July 24, 2014 - IK Multimedia is proud to announce that SampleTank® 3, the ultimate sound and groove workstation for Mac and PC, is now shipping. SampleTank 3 sets a new industry standard for studio composition and live performance via its massive 33 GB sound library (containing over 4,000 instruments), 64-bit compatibility, completely redesigned user interface, 55 high-quality effects, new loop and groove management and enhanced sample engine. Powerful, functional and effortless, SampleTank 3 puts a whole new world of sound at your fingertips.
It's all about the sounds
The reason SampleTank has remained the industry standard "rompler" after all these years is due to the superior quality and sheer amount of sounds it offers right out of the box. SampleTank 3 pushes the benchmark even further by giving musicians a wider selection than ever before, with over 4,000 instruments to choose from in 21 categories that stretch across every genre and style imaginable - everything from acoustic to electric, ethnic to electronic and beyond.
All of SampleTank 3's sounds have been sampled and painstakingly crafted by IK's team of professional audio engineers, with new lifelike expressiveness thanks to SampleTank 3 multiple articulations and new "round-robin" features. Musicians will enjoy the depth and nuance of their favourite instruments like never before: SampleTank 3's pianos, drums, basses, guitars, synthesisers, brass, strings, vocals and other more exotic sounds shine brightly and stand out in any mix with little-to-no adjustment required.
An elegant, easy to use, interface
Harnessing the power of SampleTank has never been easier thanks to its freshly redesigned user interface. Its workflow has been streamlined into three main pages that let you work with 16 distinct "parts," which operate like a channel on a mixing board or a track in a DAW: The Play interface is where you'll play, search, browse, layer and adjust SampleTank 3's instruments. The Mix interface gives you the flexibility of a multitrack console-style DAW mixer that lets you process sound through SampleTank 3's many versatile effects. And the Edit interface lets you tweak sounds through a full-featured synthesiser engine, 3 advanced sampling engines and a host of 10 filters. Now you have not only the power but also the ease-of-control to create any sound you desire.
Get into the groove
Want to start jamming over complete tracks? Now you can with SampleTank 3's new built-in MIDI engine. It lets you build killer rhythmic tracks from its library of 2,500 audio loops and 2,000 MIDI patterns. And no matter what kind of grooves you decide to create, you'll always end up with the highest professional sound quality: its rhythm section has been recorded by some of the finest drummers and percussionists in the world. You can even drag and drop to export your groove constructions and beats to your DAW of choice.
Three powerful engines
SampleTank has long been considered the undisputed king when it comes to resampling. Its 3 engines go beyond traditional resampling (which you can find in any sampler). It offers advanced pitch-shifting and time-stretching engines for loops and grooves. And its unique formant preserving STRETCH™ engine provides an unparalleled level of realism when dealing with vocals, woodwinds, brass, and other organic sounds. These features allow for a virtually unlimited assortment of creative sample effect combinations. With SampleTank 3, users will enjoy these engines even more as it's been optimised for quick sample load times and light CPU usage.
Enough effects to fill a recording studio
SampleTank 3 comes with a lot of effects to choose from - 55 to be precise. All of these have been derived from IK's professional-grade T-RackS and AmpliTube software and feature eye-catching graphics and ear-pleasing sound that will make you feel like you're in the recording studio with some of the most coveted audio hardware of all time. You get high-quality vintage-modelled effects - like AmpliTube's Chorus1, UniV and TapeEcho - which sound great on keyboard, guitar and bass samples. You also get a full suite of outboard processors from T-RackS - like the Black 76, White 2A and Model 670 compressors - which will help you give your drums a visceral punch. All this is to say that SampleTank 3 is more than just its voluminous library of samples: It's a full-featured sound workstation that will take your musical creativity to the next level both on the stage and in the studio.
Pricing and availability
SampleTank 3 is available now from music and electronics retailers worldwide and from the IK Online store until September 30, 2014 at introductory prices as low as $149.99/€119.99* for SampleTank 2 XL or Miroslav Philharmonik full users; $199.99/€159.99 for users of any other paid IK software, hardware or app; and $299.99/€239.99 for new users. After the introductory period, the price will increase to $199.99/€159.99, $249.99/€199.99 and $349.99/€279.99 respectively.