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For a limited time, SampleCell devotees can now move up to IK Multimedia's full-featured SampleTank 2 XL* at a discounted price of just $349 US — a savings of $150 US compared to the regular list price.

Running from November 1, 2003, through March 31, 2004, Digidesign and IK Multimedia's SampleCell-to-SampleTank 2 XL crossgrade promotion offers Digidesign SampleCell users the opportunity to take their sounds to the next level with IK Multimedia's SampleTank 2 XL, the latest "sample workstation" powerhouse plug-in for Pro Tools.

Featuring easy import of both SampleCell Instruments and Banks, SampleTank 2 XL enables you to easily bring SampleCell libraries into SampleTank 2 XL to take advantage of a host of new sonic possibilities. What’s more, SampleTank 2 XL offers the following benefits:

While SampleCell offered only traditional sample playback, SampleTank 2 XL offers the same plus two additional engines for Pitch Shift, Time Stretch, and a formant preserving STRETCH mode. Now your customers can have independent control of the pitch, tempo, and harmonics of instruments, loops, and phrases.

In SampleCell, a sample of a phrase could only sound realistic at the original pitch. With SampleTank 2 XL, chords can be played with single phrases at any tempo, and even the melody line can be altered in real time with the keyboard.

SampleCell had no built-in DSP effects. SampleTank 2 XL has 32 built-in DSP effects including components from IK Multimedia’s award-winning AmpliTube and T-RackS plug-ins. Run guitar samples through amps and cabinets, and send drum kits through tube compressors and limiters, all with total recall and automation of every parameter.

While SampleCell did not offer any special tools for working with drum loops, SampleTank 2 XL has a built-in loop sync function that can take loops with different BPMs and sync them all to the Pro Tools sequencer tempo. Loops can also be played in SampleTank 2 XL with independent control of the pitch and tempo, giving you the features of remix programs within a plug-in instrument.

With the SampleTank 2 XL crossgrade, you also get 1,500 new sounds — close to five gigabytes of material on eight CDs. The sounds included in SampleTank 2 XL cover a wide range of instruments from a variety of pianos, guitars, basses, drums, and percussion to full orchestral, acoustic, ethnic, brass, and synth sounds, all in one package.

While platform support was limited with SampleCell, SampleTank 2 XL supports all popular platforms via native RTAS, including Windows XP and Mac OS 9 and OS X. Additionally, by way of the SampleTank 2 XL user interface, you can import SampleCell Banks and Instruments, and Akai, AIFF, WAV, and SDII formatted material, to manipulate sounds through SampleTank 2 XL's toolbox of DSP and sample technology. This promotion applies to owners of all versions of SampleCell — SampleCell I, Nubus SampleCell II, SampleCell II PC, SampleCell II PCI, SampleCell II Plus, and Soft SampleCell — and is available for both Windows XP and Mac OS 9 / OS X-based Pro Tools environments. The crossgrade is available through online DigiStores worldwide.

For full SampleTank 2 XL information, visit www.sampletank.com or www.ikmultimedia.com.