CreamWare Announces PowerSampler for PC & Mac

PowerSampler's
DSP Card
(Click for a bigger shot)

February 3, 2000 -- At Winter NAMM 2000, CreamWare unveiled PowerSampler - a professional DSP-based sampling system for Windows and MacOS.

PowerSampler integrates a complete studio-grade sampler into a Windows PC or MacIntosh computer. The system combines highly sophisticated software and the latest DSP hardware. This guarantees professional performance and perfect timing.

PowerSampler can be played like a "real" hardware instrument. With a latency of only 1-2 ms, it outperforms all conventional software solutions and has better timing than many hardware samplers.

On the software side, PowerSampler boasts phase-locked stereo sampling including resampling capability, extensive editing and modulation features and a comprehensive, fully integrated graphical sample editor. PowerSampler is compatible with many common sample libraries: AKAI S1000 & S3000, Soundfont 2, WAV and AIFF files are fully supported. Samples and complete programs can be loaded directly from the computer's internal CD-ROM drive or hard disk into the RAM of the PC or Mac. There is no limit upon the amount of RAM which can be addressed.

Mix Window
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PowerSampler features a multi mode with 16 simultaneously active programs, each of which can be sent to the main stereo outputs or any of six individual outs. These outputs are routed to the integrated 24-channel mixer, where two aux-effects (chorus and delay) can be applied in realtime.

PowerSampler features 32 dynamically allocated stereo voices - no matter which computer hosts the system. To handle the task of computing sampler, mixer and effect signals, the PowerSampler PCI board boasts three Analog Devices SHARC DSPs. Therefore, PowerSampler imposes virtually no load upon the host CPU. The power of the host computer remains available for HDR software, MIDI sequencers and software synths. Via the S/TDM Bus Connector, a second PowerSampler card can be added to the system to double the number of voices and I/Os.

Sample Editor Window
(Click for a bigger shot)

The hardware features four inputs and outputs offering 24 bit/96 kHz quality (stereo analog plus stereo S/PDIF). A new S-Link Interface allows the connection of an optional breakout box with eight additional analog I/Os (24 bit/96 kHz). An optional 16-channel ADAT interface can also be attached to the PowerSampler card.

The PowerSampler inputs and outputs can be used for other software applications as well. The system comes with ultra-fast drivers for ASIO, EASI, MME, DirectSound and OMS. Furthermore, the NemeSys Gigasampler interface is supported. The drivers can also be used to directly record the sampler outputs to any HDR system running on the same computer.

PowerSampler can be used alone or as an expander for the Pulsar DSP system. It will be available in March/April at a recommended sales price of US$ 598.

For more information, visit CreamWare on the web at www.creamware.com.