Pretty sure most lofi producers are just using a laptop and Ableton. SP effects are played out.
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I would buy a version two if the above features are made. But theres nothing else in the price range available that does what it does. Which is capture that lofi SP1200 sound and has fader control.
Absolutely. Theres a producer who states just that on youtube.
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The clumsy use of the SPās DJ Effects looper is definitely played out. Iām personally looking forward to ālofiā as a genre dying a death. Itās on its way out already right?! Long live fuzzy textures though.
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The Sampletrak is my go to. Itās also pretty fast. So a lot of times I use it to sketch out ideas. Theyāre easy to find for like 250 or so dollars. So itās a good option.
I did this one a while back trying to go for sort of an SP sound. The Sampletrakās sequencer is pretty bad. So Iām sequencing it from my Digitone. Also, it has maybe the weirdest MIDI implementation Iāve ever seen. But you can control the fx with program changes and cc messages. And thatās pretty cool.
This oneās from a week or so ago. I used a higher sample rate so itās less gritty but still sounds really nice to my ears. I sketched out a little sample flip on my Sampletrak and then sampled that into my Digitakt so that I could have more control over the sample.
And this is from this morning. I was just playing around with it. I recorded a patch from my Digitone with fx on it. I then went and sampled that in stereo on my Sampletrak, pitched it around and did this. This is a dry recording.
Iāve been meaning to put together a video on the Sampletrak. If and when I get that done, Iāll post that here.
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Iād love to have an sp1200 but the price is crazy, especially importing it to europe.
I have a zoom sampletrak which is known as a poor mans sp1200. It deserves that nickname for sure, its the best sounding sampler Iāve ever used. It sucks the sequencer is straight up trash, but it works when combined with an elektron sequencer through midi. I did this album on DT+zoom sampletrak:
@Doug got some great tracks on the Zoom.
By the way: I love lofi as a sound (low bitrate, low samplerate, noise, aliasing), hate lofi as the elevator music kind of cliche genre it has become.
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These tracks bring out the urge in me to put the zoom back on my desk next to the AR.
My 404mk2 had been sitting there because of the easy chopping, great fx, polyphony etc. The sampletrak isnāt as good on paper but the sound is magical to me. Instant melancholy.
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Is there such a thing as a lofi 12 bit machine with the same chips used in the SP1200? I think that grittiness especially on drums is what were talking about. I know its nice to have tape wobble sounds but its a bit cheesy in a way.
I donāt know if there is a machine that uses the exact same DAC chips as the SP1200, maybe the SP12? But that is also pretty expensive. There some older samplers that were 12 bit though, old Akai rack samplers, some old E-Muās I think the MPC 60. But being 12 bit that is just part of the SP1200 magic, the other part is the is the pitch algorithm. That plays a big part in the sound of the SP1200. Not all 12 bit samplers sound lofi. They can sound pretty clean and crisp.
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Same with tape wobbly jazz samples. Literally every ālofiā tune sounds the same now a days.
I think a lot of it comes from the source material which can be quite specific. I tend to stay away from it because I want my sample sources to be obscure but I get the paying respects aspect to sampling from genres.
True. Pitching down a 33rpm recorded at 45rpm is part of the magic.
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Excatly. The original only had 10 seconds sample time, so a lot of those old tracks were sped up when sampled in and then pitched back down.
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Itās also being able to bypass the anti aliasing filter. Iām pretty sure you can do that on the EPS too. And thatās 13 bit.
The Sampletrak is 16 bit but it does it too. I think that probably by mistake there doesnāt appear to be any anti aliasing filter when you sample at 16 kHz. So you get a lot of that same crunch when you start pitching things around. But you donāt get that same thing at 32 or 8 kHz.
It can sound good on drums too. I did this a while back. Itās a little clip of a Common remix I never felt like finishing.
The SP has a lot more punch though.
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The original OP-1 has a fairly small sample limit so Iād often do the pitch up, sample, then down technique with it. The aliasing on the OP-1 is quite fun.
I have an S2400 which is where I get most of my lofi flair though. SP-404 MKII I great but also sounds artificial to me in that regard and I much prefer it as a HiFi sampler and use the ālofiā effects lightly.
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Yeah the 404mk2 is amazing in a lot of ways but the lofi fx arent its strongest point, even compared to older spās. I think the term artificial sounding is quite fitting.
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I think Iāll challenge myself to get the octatrack to get that sound.
Still loving the squid salmple as a way to get that good crunchā¦ probably the easiest workflow of any lofi sampler I have used.
Tokyo Sound DRS10 is also good fun it is maybe closeish to having a single voice of SP1200. An old video of messing about with it.
Microgranny 2 has its appeal also but it isnāt really a vintage lofi vibe.
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I didnāt even know that thing existed. Very cool. It reminds me of the old Gemini sampler that a lot of folks had. I think Vestax had a sampler like this too.
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Itās also how I feel about the SP-1200 plug-ins or ācharactersā Iāve tried. They feel the same as if I was to put an SRR on any sound and put it to 12 bit and 26.04 kHz and thatās all they do.
But thereās a lot of movement I notice with the aliasing especially when you actively pitch a sample down and up with the S2400 that those plug-ins just donāt do and I donāt think itās really subtle thing. I A/Bd the Maschine SP-1200 emulation engine against the S2400 and even the various filter engines on the Maschine donāt come anywhere close to matching what the analog filters are actually doing. Iām normally not that much of a snob about these things but once I heard first hand what itās supposed to sound like everything else doesnāt even sound like a knock off, they just sound different.
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