yeah , just seen this …
It can temp store the sample and allow you to create lots of small samples from it without having to re-record again, which is something I can easily live with. It just means slicing in advance rather than during sequencing.
Working nights until Monday AM, so ordering tomorrow so I get woken by a nice surprise off the posty Monday morning.
Not sure if I’ll keep the M:S yet.
Thanks all!! 
Samples also has scale per track which is missing on rytm
Sods law… my RYTM mk2 has been posted to arrive tomorrow and now they release sample locks for the M:S, which removes the huge limitation of the MS and one of the main reasons I wanted to upgrade.
So I’m happy in a sort of “have I just wasted £1200?” sort of way
I don’t think you’ll be upset. In case your unaware sample locks aren’t sound locks. With a sample lock you can change the sample but it still plays through your current parameters. With AR sound locks any step can have its own unique set of every edit parameter which are saved as a “sound” and 128 are available in the sound pool for locking, you can store tons of them on the +drive.
Also on model you can’t change sample by lfo, not to mention by scene, performance macro, velocity, and aftertouch . The scene one is huge, one press and you can have different samples on every track and a slew of other parameter changes…
do you mean that each different sample on a track can have its own LFO type, speed and destination?
That’s not what I meant but yes it can easily if its locked as a soundlock, or you could just parameter lock those per step. I meant you can target sample slot as a destination for not only lfo but all the other modulation options I mentioned…
Wait, what, scenes can change samples? I gotta read the Manual.
I didn’t mention you can also change samples by midi… Or you can target any of the above modulators by midi and have them target sample. So for example you can change scene per step from a midi sequencer and change your samples that way. A million different combos really. You can play with all of them at the same time and see how they interact…
There’s loads of crazy stuff you can do. You can set a pressure sensitive performance pad to a sample set to loop targeting sample start and end. As you press down your looping sample gets shorter and shorter until it starts going in reverse and gets longer and longer… 
Throw an external lfo at that! Etc., etc… 
That’s crazy!
Scenes can be like instantaneous kit changes…
That’s why I prefer having sample end on rytm instead of length which folks complain about but I don’t think they’ve explored the possibilities, it’s the only Elektron with it. There’s loads of cool tricks you can do that you can’t on the other boxes, it’s rad!
So sample end allows the sample to go into reverse when the end point is before the start point, interesting.
@Open_Mike you should be get commission from Elektron. Your explanations are always in depth and awesome. Thanks bro. I can’t wait to explore more of the AR.
Yep. If you have an external midi device you can emulate length by moving the start and end at the same time…
AR’s insane… I’ve never imagined this much analog circuitry in a small box with such a vast amount of modulation. Gets way crazier when combining some midi control with an Octatrack… Gets into the “is this really happening?” zone if your also realtime sampling and warping it on the OT in combo with its internal sequencer and OT midi tracks… 
Thanks, you’ve put my mind at rest about my purchase decision anyway!
Now the slow process of saving for an Octatrack.
Also, are the CV/gate inputs basically to add another modulation source like an LFO input or are they for syncing with my modular sequencers? Can different input voltages trigger different pads ?
We are in the same spot. My AR mkII arrived today, and I’m staring at the box right now (at work, waiting for 5:00 to roll around). And this morning I read about the cool Sample Lock update for the M:S.
But I just keep thinking about all the other features that it will give me, most importantly:
Plus many other things. The user interface of the Model:Samples is its biggest strength, so the real test will be sitting down with the AR and working up some songs to see if I gel with it. I did not like working on the Octatrack (tried it twice, both mkI and mkII).
I’m on MK1 but from the manual it looks like each input can modulate any 5 parameters, CV is old school pre midi control but much more fluid as there’s near infinite input levels instead of 128. I’d go nuts with that and my head would explode. I’d be having things modulate in accordance with notes I’m playing and dials on my Moog, controlling parameters with expression pedals, sending note scale locked CV’s from my theremin to play my moog in key while running that into the compressor on AR and modulating various things to create sudo gating and then some plus having my CV controlled analog delay changing pitch by modulating the delay timing and other settings, all by waving my hand and all at the same time in one swoop! 
There’s no end to this stuff…
That sounds pretty fun… That means the AR the OT and the DT all have slightly different implementations of how start, loop point and end/length work. DTs loop point isn’t locked between the start and end points like it is on the OT (unless this changed in an update?) but modulating the loop point beyond the start and end points have some pretty interesting results although it doesn’t reverse playback when you cross over the start point. I can’t help but feel another lfo per track on the DT would really open up the granular side of it. Still modulating a looping slice around a loop point is pretty interesting.
An often overlooked OT highlight is you can open your looping sample in the audio editor while its playing and tweak things there to get much much finer resolution that the edit page parameters…
I should probably try that with a recorder buffer and sample into again as I’m doing it… Or better yet have the sampling automated… Might work. 