In today’s over-saturated virtual instrument market there are plenty of powerful samplers out there vying for the attention (and green) of your average music software consumer. This is much more apparent on the PC end of things where there are dozens upon dozens of alternatives both in plug-in (Kontakt, HALion, DirectWave, etc) and standalone (Gigasampler, Reason’s NN-XT, etc.) forms. It’s tough for a small company to really stand out amongst such strong competition. One such company that has been trying to make a name for itself is Vember Audio, makers of the powerful Surge synthesizer and Shortcircuit sampler. Their design philosophy bucks the current market trends in virtual instruments by delivering quality products designed around the needs of sound designers rather than preset users in much the same way as Native Instruments circa 2001. Their interfaces are logical, but stripped of much of the flash that the big names have (no 3D rendered hardware-style “pots” here). Instead of focusing on huge libraries of sounds, they deliver great platforms for users to create their own sounds from scratch.

Now their sleeper hit sampler Shortcircuit is being released for FREE!

Details after the jump.

Composer turned sample developer Wilbert Roget, II has just released a new ‘indie’ sample library called Impact:Steel. We spoke with him to find out more about how and why he created the library and how creating his own sample libraries plays into his composition.

CDM: First, can you tell us a bit about your background, and how you got into composing and music?

Wilbert Roget, II:Well to keep things short, I’m basically a lifer with music and composition, studying piano early on and doing improvisations almost immediately (if not before). I decided on film and video game composition as a career sometime in high school, and went on to study composition, orchestration, and conducting at Yale University. I’ve been scoring films, games, ads, and various other projects ever since.

Why should you get excited about Nexsyn, the hybrid soft synth/sample player available starting today from KeyToSound that was developed by Max Groenlund, creator of the Studio 9000 for Koblo?

While I could ramble on about Nexsyn’s true stereo signal path, its 4 Gig Big Fish Audio sample library, its ability to load a 400MB piano in 15 seconds, blah, blah, blah, the most innovative and exciting thing about Nexsyn has nothing to do with any of that. It’s got to do with NetNotes.

NetNotes is a proprietary browser that lets you audition Nexsyn presets from other users. You can play presets via keyboard and even use them in your sequencer. You just can’t save them until you “buy” them. Hold on, relax! You don’t buy other people’s presets with real money, you buy them with NetNotes.

If you haven’t spent every last penny you own on the latest playourwiibox, your strength hasn’t been taken away from coma-inducing leftovers and you’re in the mood for some jaw-dropping music tech bargains, well just read on dear CDMers because we have the best sales to help you start your new year of music-making off right.

Multi-samplers need good sounds to be useful, and while the new Ableton Sampler looks like it’ll have the same drag-and-drop integration with Live as Simpler does, Live users are sure to want multi-sampled content in the new Sampler. So it comes as little surprise that Ableton is partnering with huge soundware house SONiVOX (formerly known as Sonic Implants) to provide sampled content for the Sampler and for Live 6.

The good news is, there will be a free expansion pack included with the boxed release of Live 6. Updated: As a couple of readers noted, the adjusted pricing structure means you’ll have to pay a little more to get the new sounds. If you’re upgrading from Live 5, you’ll pay US$219 for the boxed version versus $119 for the download version. In fact, if you think you want the sounds, you should just get the boxed upgrade, because if you wait the instruments alone will cost you $119 on top of your existing upgrade price, adding another $20 to the deal. If you don’t care about the sounds, though, you can save your pennies. Beyond that, I expect we’ll see other sound packs that require Sampler or are fee-only.

I rarely copy and paste from press releases, but Dave Hill from Ableton has sent some specifics for Sampler that I don’t see explictly laid out in one place on the Ableton site yet. If you’re curious about all the details, read on.