I’ve never thought of myself as much of a sampling guy, but now I realized that I have at least four samplers in my quite limited setup.
Digitakt is my go to drum computer/drum sampler.
MPC Live is the main brain of my whole setup, more of a sequencer than an actual sampler but every now and then I feel like sampling a phrase and mangling it. The Live is perfect for that. Love it to death.
My Korg Microsampler is the most fun, most instantaneous thing. If I’m going for a weekend at the summer cabin, this is the one sampler I’d bring with me. Pure fun.
Yesterday I got the Roland V-Synth which is a synth but with really powerful variphrase sample mangling possibilities. If I’d need a sampler for vocals or for sound design weirdness, this is the one I’d pick in a heartbeat.
On top of all those I also have the Roland XV-5080 which can play all the vintage samplelibraries from Akai and Roland. Haven’t tried that yet as I’d need to get a SCSI -cd rom drive to do that.
If I had to pick just one, it would be the MPC Live, but luckily I don’t.
MPC for Sample Freeze (stack 4 sample layers and stack layers FX on top of that and then freeze per pad… resample and chop to taste
any Samplist would have killed for this feature had they even known it was possible before it came out… combine this feature with the auto sampler feature and forget it… it’s a wrap.
MPC= for when I want to lead the mangling
Digitakt/ Model Samples =for when I want the instrument to do the leading of the mangling
Digitakt is my most used sampling sequencer but if I only had to have one piece of gear at all it would be the MPC 1000. Compact and comprehensive, fast workflow, stereo samples, able to create kits and templates for ease of use, fun song mode… Excellent piece of kit.
On the digitakt you can load the same sample into the different slots and set different start-end-looppoints for each slot without losing memory amount.
So you don’t have to decide on your chops before sampling. Much like on Maschine, modern MPC’s, etc.
Digitakt doesnt do slices but the workflow is very “old school hip hop style”.
no you didn’t miss anything but that would be dope… I was talking about the fact that you can combine layers of samples with layers of fx and freeze
but we still have simultaneous padlink for a work around
I’ve had beatmaker since version one, and although I have all of it’s versions I have never really vibed with it… it’s decent and I’ve learned it but I’d rather use many other less featured iOS apps … for me beat maker is the novation circuit of the iOS platform…(although it’s quite different from circuit)… just in the way that it just doesn’t feel right in my hands
I know, but with the Sampletrak I can chop a sample up and mess around with it before I decide that I want to save it into the project in the first place. It’s just easier.
The benefit of doing it the way you’re describing though is that you can lock the start and end points for the triggers on each track and then just paste them into one track when you’ve got your idea sorted out. Whereas if I do it on the Sampletrak I’ve either got to recreate that chop or sample it directly.
But like I said, I prefer doing it on the Sampletrak first. And in general I think the sound of it is pretty great. Like Sleepyhead was saying, it’s early 90s hip-hop in a box. It also doubles as an fx box since you can run the audio in through the fx. And that’s been super helpful for me since I’ve been doing more synth based stuff. Usually when I’m making samples I use the filter since it’s great at bringing out the harmonics.
Reading through this thread made me realise that, despite owning loads of samplers over the years, the only one I own that actually samples rather than loading samples from elsewhere is the SP-505… which I only actually use as an effects box.
At present I’ve got a TR8S, 2 Volca Samples with the Pajen FW and a Model:Samples, none of which actually sample in the conventional sense.
I foresee a Digitakt in my future but at present the only things I sample into directly are iOS apps (Koala & Samplr). I actually want to get a Zoom recorder to collect samples on too
I just bought Soundminer V5Pro that includes the Radium sampler. So I can build my own Octatrack kind of tricks Also I still need to look for an ideal controller to get more tactile. Maybe the Loupedeck CT or Elgato Stream Deck XL or the Electra One.
The give a impression about the Radium sampler in use it’s interesting to see this:
I’ve been finding out that the Machinedrums sampler is great for transitioning between songs. Having a rhythmic live change at the press of a button is enjoyable.
I only had an Octatrack for a month before it died, but I’m guessing you can do that on the Octa also?
Also I still need to look for an ideal controller to get more tactile. Maybe the Loupedeck CT or Elgato Stream Deck XL or the Electra One.