Hardware Samplers

I spent some time the other night just monkeying around with my Electribe ES1 sampler which, if I'm honest, I've not really touched too often since i last played a gig (maybe 3 years ago) and I quite enjoyed the experience of physically sampling something going into the audio in's and so forth to come up with something. It felt a little more satfisfying than trimming some .wavs and loading it into Kontakt.

It got me thinking about what value there is in getting a proper rack mount sampler. Obviously you'll get folk talking about the "sound" of the classics from the early 90s and before. But what about some of the more powerful samplers from the just before the software samplers really kicked the hardware into touch? Say from the late 90s onwards (Akai Z series, Yamaha A series).

Any experiences? Opinions?

the S6000 is a fucking powerhouse.

this is all

i had a yamaha a5000

it was overly complicated and somewhat of a hassle putting one sample in at a time and trimming, i dunno.

if your all hardware based i guess i'd understand wanting one. plus it's fucking powerful, one of the last rack samplers produced i think

the Z series were as tight as fuck which is why autechre used them but sadly most rack samplers are obsolete especially those without flash RAM or a hard drive which are now door stops

the Yamahas were good fro their time but the MIDI buffer was quite shite so it never quite lived up to its potential in fact I'm looking at a mates A4000 that he wont come and collect due to the space it takes up

the MPC1000 (JJOS2XL) however is a very complete workstation in a tidy intuitive package and the only modern hardware sampler worth looking at imho

I have an s5000, which is a beast. It sounds real cool and has USB. I got it real cheap. Worth looking into, but prepare thyself for investing a lot of time getting up to speed on it.

I've had an MPC 1k and have a 2kxl as well. Both are fun. Completely agreed about the fun of trimming, sampling into them, etc. It's much more fun than just editing on the computer for me.

I have two rack samplers - my old E-mu ESI-32 that I recently fixed after it being broken for 8 years, and an Akai S2000 I just got for $29.

I haven't used either really, but both would be good as over sized audio processors I guess, i.e. running something from the computer into them and re-sampling.

But I'm probably too lazy to do that.

  On 12/14/2010 at 10:40 PM, scones to die for said:

I have two rack samplers - my old E-mu ESI-32 that I recently fixed after it being broken for 8 years, and an Akai S2000 I just got for $29.

 

I haven't used either really, but both would be good as over sized audio processors I guess, i.e. running something from the computer into them and re-sampling.

 

But I'm probably too lazy to do that.

29 dollars? holy crap.

Deals are out there. I regret not picking up a $75 Akai S900 I saw, which would've been better for that 12 bit crunch.

  On 12/15/2010 at 3:32 AM, scones to die for said:

Deals are out there. I regret not picking up a $75 Akai S900 I saw, which would've been better for that 12 bit crunch.

around here i guess there are less musicians messing around with sounds so when i go on to craiglist there are rarely deals

yeah you gotta just always be looking

i think all old akai's will be desirable in 10 years

the mpc 60 is a high dollar thing now

you can assemble the go plastic/ultravisitor rig for under 700 bucks if you shop smart

for advanced sample processing / mangling / morphing / etc... definitely look into the roland v-synth.

I owned a yamaha a3000 once upon a time. I really loved it back when it was brand new, but I doubt I'd get much joy from it these days. Loading up samples is a pain in the ass.

I may come off as a complete noob, but are there any vst samplers that can actually sample audio input? The ones I've tried are limited to sample playback. Shit disrupts my workflow.

edit: I guess reaktor can do this.

  On 12/15/2010 at 5:49 AM, yikes said:

you can assemble the go plastic/ultravisitor rig for under 700 bucks if you shop smart

good luck getting eventide boxes at that price!

  On 12/15/2010 at 1:44 PM, Retape said:

  On 12/15/2010 at 5:49 AM, yikes said:

you can assemble the go plastic/ultravisitor rig for under 700 bucks if you shop smart

 

good luck getting eventide boxes at that price!

Ha, yeah that's what I was gonna say.

Everyone should get a hardware sampler, if just for furniture.

My Akai stuff has some great features that other samplers I've used don't. For example, on the MPCs, the "decay" envelope is actually anchored to the end of the sample. In other words, you can slice a break and then just declick the pieces non-destructively using the envelopes real easily. It's awesome.

The s5000 has some great features for quickly mapping samples to keys and stuff, and also some really uncommon filters like dual notch mode and shit. Also the USB mode runs "live" on the machine (not like the newer Akai stuff), so you can basically use it like a plugin while the sequence is running. Plus it's built so heavy and solid you could definitely use it to kill a man.

  On 12/15/2010 at 7:40 AM, digit said:

for advanced sample processing / mangling / morphing / etc... definitely look into the roland v-synth.

I've heard some rave about the v-synth but was never convinced that a modern Roland would be any good and it looked like a collection of useless gimmicks (like the Radias) that's intended to woo Dad's in music shops who want to relive their forgotten prog rock youth however there must be more to it than this prey tell.....?

  On 12/15/2010 at 10:55 AM, Gocab said:

I may come off as a complete noob, but are there any vst samplers that can actually sample audio input? The ones I've tried are limited to sample playback. Shit disrupts my workflow.

I use Short Circuit - a great free VST sampler - with Cubase. I record right into Cubase and can drag and drop right into Short Circuit. It's great for work flow.

thanks all for the opinions, i think it's something that I'll keep in mind in case i come across a bargain some time but it's not massively urgent. i probably should be making better use of my existing stuff in the meantime.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Emu-E-mu-Emulator-1-Vintage-Sampler-/300493432600?pt=Keyboards_MIDI&hash=item45f6cde718

kind of want

  On 12/15/2010 at 3:20 PM, Ascdi said:

My Akai stuff has some great features that other samplers I've used don't. For example, on the MPCs, the "decay" envelope is actually anchored to the end of the sample. In other words, you can slice a break and then just declick the pieces non-destructively using the envelopes real easily. It's awesome.

could you explain this a little more I don't quite grasp what you mean

  On 12/19/2010 at 10:42 PM, Scrambled Ears said:

  On 12/15/2010 at 3:20 PM, Ascdi said:

My Akai stuff has some great features that other samplers I've used don't. For example, on the MPCs, the "decay" envelope is actually anchored to the end of the sample. In other words, you can slice a break and then just declick the pieces non-destructively using the envelopes real easily. It's awesome.

could you explain this a little more I don't quite grasp what you mean

Whenever I chop samples by hand in software, there is always this issue where if you don't chop on zero crossings, there can be a click at the tail end of the sample. In most samplers, you can either destructively edit the tails of the samples so that they smoothly fade over a few MS, or you can set some sort of amp envelope (like an AHD envelope, for example), so that the envelope fully decays before you get to the very end of the sample and the click noise. But this is annoying. Say I have a sample that is 500 ms, I have to think, okay, I will use 2 ms of attack, 490 ms of hold, and 8 ms of decay, and that will get me the whole sample without a click noise, right?

On the MPC, there's an amp envelope that has attack and "decay". In the default mode, the "decay" part of the envelope starts at the back end of the sample and works forwards. In other words, you can tail samples nondestructively really easily.

  On 12/16/2010 at 9:19 PM, scones to die for said:

  On 12/15/2010 at 10:55 AM, Gocab said:

I may come off as a complete noob, but are there any vst samplers that can actually sample audio input? The ones I've tried are limited to sample playback. Shit disrupts my workflow.

I use Short Circuit - a great free VST sampler - with Cubase. I record right into Cubase and can drag and drop right into Short Circuit. It's great for work flow.

Thank you, certainly looks interesting. I've never heard about this vst before.

samplers have always been a bitch in the interface dept. MPCs are all there is to me. They cracked the problem and made sampling fun.

  On 12/20/2010 at 6:22 AM, Ascdi said:

Whenever I chop samples by hand in software, there is always this issue where if you don't chop on zero crossings, there can be a click at the tail end of the sample. In most samplers, you can either destructively edit the tails of the samples so that they smoothly fade over a few MS, or you can set some sort of amp envelope (like an AHD envelope, for example), so that the envelope fully decays before you get to the very end of the sample and the click noise. But this is annoying. Say I have a sample that is 500 ms, I have to think, okay, I will use 2 ms of attack, 490 ms of hold, and 8 ms of decay, and that will get me the whole sample without a click noise, right?

 

On the MPC, there's an amp envelope that has attack and "decay". In the default mode, the "decay" part of the envelope starts at the back end of the sample and works forwards. In other words, you can tail samples nondestructively really easily.

I've been using a 2kxl every day for two years, and I still accidentally come upon new shit that it can do. I love mine with all my heart.

i was gonna say

….every home studio should have a 1000 ,a 2000 or a 2000 xl and a turntable for many reasons beyond the obvious tactile grip

i think more [electronic]people use them in their rigs then they let on

the mpc 1000 is the boobs w/ usb and flash ,the 2000 is saddled w/ scsi which you have to mod now in order to save on a real format

i have shoe boxes filled with jazz and zip carts that i can't use anymore

FUCKING IOMEGA CUNTS