SampleTank 4 Soundbanks

[Savage80]

The SampleTank 4 soundbank seems huge. The Upgrade includes more than is actually needed with having limited space available on the hard drive. Do you have to download the entire thing, or is it broken down into multiple sections that you can pick through to download or not? Is it like the Syntronik sound files, or is it one large file with all the instruments?

[DarkStar]

They are multiple download files, but I do not know how you can tell exactly which instruments are in which download.

If no other user posts details of each download here, then the best thing to do is ask Technical Support.

[Savage80]

Thank-you for your reply. If anyone knows what content comes with each section, that information would be appreciated. Unfortunately there is no room for the whole package until we get a new computer. If you can add and delete certain instruments great, if not it will be a matter of getting the upgrade and putting it on an external drive for later.

[zedd]

Actually, the SampleTank 4 content is broken up into installers that tell you exactly what instrument sets they are installing. It was the ST3 content installers that do not indicate their contents.

Having said that, when you install SampleTank 4, the installer leaves you with a message with the word IMPORTANT written in red... it says: "use the IK Product Manager applicaiton to download and install all of the sample files BEFORE you load instruments in the SampleTank 4 application."

I honestly don't understand why they put that message, because I doubt you actually HAVE to install everything right from the start if you don't want to. Since you can add content later, it is not hard coding the content. Maybe it would crash SampleTank if you tried to load an instrument that isn't present... I have no idea what the big SCARE is all about. For me, I cannot install anything from the Product Manager, so I have to install everything manually anyway.

I didn't appreciate the message or the lack of detail because I just wanted to install a few instrument sets and start playing around and having some fun... instead I had to spend time clearing up hard drive space and trying to get all the content downloaded and installed just in case it was going to be a problem if I didn't. I still haven't finished the preps and authorized ST4.

[DarkStar]

^^^
If you have the time, can you UnZip one or two of the ST4 sounds downloads and see what sub-folders it contains? Instruments? Samples? Each with one or more named instrument sub-folders. Any others?

That will shed some light on the warning message. If each download seems complete then I would think that you can download and install only the ones you want.

But remember, the ability to download the sounds downloads expires 180 days after Registration. So download them all and move to a back-up drive. Otherwise you'll need to buy a Download Reactivation (which covers ALL your sounds downloads for a further 180 days).

[zedd]

But remember, the ability to download the sounds downloads expires 180 days after Registration. So download them all and move to a back-up drive. Otherwise you'll need to buy a Download Reactivation (which covers ALL your sounds downloads for a further 180 days).

Hey Dark Star... do you mean that a Download Reactivation will unlock ALL sounds in our accounts, or just all the downloads for a single product (in this case SampleTank)?

I thought it was a download reactivation for each product, but if it reactivates everything in our account (which is PROBABLY NOT what you meant) that sounds better, because I was wondering what happens in the case that you lose your backups and computer in an unforeseeable event or something and had to start over.

In my case, IKM put a couple of complimentary "synth" products in my account which I never got around to installing and looking at... and with MODO bass and MODO drums being their new synthetic-based product lines, it never even occurred to me that Synthtronik and another Synth title for ST4 were sample based... so now I see that both those freebies have expired sound sets. I got one of them back again with the selection of Syntronik for the GB.

[DarkStar]

ALL sounds libraries for your User Account

... If you already have the installed versions (or the installers) for the other libraries, you don't need a reactivation credit (which is $9.99 for all your libraries, not 9.99 for each) you need to import them into SampleTank 3.

https://cgi.ikmultimedia.com/ikforum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=24918&p=105055

I think that it was "per product" initially, but IK Multimedia opened it up to cover all the libraries in your Account.

[zedd]

That's really good news!!

Thanks Dark Star!

I was considering this several times over the past couple of weeks and thinking that $9.99 seemed really quite steep for a single product reactivation. This is much better!!

However... I still can't reactivate that single product that expired without paying $9.99 so I think I'm gonna wait on that one... since I wasn't interested enough to install it in 180 days, I think I can wait a little longer.

Besides that, I am really pleased with some of my new SampleTank add-ons!! So many new instruments and sounds to explore and try to put to good use.

This GB is amazing.

[DarkStar]

If you have the time, can you UnZip one or two of the ST4 sounds downloads and see what sub-folders it contains? Instruments? Samples? Each with one or more named instrument sub-folders. Any others?

That will shed some light on the warning message. If each download seems complete then I would think that you can download and install only the ones you want.

[zedd]

If you have the time, can you UnZip one or two of the ST4 sounds downloads and see what sub-folders it contains? Instruments? Samples? Each with one or more named instrument sub-folders. Any others?

That will shed some light on the warning message. If each download seems complete then I would think that you can download and install only the ones you want.

Oh sorry about that...

Okay I just checked a couple. Each of the sounds downloads contain samples only of whatever it is called ST4_Organ_Samples, for example (including all the subfolders that you will find them in when installed in SampleTank).

All the instruments are installed separately in a file called ST4_Instruments_Installer_1_2.dmg along with the MULTIs and Library Info.

[DarkStar]

Thank you.

So, if you know what you are doing ( ) you could install just the instruments and samples that you want. And keep everything on a back-up disk for possible future use.

[zedd]

Thank you.

My pleasure.

So, if you know what you are doing ( ) you could install just the instruments and samples that you want. And keep everything on a back-up disk for possible future use.

Yes. I honestly don't know why the IMPORTANT IN RED warning... a similar message appeared again after installing the instruments at the end of the install (I seem to recall).

A more useful message would be... AVOID DOING such and such because THIS might happen... but don't worry... if THIS happens, all you have to do to fix it is to do THAT...

It is helpful to be somewhat familiar with SampleTank and to know how to rebuild the database and stuff when you need to... but it's not that complicated... unless something about the database gets hardwired when you first launch it and load up instruments.

I ended up installing everything just to be safe and I'm actually glad that I did because some stuff I wasn't expecting to care much about is really quite good and will be useful (the vocal instruments, for example). I'm glad I have it all done, and I'm looking forward to installing a few more add-ons soon...