Gotta wait a couple of batches to get hands on this one, though depending where you’re based some local retailers still have units in their batch 1 allocations
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Oh, snap! That is a great update!
I’m really surprised they did that, just because the MO for the Nanoboxes seemed to be for each one to take a Blackbox feature and do it even better. This seems like it would cannibalize interest in the Tangerine significantly.
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Also Waldorf iridium can multi sample I believe. I just got one haven’t played around with the sampling engine yet. But the core is pretty portable.
SP-404MK2 can play samples chromatically and polyphonically, if you’ve got a MIDI keyboard you can be playing chords or whatever while you tap drums on the pads too. However it’s relatively quite limited compared to some of the other samplers in terms of the basic envelope and no LFOs.
But you can loop and layer stuff and build up an entire track on it which might be a bonus? Other devices like the MPCs might do that better though. Just thought I’d mention it.
I know… Although now I wonder if the granular engine is just a bit restricted by processing power rather than on purpose to make you buy a lemon drop (which I am so close to doing)
Anything that doesn’t have built in battery options is not portable
+1 for a 1010 Blackbox or Tangerine. Love my BB. Spent all week making grooves with it, and for me, it’s really quick to do.
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That’s a different meaning of portable than the one OP is needing. An electric guitar is portable, and you can fly with it, but it doesn’t have a battery. That’s precisely the kind of portable you need when you’re on tour traveling between venues where you can plug in your gear: just something that won’t put you way over the baggage limits.
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Something you may also want to consider since this is for a tour, shit happens on the road and backup contingencies can be quite important. Keeping your files backed up externally and using a device that is readily avaliable, should replacement be required, may enter into the equation. Failure can happen at anytime. Unfortunately so can theft.
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MPC Live/One would be my recommendation along with an external HDD back up. As others have pointed out anything can happen on the road and in the absolute worst case scenario you could pick a replacement one from most of the high street music shops, something that can’t be said for some of the more esoteric offerings.
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On tour, I´d prefer the Blackbox over the MPC One. If you have to load a different project, the MPC One can take some time. The BB is way faster. Personally, I like the workflow of the Deluge best. But it might be harder to replace on tour, if you have any technical problems.
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Chords can be monophonic samples though, if you’re going down the trigger one shot samples direction…
Also, MC-101/707 have stereo sample support for drum pads don’t they?
Let’s talk a moment about the distinction between samplers overall and multi-samplers specifically. Some of the recommendations given here have been for samplers that can play a one-shot sample polyphonically, and on many of them you can also give the sample different behaviors based on velocity (e.g. envelope, filter, etc.) And, since OP asked for “poly sampler”, none of y’all were wrong to recommend those!
But, if you ever have the good fortune to find yourselves in OP’s situation, the “we used a studio full of gear to make the album and now I have to tour” situation, let me tell you: a multi-sampler is what you’re going to want!
A multi-sampler lets you take your instrument and effectively turn any of its patches into a ROMpler patch, commanding 100s of different samples that represent the sound of that instrument at different pitches and velocities. And an auto-sampler or “sample robot” feature does all the work of creating all those 100s of samples for you and mapping them correctly to key/velocity combos. It’s like having your own personal sampling pro to do the hard stuff, and then boom! Your ROMpler is full of all your favorite patches. (Who needs Samples from Mars when you have Samples from My Own Studio?)
In comparison, just pitching/stretching your one-shot sample across multiple octaves is going to start sounding less and less accurate the further you go from the base pitch. For some genres (lo-fi hip hop, vaporwave, etc) that can actually often be a plus. But if what you want is for the live show to sound like the record you made, with accurate recreations of your favorite hardware, multi-sampling is the thing!
(Also, you can save a ton of money you might otherwise spend buying professional sample packs by multi-sampling favorite patches from rare gear you come across at friend’s houses, synth meetups, etc.)
Some of you already knew all that, but for anyone who didn’t: try a multi-sampler! You don’t even need hardware to try it out—there are lots of software options. If you own a DAW, it probably has an auto-sampling multi-sampler in it.
Thank you for viewing my infomercial. Multi-samplers rule! 
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Another vote for the Akai Force. Multisampler (“Keygroups”), auto-sampler, reads embedded loop points, etc. You’re already familiar with Ableton Live, so you’ll feel right at home with the Force.
It will be released probably too late for your use, but we should keep an eye on this upcoming (granular) sampler…
How about a keyboard that can play samples? Saves messing about with a separate controller keyboard too
So now that we have this update, would you recommend the Blackbox over the Tangerine?
This is exactly what I thought when I wrote this post, and you made an excellent point. I was very confused about this matter, and you really helped me understand what I’m looking for. Thx a lot 
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Very interesting, but a bit pricey
Yeah, given the firmware update the Blackbox seems like the stronger choice now. Sturdier build, more mature firmware, more features.
At any rate, it’s my choice now. Thanks to that firmware update, I am buying a Blackbox myself.
Do take the advice of those who recommend having a backup, though. Things do go wrong on tour. So if you can’t afford two Blackboxes, maybe two Tangerines would be better than one Blackbox.
At bare minimum, always backup your SD cards!
p.s. If you do decide to live a little more dangerously and not have a backup device, make sure to bring a copy of the ConvertWithMoss software with you. It can convert the 1010 multi-sample format into a variety of other formats (MPC, Korg Wavestate/Modwave, DecentSampler, etc.) which would give you a far better chance of being able to buy a device off the rack wherever you may be, to get you back up and running.
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