The Preamp, Tone, and Cabinet options form the basis of IK's guitar amp-modelling software Amplitube, and are welcome in Sampletank 2. Once installed, you need to authorise the plug-in in the usual challenge-and-response style until you do so, Sampletank 2 will run in demo mode, with polyphony limited to four notes. Having installed the version on the CD, I found that this didn't seem to work with Mac OS 10.3 (Panther), but downloading an update from IK's web site soon got things going, and a further update was made available as I was finishing the review. Given that the program requires a reasonably up-to-date computer to run, it might have been better to supply the sample library on DVD-ROM. Each of the eight CDs in the XL version I tested requires you to choose what elements you want to install and accept a licence agreement, so you need to be present and awake throughout the installation procedure, which took around 45 minutes on my machine. Sampletank L and XL come on CD-ROM, with the sample library supplied separately on four or eight CDs respectively. A G4 or Pentium 4 processor with 512MB of RAM is recommended, and 4.5GB of disk space is required. On the Mac, you'll need Mac OS 8.6 or above, while Sampletank 2 will run under any flavour of Windows from 98SE to XP (or 95 to XP, if you believe the manual rather than the spec on the outside of the box). The plug-in now supports Audio Units, VST, Direct X, MAS (Mac OS 9 only) and RTAS/HTDM formats. There are now only two versions of Sampletank, L and XL the previous dance-oriented DJ version has fallen by the wayside, although the new Sampletank 2 is actually much better equipped for working with loops. So is this sequel like The Godfather 2, or are we talking more Police Academy 7? Installation The replacement is certainly bigger, adding a further 2GB of sound data to Sampletank 1's existing 2.5GB library, but that's only the start: it also adds an impressive array of new features, new effects and a thoroughly revised interface, plus support for Mac OS X. I've been a fan of IK Multimedia's Sampletank virtual sound module since I first reviewed it in SOS August 2001, and it's still my first port of call for bread-and-butter sounds, especially drum kits and electric basses but more than two years on, it's now been replaced by Sampletank 2, which IK have been heralding with much ado for a while now. Sequels are usually bigger and more expensive than the original, but as anyone who's sat though Blues Brothers 2000 will know, they aren't always better. Two years on, there are plenty of fully featured software samplers and non-sampling virtual instruments too. Sampletank was a hit - a sample-based virtual instrument with great sounds and, at the time, not much competition. IK's Sampletank 2 running under Steinberg's Cubase SX2.
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