Why Are Libraries Boycotting Sample Cell ?

[John Croarkin]

My company was going to purchase a second Sample Cell II+ system, but unfortunately, many of the best sample libraries are not being produced for Sample Cell anymore. Does anyone know the reason for this? Digidesign please figure out some incentive to get these guys producing disks for you product, or your platfom is going to be relatively useless.Unfortunately we are going to have to buy an AKAI sampler to access to the sounds we need, which is a shame, because Sample Cell is a much hipper system.

[Avid]

I don't really know the reason more sample CDs aren't released in SCII format. Perhaps we could do more in the way of lobbying, as you suggest.
There is the excellent Osmosis software from www.bitheadz.com that will convert Roland and Akai format sample CDs to SDII.

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Bruce Paine
eMarketing

[John Croarkin]

Bruce, Thanks for the response. We will look into the osmosis software. My partner recently had an extensive discussion with the ILIO people for example, and he was left with the distinct feeling, that they had some issues with Digidesign. It might be worthwhile to check into the lack of interest in Sample Cell by some of the sound developers.
Thanks, John C.

[Bryan]

Maybe it's because Samplecell II, in it's own regard, is like a 2" miniscreen compared to that Pioneer Plasma flat-screen tv. A lot of work goes into making those libraries, of course they would put more work into a platform that made their work look/sound good.

I use Samplecell exculsively, so obviously it isn't unusable. Paired with Mix+ it is fairly awesome _system_. On it's own merits, it ***** .

Either the Unity/Koblo approach has got to come up to speed or we need to see Samplecell III. Those who say that there isn't enough cash in this market for Digi to do it right are misinformed...I hope.

BTW, anyone tried that new string library from Ilio?

[Madjef]

During the creation of my first sample cd a blend of Hip Hop and R&B loops and pieces called Madjef's Black Butta. I was told by the company that handles my product (EastWest) that they were not interested in doing Samplecell. At the time I owned two samplecell systems and could not understand why. I think for my next project I will do it in Audio, Akai and Samplecell format, maybe start this new trend.

[DaveG]

The last time I perused one of their catalogs a few months ago, it looked like just about all the major ILIO and Spectrasonics libraries were available in SC format. Has something changed recently, and are they now planning to stop offering new libraries for SC? I'd been thinking about getting back into Samplecell (I replaced my SCII card with a Kurzweil several years ago), but this thread has me concerned. Well, that and the other thread which suggests that stereo samples in SC are never truly phase-locked...

[Digit Al]

Hi

I have 2 SampleCell II Cards and love them......... but.....

The answer to the question raised in this thread is simple:

SampleCell III: 128 megs ram: 128 voices : independent envelope, filters, LFO's on every sample ( not just one set of envelopes per instruments ) : 32 midi channels : Price $1199 list.

There are two issues as I see it:
First, when the max ram in most samplers was 32 megs, then buying a samplecell card was viable because it was like a sampler in your computer. Now with the standard amount of ram being 128 megs (Roland's 5080 will have 128) one as to take a harder look at buying a SampleCell card. Emu's E5000 lists for $1699 and has a max of 128 megs of ram.

The second issue is the flexibility of the filters, envelopes, etc. As dopey as roland's naming system is, the idea of the "partial" is that it allows the sampler to have individual control over each sample. This becomes a big issue with multisample setups, percussion being one example. If the samples require different envelopes, in samplecell, you have to set up a new instrument for each sample, because there is only one set of envelopes per instrument. This is a less elegant solution than having them all in one instrument, each with their own envelopes, filters, etc..

And while I'm on the subject, get rid of the whole "blank sample" thing. The keyboard splits should allow for the upper and lower range to be specified, unlike the current convention in which a sample split will simple go up or down to the next sample split. Again when creating multisample instruments, percussion as one example, creating a split with single sounds on a single note becomes a problem.

I know it's painful for the people at Digidesign to give that much power for that price. Let me put it this way. I paid $500 for my stylewriter II apple dot matrix printer. I'll be lucky if I get 20 bucks on Ebay.

Technology Tramples On

Well that's my 2 cents on the subject.

Alan

[editor]

I love the idea of SCII, the reality is that it is hard to work with, the software is weak and it loses bank specific info all the time.

I can't tell you how many evenings I have started to have a nice PT creative session W/SCII in the mix.....almost all the sessions W/SCII turned into a waste of time doodleing with sample cell, trying to even get it to work at all or getting a bitchin sequence ready to print to dat, when SCII starts spittin trash ruining 16 hrs of work.

e

;(

[Joris Vincken]

I think the only answer to this question is a question! Why is Digidesign boycotting SC? There is no more development and the hard and software are outdated. What a shame for such a beautiful concept (I still use my SC though, but 'just aside' I wouldn't dream of doing the things that I do with Gigasampler in SC).

[marsound]

quote:

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Originally posted by Digit Al:
Hi

I have 2 SampleCell II Cards and love them......... but.....

The answer to the question raised in this thread is simple:

SampleCell III: 128 megs ram: 128 voices : independent envelope, filters, LFO's on every sample ( not just one set of envelopes per instruments ) : 32 midi channels : Price $1199 list.

There are two issues as I see it:
First, when the max ram in most samplers was 32 megs, then buying a samplecell card was viable because it was like a sampler in your computer. Now with the standard amount of ram being 128 megs (Roland's 5080 will have 128) one as to take a harder look at buying a SampleCell card. Emu's E5000 lists for $1699 and has a max of 128 megs of ram.

The second issue is the flexibility of the filters, envelopes, etc. As dopey as roland's naming system is, the idea of the "partial" is that it allows the sampler to have individual control over each sample. This becomes a big issue with multisample setups, percussion being one example. If the samples require different envelopes, in samplecell, you have to set up a new instrument for each sample, because there is only one set of envelopes per instrument. This is a less elegant solution than having them all in one instrument, each with their own envelopes, filters, etc..

And while I'm on the subject, get rid of the whole "blank sample" thing. The keyboard splits should allow for the upper and lower range to be specified, unlike the current convention in which a sample split will simple go up or down to the next sample split. Again when creating multisample instruments, percussion as one example, creating a split with single sounds on a single note becomes a problem.

I know it's painful for the people at Digidesign to give that much power for that price. Let me put it this way. I paid $500 for my stylewriter II apple dot matrix printer. I'll be lucky if I get 20 bucks on Ebay.

Technology Tramples On

Well that's my 2 cents on the subject.

Alan

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I concur - I'd love to get another SC2 card, but I have the feeling that it either be discontinued or upgraded to your (excellent) version of SC3!!!!