There are tutorial videos at IK. Find and watch them. I was mystified until I did and then it made sense. ST4 is not intuitive in the way that ST3 was but it’s far more powerful. It’s also a true, powerful sampler in ways that the free Kontakt Player is not — again, there are tutorials on how to convert many of the free and low cost libraries out there.

Unlike Kontakt, the ST4 Player/Sampler is always free — the various pricing tiers are for more included libraries.

I have IK’s Total Studio (about 450GB that load into ST4). I also have NI’s Komplete Collector’s Edition (about 1.5TB that load into Kontakt and Komplete). I reach for ST4 about twice as often as Kontakt.


BIAB 2023 Audiophile, 24/60 Core M2 Mac Studio Ultra/8TB/192GB Sonoma, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP
Digital Performer 11, LogicPro
Finale27.4, Dorico5, Encore5, SmartScorePro64, Notion6, Overture5