Hi guys,
I have an opportunity to get an MD SP1-MKII. Knowing that I already have an ARII and an OT, how important is the sampling functionality on the MD SP1-MKII UW ? Is there anything special to the sampling of the MD ?
Thanks
What that old thread completely ignored IMO is the sound quality aspect. The MD UW has a ”vintage sampler” vibe to it. If you love the sound of old drumplers like MPC60, SP1200, you’ll know what I mean. I don’t know how to get that sound from my OT nor AR, unless I use samples that already have that vibe to them.
I find the way samples sound on OT (pristine, ”transparent”), AR (clean but can also get very dusty/tapey) and MD UW (crunchy, more lofi) are all different from each other, and their textural interplay can work very nicely when combined.
If vintage sampler sounds are not your thing, then I suppose the UW is not a must-have. Buut YMMV as usual.
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Realtime sampling / resampling with feedback can be very interesting. Saving is PITA.
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I really love the sampling recording + playback in the MD.
I always keep the last four tracks for it.
Usually, I have track 13 set as recording, first trig launches the recording.
I unmute to record once, then mute again.
I then go to track 14 (set as player, mute), set all trigs on, and start to mess with sample start, pitch, decay, retrig and retrig time, filter…
You can really craft a total different glitchy loop out of it !
Now unmute or slowly rise level, and sculpt it to add some groove.
Bonus trick : set a different trig on the recording track to get a different character out of the same playback track.
Another one : when you mute some impactful tracks (e.g. BD, snare), unmute briefly the recording track to get a different flavor on your playback track.
And : if some trigs of your playback track have long decay, muting the playback track will let the tail playing, which can do some incredible fills.
I use the last couple of tracks either as supplementary playback tracks (good to save an interesting playback sequence before sculpting further) or another pair or rec/play with a new RAM slot (which offers the possibility to resample the other playback track btw).
I don’t use much external samples as I use samplers for this, but it can be useful though, to bring some chords or pads or whatever flavor the MD would not easily synthesize.
IMO sampling greatly enhance MD, and is a must have.
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another MD UW advocate here, the sound is pure grey and can really add an element of movement to the grid sequencer. the realtime aspect is something (i think but might be wrong) the armk2 lacks. depends on how you want to make music, if you like live exploration then it’s just pure fun and throws up (vomits) things you’d never expect.
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I tend to use only one machine at a time if possible. The MD uw is the one box to rule them all. But beware as it might become your favorite box and the others will get less attention. The MD itself got so many deep rabbit holes (several topics about it) to explore. The uw function is a must imo
Speaking of real-time an in-time sampling on the MDUW, and seeing that the OP also has an AR - wasn’t there also a way to transfer sampled material from MDUW to AR more or less on the fly?
Which sounds like a lot of potential capability.
Just recalling this from memory from reading in another thread though, so sorry if that’s not entirely accurate…
Not really on the fly but no need to stop the sequencer on any device. I did a yt video (low quality) to show how it works.
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