Looking for high-end bass, percussion, and orchestral sounds. Has anyone used MOTU MachFive? or Spectrasonics? I'm using G4 OS X 10.2.6 and Digital Performer. Opinions appreciated.
Newbie.

There's a big talk right now in the French Forum on MachFive (developed by french importer of MOTU) first impressions are very positive but it needs a powerfull computer, G4 800 is said the minimum but as all soft sampler go for power.

Can't say I've used either of the programs you've mentioned... however I do like Vsamp. Available demo (shareware) can be found in the soft ware porion of this site.

thanks for your info . . .
do you suggest hard-sampler, if so, which ones have you liked?
-trip

well I had a EMU ESI2000 for 4 months and sold it... was very un-mac friendly and just a hassle to load and save samples on it as well as manipulate and it was too time consuming. Then I got the ESX24 for Logic and I will never own another piece of hardware for sampling. The ESX24 was so much easier to deal with and much quicker to load, save, and create sample sets. I suspect this is true for all the new virtual synths though compared to hardware synths plus virtual cost a lot less. That is my 2 cents

Synthetic, you need an EMU from the Ultra family

Got a 5000 Ultra at home waiting the end of the studio overhaul and it's something less running on my G3

trip on the hardware sampler issue, there's a lot of taste going inside. Each trend as its sound and it even change model to model. the main contenders are (in no particular order):

-EMU/Ensoniq
-AKAI
-Yamaha

I won't start up a long talk (and mostly subjective) on each, but if you want in the right forum (not in this thread please)

lep, I hear what you mean... true just like synths with their filters and such... each has a little different sound but I guess I always look at sound devices more functionally than dig that deep into them... I usually look at the final sound which many times I like to process with preamps, weird fx and layer to create unrecognizable sounds so I never think of it that way... I just like the fact that I take such a huge sound library that I can manage on my computer and instantly access the samples in other apps too. But then maybe i need to try a sampler like the Ultra... I have looked at new AKAI 24bit samplers before I got the ESX24 but too much $$$ for me.

But everyone is going to have a preference in how they like to work. I know from reading REMIX magazine that many electronic musicians who have been doing it for many years started out with hardware samplers and so are more fond of them vs. software but then some have also seen the ease of software and switched too... part of me will always think that I would rather have good ol' hardware for all my sound devices (I like having something that physically looks worth its cost) but when it comes to cost and sometimes interface and convenience... its hard for me to pass up software

i haven't used MachFive, but the spectrasonics apps are a really nice product IMO. they seem to have targeted ease-of-use and made the whole instrument line as simple to use as rack instruments in Reason. They might not be the right place to go for orchestral samps, but the Trilogy bass instrument sounds great and has a quickly accessible and sensibly varied sample library.

and amen with that stuff synthetic was saying about using soft samplers over hw. i can definitely see the upside of a UAD for dedicated fx power, but modern comps are more than capable of outdoing most of todays hw synths and samplers in terms of value. not saying hw doesn't have it's place, but two or three hundred bucks, i see little that can compare.

this looks like a good value: http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMA3000T
but even when you read that Paul White dude who runs the Sound on Sound magazine you get the impression that for even the most serious studios, samplers and hw synths end up being used for a few favorite banks or patches. i think hw money is better spent on good monitors or mics.