Drag samples from your library into any DAW

The companion window

The main SampleStack window is built for organizing and preparing samples, and it takes up a lot of screen. The companion window is the small version: your libraries and folders, the samples in them, and a player. It docks to the edge of the screen so it can sit beside a DAW's arrangement view without covering it.

Drag a sample from the companion window and drop it onto a track, a clip slot, a drum pad, or a sampler device. The DAW receives the original file, the same as a drag from Finder.

Works with any DAW that takes a dropped file

There is no plugin to install and nothing to configure per DAW. If your DAW lets you drag a WAV in from Finder, the companion window works with it. That covers Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Bitwig Studio, Studio One, Cubase, Reaper, and Pro Tools.

The same library feeds your hardware

The library you drag from in a session is the same one that SampleStack validates and converts for hardware. A sample you tag while making a track is already tagged when you build a kit for a Digitakt or a reel for a Morphagene, so you are not maintaining one library for the DAW and a second for the rack.

Instruments, not only samples

For playable instruments, build a multisample in SampleStack and export it in a format your DAW opens: Ableton Sampler, Bitwig and Studio One, SFZ, or Decent Sampler.

What it does not do

SampleStack previews samples as they are recorded. It does not sync preview to your DAW's tempo or transpose it to your session's key, and it does not run as a plugin inside the DAW.

Further reading

• Sample manager vs DAW: which do you need?
• ADSR Sample Manager alternative
• Ableton Sampler instruments in SampleStack

More features

• Sample library manager Browse, tag, rate, and search every sample you own in one window.
• BPM and pitch detection Loops arrive with their tempo read. One-shots arrive with their root note.
• Sample editor and slicer Chop, slice, fade, and loop samples without leaving the browser.
• Batch sample converter Convert sample rate, bit depth, and channels for a whole folder at once.