And it has stereo microphones? Or just with external ones?
I miss my lg g6.
2 solid microphones, stereo, with a great app. Was nice for on the go recording without a dedicated recorder.
is youtube in stereo on the iphone?
It has stereo mics. They’re used to record stereo for video too.
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SP brought back the fun of audio for me. And that also influences how I work with other gear.
Sampling is easy. Skipback is great.
Then focus on slicing, that gives you one proces to learn; make notes.
Export samples or record them into your daw while triggering them from midi.
Later practice resampling a bit, make notes.
The main thing will work on day one.
Had many happy incidents with it. Mostly due to the pads being the play-buttons themselves.
It does not get in the way of my head and audio.
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The sampler in renoise.
Select your audio in source in preferences
(you should only need to do that at the start of a song project and will likely be your default interface changes etc anyway)
Hit record
(independent of the transport controls),
Edit where required
(in a nice big window with loads of options)
And that’s it. Just select all, save sample to disk to save it where you want as a .wav file and you’re done. Super quick. I can’t imagine a faster and less painless way of sampling inside the box
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Sounds great. Can you set the audio in source to YouTube natively? I really don’t need another DAW but was always curious about Renoise and it looks a great value.
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You can do that if your interface supports loopback.
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As @Mumdad said just select a loop back source or maybe install something like BlackHole. I’ve got that in my Mac and it appears as an input source in renoise prefs so no reason to think it wouldn’t work although I’ve not tried it out.
Renoise is a great tool. It’s not the last word in DAW’s but you can do a lot with it. I tend to think of it as a sampler first and foremost with some sequencing and FX nailed on. I don’t mean that in a bad way, just that I use it in that way. I do full songs in it tho, just that I tend to start by filling the project with samples I make in it first and then start arranging. When I first started using it I just used it in free demo mode and recorded out to minidisc as rendering the full song was disabled however I bought it (for £50 iirc) to get that functionality. Maybe just getting the free version might work as long as you can save your samples to disc? I don’t know if that’s possible or if it’s disabled
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The answer to the question posed in this thread, for me anyway, is handheld recorders because those are the fastest way in my experience to record audio from the widest range of sources. Settings are usually static, set & done. Just record in bulk, and export to PC, because that’s where the rest of the sample library will be anyway. Sample management exists as a separate process.
I think that is why there isn’t a device like the one you suggested for a small AIO recorder & sampler - the dedicated samplers & dedicated recorders having features not always present on the other. The things that do both are either too cumbersome, lack required I/O, or don’t have the full features you expect. If most features are in the PC, and most sample libraries exist in the PC, then like I said, this is really just a question of recording.
Phones are almost always in reach but they don’t have a dedicated external button for that recording process. I think newer iPhones have a customizable macro button though. Then there are questions of how many dongles and cables you need onhand for inline recording, are you going to be satisfied with the microphone, bit rate, etc.
Recorders and field recorders.
I can see the logic behind this, and that’s definitely the way it is now. My thinking is that if (for example) I wanted to sample all of the notes up and down the keyboard of a patch that I made on something, currently I have to record it, take it on the computer, manually process the data, name it all, export, then load back onto a sampler/sequencer. This is the expected process.
If I could cut out the middle part of it because some intelligent device took the individual notes which I recorded, trimmed them, named them, and then I could just take that data and move it to another device it would be a major time saver, and this is why I think there’s at least some reason for it to exist.
I learned recently that Tangerine (which was mentioned) can automatically multisample a synth and this is in the direction of what I’m looking for, however I just don’t know that I need the remainder of tangerine or the associated cost.
Honestly if MPC or Digitakt or something else, even M8, could do the bulk of the work then I agree the separate device would start to lose meaning, but there is some merit to a small transportable and simple to use unit.
Presently, the handheld recorder is the answer but if I could cut an hour of work out of the workflow, I would certainly pay $100 to get in on it. That was the foundation of my logic here.
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I definitely don’t disagree, just saying, the question asked in the way I understand it was the fastest way to get samples in the broadest type of situation coverage.
I think there is a reason for such a device to exist as well, but unlikely to be perfect. If it was just recording and sample editing with playback, no instrument functionality persay, it should theoretically be possible for such a device to exist even with per button knob/function. Needs are ultimately going to vary depending on user ecosystem. As evidenced by the replies in this thread, people use different solutions, DAW, mobile, hardware and those all have their own requirements and gaps that need to be filled in. For the person at the computer sampling digital sources it’s obviously the DAW for me (Bitwig).
MPC or Digitakt territory you need to do battery mod or lug a power bank for it to be “mobile”. Even then those are not handheld devices. M8 actually has a really high quality microphone though in my experience but I can’t speak to sampler specific features you want out of it.
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Yeah, we immediately come back to the old tearjerker “why can’t someone just make a perfect device” and we all start crying in unison then console each other that the privileged lives which allow us these wonderful devices has some small dark smudge mark on it called “learning how to use a device and living with it’s limitations”.
Like billionaires crying over traffic congestion or supermodels complaining that food has nutrition and calories, poor synth boys who have to trim samples by hand with a hatchet and a piece of rope out back of the log cabin ankle deep in the cold cold snow.
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Haha yeah. That’s kind of what I am getting at as well. If someone made such a device, the next immediate goalpost would be, well, it would be perfect if it also was an instrument. It would be perfect if it also did this etc.
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muahaha I’m just waiting in the cut for my chance to say that 
Nobody wants to hear this but the OP-XY is the answer if you’re not counting smartphones. Instant sampling, multisampler, has a mic, usb audio, super long battery life, ultra portable, solidly built, and has a keyboard.
does the op-xy automatically detect root notes as well?
Personally I’d love a physical device that has the several-minutes-rolling-buffer behavior of the “Rolling Sampler” app, with a couple buttons to activate/stop, and touch screen to quickly highlight the waveform you want to replay/save down.
I don’t use the computer in my workflow otherwise, so using it as a rolling sampler is kind of a distraction for me…
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Oh sure, the op-xy does it…
But it’s a) not pocketable
And b) really expensive for only that part.
Handheld recorders already have all they need for this.
Only thing maybe lacking is 1 encoder for scrubbing and 1 or 2 buttons for shift functionality.
Rest is software. Zoom would be the perfect company for this, with their knowledge from the r series (r12)
Have user configurable folders, auto generate names, suggest splits for samples and let the user adjust the cutting points by themselves, etc.
It’s not “just” for sampling, but on the go managing of multiple takes for smaller 1 man productions (interviews, etc). Having that roughly cut and marked on the spot instead of re scrubbing all hours later would cut down the time a lot. Currently most recorder’s don’t give you those options.
No need for big mangling. While some basics would be cool (normalisation, high/lo Pas, komp, noise reduction) the rest would be done in the sample player then. The structuring in folders and proper naming options (setting standard names for paths, etc) would cut down work in archiving field recordings and other projects.
About as big as a handheld recorder today. Zoom H1 or H2. For the price of those +50€, it’s essentially those with more powerful software.
A huge benefit: no “sample memory” or buffer that limits recording length, no need for sounds to be instantly ready in a musical context. That means while scrubbing, saving, loading, browsing no critical need for 0 latency, if the SD needs 20 -30 milliseconds to start the playback, that’s file for its purpose.
That’s one of the biggest problems when the sampler also is the sample player.
The moment somebody asks why not sequencing etc etc… That’s just on them. This device would inherently not be this. This + a sample player would be the better option for everybody that does not live sample.
A sampler I can’t take on daily commute and trips.
I can a recorder or my phone, but the phone lacks good IO and physical inputs (that one depends, if one prefers them), often no SD card (more cumbersome to get it off the phone), is distracting, etc. With external clip on NICs I had mixed experience, and the moment you start dongling audio interfaces everything’s just distracting and making it harder to catch a sound.
Another thing that would help: speech to text recognition to write a description for the folder, what was recorded, naming, etc.
I leave my H1 sometimes out of sight recording, dangle it, just throw it in bags. Battery lives forever, cd cards are convenient. It’s just that by the time I get to my pc or find the time to do it I a) have half forgotten what / where it exactly was. But in the bus/train/transit I could do this.
Edit: throw in a Metronom, Tuner (those features are dirt cheap, like 15€ Korg devices) and playback while recording and you have a great tool for sampling AND practicing musicians. Use the Metronom to record a demo of you playing, and then record singing takes over that. Have everything in a folder. Then later you can import it into a draw and mix it.
The more I think the more it seems like it would fit right between zooms r series multitrack recorders and h series handheld recorders. Come on zoom, do it!
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To me, a field recorder is not a sampler. One is a musical audio manipulation tool, the recorder is just that.
It detects key, but it doesn’t always get it right.