PLUGIN WEEK 2025: The quest to emulate acoustic instruments reached a tipping point in 1979 with the release of the legendary (and legendarily expensive) Fairlight CMI, the world's first commercially ...

The modern software sampler is a phenomenally powerful and flexible music-making tool. Platforms like Steinberg HALion and NI Kontakt are infinitely more capable than the hardware samplers of the late ...

Now up to its eighth iteration, Kontakt is one of the heavyweights of the software sampler world. Its powerful engine allows thousands of samples to be combined into a single instrument, where they ...

From full-featured behemoths and retro emulations to MPC-style beatmakers and must-have freebies, we round up 10 software samplers that make sampling fun, fast and intuitive When you purchase through ...