Is there a hardware equivalent to UVI Falcon or NI Kontakt?

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

BTW I love the Octatrack MKII. I have my MOTU 8M auxes going to the Octatrack inputs. It’s so easy to record an idea (or happy accident) as soon as it happens using the buffers. Then trim, slice, save & assign sample, assign to self. I use it to compose. It’s great for building tracks from musical phrases as well as adding percussion.

However, it’s not an instrument in the same vein as the Ensoniq ESQ/ASR hardware line. It seems those samplers are a lost art, and all kids wanna do these days is make “beats.” If you google hardware samplers today, they’re all descendants of the legendary AKAI MPC, which became the cornerstone for 90’s hip-hop. These samplers treat everything as a beat.

That’s great and all, but what about key mapping, velocity mapping, dynamics, aftertouch, polyphony, and making melodies?

Now while the UVI Falcon is great, if I have an idea, I may have to close my current Cantabile/DAW project, create a new one, bring in the Falcon VST, record to Adobe Audition, hunt for the file from the Falcon file browser, then drag into they key mapper. It would be nice if I could work as fast in it as I do with the Octatrack, not to mention having the portability and all-around “built-like-a-tank” utility.

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#2

i think about this a lot. i wish that i had a more flexible sound design sampler to really sculpt new textures from samples and then play them chromatically. i guess the tastychips gr-1 would be close or the korg microsampler

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#3

I think the closest thing to what you are describing are the full featured keyboard workstations from korg/yamaha/roland/Kurzweil. Massive libraries, deep sound design, tons of voices, polyphony etc.

Big and expensive as well…

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#4

Another option is a second laptop dedicated to uvi, with it’s dedicated keyboard/controller. Might actually bed cheaper.

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#5

Check out Modal Argon8M , pretty versatile little desktop synth

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#6

As @Joe_b already hinted at: for example the Yamaha’s AWM2 sample and sound engine gives you exactly that, but don’t expect this kind of hardware sampler to be as easy and fast to use as an Octatrack or a MPC. Even the latest iteration on the AWM2 engine like the one incorporated in the MODX series is clunky to use.

There is a reason why this kind of hardware samplers has almost vanished: when you want to craft your own stuff they are horrible to operate on the device itself (clunky / slow / extremely menu dive-y). Handling tons of samples with a nice hardware interface has never really took off, but was quickly replaced by computer interfaces.

And rightly so, I must admit. I wouldn’t want to go back to use, for example, an AKAI sampler from the past again instead of Kontakt. It’s night and day and there are better options to waste time.

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#7

Nord put the software external to the synth — Nord Sample Editor 3 — so it supports the variety of their synths that plays samples. This video shows how to do a mapped sample on a Stage 3 in this case, but it could have been the Wave 2 as well. (Why do you need to record the original external to Sample Editor 3 !?)

I realize there can be more to this all, but in basis this seems pretty straight forward.

Doesn’t seem impossible that the functions of this program, and the ease of use couldn’t be taken internal to some hypothetical keyboard synth somehow, but you don’t have the screen and perhaps as good of a audio recording.)

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#8

The AKAI Sx line had a learning curve for sure. I had an S2000 and I liked it except for the fact that it was as big as a server. If you ever get a chance, check out SynthMania on youtube, those Ensoniq samples with the analog filters sound great as ever.

#9

New workstation keyboards are definitely the only thing I can think of, or for a lot less money you could get one of the early 2000s rack samplers that are new enough to have some modern quality of life things like streaming to/from disc, internal resampling, big displays, but are still fundamentally in the old school of hardware samplers like you’re describing. Akai S5000/s6000/Z8 or a comparable Ensoniq/Roland/whatever. Put a SCSI2SD in it and you’re all set for the kind of workflow you’re describing, probably for a fair bit less than the cost of a Digitakt and a fraction of what a modern workstation would cost.

I’m mainly familiar with the s5000 and the Roland VP9000 (which is a whole different creature altogether) but in general it seems like in terms of features and workflow (if not “color”), that kind of sampler really peaked between about '98 and 2004 IMO.

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#10

I suppose at this point we could look back at this thread on keyboard samplers.

#11

Maybe a prophet X ? The workflow from sample recording to playing might not be the fastest, but once it’s inside, it doesn’t seem that hard to manipulate.

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#12

That looks like a nice editor & easy workflow. Has anyone tried out the stage keyboard? How is the feel?

#13

Never mind, I see the Wavetable 2 is less expensive. Analog oscillator section. Very nice.