IK Multimedia SampleTank 2.5 XL Education Edition
Eminem. Genesis. Shakira. Black Eyed Peas. Outkast. Nine Inch Nails. Herbie Hancock. That's a pretty diverse group of Grammy winning artists. However, besides the award, they share another thing in common. They've all used SampleTank samples for their album and/or soundtrack work. And that's just a small sample of the thousands of professional pop and specialized musicians who have found SampleTank to be their go-to sample software.

This incarnation, the SampleTank 2.5 XL Sample Workstation, will surely continue this trend as it still provides you with one of the most wide-ranging collection of sounds available--more than 1,800 samples of acoustic grand pianos, electric pianos, strings, brass, winds, vocals, orchestral sounds, drums, guitars, synths, loops, ethnic instruments and more. It also has the ability to read all "Powered by SampleTank" instrument sounds, including Miroslav Philharmonik, Sonik Synth, the upcoming SampleMoog, Studiophonik, and SampleTron. You can also import your own WAV, AIFF, AKAI, SDII, and SampleCell files for an unlimited range of sounds.

But it's not just the variety of high-quality sounding instruments it's compatible with that makes this such a sought after sampler. It's what you can do with them as well. After your initial quick install, you'll be up and running within seconds. The speed at which sounds load is amazing, keeping you in the creative flow as opposed to the hurry-up and wait of other virtual instrument samplers.

SampleTank 2.5 Sample Software offers more than 50 sampler controls that are accessible from an uncomplicated, intelligible single interface. Three advanced sample engines--traditional resampling, STRETCH and PS/TS--allow unrivaled sound manipulation. The STRETCH engine delivers amazing realism and expression over multi-sampled instruments with options like true glide, bending, staccato and vibrato control, all with an incredibly sumptuous, yet, real sound quality. If your song requires loops, the PSTS engine (Pitch-shift/Time-stretch) lets you synchronize loops with a single click. You can also control tempo and pitch independently of each other making this the ideal beat maker.

SampleTank 2.5 virtual instrument also provides some of the most powerful multi-effects to come in a virtual instrument. Every sound in SampleTank was programmed with fully editable built-in effects--drums load up with reverb and compression, guitars with amp-sim, electric organs with rotary speaker, etc. It's unique system of 5 insert effects per part, with 5 send and 5 master effects, gives you up to 90 effects options available in one powerful production package. You can also work with the algorithms from IK Multimedia's award-winning T-RackS, Classik Studio Reverb, and AmpliTube emulator.

For over 6.5GB of sounds, including a bonus disc, you can't do much better than SampleTank 2.5. The last version was a big hit with the hitmakers of all genres.