Firstly, Happy New Year and thank you to the responders to last year’s samplenerd.com 2023 awards!
Here we are again,
The samplenerd.com awards humbly seeks to reward its winners with that little bit of extra recognition. Let’s get to it!
The six categories:
- Best website
- Best VST
- Best sample pack
- Best product innovation
- Best product design
- Special recognition award
Best website award
Plugin boutique.com 🌐
Plugin vendor websites can be a bit of a minefield, after all there are so many plugins available, with a growing number year by year.
With that said, and not to detract from any other website selling similar products, I’ve decided to award Plugin boutique.com this year’s award.
The reason? They manage, inspite of the sheer number of VST’s to provide a clear, informative and sensible UI. All the necessary information is right there, clearly laid out and informative.
Not only that, their tie in with their suppliers to offer a ‘free gift’ on your purchase is a winner. Who doesn’t love a bargain?
Best VST
KORG ARP2600 🎚️
Well, I did say that the KORG ARP2600 would probably win! It had to really, the work that went into making this an instrument in its own right and not just a VST with 2600 samples embedded, for me made it the worthy winner.
In the vogue of many plugin developers rendering classics in digital form, KORG’s ‘retelling’ of this much featured beast extends and builds upon the original.
Samplenerd’s review of the KORG ARP 2600
Best sample pack
Hollowsun FREE pack for TAL Software sampler 🔬
When I started working with the FREE pack of samples for the TAL Software sampler something about them became immediately apparent: their honesty.
This large repository of samples features a veritable who’s who of electronic manufactures, and is well worth checking out.
Incidentally, I completed a six part series on Hollowsun founder Stephen Howell.
Best product innovation
Derailer 🖥️
Physical Audio are a British company, headquartered in London. Born out of a five year long research project into Next Generation Sound Synthesis (NESS), founder Dr Craig Webb went on to develop a series of physical modelling VST’s.
So far in their artillery they have a plate and spring reverb and three physically modelled instruments.
They even released their research paper which you can read here!
Best product design
Cherry Audio Cr78 🥁
A recent acquisition, this physical modelling triumph can actually blast pretty big as well as dial down to the cute hits and kicks that the hardware version charms us with!
Staying true to the genius of plugins by building on the scope and capability of the original, this attractive addition to my VST collection is a winner.
Classic drum machines are in vogue at the moment, with G-Force Software newly releasing the Icondrum, Inphonik bringing us their excellent rendering of the RX1200 – a sonically incredibly accurate version of E-MU’s Sampled Percussion 1200. Cherry Audios CR78 retains the original interactive charm of this cutesy classic!
Special recognition award
Northstar Productions 💿
As the distance between the beginnings of sampling technology to the present day becomes ever greater, it’s gratifying to see stalwarts like Northstar still in the game. When so many – and many good, small companies (i.e K-MUSE INC) that contributed to its success have fallen by the wayside.
Northstar gained professional and international recognition for their Northstar Gold CD ROM release, making a valuable contribution to the library of the Emulator II. Which incidentally is seen as the third addition to the venerated OMI library.
By today’s standards the website does admittedly look a little archaic, but to me that just adds to the charm. Moreover, according to the site you can still order EII floppy disks (and many others) featuring new sounds and samples. Long live Northstar!
Congratulations to this year’s samplenerd.com 2024 awards winners.
I hope you enjoyed reading about this year’s awards, who will bag the Winner gong next year?
Founded in March of 2023, samplenerd.com aims to provide interesting, reliable and informative articles. Since this website’s first publication samplenerd.com has received over 1950 visitors across 54 countries – without social media!
Whether you are a regular visitor or this is your very first time, samplenerd sincerely wishes you at this special time, a prosperous 2025!
Samplenerd has over 30 years’ experience in sound synthesis and technology. Samplenerd.com has received no remittance or endorsement by the winners.