Back to Recording - What sample player?

AlanP

Ok, I used to be a Sonar user.  I liked it a lot (I still have it of course Sonar 4 and 7).   So with the prospect paying a fair few sheckles on an update to the most recent version, I decided to give Reaper a try.

Well, there is a lot to like about Reaper too, so I'm going to stick with it.

Thing is, I've a lot of samples, mainly in .gig format, but some Halion as well.  My old Gigasampler won't run on Win7 (and I hadn't been using it with Sonar anyway - I was using VSampler that came bundled with it).  

Well, VSampler is still available, but it doesn't seem to have been updated since I had it with Sonar, many moons ago, so I'm looking for something more "modern".  I really only need a sample player - I don't really do anything complicated with envelopes etc, and I don't actually do sampling myself.

I've downloaded the Kontakt player to have a look at that, but I can already see that the freebie doesn't support imported sample libraries...  

Ok, I haven't scratched the surface with Kontakt yet, but is there anything else I should be looking at to play my existing sample libraries (free hopefully, but I don't mind springing for something good).

Cheers

Alan

Jalapeno

Take a look at Reason, I love it.  A range of sample players

AlanP

Yup, that looks plenty complicated... (and costs a bit too...)

The thing is, I'd really like to avoid complication as much as possible, and just be able to access and play the sampled instruments I already have...

... My initial need is simply for a decent drum kit - I just want to be able to record some guitars and add a credible backing kit.

I've been using NSkit7free in the past (no longer free, sadly, but I still have the free one I downloaded).  I just need a player to load it into, a bit of midi piano-scroll editing, cut, pase and copy, and bish bash bosh...

Any ideas for something that doesn't need a degree and/or 6 weeks of study to use...?

Thanks

Alan 

Fez

Doesn't Reaper have an onboard sample player? Also check out what comes free with Computer Music magazine (I keep saying this but I swear I don't work for them).

PolarityMan

I used battery a long time ago and that seemed pretty immense.

sweepy

The free version of Kontakt does import other libraries . If its straight sample replay you are after. try Sampletank 

AlanP

I didn't see a sample palyer in Reaper (maybe I didn't look hard enough)

The 'tickbox table' for various versions of Kontakt claims that importing .gig files etc isn't supported... maybe I need to look harder (yet again...).

Thanks all...

Elx

Doesn't Sonar 7 come with a decent drums VST? Session drummer or whatever it's called?

AlanP

A lot of these things that come with Sonar, only actually work with Sonar (that was my problem with VSampler - I want to move to Reaper...)

... but I have found a solution at reasonable cost (VSampler is 100Euros, and doesn't appear to have had any activity for many, many years...)

Samplelord:  www.samplelord.com/index.php?page=samplelord

... well, it is also a few years since the last release, but at 39 Euros + VAT it isn't such a big risk.

I downloaded the demo, dropped it in the slot where I had the VSampler demo, and it "just worked" (tm).

The UI is very straight-forward, there is a 65-page pdf manual (which I might actually read), but best of all, I can get using it right away, without any of that...  (The decision to drop the cash via paypal took about 30 seconds... that's how long it took to get it going).

Happy days...

Alan