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Let's talk about samplers...


Bobro

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Yes indeed, I've been doing analog and "unsynthesis" for months now, and now it's time for a SERIOUS sampler, basically for percussion. Why? Well I want the best of all worlds.

 

For example, there are certain "percussion" hits I can do on my old no-Midi, no-velocity, no-CV analog monosynth. Nothing like it for tone and feel. So I just spent many hours recording individual hits, rolling down the LPF a hair for each hit, multisamples up the butt.

 

Sounds great, everything's wonderful, using the great little drum sampler RMII from Linplug (29 dollars, limited features but kicks ass for more or less straight playback).

 

Here's the rub- PIII 1,000/512Mb is choking already. I'm playing in live, not step sequencing. That's the bitch, otherwise I could just set the playback latency ultra-high and have no problems.

 

Since I'm getting sounds out of unlikely things like household objects as well, I'd like to have good filters and tricks built in.

 

Basically what this is all leading to is the sinking feeling that I'm going to need a hardware sampler- and there's a bunch of analog stuff already on the shopping list.

 

What are you guys using? What kind of performance stats are you getting out of software samplers? What's with the Akai Z-4? What hardware sampler has the tastiest filters?

 

-Bobro

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I think E-mu has the best filters. Some prefer Akai for clarity. Yamaha has dropped their A line and Akai has abandoned the S1000-S3000 format with the new series. I don't know if Roland will release another sampler or not. I have the XV-5080 to play samples but it will not record samples. Like the Akai's, it translates the standard format into it's own modern version. Out of all of them I would go with E-Mu, but that is personnel choice.

 

For software I setteled for the two extreams. GigaStudio 160 for real instruments, Kontakt for sound minipulation. I'm still waiting for Kontakt to arrive but the demo seems nice enough. I've been happen with all other NI products.

 

Robert

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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Originally posted by Rabid:

For software I setteled for the two extreams. GigaStudio 160 for real instruments, Kontakt for sound minipulation. I'm still waiting for Kontakt to arrive but the demo seems nice enough. I've been happen with all other NI products.

 

Robert

Robert you really are the Typo King. :):):)

 

Busch.

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Just looking at ebay- got my eye on a couple golden oldies. I guess thanks to software samplers hardware samplers are a thing of the past, but all I need is a box or board for my custom percussion sounds, without latency hassles.

 

The Kontakt and Battery demos don't work on my audio computer (I'm Jar Jar at K-V-R, details there).

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Native Instruments responded at K-V-R forum and I got the Battery demo working with a simple registry edit. Kontakt demo is still unstable but enough to check it out. They are both very nice programs.

 

As far as sampling synthesis on the computer, I have many options. For instance I can put RMII into SynthEdit or Infinity and go from there with filters, etc. But all these things tend to wind up in the territory of sound design, not real-time performance instruments, because of CPU and latency issues.

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Just won a bid on an Ensoniq EPS 16 on Ebay, for dirt cheap. Weighted keys, velocity and polyphonic aftertouch, it'll be a great controller if it's in perfect condition like the guy says- even if I never use the sampling, at the price for a controller it's a steal. Looks like a hybrid system is going to be a good idea- I should be able to get in almost-no-latency percussion playing from the EPS, at least on stuff that doesn't need to be 24/48, and use software samplers for other things with the EPS as controller.

 

2MB storage is pitiful by today's standards, but for example my analog "sheet of iron" samples with 31 velocities will fit in there at 16 bit, and for studio use it'll be fine to load things in and out.

 

The new Akai Z-4 looks like a winner, but that'll have to wait until I've whored out my music enough to be as rich as Stockhausen, hahaha! :D

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Just won a bid on an Ensoniq EPS 16 on Ebay, for dirt cheap. Weighted keys, velocity and polyphonic aftertouch, it'll be a great controller if it's in perfect condition like the guy says- even if I never use the sampling, at the price for a controller it's a steal. Looks like a hybrid system is going to be a good idea- I should be able to get in almost-no-latency percussion playing from the EPS, at least on stuff that doesn't need to be 24/48, and use software samplers for other things with the EPS as controller.

 

2MB storage is pitiful by today's standards, but for example my analog "sheet of iron" samples with 31 velocities will fit in there at 16 bit, and for studio use it'll be fine to load things in and out.

 

The new Akai Z-4 looks like a winner, but that'll have to wait until I've whored out my music enough to be as rich as Stockhausen, hahaha! :D

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