Ableton has announced Sampler ($199), available as part of an upgrade within Ableton Live 6. Sampler integrates within Live, and you can modulate Sampler''s controls with clip envelopes, stack Samplers, attach effects, and save projects. It uses Live's disk preloading technology to avoid RAM shortages, and it imports common sample formats, including AKAI S1000 and S3000, GigaStudio, EXS, SoundFont and (non-encrypted) Kontakt.

An oscillator can modulate samples by frequency or amplitude, and every voice can be processed with a morphable multimode filter and a saturator. Each aspect of the original sample, including sample start and loop position as well as loop length, can be modulated polyphonically. Sampler gives you three LFOs, five multimode envelopes, and various MIDI inputs as modulation sources.

To learn more about Sampler, visit www.ableton.com/sampler.