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. Pros Deep connectivity for its size, including four Thunderbolt 3 ports. Memory is SO-DIMM, not soldered. Configurable up to six cores/12 threads. New storage (2TB) and RAM (64GB) ceilings. Top-notch pre-installed software. Cons RAM not technically a user upgrade.

No option for a 2.5-inch hard drive as internal mass storage. Scanty SSD on base model. Bottom Line Apple's iconic Mac mini compact desktop delivers more core-processing, storage, and memory potential than ever, in a polished box brimming with cutting-edge connectivity.

For four years, the Apple Mac mini had been the last true, egalitarian entry-level Mac. Since, it came in configurations priced as low as $499 that scaled up from there. The 2018 reboot ($799 as tested, which is the entry-level model) rethinks the Mac mini's innards but also lays a new, ritzier price floor. Despite the price bump, with a move to 8th Generation Core desktop CPUs, PCI Express SSDs, and a new roster of connectivity, the Mac mini remains a compelling (if, mind you, the only) space-saver for macOS users looking for a home theater PC, a desktop workstation, or a music- and video-editing sprinter. What tips it into our Editors' Choice zone is Apple's deep included software set, which lets you do a tremendous amount right out of the box: office work, presentations, music dabbling, movie editing.

You'll pay a premium for the trim dimensions, and expandability is all external, but rest assured: The Mac mini is the same dynamo as ever, now with 2018 trimmings that do justice to a classic design. The Design: Old Dog, New Spirit The new Mac mini doesn't look much different from its elder siblings unless you flip it around 180 degrees. The chassis is matte metal, made up of aluminum that, according to Apple, is 100 percent recycled, in part from the chassis-manufacture remnants of other Macs. The only feature on the front or sides is a power-on LED on the front face. A chromed Apple logo is up top. The feel of the all-aluminum chassis is stolid and inflexible, the same rigid-enough-to-support-an-elephant build as ever. Turn the Mac mini over to view the underside, and you'll see a plastic disk of a base that elevates the metal of the chassis from the desk surface.

Rotating the disk does nothing; prying it up with a thin tool, though, pops it off. Underneath is a perforated panel that goes to the internals, of which, according to the company, the only serviceable element is the RAM. That's a change. Apple has implemented the memory in the new Mac mini as laptop-style SO-DIMMs.

The company doesn't deem this a user-accessible upgrade, though it says authorized service centers and Apple Stores will be able to perform memory upgrades. That said, a couple of Apple reps we spoke to suggested usual-suspect memory retailers (I'm thinking folks like Crucial and OWC) might be able to produce memory upgrade kits with instructions.

When I popped off the bottom, I noted that the perforated panel was held in place by star-headed security screws. That's an intimidating removal prospect for most casual users, but it's definitely a step ahead of the soldered-RAM design that came before. Around the perimeter of the plastic disc is a gap that allows for free airflow in and out of the chassis. I didn't note a rush of air around the edges of the Mac mini during ordinary use or high-stress benchmarking. Apple's schematics show an active fan over the core silicon that exhausts out from the only other ventilation evident on the chassis: a strip on the back panel, beneath some of the ports. (More on that in a bit.) The perforations in the bottom half of the case under the plastic disk are clearly inlets to the directed active airflow inside. The Connectivity: A Fresh Array In its physical connectivity, the Mac mini has seen a complete teardown, for the better.

Like on its MacBooks, Apple has gone all-in on USB Type-C ports. On the laptops, that has pushed users to adapt with compliant peripherals or dongles. There're a little more flexibility here. The main array of ports on the Mac mini comprises four Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C ports and two regular USB 3.0 Type-A ones. If you opt for wired peripherals, we'd expect the two Type-As to be occupied by a keyboard and mouse, but part of the appeal of the Mac mini is its trim minimalism, so Bluetooth-interface peripherals would keep those two ports clear.

Depending on your work style and what you do, you might spring for Apple's complementary ($149) and the ($99) or Force Touch-enabled ($149), all of which connect wirelessly via Bluetooth. They do add a bunch to the base cost, but I'd factor in these or other wireless peripherals to keep one or both of the Type-A USBs free. Apple loaned us the keyboard and the Magic Trackpad 2 for this review, and pairing them with the Mac mini took mere seconds. That said, even if you plan to use the Type-As for input gear, don't fret: You do get a lot of flexibility with the Thunderbolt 3 ports. Any can serve as a USB port, of course, via a Type-C cable or a C-to-A adapter. While we suspect most users will make use of the HDMI 2.0 port to connect a primary monitor or TV, Thunderbolt 3 makes possible various multi-display scenarios in concert with the HDMI, or by themselves.

(Technically, the video connection itself isn't Thunderbolt 3; the connectors support the DisplayPort spec over USB-C. But that's just nitpicking.).

These multi-display gyrations make the Mac mini an intriguing centerpiece for super-high-res digital signage, or media-production setups that require discrete displays for master viewing of media or timelines on one panel and palettes/tools on another. You can always use the HDMI for a monitor up to 4K native resolution, alongside one or two of the Thunderbolt 3 ports; you can connect one panel at up to a 60Hz refresh rate on the HDMI, and either one 5K display on a Thunderbolt or two up-to-4K panels on two of the Thunderbolts. Legacy monitors with other interfaces will work under certain situations, with dongles. The HDMI port will work with a DVI-interface display over a not-included DVI-to-HDMI adapter, while the Thunderbolt 3 ports work with Thunderbolt 2, DVI, and VGA panels via adapters. Three other connectors grace the back panel. The first, the headphone jack, is notable only for the lack of a sibling line-in or mic port; the assumption here is that audio input (such as in a studio/production environment) will be handled via USB devices.

Be warned if, for whatever reason, you need the usual analog mini-jack input; it's AWOL. Second is the Ethernet jack.

You get support for gigabit Ethernet standard, with massively upticked 10-gigabit (10Gbps) Ethernet as a $100 configuration option. The 10Gbps Ethernet solution supports the, which handles up to 10Gbps transfers but can dial down automatically to 5Gbps, 2.5Gbps, or 1Gbps according to the traits of the attached network hardware and cabling. Indeed, in pre-release demos I attended, Apple was showing off its Final Cut Pro and Compressor rendering with a stack of Mac minis acting as a compact render farm, connected to their respective networks via 10Gbps interfaces. The ability to bring multiple Mac minis online for demanding render or development tasks brings a whole new face to what a team equipped with these machines can do on the fly. The last connector is the power-cable jack, which stands out for the fact that the Apple power cable is just a straight-through cord leading to a compact two-prong wall plug. The power supply for the Mac mini is entirely internal, in keeping with the clean, clutter-free aesthetic of the platform as whole.

In a 1:1 briefing with Apple personnel, I could not get a definitive answer as to the exact volume of the internal power supply, apart from the fact that it runs down one side in a strip and the maximum power draw is 150 watts. Given that the Mac mini employs only Intel integrated graphics and multiplier-locked desktop chips, that seems a reasonable ceiling—and the reason Apple was able to keep the supply compact enough to fit in the friendly confines of the Mac mini's case. I talked about the Thunderbolt 3 and HDMI ports earlier, but should point out that the multi-display capabilities that these ports afford are possible thanks to the Intel UHD Graphics 630 acceleration that powers all configurations of the 2018 Mac mini, up and down the line. The integrated graphics, tied to Apple's choice of processors, is a topic worth delving into further, so let's take a deeper look at the internals of the new Mac mini. The cool new stuff isn't just on the back panel.

The Processor Picks: What the Core? All of the CPU options in the 2018 Mac mini are, unsurprisingly, Intel 8th Generation chips. The two base models that Apple offers on the Mac mini—the Core i3 version, starting at $799, that we tested, and a Core i5 version starting at $1,099—can each be ticked up to a Core i7 in Apple's online configurator. These are 'true' desktop chips—in other words, not the power-saving U-series or Y-series mobile chips seen in some ultracompact desktops (and in most laptops). In the course of my tests, various programs identified the chip in the testing sample as a 'Core i3-8100B,' a processor that didn't have a formal designation on Intel's when I wrote this.

But it maps closely to the: four cores and a 3.6GHz base clock. I do not have the Core i5 or i7 version of the Mac mini to verify the formal verbiage being used to describe those, but Apple reps I followed up with confirmed that only the Core i7 chip is Hyper-Threading enabled. That's the money info for content creators, not emphasized in the tech specs around these chips but good to know. Intel has dialed back support for the thread-doubling technology in its late-model desktop chips (in the 9th Generation Cores we have seen so far, Hyper-Threading has only been the province of chips like the elite, and that's reflected here in the Core i3 and i5.

For tasks that push the CPU hard and are threaded to take advantage of as many cores and threads as possible, the cores you get dictate all the threads you can weave. In some earlier generations, desktop Core i3 CPUs supported Hyper-Threading to get you from two cores to four threads. The four-core Core i3 and six-core Core i5 in the 2018 Mac mini, though, are straight four- and six-thread chips respectively. (The Core i5 supports Turbo Boost, however, so though it's lower clocked at 3GHz, the 4.1GHz boost can jet it at times ahead of the snappy 3.6GHz base of the Core i3.) What does this mean? Not having hands-on access to the Core i7 version of the new Mac mini means that I can't quantify it with certainty, but heavily threaded applications will likely see a big delta between the four-core Core i3 or six-core i5 Mac minis and the six-core, 12-thread ones. There's no way to tell exactly how big without testing; it's also possible that the thermal situation in the chassis may cause the Mac mini to slow things down a bit with 12 threads cranking at once over a long period.

That said, the chip that the Core i7 is based on is a 65-watt TDP chip like the Core i3-8100, so in theory the thermals should be workable in the same chassis. Plus, the i7 chip is rated for a 4.6GHz boost clock from a 3.2GHz base, so clearly Apple designed with some thermal headroom at play. The thing that gives me pause, or at least causes me to issue a sigh, is that given the state of the desktop space today, none of the Mac mini versions makes use of dedicated graphics. I had my mind set on the Core i7 'Kaby Lake-G' series chips that Intel launched earlier this year, unique in that the chips were supplemented by light AMD Radeon RX Vega M graphics. (See, for example, PCMag's reviews of the and the for the rare sightings of these chips.) Now, granted, these are rated as mobile GPUs with a 100-watt TDP, but they support Hyper-Threading (four cores/eight threads) and significantly upticked graphics performance. Indeed, their relative lack of adoption elsewhere in the mini-PC market led me and others to believe that they may have been made just for an Apple-specific implementation like the Mac mini. But alas: No.

Storage and RAM: Big Leaps Forth That said, the reason that you can get a CPU as perky as a six-core/12-thread desktop Core i7 into the Mac mini's chassis at all has to do with what's been taken away, not just what's been added in terms of thermal hardware. Moving to pure flash storage and away from any kind of platter drive frees up a lot of internal volume. The test unit I have on hand has a relatively scanty 128GB boot drive, which really is too small for almost any mainstream use apart from digital signage or productivity use by a dedicated cloud hound. If you're willing to fork over for a capacity upgrade, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB are the waypoints; these upgrades cost $200, $400, $800, and $1,600, respectively, from the 128GB base and are unquestionably a major profit center for Apple given the cost of on the market today at similar capacities. If you're starting from the 256GB-SSD-equipped Core i5, you'll pay $200 (to get to 512GB), $600 (to 1TB), or $1,400 (to 2TB) to boost the internal storage. No gigabyte bargains there, either.

That said, you should be happy with your storage speeds, whatever you opt for. The move to pure PCI Express storage is indeed a major uptick from Serial ATA SSDs or the longtime Mac mini staple speedup, the, which was essentially a hybrid drive with a small flash portion and a big platter portion.

I'll take a look at the raw speed of the drive in the Mac mini I have on hand in a moment, but bear in mind, like in most SSD-testing scenarios, you'll often see slightly better throughput from the higher-capacity drives in the same SSD family, all else being equal, thanks to more memory modules operating in parallel. You'll want to fork over now for what you need in terms of internal storage, though.

What you buy is what you get, and further storage increases will have to come via external drive upgrades over USB or Thunderbolt 3. For that, you have fast connectivity galore on the box, to be sure, but if speed matters most, external flash-based drives that will match the speeds of these internal SSDs will be pricey enough that the high cost of the Apple's boot-drive upgrades might not seem so bad. That said, external platter storage is cheap for near-line mass storage, if speed isn't your first concern. The last major internal component that has seen a big evolution is the RAM. The Mac mini is now on DDR4, and much faster clocked, at that: 2,666MHz. That should, to an extent, help boost the performance of the integrated graphics processor (IGP).

Integrated solutions like Intel's HD and UHD Graphics and AMD's mobile Radeon Ms tend to do better with faster RAM, again all else being equal. As noted earlier, Apple has implemented the memory now as SO-DIMMs, rather than soldered-down, so upgradability is an option, though it's officially not sanctioned as a user upgrade. The test model I have in hand has 8GB, with upticks to 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB possible at time of purchase. The 64GB level has never been possible in the Mac mini and is a presumptive boon for demanding musicians (looking, say, to load huge virtual-instrument sets into RAM), photo editors, and users manipulating video. Testing the Core i3 Configuration As noted earlier in places, the test configuration of the Mac mini I have in hand is the $799 base model, comprising that Core i3-8100B 8th Generation processor (bringing with it Intel's UHD Graphics 630 IGP), 128GB of SSD storage, and 8GB of RAM. I made use of our newly rebooted test regimen, which brings aboard a host of new tests for Windows PCs and a few for macOS machines. Because of the new test set, I have a limited range of comparison numbers to present below; I didn't have access for retesting, for example, to the 2014 Mac mini that PCMag reviewed.

So the comparison systems are an eclectic mix of compact desktops that illustrate the low and high ends of mini PCs we've tested of late. I didn't have very long with the Mac mini on the test bench, as I received the sample only a few days before this review launch.

So the basic test set here just outlines the rudiments of what the system is capable of. Our Cinebench, Photoshop, and Handbrake trials mostly stress the CPU, with the Photoshop test the one that's most holistic in terms of illustrating the system performance, factoring in, to an extent, the speed of the storage, the amount of RAM, and any GPU acceleration.

First, a bit about our comparison systems. The Intel 'Hades Canyon' NUC kit was tested with 16GB of RAM and an M.2 SSD installed, and the Intel/AMD hybrid CPU inside is one of the processors I mentioned earlier that I regretted not seeing in the Mac mini as an option. That unit costs a near-comparable $899 but does not include the OS, RAM, or storage in the price. The ECS Liva Z2, meanwhile, is a low-cost, low-end Pentium-based mini-PC decidedly meant for light cloud usage or digital signage. The HP Z2 Mini G4 is on the far other end of the spectrum, a compact workstation that's of similar shape to the Mac mini but larger and thicker, packing a potent array of Xeon core silicon and Nvidia Quadro workstation graphics at a much higher price. It's there essentially to illustrate what's possible in the same rough form factor, but it's by no means a price-wise competitor to our Mac mini test SKU.

Cinebench R15 Cinebench, as ever, well illustrates relative performance with software that is efficiently multithreaded and takes advantage of all available cores and threads on the CPU. Here, the Mac mini falls just where we would expect: between the lightweight Pentium in the ECS machine and behind the four-core/eight-thread chip in the Hades Canyon NUC. Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud. Adobe's Photoshop CC is the latest version of the software. Here, we task the test system to apply 10 demanding filters, in sequence, to a standard test image, timing each process and adding up the lot.

The Mac mini, though last of the three systems here that completed the test, performed admirably, especially against the Hades Canyon NUC and its 16GB of RAM. I suspect the fast PCI Express SSD came into play here for the Mac mini. Handbrake 1.1.1 The last of the test tasks employs a recent version of the popular video-conversion utility Handbrake. The source file is a 4K-resolution test file of the open-source Blender demo film Tears of Steel, the challenge to the system in question being rendering the file down to 1080p. Handbrake, like Cinebench, scales well with more threads, so no surprises here: The Hyper-Threading capable NUC and Z2 Mini chewed through this harsh test faster than the four-core Mac mini, which in turn dusted the ECS budget model equipped with just two (relatively) slow cores. It's worth noting that some of Intel's late additions to its recent-gen CPUs include specialized optimizations for video encoding, and Apple notes that content creators may see major gains for conversion tasks such as HEVC encoding, with help in that regard from silicon in the Apple T2 security chip that's part of the machine. (It lends some dedicated hardware.) I didn't have adequate time to investigate these very specific scenarios, but know that if that kind of encoding is a big part of your workflow, that may be an added boon.

The T2 chip also provides for boot-level startup-settings security and on-the-fly encryption/decryption of the contents of the internal SSD. I didn't have the time to run a battery of graphics tests. That said, PC Labs has tested enough Intel UHD and HD graphics solutions to know that the level of performance (single digit frame rates at 1080p and up for any heavy graphical tasks or AAA games) will fall in a predictable range. Should not be far off the mark. The bottom line: For programs that benefit from dedicated graphics silicon for GPU-accelerated performance, or for Mac gaming, Intel UHD is not a powerhouse. Apple has been co-marketing external graphics cards (eGPUs) from partner Blackmagic, which in parallel with this launch unveiled an $1,199 model with an AMD Radeon Vega 56 card inside. That's the kind of solution that demanding, high-res AAA gaming or specialized programs with serious GPU-acceleration aspects will crave.

Time precluded detailed gaming tests or storage-speed trials, but I'll be running some disk storage benchmarks shortly after this review publishes to see if the internal SSD attains the PCI Express transfer rates that Apple claims. An Icon Raises the Ceiling The Mac mini was overdue, in a big way, for a sprucing-up, and we're actually surprised Apple didn't get a little more radical with it. The outer design is mostly unchanged, and the teardown was almost exclusively internal, apart from the wholesale rework of the back panel and the thermal hardware.

The 2017 MacBook Air, in contrast, was really a 2014 laptop well past its expiration date, and it saw almost every key bit kicked into 2018 in the much-overhauled MacBook Air that's launching alongside this new Mac mini. The Mac mini's modernization is more subtle but no less subversive. First, the main quibbles.

A 128GB SSD boot drive needs to be catapulted back to the year 2016 from whence it came. And I'd have liked to see the Mac mini come in some variety, however small, in terms of graphics options. Intel introduced the innovate hybrid Intel-and-AMD Kaby Lake-G CPUs earlier this year, and I had that chip or a variant of it as a dark horse for inclusion, given its limited rollout in desktop circles and Apple's disposition toward AMD for its dedicated graphics solutions. (Max out the RAM and SSD, and go Core i7 and 10Gbps Ethernet, and it's possible to up-configure the Mac mini past the $4,000 mark. To pay that for an IGP-based desktop just seems irrational.) Then again, Apple is putting full-fat desktop chips in these machines, not mobile ones, so that is a positive offset. Apple, in its demos showing off the potential of the Mac mini the week before its launch, had it in environments ranging from video production (in a multiple-Mac mini rendering cluster) to powering a pro-level music-production workstation. And indeed, the four-core model we tested, while no megacore powerhouse, will suffice for the majority of tasks that everyday users perform, and then some.

That's not to say you can't get the same raw oomph for the same or less money in the Windows mini-machine world. But you also won't find a machine that's as snappy to set up, with as complete a software suite out of the box. The last is oft overlooked, in all of the hardware analysis of Mac desktops and laptops. It's easy to take Apple's installed app set for granted, given its constancy.

But fire up a Mac mini with two of Apple's peripherals, and you can be up and running in five minutes, with key software right on hand to work up a presentation, type up a document, jam on a virtual piano, edit photos or videos, and much more. Windows 10, of course, has some of the same, but considering the ease and speed of the setup process, the Mac mini stands in a class of its own in terms of hitting the ground running, and fast. My colleague Tom Brant I don't disagree, but I would counter that this machine redefines it, in an age where base-level expectations have changed. Four years is forever in core-tech terms. Sure, the 2014 Mac mini started at $500, but the $799 entry point on 2018's machine, apart from the too-modest dollop of storage, delivers enough speed, flexibility, and connectivity to satisfy a wide swath of possible Mac shoppers, at this point. Only those needing the sheer muscle of a many-core solution will need to look higher up the stack of Mac.

And there, still in the Mac mini family, a dozen threads are waiting.

Capable of everything from realistic instrument recreation to futuristic sound manipulation, the sampler - a digital instrument that allows the user to load in audio recordings (‘samples’) and then play them back at various pitches via MIDI - is arguably the biggest electronic music game-changer of the past 30 years, having defined production trends and even shaped entire genres. Fundamentally, a sampler is a synthesizer that uses an audio file as its oscillator: load in a segment of audio (a sample), play MIDI notes up and down the keyboard, and the sampler will play back the sample at the desired musical pitch. From here, you can loop, reverse, filter, envelope and modulate the sound via the sampler’s various synthesis-style features.

Early hardware samplers could only store a few seconds-worth of audio - resulting in the primitive sampling techniques heard on plenty of ‘80s and ‘90s tracks - but the modern breed of software equivalents can now manipulate a near-unlimited number of samples in an almost immeasurable number of ways. For instance, many samplers recreate the nuances of realistic instruments by playing back separate samples across a variety of pitches, velocities or articulations - a process called ‘multisampling’.

Most DAWs come bundled with at least one fully-featured sampler, and there’s also a wealth of commercial and available. In no particular order, here’s our rundown of the best software samplers that are available today. Prev Page 1 of 17 Next Prev Page 1 of 17 Next. Loaded as either a standalone app or within a VST/AU/RTAS-compatible DAW, Native Instruments’ market-leading behemoth is probably the most widely-used soft sampler on our list. Part of Kontakt’s broad appeal can be attributed to its versatility: those who prefer ready-rolled sample libraries and soundsets can use the instrument like a ROMpler and call upon the 43GB of bundled factory content (or the many customised third-party Kontakt libraries available); more advanced users can manipulate samples beyond recognition via its 37 filter types, vintage sampler modes, multiple timestretching algorithms, waveform editing, loop slicing, 19 effects modules and more. Other standout features include expansive semi-modular routing, flexible signal flow and multi-output capabilities, while power users can take patch design even further with detailed KSP-scripted interfaces and extensive customisation options. READ: Prev Page 2 of 17 Next Prev Page 2 of 17 Next.

While a certain ‘kompetitor’ may steal the limelight, MOTU’s MachFive - currently at version 3 - is an extremely powerful sampler in its own right. Based upon the UVI Engine XT, what differentiates MachFive 3 is how it walks the line between sampler and synth: you can use its 11 sound engines to layer subtractive, FM, granular, wavetable and other synthesis types alongside traditional sampling. You can also construct custom effects chains using MachFive’s 47 onboard effects modules, slice loops with the ‘LoopLab’ engine, and harness granular, time and pitch processing licensed from French developers IRCAM. With 17 stereo outputs, unlimited track counts and 45GB of bundled content, MachFive 3 is a powerhouse sampler that's well worth considering. READ: BUY: MOTU MachFive 3 currently available from: UK: US: Prev Page 3 of 17 Next Prev Page 3 of 17 Next.

One of the most recent additions to the plugin sampler arena comes from French developer UVI, which is responsible for the code used to power several other heavyweight samplers. Although we’ve omitted most synth/sampler hybrid instruments from our list, Falcon deserves a mention due to the sheer amount of sample-mangling features it offers. In fact, we can’t classify the instrument as either a sampler or a synth: it sits firmly in the middle of the two categories, as you can either use synth waveforms or load in audio files. In addition to the ten synthesized oscillator types on offer, there are seven sample-based oscillators, ranging from a ‘classic’ sampling mode through to granular, slicing, ‘stretch’ and ‘scrub’ modes.

Other features include 80 built-in effect modules, a customisable interface, events and scripting features for deep sonic exploration. READ: Prev Page 4 of 17 Next Prev Page 4 of 17 Next. In a world where software samplers are filled with futuristic features and overwhelming sample libraries, Togu Audio Line’s TAL-Sampler is a streamlined tool that takes its inspiration from sampling past. The nostalgic timbres of early sample-based music can be at least partially attributed to the character and grit that hardware samplers would impart over sounds.

To help you achieve these characteristics in the box, TAL-Sampler emulates the digital-to-analogue-conversion processes of several classic sampler models, meaning you can run overly-clean samples through these virtual DAC stages. The plugin also emulates classic timestretching for those distinctive sllllooooowww ‘90s effects, and wannabe Squarepushers can even modulate sample start times for all-out glitchiness. TAL-Sampler’s humble four-layer architecture, while not as expansive as other samplers, is geared towards a streamlined approach that's reminiscent of old-school sampling. Elsewhere, there’s a self-resonating multimode filter (switchable between 6, 12 and 24dB/oct modes), modulation matrix, three envelopes, three LFOs, and three effects (reverb, EQ and delay). The GUI is also fully scalable, and both the font and background colour can be altered. Prev Page 5 of 17 Next Prev Page 5 of 17 Next. Previously known as Wizoo Sound Design, German-based AIR Music Technology is the developer behind Structure 2, an advanced sampler instrument that’s bundled with a sizeable 37GB sound library.

At the instrument’s core is “a powerful 128-level multitimbral universal sound engine that can support up to 8-channel interleaved samples”, facilitating the creation of complex multi-layered patches and signal chains. There are 20 effects modules to choose from - including reverb (both algorithmic and convolution), delay, EQ, compression and more - of which an unlimited number can be chained. There are also four global sends, each containing four effect slots, aiding flexible signal processing and routing. There’s full MIDI learn, plus six ‘Smart Knobs’ (AKA macros) that give you access to half a dozen of your favourite parameters. Also note that Avid’s Pro Tools DAW comes bundled with a stripped-down version, Structure Free.

Prev Page 6 of 17 Next Prev Page 6 of 17 Next. Steinberg’s flagship virtual instrument, HALion, started life in 2001 as a virtual sampler. With multiple synthesis engines added over the last three versions, though, it now does so much more than just play back audio that it’s better described as a ‘sound design workstation’. HALion 6 sees the integration of yet another flavour of synthesis, as well as real honest-to-goodness sampling, the ability to build your own custom instruments, and a boatload of new sampled content.

With its wavetable synthesis engine, real-time sampling functionality and easy script editing, HALion 6 is dizzying in its versatility, customisation and open-endedness. Whether you just want to exploit the countless sounds in its preset library or design epic instruments from the ground up using its multifaceted sampling and synthesis building blocks, it’s a true powerhouse. READ: Prev Page 7 of 17 Next Prev Page 7 of 17 Next. Originally released in 2008, Morgana was the first software sampler instrument to emulate the crusty, characterful tone of yesteryear’s hardware units. Billed as “an authentic representation of a vintage digital sampler”, Morgana emulates the lo-fi degradation of early samplers via a primitive 8-bit depth and a variable sampling rate of between 10.1kHz and 29.41kHz. Circuitry imperfections can be dialled in further, giving your sounds a thoroughly vintage vibe. Layout-wise, Morgana’s interface is purposely basic, meaning that anyone familiar with synthesis or sampling should be able to dial in suitable settings in no time - although those used to traditional software sampler giants may miss the usual swamp of editing features.

READ: Prev Page 8 of 17 Next Prev Page 8 of 17 Next. Formerly owned by Yellow Tools, Magix’s sampler instruments are jam-packed with content and features, ensuring them a place on our list.

The range is divided into three ‘packages’: Independence Pro is the full-fat version, bundled with over 70GB of premium content; Independence Basic is identical except for its streamlined 12GB of content; and finally, there’s the feature-restricted Free version, which enables you to load up to 25 audio files. Independence Live is the performance-oriented front-end, which allows you to call up not only unlimited Independence projects, but also any third-party VST instruments and effects. Custom setups can be recalled, switched and tweaked via MIDI learn. The Independence FX section is a drag ‘n’ drop virtual effects rack that you can use to stack up and reorder your choice of 45 insert effects.

Prev Page 9 of 17 Next Prev Page 9 of 17 Next. Billed by its developer as “a next-generation sampler”, Bliss offers a handful of standout features that aren’t found elsewhere. One unique feature is Bliss’s VSTi sampling: call up any VST instrument within the plugin, load up your chosen preset, and define sample duration, tail length, and note/velocity ranges.

Our Powerful Virtual Instrument Suite Now Available For Mac Free

Bliss will then automatically generate a custom selection of multisamples as an offline process before reloading these samples back into itself for instant playback. Who said the multisampling process had to be laborious?

Bliss also comes with several other handy sampler functions: there’s granular sampling, a suite of onboard effects (including chorus, delay, reverb and unison, bit reduction and saturation), eight customisable macros, GUI customisation and more. Prev Page 10 of 17 Next Prev Page 10 of 17 Next.

This offering from the minds behind FL Studio is a great choice for the PC-based producer looking for a heavyweight multisampler. It’s another instrument that’s capable of batch VSTi multisampling: load in another instrument plugin inside, then let DirectWave render and compile a multisampled patch. Elsewhere, it’s stacked with all the typical sampler features you’d expect: 16 outputs, 128 programs, infinite zones per program, key and velocity layering, 16-slot mod matrix, multimode filter, four loop modes, send/return effects, two mod envelopes, four LFOs and plenty more.

Plus, it can open almost any sampler format: WAV, SoundFont, RX2, Kontakt, Battery, AKP, EXS and more. DirectWave is available in PC VST format, and it’s also bundled with the FL Studio Signature and All Plugins bundles. In addition, all FL Studio users also get a slimmed-down version, DirectWave Player. Prev Page 11 of 17 Next Prev Page 11 of 17 Next. Bundled with Logic as standard, Apple’s sampler has remained relatively unchanged since the computing giant purchased Emagic's DAW 15 years ago. While the more ample third-party instruments on our list offer plenty more bells and whistles, it’s still many Logic users’ go-to sampler thanks to its intuitive layout and no-nonsense approach straight out the box.

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Plus, because the EXS24 has been around for so long, its.exs format is one of the more widely-used sampler formats, with plenty of third-party libraries and soundsets available. Feature-wise, its architecture is basic but capable: there’s a resonant multimode filter, dedicated amplitude and filter ADSR envelopes, three LFOs each with a choice of seven waveshapes, and a 10-slot mod matrix. Multiple samples can be mapped across various key and velocity ranges, making it the obvious choice for the Logic ‘multisamplist’. While the EXS24 is certainly capable enough for most sampling tasks, it would be nice to see Apple spruce it up for the 21st century. The instrument editor is a little fiddly, for example, and there’s no waveform display.

READ: Prev Page 12 of 17 Next Prev Page 12 of 17 Next. Most DAWs come with at least one native sampler instrument, but Ableton Live users have access to a pair, with the aptly-named Simpler being the slimmer of the two siblings. Simpler’s recent overhaul was been one of the standout bonuses of the Live 9.5 update, which added plenty of new features and deeper integration with Ableton’s Push 2 controller. There’s an upgraded interface, time-independent warping, analogue-modelled filters courtesy of DSP boffins Cytomic, and the introduction of three ‘sampling ‘modes’ - Classic, One-Shot and Slicing. Bundled as standard with all versions of Live, Simpler can only load one audio file at a time (meaning that you can’t multisample), and it has a limited range of modulation options, but it’s still a worthy tool for speedy single-sample playback and manipulation. Prev Page 13 of 17 Next Prev Page 13 of 17 Next.

Whereas Simpler’s aim is efficiency, Sampler is Ableton Live’s more thorough and powerful sampler instrument that's targeted at advanced producers and sound designers. Its multisampling capabilities are extensive, enabling you to map multiple sounds across an infinite number of zones before editing the usual key, velocity and crossfade ranges. Sampler can also load various sampler formats, including EXS, Kontakt (non-encrypted only), SoundFont, GigaStudio, S1000 and S3000.

There are multiple looping modes, a whole host of filter types, plus tons of modulation options: a comprehensive mod matrix, dedicated pitch envelope, aux envelope and three LFOs. The onboard oscillator is also highly useful for frequency/amplitude modulation and general sound mangling. While the 9.5 update saw Simpler get a complete overhaul, Sampler has remained relatively unchanged, with the exception of new analogue-style filter types coded by Cytomic. Sampler comes bundled with Live 9 Suite, or Live 9 Standard users can purchase it separately.

READ: BUY: Ableton Live 9 currently available from: UK: US: Prev Page 14 of 17 Next Prev Page 14 of 17 Next. Propellerhead’ s popular DAW features several sampler devices, with the NN-19 being the most streamlined option. As you’d expect, there are plenty of synthesis-style features on board: ADSR envelope, tuning section, multimode filter (switchable between 12dB/oct highpass, bandpass, 12dB/oct lowpass, 24dB/oct lowpass and notch) with dedicated envelope, a single LFO with six waveshapes, plus pre-wired controls for assigning key parameters to either mod wheel or velocity. The developer claims that NN-19 is more suited to single sound manipulation due to the fact that all the parameters are fully automatable.

You can load in sounds via the usual drag-n-drop or menu system, or even take the old-school sampling approach and record signals directly into it. Prev Page 15 of 17 Next Prev Page 15 of 17 Next. Propellerhead's flagship sampler is a firm favourite among Reason users, providing plenty of scope for advanced sample editing, slicing, layering and multisampling. Whereas the NN-19 is tailored for the swift manipulation of single-layer sounds, the NN-XT allows you to create complex multi-layered patches across different key and velocity zones. Edit either individual samples, or groups of samples (zones), and even copy and paste layers across multiple NN-XT instances for speedy patch compiling. Multisample mapping is made easier with an auto-pitch detect function that automatically registers a sample’s key and maps it to the corresponding note.

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It’s worth noting that although Reason sports its own REX file player, Dr. Octo-REX, the NN-XT expands the potential for sliced loop manipulation thanks to its advanced editing and output routing capabilities via the sampler’s 16 outputs. Prev Page 16 of 17 Next Prev Page 16 of 17 Next. While not being the most visually attractive example on our list, Reaper’s native sampler is an efficient instrument with a low CPU overhead. It’s worth noting that ReaSamplOMatic 5000 can only hold one sample at a time, meaning no multisampling or layering.

However, the no-nonsense interface is rather refreshing when you want to dive in and tweak a sound, as all key sound-sculpting parameters are directly to hand on the front panel. Visually, the utilitarian GUI might be offputting to some, and it certainly isn’t as comprehensive as other DAWs’ offerings, but it’s certainly enough to get the job done for most basic sampling needs. Prev Page 17 of 17 Next Prev Page 17 of 17 Next.