awful digital distortion Sampletank 4 piano sounds [Resolved

[Joewmilos1986]

OK< SO I have spent hours (days and nights really) trying to solve this problem and done all sorts of research with no real info coming up that is helpful to me. I am trying to simply use piano sounds that came with Sampletank 4 and play them at a reasonable volume through my rig keys I/o 25 and audiologic headphones.

I would like to control the volume in a way that allows for some boost when I want it, without risking blowing my ears out. The sounds are great and would enjoy playing them however my problem is this: all of the sounds are too quiet (and very quiet compared to the other instruments). The only way to make them sound good is to set the volume at max level. Any other parameter change creates this awful digital distortion sound.

The only way to get acceptable volume is to turn up my entire interface ( irig keys I/o 25) which allows no control and I run the risk of blowing out my ears when I try to use other apps (YouTube, etc), or switch to other Sampletank sounds which are way too loud at this volume (80+).

Considering that I am running all IK software and hardware, I am really getting frustrated and discouraged at this. Pretty much ready to get rid of this app and just settle for other sounds on other apps. My choices seem to be these: 1 settle for volume at max all the time, with no control. 2 turn up the whole interface, have control, but explode my eardrums when switching to other apps, or 3 get distortion no matter what I try, making it all useless to me. I don't have this problem with say GarageBand for example. I can control there volumes just fine and everything works together.

Does any of that make sense? Am I missing something? I feel this should be a simple deal, I don't claim to be a computer expert or anything, just a guy who would like to have reasonable volume control and play an an instrument that was completely designed all by the same manufacturer.

[Joewmilos1986]

NEVERMIND< I finally figured it out. So simple, I knew it would be. The piano sounds fantastic now, glad O didn't have to settle for anything else. Getting to do a side by side comparison to my alternative, and wow Sampletank is so good. Worth all that work to get it dialed in.

[DarkStar]

I am glad that you got this resolved.

To help others, and to mitigate your original post, can you please let us know what the underlying problem was and how you resolved it?

[Joewmilos1986]

To be honest, If I set all my master settings how I would like (irig keys I/o 25 volume at 70 through audiologic headphones, instrument volume at 75%) and try to play in sample tank exclusively, any increase in the instrument volume on sample tank instrument track results in digital distortion. If I leave everything alone and use the instrument in GarageBand, I can use the volume control there to increase it.

Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out how to get this effect in Sampletank by itself, and I guess at this point it doesn't really matter because I have spent way too much time trying to figure this out rather than just playing and practicing. Again, all Im really going for is the difference between like practice volume and some increase for say solo sections, etc. Like the volume knob on a telecaster, right?

I am new to digital audio, lost my right arm in a construction accident and my ability to play guitar along with it. Trying to build and instrument with keys and foot keys (like an organ) that behaves similarly to how I used to play (Grateful Dead covers on a tele ).

Anyway, maybe I'm just missing something here, maybe I just can't figure it out, but that's my solution for now so its time to get back to practicing (with better than GarageBand piano sound) rather than screwing around with controls. Not sure if that helps anyone, but thanks for your concern, Darkstar.

[twilson74]

I usually pull up Sampletank 4 in standalone mode when I'm just in the mood to play-- and I like the pianos a lot-- especially the Alan Parsons... but it does seem that the pianos are a lot quieter than other instruments-- and I have to crank the output on my interface when playing a piano sound. Otherwise I crank the gain or the output in Sampletank and I get distortion.

I think some of it is due to the instrument we call the "piano" itself-- which is short for "pianoforte"-- with piano literally meaning "soft". So it's intended to be a very dynamic instrument by its nature. And I think this may be why it translates similarly to the sampled instrument format.

Some piano plugins/instruments feature adjustable velocity curves that can change the dynamics of how loud notes sound in relation to how hard the keys are hit. Not sure if Sampletank has this.

[Joewmilos1986]

Exactly my experience, and the pianos do sound fantastic. This is a fine solution until I start running transcription software or something and forget to double check the volume there and get something crazy loud through my headphones, I kinda like to have some safety against that, you know? But I agree, its probably just the instrument and developer trying to be true to the original. Using the second volume in GarageBand fixed the problem.