The Beat Zampler is essentially a custom built sampler that plays various different sounds and expansion banks. I must say I was really surprised with the amount of sounds available and samplers ability to edit the sounds. When you consider this is a free VST you really do get a hell of a lot. Located on the face of the sampler you have control over glide, volume, 3 LFO’s, filter, filter envelope, amp envelope and modulation envelope. The centre screen can be switched from the main window to a mod matrix and appreciator window. Overall the sampler is very simple and easy to use. In the video below you will be able to hear all the stock sounds that come loaded into the default sound bank.
One thing I noticed with the Beat Zampler sampler is that the included drums are amazing. They instantly took me aback how good they were for a free sampler. If you were first getting into music production and had very limited sounds in your libraries this sampler will really help expand on your sounds available. Within the player located below you can hear what a wide range of drum sounds this sampler has available. Everything from dubstep and dnb to trap and hip hop. You can expand on this library free by downloading the expansion banks which currently include 9 great sampler banks.
There are a number of paid libraries which can also be downloaded by clicking the button below. I must say they are very reasonably priced and all sound great. If you enjoy using the free sample banks I would recommend picking some of the genre specific banks up as you can literally create complete songs just using a single bank.
Another great feature is that you can create and load your own banks into Beat Zampler. This is done by using SFZ files. It’s relatively easy to do and all the info for even a novice is on the website to follow. By doing this you can essentially load your wav samples into Beat Zampler and use all the on board parameters it has to offer. A simple way to do this is to download something like Short Circuit. Which is a great tool used to create sampler banks that will playback your own sounds within Zampler. This software can be download free via the button below.
Pros
- Free sampler with free expansion
- Lots of usability and all genres
- Huge range of sounds for a free sampler
- Can load your own sounds in to sampler
- All essential controls needed in a sampler
- Paid expansion banks are very affordable
Cons
- Would be nice to have an import sample or drag and drop function like kontakt. But it’s a different kind of sampler and it’s free. I’m really clutching at straws here to find any cons.
- More effects options in the sampler would be a nice bonus. Such as reverb, delay and distortion etc.
The conclusion is….. For a free sample based VST that plays back a huge range of different samples it’s awesome. Every sound is of a good standard and very usable, especially the drum samples. GUI does everything you need it to do from a simple sample like this. It’s not over complicated and you don’t even need to adjust any of the parameters to get a good sound. They are there if you need them and work to a great standard. It’s free so it’s a no brainer to download it. Just make sure you download all the free expansion banks of the website whilst doing so, as these expand the sound library considerable. The additional paid expansion banks are a good move in order to monetise the sampler. Means you can essential get the standard libraries free and then expand if you like the sampler and the way you use it.
