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I'm going to be getting a sampler sometime soon. I'm thinking of either Halion 3 or Mach 5. I'm currently using Logic 5.5 on PC (windows 2000).Does anyone have any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations about which way I should go??Thanks

Hey Mani,I've really like M5. It's great because it will convert and play almost any sample format. Also, it's really easy to set up your own sample banks just by dragging an audio file into M5. On the down side, it's a little awkward at first, as far as set up sample bank directories.Good luckZink

What are you going to use it for - tweaking like crazy, playing commercial libraries, playing huge modern libraries that stream from the hard disk...? What is it about EXS that's not working for you? It's very efficient with libraries that don't have very complicated programming, but it doesn't have some of the more advanced manipulation features others have. Given a choice, I always get EXS versions of libs because it's so efficient and loads so quickly (on Mac - I don't know how the PC version 5 was).Are the included sounds important to you? Some of the samplers come with really great libraries, for example GigaStudio 3 and Konakt 2 have pretty serious Vienna Symphonic Library versions as well as lots of other stuff.And I'd definitely add GigaStudio 3 to your list, because it's also great, and so is Kontakt 2 in different ways.I use all of them, by the way. Well, I don't have MachFive, but I have all the others.

Hi Nick,I was hoping you might chime in on this! First I don't have the EXS. It only came standard with Logic after 5.5! Wish I did but I can't get it now until I crossgrade to Mac. I don't have any sample library at the moment so I'm starting from scratch. Therefore the quality of the sample CDs that ship initially with the sampler is a very important consideration for me. I'd heard nothing but bad things about the sample CDs that ship with Kontakt even though everyone agrees it's probably the most powerful sampler. Maybe you have a different view?? I have no interest in Giga at all. Every post I've ever seen about it says it's riddled with problems. Most people can't seem to run it at all without using a dedicated computer. So no go there.So I'm down to Halion 3 and Mach 5. I've heard only good things about the sample sets that ship with these.My concern about Halion is that I'm on Windows 2000 Pro and according to the Steinberg site Halion requires XP. I find that kind of hard to believe. Do you have any knowledge on that issue Nick?Btw, as regards usage I'm looking to play a lot of bread and butter sounds that will cover a wide variety of styles reasonably well. Y'know pop/rock/urban/electronica with some decent tools for tweaking. Any other tips, thoughts, suggestions welcome too!!

The sample CD that ships with Kontak *2* is pretty spectacular, and what you've read about Giga is a load of booshwoogie. All Giga did was change the way music is composed and create a whole new musical medium, for heaven's sake!

Sorry, I should have said the two sample DVDs that ship with Kontakt 2. One of them is all VSL sounds, the other a variety of other things.If you just want sounds, by the way, you might take a look at East West Quantum Leap Colossus. It's $1000 list, but it's often discounted very nicely, and it's frikking awesome. But it's just a player, not a sampler. It uses a NI (Kontakt family) plug-in.

Hi Nick,Thanks for the response. I'm not arguing about Giga btw. Just responding about what I've read. I know Giga changed the game, but I've always been under the impression that you need a lot of money to throw around to be able to run it properly. Even the "pro" reviews I've looked at have been virtually unanimous in that regard. I'm not saying they're right but when so many people are in agreement I'm not going to take a chance on it.Colossus sounds interesting but $1000 is too rich for my blood.I've been reading more on Kontakt 2 and I'm interested. (Most of what I'd heard before was about the older version). Unfortunately, on the NI website it says under 'System Requirements' -Windows XP. No mention of Windows 2000 at all which is what I'm running. Again I find this hard to believe and more than a little disappointing. Can you confirm for me that Kontakt 2 will not run under Windows 2000??

What you've read about Giga may be unanimous, but it's unanimous BS. This is not something I'm pulling out my rear end - I've been using Giga for two years.I don't know about Windows 2000 and Kontakt 2, but why on earth would you find it hard to belileve if it doesn't run on it? It's almost six years old, for heaven's sake, and frankly if I were a developer I wouldn't spend one penny of development money supporting it. Computer years are like 20 real years, after all; sampling technology has only a passing resemblence to what it was like six years ago.K2 and GS3 both have convolution reverbs and all kinds of processing built in. These are programs that push the limits of even today's computers.

Like I said, I'm not arguing! I really don't know about it personally. I'm glad it works for you!My setup at the moment is really stable and I'm very happy with it. If I had my way developers'd be supporting W2K until 3005!!

Sorry if I sounded harsh, but it irritates me when great products get dissed by irresponsible louts on the internet. All software has bugs, and people only write about problems in forums, not about what's working right.