Gigastudio 3.0.

Gigastudio established itself as the leading Software Sampler though it runs only on PCs.

One would suggest that in a Mac dominated audio world it's hard to survive as PC only software.

But Gigastudio (former Gigasampler) has made it. He gets used by most of the big guys in film scoring business and in many studios around the world.

The reason is simple. People were used to work with hardware samplers and PC + Gigastudio software was considered as just another hardware sampler but better, bigger and more flexible than the competition.

A lot of Gigastudio users don't see very much of the operating system (namely Windows XP) and have Gigastudio as the only application running on their PC.

Gigastudio has also made it, because the important features were just right.

• Low latency (you can play the instruments very well)

• Compatibility with established Sample Libraries (saves your investments in sound libraries)

• Loads very fast (good workflow)

• High limits regarding number of voices, outputs, instruments, sound quality, etc...

Version 3 has pushed the envelope even further after getting some competition by Native Instrument's Kontakt or Steinberg's Halion.

Here are the new features at a glance.

• Polyphony is now only limited by hardware limits (formerly 160 voices limit)

• 128 channel mixer, 32 groups

• 24-Bit/96kHz instrument support

• 192kHz hardware support

• Convolution modeling (also Surround)

• Support of up to 512GB of samples.

• ReWire support (client)

• VST plug-in hosting

• Random Sample playback for more realistic sounds

• New GSIF 2.0 audio driver for 32 in and 64 outputs.

• Plays around 60% more voices and 10% more programs on the same hardware as Gigastudio 2.

It also comes with a huge sample library so you can start right out of the box with a top notch orchestra that sounds really serious.

It is still the sampler that comes closest to the original instrument. If you are out for sound-tweaking, filtering, making strange noises, etc...there might be better choices, but for the pure, real and big sound there are very few alternatives.