Hi,
Which one do you think is a better tool for sound design ?
The newly released Mach 5-V3 seems to have some pretty powerful sound design features, including the IRCAM tools for pitch-time manipulation, Which are quite amazing !
Which of these two samplers would you choose/recommend ?
Thanks,
Muziksculp
Back in the day when I could only afford the venerable VSamp (…only afford a computer that could run VST 32 and VSamp 
), HALion, Unity, Giga, and Mach Five were all mighty impressive.
I used Mach Five v1 and 2 for a while but eventually sold it. The library was ok but the application provided plenty of parameters to tweak and was very easy to work with. More so it seems with M5 3.
HALion 4 has plenty of parameter and effects (including REVerence ).
Maybe the release of M5 3 will spur SB into programming time stretch into H4.
As for sound design which I don’t do, it seems like either H4 or M5 3 would do the job, the key ingredient being the skill of the user.
History indicates that both were neglected by their makers. But things change… I see good things coming out of Yamaha/Steinberg.
At this point, I really like H4.
Over, under, sideway down… I like range of sounds available in the Kontakt library. Same with H4/HS. If the library is factored out, H4 is a much more appealing workspace than K4 (now 5). M5 3 is also very appealing.
Take your time comparing the features…
Thanks for the feedback.
I guess I will take my time to compare the two, and decide.
Oh well, I can also get both, but for now, I just need one sampler. I think Halion 4 needs to get some of the elastique audio features for time, and pitch manipulation that is currently in Cubase 6, hopefully they will add this in the next update of Halion 4.
I would also like to see more libraries offered in the Halion 4 format, currently there isn’t that much out there for Halion 4 as far as high-quality sample libraries, both produced by Steinberg, and third-party developers.
I’d say you’re beginning to answer your own question, or maybe the answer was already apparent before posting. (That often happens to me.)
Whatever else can be said, Kontakt has been consistently developed over the years, comes with an excellent library that covers a wide sonic palette, and has been pretty much the defacto software sampler.
At this moment, your best options are either K5 or M5v3.
The release of M5v3 (and Kontakt 5) is definitely gonna put pressure on SB to get H4 into the competition.
If you have time to spare, then you can keep an eye on how H4 evolves as well as the web buzz on M5v3 (and K5).
I have K4 but I like the H4 GUI better.
Thanks for the additional feedback.
Yes, I have time to spare (another month or two, no problem, waiting has quite often been my best option, and solution 
, and maybe Steinberg will add some new features to H4 via an update in the next couple of months.
Both Halion 4 and Mach 5 V3 have much nicer GUI’s than Kontakt 4 & 5. Too bad NI did not improve Kontakt’s outdated looking, and klunky interface in their new K5.