard and a mouse, not at a display, big like a stamp and some tiny knobs. With a little bit more patience it can be a funny work, and the result is exactly that what you want ...

Always when I feel I have no musical ideas I like to make such time-robbering things.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 9:58 am

It seems to me that a hardware sampler would be quicker to use although this shouldn't be the case. It's a bad GUI.

Herr Voigt · Post by **Herr Voigt** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 4:18 pm

No. Last month I've made my first experiences with a AKAI S 3000 (without CD but a SCSI-drive). Immediately I felt a big yearning for my good STS 4000.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 1:46 am

STS series have as bad a GUI as the machine they copied. They did a good job on 'porting' the Sx000 series, even adding some extra features. I've worked with S-5000, it was a pain in my @rse to work with.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Sat Mar 01, 2003 6:42 pm

Using 2 hands and the buttons on hardware surely is easier than using a mouse or trackball on a teeny tiny GUI.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Sat Mar 01, 2003 6:44 pm

On 2002-11-23 04:31, Robert wrote:

Isn't it about time Creamware started to produce their own sample libraries if they want their Power Sampler to be taken seriously. At the moment, they rely on Akai libraies to do the job.

Robert

If they sound like the CD that came with my Pulsar 1,

GOD PLEASE DON'T LET CW CREATE ANY MORE SAMPLES!