Anyone tried Samplitude 11?

[carloscarr]

I just downloaded a demo of the new version of Samplitude (v11), and am very impressed by the noticeable improvement in sound quality compared to playback (ASIO in both cases) via Foobar, Cplay, etc. (all fine programs as well and free). Has anyone else tried the new version of Samplitude? Vs. version 10.0, it offers playback of FLAC files (actually added in v10.2 or thereabouts), and based on my memory of the demo of version 10 I tried a while ago, v11 has much better playback quality. More detail, musicality, PRAT, etc. With v10, the contrast with Foobar wasn't enough to make me consider switching. But the full version of Samplitude is pricey and overkill, so now I have to determine if the "lite" version (which they sold as version 10 SE, and hopefully a version 11 SE is in the works) has the same SQ. Also Magix makes a program called "Music Studio" which is inexpensive, I'm not sure how that fits in. Also, Steinberg's Wavelab 7, due out in the next few months, will have FLAC playback, and they offer a "lite" version as well. In any case, the SQ of Samplitude 11 has convinced me that pro audio software may be a worthwhile improvement for music servers. I'd be interested how many others are using one of these pro programs on their systems.

 

[earflappin]

I have been a big fan of Samplitude 10 and found it to be superior to most of the Windows software players like cPlay, Foobar, JRiver, etc.

 

However, today I find myself using XXHE more as it sounds better, supports FLAC and has playlist capability. I've been waiting for the v11 demo to become available so thanks for bringing that to my attention. If it has better SQ than v10 and supports FLAC then it merits a re-evaluation.

 

Does it still only support 1 song at a time? Also, does v11 support WASAPI?

 

[carloscarr]

Although it appears from the manual that one should be able to play ("preview") a list of songs in File Manager view, I haven't been able to get that to work (maybe doesn't work w/FLAC?). So to play more than 1 song I start a new project and load the list of songs into the project. This works but isn't ideal (leaves a bunch of temporaray .hf2 and .hfc files in the music folder). Wavelab I believe has a better File Manager.

The program supports MME, ASIO and WDM playback but I've not figured out if it supports WASAPI (probably not). For me, the subtle improvement from ASIO to WASAPI under Foobar is dwarfed by the large improvement in SQ going from Foobar Wasapi to Samplitude ASIO.

Have you tried Samplitude SE or Music Studio? Do they have the same SQ as the full Samplitude program?