SampleStack 1.1.3 adds three new instruments, a faster way to convert samples, and a major performance fix for big libraries.
Three new instruments
Lúbadh (Instruō). The dual tape-style looper gets a full profile: the 12-folder × 12-reel USB structure, alphabetical reel ordering, and conversion to the module’s native 96 kHz / 24-bit stereo format so vari-speed behaves the way you expect.
Arbhar (Instruō). The granular processor’s _arbhar_library layout is fiddly to build by hand — 36 folders named 1_1_sample through 6_6_sample. SampleStack now creates and validates the whole bank/layer structure, flags samples that exceed the ~13 second layer limit, and converts to the V2-native 48 kHz / 24-bit format.
ADDAC112 (ADDAC System). The VC Looper & Granular Processor is more sampler than it first appears: you can load your own loops straight from a computer by placing WAVs in BANK#/WAV/ folders on the SD card. SampleStack builds that structure, applies the numeric filename ordering the module uses for loop selection, validates the 99-loop bank limits, and writes clean minimal-header WAVs — which matters here, since the ADDAC112 can reject files with extra metadata chunks.
As always, all three include auto-detection when you add an SD card or USB drive, format validation, conversion, and library creation.
That brings the instruments directory to 33 supported devices.
Transcode presets
Sometimes you just want a file in a different format without setting up a collection. Now you can: right-click any sample (or a selection of samples) and pick a format from the new Transcode menu, or use the Transcode tab in the inspector.
Built-in presets cover the common cases — 48 kHz / 16-bit, 44.1 kHz / 16-bit, and friends — and you can define your own custom presets with any sample rate, bit depth, and channel layout. Transcoded files are written alongside the originals with a format suffix, so nothing is ever overwritten.
Much faster loading for large libraries
If you have a very large sample library — tens of thousands of files — you may have seen the app sit on “Loading cached analysis…” for a long time at launch. That’s fixed: a pitch-index bottleneck that scaled badly with library size has been rewritten, and libraries that previously took many minutes to load now come up in seconds.
Also in this release
- RAW file conversion. Headerless RAW files (Radio Music) can now be converted to other formats, not just played and analyzed.
- Smoother loop playback. Fixed a glitch when looping slices.
- Offer codes. Redeem promo codes directly from the upgrade screen.
- Purchase reliability. The upgrade flow now retries automatically on flaky connections.
SampleStack 1.1.3 is available now on the Mac App Store.