HighLife

Name: HighLife
Price: 49 USD
Author: discoDSP

by discoDSP · Sampler · Performance sampler

Not rated yet

HighLife is discoDSP's lighter performance sampler, with a built-in wave editor, five effects and flexible modulation routing.

It loads WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, Akai and SFZ material and costs $49; discoDSP's newer Bliss adds plugin sampling.

Best for: Keys & Synths, Drums, Sound Design. Genres: all genres.

Keywords: sample-based, sound design, CPU-light, free, drum machine, legacy/32-bit, modern, monophonic, polyphonic, resizable UI.

What it does

HighLife is discoDSP's lightweight performance sampler, pitched as "the ultimate performance sampler for modern musicians". It plays and edits sample instruments with built-in effects and modulation, and KVR lists Bliss as its successor.

Sample editor: edit samples inside the plugin, including marking cue points.
Effects: five built-in effects: chorus, delay and reverb plus the Daft and Rock Da Disco effects.
Filters and modulation: zero-delay feedback filters, ADSR envelopes, LFOs, flexible modulation routing, portamento and pitch bend.
Parameter morphing: morph between settings for sound design.
Formats: loads WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC and RAW audio, Akai S5000/S6000 AKP and MPC SND files, and SFZ programs; Bedroom Producers Blog also lists SF2.
Engine: 32-bit floating point processing, up to 32 voices according to Bedroom Producers Blog, 256-point SINC offline resampling and a resizable interface, with low CPU use.

The current version is 2.8. It is free for non-commercial use; a paid commercial licence is also available.

Source: discoDSP product page

When to use it

HighLife is the better pick when you want a simple, light sampler that is free for personal projects. Compared with Bliss, its successor, it has fewer effects (five against nine), no built-in plugin host for sampling instruments and fewer import formats, but it costs less for commercial use. Compared with TAL-Sampler, it has less vintage character but reads Akai and SFZ material directly. It is far simpler than Kontakt 8 and cannot load Kontakt libraries.

Best for: quick sample instruments, chopped loops and playing SFZ or old Akai material on a budget.
Genres: any; it is a general-purpose sampler.
Look elsewhere if: you want to sample your plugins or need deeper editing and more effects; Bliss or Kontakt 8 go further.

What producers say

The few user reviews are positive, especially about the effects and format support, with some early complaints about the interface.

KVR users rate it 4.67 out of 5 from 3 reviews (2023, versions 2.1 and 2.2), praising the chorus, delay and reverb, the unusual extra effects and the wide format support.
Criticisms: one KVR reviewer found the GUI scaling and workflow dated and missed a sample preview browser; they raised their rating after version 2.2 made the interface resizable and "crisper".
Bedroom Producers Blog (2022) welcomed its return as free for non-commercial use and suggested sampling your synths to save CPU.

Where to buy

discoDSP: $49 (Free for non-commercial use; $49 for a commercial license)

Tutorials and reviews

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