"sampletank custom shop" or "sampletank free" ? [Resolved]

[SergeD]

Hello,

I'd like to reinstall American Acoustic on my new computer, so Sampletank custom shop has been installed first, which displays a showcase of products.

All I want is to install and load American Acoustic on a plain sampler without all those annoying advertisements. Is Sampletank free the right tool to use ?

Thanks for any help.

[DarkStar]

Hello sdaigno2010@gmail.com and welcome to the forum.

The "SampleTank 3 Custom Shop" (ST3 CS) product is 3 separate programs:

• SampleTank 3 (ST3)
• Custom Shop
• Authorization Manager.

It also includes a Serial Number for ST3.

ST3 is the main program - its capabilities, in particular the sounds it can load, are determined by the Serial Number.

Install all three programs. Run ST3 and authorize it using the Authorization Manager (you may be prompted to get an updated version). Install the sounds libraries and authorize those, as needed. Then you're good to go.

When you want to see what other sounds libraries are available you can run the Custom Shop to see them and buy them. Or just browse here:
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/sampletank3instruments/

[SergeD]

Thanks DarkStar,

First of all, it's a puzzle to find what to get and how it works, where is the download page that would let me easily install your applications instead of having to navigate into your catalogue of products,

Secondly, 2 years, ago, the installation of American Acoustic + your free libraries have been a challenge to install alongside on my old computer, finally I had to give up.

Finally, I just realize that I have to pay 10$ to reactivate for something I already paid full cash 2 years ago. I am sorry, but my feeling about this abusive reactivation is not very positive.

Please, help me to finally enjoy playing with this very good product without having to pay a second time.

[DarkStar]

What is the puzzle? Downalod anfd install ST3 CS and American Acoustic. Authorize them of off you go.

The products are (relatively) easy to install, certainly compared with some other manufacturers.

Exactly what have you installed so far and what problem did you run into? If you still have the download files (a back-up is always recommended) you can use those for the sounds libraries. Or, I'm pretty sure, just copy them over from your old system.

When you Register a product with a sounds library, that library is available for download for 180 days and IK Multimedia recommend that it is backed-up so that it need not be downloaded again.

PS: it would be best to change your Account Name away from an email address, to minimise the chance it being harvested by web bots and you receiving all sorts of 'special offers' etc from all over the place for years and years. You can change it here:
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/userarea/account/

[SergeD]

Thanks DarkStar,

Understood, "When you Register a product with a sounds library, that library is available for download for 180 days", sorry for my rant.
American Acoustic files has been transferred to my new laptop and registered via Authorization Manager as well as CS (SampleTank 2.5 has also been installed but I guess it's deprecated and should be uninstalled).

I have now CS started, no sampler appears, no American Acoustic appears, there is only a front store. I clicked SampleTank on upper window and still see a front store.

[DarkStar]

We're getting there

Yes, you can uninstall ST2.5 - unless you have projects that use it. Remember that ST2.5 is 32-bit only so the plug-in may not load in your DAW.

There is no need to start the Custom Shop program - as you have seen that is a store-front. Clicking on SampleTank 3 there just takes you the the ST3 department of the store.

Instead, start the SampleTank 3 program (or load the ST3 plug-in in your DAW). To see the available instruments you may need to:

(a) point at the SampleTank 3 sounds library oflder, in the program's Settings > Preferences > Disk Path
(b) rebuild the instrument cache by clicking the circular-arrow button at the bottom of the program's Browser.

[SergeD]

Finally, SampleTank was not visible on my Desktop (I prefer to use standalone versions), hence my confusion

I guess that Custom Shop may be uninstalled safely if it's not used?

My SampleTank folder contains 2 sub-folders, American Acoustic and Free Pack. If the chosen Disk Path is AA this instrument is rebuilt. Idem for the Free Pack. It's impossible to choose SampleTank folder and rebuild alongside both instruments.

At least AA may be used and I thank you very much for your patience.

[DarkStar]

1 Keep Custom Shop installed - you may wish to use it later. It does not get in the way. You could delete (or better, move) the CS desktop icon if it annoys you.

2 If you select the "SampleTank" folder rather than the AA or Free Pack folder then rebuild the cache you should be able to see / use them both. If that does not work then please post the exact paths to the two folders.

[SergeD]

Rebuild from D:\SampleTank 3\ only creates 9 sub-folders and 3 files into that folder and no instrument appears.

If one of those following folders is selected then the instrument is rebuilt and displayed.
D:\SampleTank 3\American Acoustic
D:\SampleTank 3\Free Pack

[DarkStar]

Using Explorer/Finder what is in those 9 sub-folders?

And in ST3, what happens when you click on the triangles next to the sub-folders?

Can you post a few screenshots. That would help.
https://cgi.ikmultimedia.com/ikforum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=432

[SergeD]

Here is a link with, hopefully, valuable infos:
https://imgur.com/a/aRAo3zA

[DarkStar]

Yes, they are helpful. Thank you. I do not know how that organisation was produced, but you can see that all the sub-folder names are the same in each of the three areas. I'll guess that different install folders were selected.

All the instrument files (.st3i file extension) should be in sub-folders in the "Instruments" sub-folder. Similar for Sample" and the others. At the moment there are in 3 places.

Try this:
-- move the AA and FP (Free Pack) folders to somewhere-else for safe keeping,
-- install AA again, picking the "SampleTank 3" folder,
-- install FP again, picking the "SampleTank 3" folder,
-- using Explorer, check that you have only 1 "Instruments" folder,
-- start ST3, rebuild the cache and and check if all instruments are present

[SergeD]

The problem is if AA is installed first, the target path displayed for FF installation will be D:\SampleTank 3\American Acoustic\, instead of D:\SampleTank 3\

If FF is installed first, the target path for AA will be D:\SampleTank 3\, and from that point installation will be fine.

Thank you very much DarkStar.

[DarkStar]

Is it now all installed and working OK?

If so, you can delete those libraries that you moved out of the way.

[SergeD]

All installed and working