Old SAMPLERS worth having???

[teh dri]

im about to pick up an old 8 bit Ensoniq Mirage sampler off of somebody cheap just to add a dirty/gritty old sampling sound to the studio. i currently do most work on an MPC2000XL and my DAW but am quite inclined to add some old sampling goodness to my setup (along with all the associated problems of ancient samplers also). also id like to get my old S2000 back for sake of it being the first sampler i owned... have you guys got any old samplers you like? any opinions on the MIRAGE sampler im picking up?

[DC]

The mirage was the first really affordable sampler and quite a milestone in it's day. A lot of folks swear by Emax samplers because of the sound manipulation possible. The Emax II manual was written by a talented writer you may have heard of, think his name was Anderton... :D

[rebonn]

I don't know if it's still worth having but I've got an old Korg DSM1 sampler, probably the only model ever made that incorporates analog synthesis. It definately has a sound all it's own.

[Gabriel E.]

ALL old music gear is worth holding on to. The goal is to accumulate as much as possible.

[not Cereal]

the mitage is the most beautiful sounding peice of junk ever built! i have one, and let me tell you: run away. you cannot keep them going. i have repaired mine endlessly, even replacing the drive (ask me how hard it is to find an unused 720k drive). i kept it working for a while (a few years); i love the stupid thing. but one day it wouldnt boot anymore. no DE or UD on display, just nothing. spins up the drive, reads a little, then nothing. its dead. i am getting tears in my eyes just thinking about it. it sits on my shelf, replaced by an akai s2000 which is LIGHT YEARS BETTER IN EVERY WAY

[Botch.]

Jimmie Jam and Terry Lewis have been interviewed by Keyboard magazine several times, they credit the "sound" they developed for many of their fold of artists (notably Janet Jackson) with the gritty sound of the Mirage. Those articles would probably be worth looking up. The good thing is, hopefully you're not spending too much and its worth a try, you may be able to resell it for what you paid as its depreciation curve has about run its course!

[aliengroover]

Yeah, that "Sly" sample for Janet's "Rhythm Nation" was indeed done with the Mirage. I'm not a fan of it myself, but will give you a helluva lot of "grunge". I personally fall for the Roland S330/S550 series. There's just something about the way they sound. The first samplers I ever used were the S550, and EMU SP12, and the EII. The first sampler I ever owned was the S330. You just cannot go wrong with one. Peace

[DJDM]

Oh gawd I love my old Mirage! I got it for $1K used back in '89 with a decent sample library from a guy who was getting out of music. I still have it and I still love some of the Ensoniq samples. The stock massive church organ still holds up and "Acoustic Piano" is really pretty damn good. Sounds like a Yamaha electric if you use the built in "chorus" effect. After a while I got used to its Hexidecimal interface system as well and could really do some cool stuff on my own samples with it. It was one of the primary samplers for my band [url=http://www.mp3.com/meatdistributors]Meat Distributors[/url] back in the mid ninties. Built like a tank it took some REALLY good tumbles, several power surges and a good H2O dip and never flinched. First sampler that I really got a chance to learn the basics on. I will probably never part with it. - DJDM

[meccajay]

[quote]Originally posted by coaster: [b]the mitage is the most beautiful sounding peice of junk ever built! i have one, and let me tell you: run away. you cannot keep them going. i have repaired mine endlessly, even replacing the drive (ask me how hard it is to find an unused 720k drive). i kept it working for a while (a few years); i love the stupid thing. but one day it wouldnt boot anymore. no DE or UD on display, just nothing. spins up the drive, reads a little, then nothing. its dead. i am getting tears in my eyes just thinking about it. it sits on my shelf, replaced by an akai s2000 which is LIGHT YEARS BETTER IN EVERY WAY[/b][/quote]Yeah Coaster Ive been thinking about nabbing an S2000 lately, what would be a good price for one these days?? Also what's the major difference bet the S2000 and S3000??

[aliengroover]

The S3000 has a larger and better screen. It also has (if memory serves well) eight outputs standard. Some think it has a better sound. I believe the rest of the specs are pretty much the same. Peace

[meccajay]

[quote]Originally posted by aliengroover: [b] I personally fall for the Roland S330/S550 series. There's just something about the way they sound. You just cannot go wrong with one. Peace[/b][/quote]Alien, I second and third that emotion! I LOVE my S550, and Im always raving about it to folks. You really can't use it for much sampling unless it's sound effects/vocal effects etc, but some of the sampled sounds are heaven, and those damn rhodes patches are just Suuuuweeet!!!!! Ive had song where you're trying to mix in other studios and just couldn't get a tune to sit right and you're changing patches trying to find the right voicing blend, next day I bring in the S550 and Boom! Perfection! Like you said it's the sound, they mix so well, and NO VELOCITY SWITCHING!!!

[rog951]

I've still got an old Mirage DSK. Every time I use it, it makes me smile. :) If you can find it, try to pick up a copy of the "SoundProcess" operating system. It turns the Mirage into a much more powerful animal...kinda a (quite good-sounding) hybrid synth/sampler. Very useful. :thu:

[teh dri]

heya guys neat responses. i think i will give the Mirage a miss then... i need something a little more reliable and dont like my chances of finding many of those disks... might dig up and old s550 or s950 or something. a friend said something about a Cheetah... might take a look at that as much as i love software i love the fruits of mans labor in the hardware realm... i like old "crap" things that can be useful in supplying a different range of sounds. the Mirage sounds like it could fit that bill but for being as needy as a fashionable girlfriend (and as hard to keep properly maintained). oh and for an S2000 you shouldnt spend more then 600 aussie bucks... the conversion would make that around 300 USD give or take but i dont know what your market is like. funnily enough i sold mine off at nearly 500 USD and that cash went towards the MPC oh and lastly, i know the MPC can resample down, and i use plugins for lo-fi tastiness (and tape saturation, old fx units, etc) but there is something... tangible... about a gritty sampler. anyone got an sp-1200 to give me... heh heh

[Alon]

if you're looking for grit, don't get the akai(2000), it's way too clean. The akai is basically cd quality. Another old sampler, that is pretty much overlooked by most, that has a bit of grit & character are the casio fz samplers.

[teh dri]

[quote]Originally posted by Alon: [b]if you're looking for grit, don't get the akai(2000), it's way too clean. The akai is basically cd quality. Another old sampler, that is pretty much overlooked by most, that has a bit of grit & character are the casio fz samplers.[/b][/quote]yeah i know.. S2000 does 44.1 id get one again cause it was my first but like i said... suggest 12 or 8 bit samplers to me.. :) casio fz eh? (goes to look at harmony central... :)

[freddynl]

Never use it anymore, but I still have an S612+ separated diskdrive. I guess this is the oldest one mentionned so far :) and 8 bits. And it is still working..

[EXAGON]

I still have a Mirage. It's worth to buy one only if there is a good lybrary included (programming Mirage is a huge time wasting, but you can create very nice dirty sounds)

[aliengroover]

BTW, the Casio FZ is what Deee-Lite ("Groove Is In The Heart") used. Two of them actually. Peace

[aeon]

I think the original E-mu Emax is killer for that old time charm because although it uses that stunning 12-bit technology, it has a transposition engine that is of less quality than the older Emulator II...and it has a juicy analog filter too! Roland S-330 and S-550 do sound sweet for this application, but they are actually about as advanced as 12-bit got before the Akai S1000 popped. I find that you get the most charm when the sampler doesn’t use interpolation for the pitch trans, but actually changes the clock speed to do it...that way, you get that aliasing and clock noise creeping all over the place as your melody plays! :eek: :thu: The Akai S900/S950 is a solid choice as well.

[KenElevenShadows]

[quote]Originally posted by rebonn: [b]I don't know if it's still worth having but I've got an old Korg DSM1 sampler, probably the only model ever made that incorporates analog synthesis. It definately has a sound all it's own.[/b][/quote]I have the keyboard version of that, the Korg DSS1, which still works. It has two digital delays in addition to its sampling capabilities and analog synthesizer (which I believe is a sort of DW 8000). You can adjust the bit rate output so that instead of the default 12-bit output, it can output 10, 8, or 6 bits instead. The stuff is definitely worth holding on to. I don't know how much the DSS1 goes for now, but it's certainly not very much. It makes interesting sounds, and if you don't mind the fact that it weighs a lot (although not as much as an Emulator!! Yiiiikes!), then yeah, go for it! Old samplers have a certain something.

[Mark V]

Crikey dick! By the time I read through all of the replys I thought Dri had a Mirage users group on his hands. I'd have to echo all of the things said about them,I've still got mine and its had two new hard drives installed in the last seven or eight years. I cringe everytime I boot mine up wondering what could go wrong,I still love some of the sounds you get out of it though.As far as the second hand price goes,its almost worthless.

[Mark V]

Oops... I meant floppy drives.

[Bobro]

Picked up an Ensoniq EPS 16 for very little money- from a radio/tv studio, in perfect condition. Got it as a controller- polyphonic aftertouch! Don't know if polyphonic aftertouch is available on any new boards, and if it is it would cost at least 10x as much as I paid. Wouldn't even care if the sampling part didn't work, don't use it. However, drum samples sound great from the board, with the interior electronics and the convertor plenty of smoky meat gets added, and a colleague will be using it for his "phatt beatz". So if there are specific capabilities you have in mind, and the price is low, seems to be a good time to pick up old samplers and sampling keyboards on Ebay. -Bobro

[teh dri]

ooooo goody been studying up on my "old samper knowledge" with thanks to you guys and that vintage synth site, oh and of course Harmony Central think i might grab a bunch of old samplers... mirage, casio (the drum one... thingy thingy) and maybe a dirty old akai none of you owned a Cheetah?

[rebonn]

[quote]Originally posted by Ken/Eleven Shadows: [b] [quote]Originally posted by rebonn: [b]I don't know if it's still worth having but I've got an old Korg DSM1 sampler, probably the only model ever made that incorporates analog synthesis. It definately has a sound all it's own.[/b][/quote]I have the keyboard version of that, the Korg DSS1, which still works. It has two digital delays in addition to its sampling capabilities and analog synthesizer (which I believe is a sort of DW 8000). You can adjust the bit rate output so that instead of the default 12-bit output, it can output 10, 8, or 6 bits instead. The stuff is definitely worth holding on to. I don't know how much the DSS1 goes for now, but it's certainly not very much. It makes interesting sounds, and if you don't mind the fact that it weighs a lot (although not as much as an Emulator!! Yiiiikes!), then yeah, go for it! Old samplers have a certain something.[/b][/quote]If you haven't already, check out Adrian Pertout's Classic Analog Collection for the DSM1 and DSS1. http://www.pertout.com/