Cult Sampler

World´s first Cult Retro Instrument! This unique library includes all these charming sounds of the late 70s to the early 80s. Because the samplers at that time suffered from severe limitations in memory capacity (RAM), excess artistic high level sound programming was a must. Pitching and stretching of sounds was obligatory and 8 bit sounds were mostly the standard. This resulted in sounds with very special character. A character that nowadays is missing in our hyper-clean 24 bit / 96 kHz world of almost unlimited RAM.

The 2000 sounds and multisamples are perfectly laid out to play on your keyboard. Sounds of early vintage samplers like Orchestron, EMU II, Akai S-612, Ensoniq Mirage, Fairlight, Synclavier, Linn, Mellotron, Master Studio Coll., FZ-1, DSS-1. Each sound and multisample was produced on a highly professional level with the original samplers. Also on board are all these classic factory sounds.

All this is combined with Native Instruments Kompakt sample player. This plug-in is based on the latest technology and it lets you, should need arise, tweak the sounds according to your preferences. Choirs and voices, flutes and clarinets, violins, violas and celli, trombones and trumpets, bassoons and contrabasses, church/pipe/electronic organs, grand pianos, chorus pianos, world percussion and acoustic drums, guitar licks, 12string guitars, E-guitars, clavinets and harpsichords, contra basses and E-basses, Japanese koto and shakuhatshi, syn chorus/pads and syn choirs. Also on board a huge variety of electronic and synthetic sounds, noisy and distorted pads, ambient pads, voice & special FX.

“Welcome to an exceptional plug-in which gives you inspiration and great stuff to spice up your compositions.”

No Sampler Required!
This library includes Native Instruments Kompakt Player* for Mac & PC
*Not INTEL Mac compatible! To run the libraries on INTEL Macs, the free Kontakt Player 3 (Version 3.5) update is required.

More infos

User Interface

Systemrequirements

NI Kompakt Player included in this product!

Minimum:
Windows XP, Pentium III / Athlon 500 MHz, 512 MB RAM, 11 GB free HD space
MAC OS 10.2.6, G3 500 MHz, 512 MB RAM, 11 GB free HD space

Recommended:
Windows XP, Pentium IV 1,8 GHz / Athlon XP 1800+, 1 GB RAM
Mac OS 10.3.8 Mac G5, 2 GB Ram

You can use this library with the free Kontakt Player 3.5 (or higher) which is compatible to all actual operating systems and interfaces on Mac & PC

Download free Kontakt Player Windows (71MB)
Download free Kontakt Player Mac (144MB)

Product activation:
An internet connection on any computer is required to authorize / activate the product.

Reviews

Audio MIDI US

Review Summary? 
Packaged into a great price is a cool interface, powerful synthesis, deep layering, and best of all, a big, wonderful sounding
library of classics and rarities. With all of this accessible either stand-alone or as a plug-in for nearly any DAW, you will want
to join this cult.

How does it sound? 
As good or better than the original sounds with the added bonus of high quality synthesis.

What is so great about it? 

One of the greatest advantages of virtual instruments is their ability to resurrect the hardware instruments of yesteryear.
Whether through emulation or sample playback, virtual instruments have conquered the critics and give today’s musicians
high quality, inexpensive, and endlessly controllable versions of everything from the most popular organs and electric pianos
to the rarest synthesizers. Where many companies have created software that mimics the hard-wiring and circuits of
keyboards and synthesizers, such emulation is nearly impossible when it comes to samplers and the extreme variation of their
libraries. Best Service fills this gap with Cult Sampler. 


Feature Review

First of all, EastWest's ProSamples Platinum series all use either NI's Intakt or Kompakt as their user interface. So I won't
spend too much time talking about the interface, but you can read more about Kompakt in Richard Zvonar's review:
http://www.audiomidi.com/aboutus/reviews/zvonarkompakt.cfm

The sound library hierarchy consists of a main Instruments folder with subfolders named after the original samplers (Ensoniq
Mirage, Korg DSS1, Fairlight, Orchestron, Synclavier, Akai S-1000, Akai S-612, Akai S-900, Mellotron, Emulator II,
Emax, Casio FZ1, Master Studio Coll., Circle Elements, Roland S-50, Wavestation, and Yamaha TX16W). Within each
subfolder, Best Service was nice enough to maintain the same nomenclature as the original sounds (a plus for those us that
have favorites from way back when). 

The Multi Instrument Section provides the building blocks for Kompakt’s powerful synthesis. The parent sound, called a
Multi, can include any eight Instruments from the entire library and can be saved for instant recall. The ease of layering eight
sounds from so many classic sources is thrilling. Though part of a Multi, each Instrument can be edited individually, and by
selecting GroupEdit you can make edits like adding an effect to all mapped keys and the Group Amp section allows for
more global possibilities. I loaded up five of my favorite sounds from the DSS1, Emax and Synclavier and started exploring.
With the ability to assign any of 16 MIDI channels to each Instrument, and a Mute and Solo button at each Instrument, you
can easily load multiple Instruments and then work them individually in whatever manner you prefer.

Control Freak

These days there are a myriad of synths out there that have spoiled us with the level of control we have over every element
of the sound. While Kompakt seems basic, it is powerful and complex in it’s functionality yet simplistic in it’s execution.
Most of the samplers represented here didn’t even have as much editing capability as provided in this straightforward
interface. And even if they did, none were as easy to use. I especially enjoyed filtering a lush pad from the DSS1 to add even
more warmth, adjusting the Attack and Hold of the Filter Envelope, and then chopping it up with a square wave on the Pan
LFO. Put your headphones on, push the LFO Frequency higher and higher and feel yourself starting to get dizzy— nice.
And the most wonderful part about all of these controls? You can automate them in your DAW. But you’ll see below why
this isn’t as easy as it should be. 

Short and Sweetened

As for the effects, you get a reverb, chorus and delay, each with a spattering of fun presets but very little control. These high
quality but limited effects seem to be intended for sweetening, and for my favorite old Synclavier sounds, they did exactly
that. While you may continue to rely on other plug-ins for serious effects, these will consume far less CPU power. The one
stand-out feature is that the delay is syncable to your host DAW tempo. This worked perfectly every time I tried it,
regardless of the tempo changes. 

The Sounds! What about the Sounds?

Many of these samplers had gigantic sound libraries. Fans of such stalwarts will ponder the limited list of sounds sampled by
Best Service in representing such diverse classics. But Cult Sampler is not intended to provide the full array of the prior
libraries. Instead, it provides exactly what it says, a “sample” of retro favorites to which most musicians would never have
access. A huge advantage of virtual instruments is that Best Service, or any other company, could easily release additional
sampled sounds for access through the Cult Sampler front-end. Despite this being a healthy and diverse library that will keep
even avid sound designers happy, I do hope that additional samples will be made available, even if they are from the same
list of samplers. 

The list of the samplers and their sounds is available on the install CD (Excel file) and at the Best Service web site. Over 550
sampled instruments are available, but when you consider that the drum presets have up to five octaves of samples, the total
skyrockets. 

Despite the lower bit rates of some of those samplers, the sound quality is great. But to judge the sound quality you have to
consider the sources, many of which were created at the birth of digital sampling, and others were tape-based. With that in
mind, I love this stuff. For most of the samplers you definitely get a good flavor of what they were like. You just won’t find
sounds like these in any of today’s samplers. The lower fidelity, the lack of sustain, the missing frequencies, the overall
cheese-factor of many of the sounds are all an accurate picture of the history of sampling. In fact, many of the sounds are
more dirty than what you may be used to, but that’s the beauty of those old machines. I was quite pleased to find that Best
Service didn’t try to clean them up. 

You get a healthy helping of orchestra, guitars, basses, pianos, brass, percussion, choirs, ethnic, unique sound effects, 13
classic drum machines, but mostly synths. The usability of the entire library will depend on the style of your music, but I
believe the synths and sound effects will be the reason most people would turn to Cult Sampler. Reason being that the
acoustic/orchestra and piano sounds from 20 years ago, while having a very unique sound, will typically lose to more
high-quality, current samples. And, though this collection does include some rarities from lesser known drum machines that
are quite welcome in my arsenal, your need for old drum machines may be best satisfied by dedicated virtual drum software.
In fact, the Emulator III, FZ-1, and Mirage percussion sets seem somewhat unnecessary (as they are either noisy, very
truncated, or they have far less realism), but if you don’t have any other drum instruments you will very much enjoy the Cult
Sampler selection. Cult Sampler would definitely be more useful if it focused on the types of sounds that aren’t better
emulated in other virtual instruments. While a few of the sounds are a little too associated with iconic 80’s hits, there are
hundreds of excellent sounds here, each with good velocity control and variation. When combined with Kompakt’s synthesis
controls, they will keep you coming back. 

Some of my favorites include the ever so noisy and low-bit Jazzy Alto of the Casio FZ-1; nearly the whole Circle Elements
collection including Gregorians and Nuns – which will soon have you writing like Moby, Ice Land Mod – be sure to hold
that one down for a while, and CPU Flow Mod – what you get when you push a modern orchestra through the circuitry of
an old Commodore computer; the MSC Bozouki, Steinway Piano Double – which doesn’t have a lot of life but you can
practically hear the hammer hitting the string, OB Texture – a very low-filtered Oberheim pad with a good stereo field; the
Orchestron Pipe Organ, Cello – it doesn’t sound much like a cello but it has a very unique and lo-fi quality; the Synclavier
Bass Analog LP – hit one note and a song will come to you; the TX16W Airspace – lush, lush, lush; and the Wavestation
Deep Atmo Multi – a near perfect beginning for a dance or prog rock song.


Summary and Conclusion

Even if you no longer have your favorite old samplers, you may still have the sound disks, in which case you can load them
into some of today’s virtual samplers like Halion or Kontakt. For the rest of us, Cult Sampler provides synthesis and layering
options of a reasonably diverse library of great sounding classic samples otherwise unavailable or too expensive to amass.
While I do hope that someone out there is diligently sampling a larger segment of those old libraries, Cult Sampler is a great
value for just about any computer-based musician. Review: Cult Sampler Best Service  Audio MIDI US Review
Review Summary? 
Packaged into a great price is a cool interface, powerful synthesis, deep layering, and best of all, a big, wonderful sounding
library of classics and rarities. With all of this accessible either stand-alone or as a plug-in for nearly any DAW, you will want
to join this cult.

How does it sound? 
As good or better than the original sounds with the added bonus of high quality synthesis.

What is so great about it? 

One of the greatest advantages of virtual instruments is their ability to resurrect the hardware instruments of yesteryear.
Whether through emulation or sample playback, virtual instruments have conquered the critics and give today’s musicians
high quality, inexpensive, and endlessly controllable versions of everything from the most popular organs and electric pianos
to the rarest synthesizers. Where many companies have created software that mimics the hard-wiring and circuits of
keyboards and synthesizers, such emulation is nearly impossible when it comes to samplers and the extreme variation of their
libraries. Best Service fills this gap with Cult Sampler. 


Feature Review

First of all, EastWest's ProSamples Platinum series all use either NI's Intakt or Kompakt as their user interface. So I won't
spend too much time talking about the interface, but you can read more about Kompakt in Richard Zvonar's review:
http://www.audiomidi.com/aboutus/reviews/zvonarkompakt.cfm

The sound library hierarchy consists of a main Instruments folder with subfolders named after the original samplers (Ensoniq
Mirage, Korg DSS1, Fairlight, Orchestron, Synclavier, Akai S-1000, Akai S-612, Akai S-900, Mellotron, Emulator II,
Emax, Casio FZ1, Master Studio Coll., Circle Elements, Roland S-50, Wavestation, and Yamaha TX16W). Within each
subfolder, Best Service was nice enough to maintain the same nomenclature as the original sounds (a plus for those us that
have favorites from way back when). 

The Multi Instrument Section provides the building blocks for Kompakt’s powerful synthesis. The parent sound, called a
Multi, can include any eight Instruments from the entire library and can be saved for instant recall. The ease of layering eight
sounds from so many classic sources is thrilling. Though part of a Multi, each Instrument can be edited individually, and by
selecting GroupEdit you can make edits like adding an effect to all mapped keys and the Group Amp section allows for
more global possibilities. I loaded up five of my favorite sounds from the DSS1, Emax and Synclavier and started exploring.
With the ability to assign any of 16 MIDI channels to each Instrument, and a Mute and Solo button at each Instrument, you
can easily load multiple Instruments and then work them individually in whatever manner you prefer.

Control Freak

These days there are a myriad of synths out there that have spoiled us with the level of control we have over every element
of the sound. While Kompakt seems basic, it is powerful and complex in it’s functionality yet simplistic in it’s execution.
Most of the samplers represented here didn’t even have as much editing capability as provided in this straightforward
interface. And even if they did, none were as easy to use. I especially enjoyed filtering a lush pad from the DSS1 to add even
more warmth, adjusting the Attack and Hold of the Filter Envelope, and then chopping it up with a square wave on the Pan
LFO. Put your headphones on, push the LFO Frequency higher and higher and feel yourself starting to get dizzy— nice.
And the most wonderful part about all of these controls? You can automate them in your DAW. But you’ll see below why
this isn’t as easy as it should be. 

Short and Sweetened

As for the effects, you get a reverb, chorus and delay, each with a spattering of fun presets but very little control. These high
quality but limited effects seem to be intended for sweetening, and for my favorite old Synclavier sounds, they did exactly
that. While you may continue to rely on other plug-ins for serious effects, these will consume far less CPU power. The one
stand-out feature is that the delay is syncable to your host DAW tempo. This worked perfectly every time I tried it,
regardless of the tempo changes. 

The Sounds! What about the Sounds?

Many of these samplers had gigantic sound libraries. Fans of such stalwarts will ponder the limited list of sounds sampled by
Best Service in representing such diverse classics. But Cult Sampler is not intended to provide the full array of the prior
libraries. Instead, it provides exactly what it says, a “sample” of retro favorites to which most musicians would never have
access. A huge advantage of virtual instruments is that Best Service, or any other company, could easily release additional
sampled sounds for access through the Cult Sampler front-end. Despite this being a healthy and diverse library that will keep
even avid sound designers happy, I do hope that additional samples will be made available, even if they are from the same
list of samplers. 

The list of the samplers and their sounds is available on the install CD (Excel file) and at the Best Service web site. Over 550
sampled instruments are available, but when you consider that the drum presets have up to five octaves of samples, the total
skyrockets. 

Despite the lower bit rates of some of those samplers, the sound quality is great. But to judge the sound quality you have to
consider the sources, many of which were created at the birth of digital sampling, and others were tape-based. With that in
mind, I love this stuff. For most of the samplers you definitely get a good flavor of what they were like. You just won’t find
sounds like these in any of today’s samplers. The lower fidelity, the lack of sustain, the missing frequencies, the overall
cheese-factor of many of the sounds are all an accurate picture of the history of sampling. In fact, many of the sounds are
more dirty than what you may be used to, but that’s the beauty of those old machines. I was quite pleased to find that Best
Service didn’t try to clean them up. 

You get a healthy helping of orchestra, guitars, basses, pianos, brass, percussion, choirs, ethnic, unique sound effects, 13
classic drum machines, but mostly synths. The usability of the entire library will depend on the style of your music, but I
believe the synths and sound effects will be the reason most people would turn to Cult Sampler. Reason being that the
acoustic/orchestra and piano sounds from 20 years ago, while having a very unique sound, will typically lose to more
high-quality, current samples. And, though this collection does include some rarities from lesser known drum machines that
are quite welcome in my arsenal, your need for old drum machines may be best satisfied by dedicated virtual drum software.
In fact, the Emulator III, FZ-1, and Mirage percussion sets seem somewhat unnecessary (as they are either noisy, very
truncated, or they have far less realism), but if you don’t have any other drum instruments you will very much enjoy the Cult
Sampler selection. Cult Sampler would definitely be more useful if it focused on the types of sounds that aren’t better
emulated in other virtual instruments. While a few of the sounds are a little too associated with iconic 80’s hits, there are
hundreds of excellent sounds here, each with good velocity control and variation. When combined with Kompakt’s synthesis
controls, they will keep you coming back. 

Some of my favorites include the ever so noisy and low-bit Jazzy Alto of the Casio FZ-1; nearly the whole Circle Elements
collection including Gregorians and Nuns – which will soon have you writing like Moby, Ice Land Mod – be sure to hold
that one down for a while, and CPU Flow Mod – what you get when you push a modern orchestra through the circuitry of
an old Commodore computer; the MSC Bozouki, Steinway Piano Double – which doesn’t have a lot of life but you can
practically hear the hammer hitting the string, OB Texture – a very low-filtered Oberheim pad with a good stereo field; the
Orchestron Pipe Organ, Cello – it doesn’t sound much like a cello but it has a very unique and lo-fi quality; the Synclavier
Bass Analog LP – hit one note and a song will come to you; the TX16W Airspace – lush, lush, lush; and the Wavestation
Deep Atmo Multi – a near perfect beginning for a dance or prog rock song.


Summary and Conclusion

Even if you no longer have your favorite old samplers, you may still have the sound disks, in which case you can load them
into some of today’s virtual samplers like Halion or Kontakt. For the rest of us, Cult Sampler provides synthesis and layering
options of a reasonably diverse library of great sounding classic samples otherwise unavailable or too expensive to amass.
While I do hope that someone out there is diligently sampling a larger segment of those old libraries, Cult Sampler is a great
value for just about any computer-based musician.