Samples Mk 2 Dreaming Of

One word answer : Sonicware lofi-12.

The model: samples is badly designed, let’s not excuse its shortcoming behind fake “conscious” design decisions.

They went in cheap and cut every possible corner they could to make the best profit out of it. It was severely limited in 2019 when it came out and it’s absolutely obsolete in 2023 when you compare it to similar priced sample players/samplers. It was promoted with portability, the handle got cancelled, its also one of the worst if not the worst elektron build, cheap and already falling appart for a lot of customers who chose to trust Elektron on this product. Encoders falling appart, plastic changing colour, letters disappearing…

Lot of excuse to talk about how basic sampler functions were ignored like sampling/resampling and attack control… One can excuse no stereo sampling, but look at that mess of a workflow to name and find samples on that thing?

It even came out first without sample lock. That’s how cheap they went with in the first place.

I kinda like how shit it is, I’ve learned to embrace it.

I’m pretty happy with the music I can make with it now.

Although yeah, what’s the point in showing me sample names if you’re only going to show me the first three fucking letters…

But it only cost me £160, so how can I complain, really?

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Let’s not forget the official price is 400 euros.

I will not argue against how good this product would be for like 186 euros.

And I will not say it has no strong points.

Just not enough to justify spending 400 euros for it.

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£285 brand new from Andertons, but I’d still say that’s a bit too much.

But then I paid nearly £2 for butter in Aldi the other day.

In fucking Aldi.

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Ok.
But it doesn’t.

So thats the end of that.

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Not really an intelligent response when last year Digitakt didn’t have proper slicing and this year (poof!) it does now.

Elektron is well known for significantly updating their devices and it’s not wrong for a user to express certain wants.

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This is how you influence progress till now.
You express your thoughts as a customer so the developer can see what you think
about a device.
Ok , maybe you can say nothing, but thats not me.
I am not trying to go into the past and correct mishaps. It is about the future
The beginning of something new

Forgive my ignorance - can you not achieve stereo sample playback with 2 tracks panned hard left and right? I know it eats up another track but that would be stereo right?

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Yes and No.
if you pan the same sound left and right you still have mono. Two speakers but mono . For stereo you need a difference between two channels .
Also if you have a stereo recording you would have to split it in two and then put one on each pad meaning you could theoretically have 6:2=3 stereo channels with the samples and I don’t know if there is a trick to chain the trigger of pads at the same time or you would always have to play two pads to do one thing if that makes sense
But it would beat the argument “easy to use” and you would only have 3 tracks.

All this talk of the Models:Samples makes me want to buy one

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Hmm, well you could slightly alter literally every possible parameter for the left and right sides, wouldn’t that be a creative use of stereo sound design? And with sound locks you wouldn’t really lose much space. I’m thinking more in terms of pads and such

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For 200 used it’s great. It’s very easy to use
And fast to lay down sketches.
Only then If you want width you could export and then continue in a daw for example. Also easy to power using a power bank and a little adapter making it portable . It is a sweet little machine

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Yes this is possible. But you still “sacrifice”
Two channels and also this does not solve the problem of using, for example a field stereo recording which you would have to split in an editor in left and right channel and then import it into the samples. .( Or can you import a stereo sample and then pan it? One instance left one right I don’t know if this is possible to be honest.)

I do think the way they’ve laid out the interface is really clever and useful for live jamming, there’s some excellent jams out there such as this one -

Which I thought was really impressive because of how it was essentially one continuous improvisation, bringing in new samples and layers and making full use of all the performance controls.

I’d actually love a slightly higher-end device based on the concept, with stereo, recording/resampling, and better pads/buttons and build quality in general. I’m pretty sure that won’t happen though.

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Not with Transfer. Transfer just picks one of the channels. Can’t remember which.

Gotcha.
Ok so then you need to split the channels in R+L and import them individually

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Ok, sorted it guys…I just bought an Octatrack :joy:

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First of all, lets remember my original Post subject
“How much I wish Samples would be able to sample and play Stereo files.”
Thats all I said. I did not mention all the extra things you mention. You stretched it in the opposite direction , I stretched it in the other. It’s a matter of opinion and taste. We have different priorities and thats fine.
Then to the streamlined argument. I agree. Streamlined should be simple and direkt. No arguing there
“Making cheap and streamlined gear”
However. It is not a cheap streamlined machine imho. Unless for you this money is peanuts , in which case of course it’s a completely different discussion.
At least in its original Price, you said it yourself I believe that you find it overpriced.
For me your arguments would be 101% right on if the machine cost 150-200 (to be honest it simply does not feel like a 389 Euro device build quality wise. But I did not even mention-complain about this.
I just said “be able to play stereo”.

And talking affordable gear. Let’s say the Samples for whatever reason cant make stereo happen for this money.
What is the Digitakt`s excuse then? It costs 850 euros new. To me the more time goes by the more it looks more policy and philosophy and less what is or isn’t possible.

And yes , you could buy an Octatrack for 4-5x the Model Samples price. But again another discussion.

So for now I think we all wrote down what we think and now the post is getting old I suppose.
Dunno.
Let’s all stay healthy first and the rest I don’t care that much. It can wait.

For now I will give the Sp 404 Mk2 a try. Saw some nice demos of different scenarios than “boom bap” music so it got me curious.

For me personally the Samples is not the center of my chain. I work differently.
I tried the Octatrack of a good friend and it’s simply too much for what I want it for and much much less portable .

In a nutshell I am saying
“Dear Elektron. Please consider bringing out a similar device as Samples but with stereo support in the future”

You are saying
" Dear Elektron. I like the fact that it makes me create beautiful things I enjoy cause of the restrictions it has and its shortcomings and makes me be more inventive"

Both are ok.

Luxury problems after all.

I just asked what benefit there is in using stereo samples on a one shot sample player. Conversation got stretched by people being passive aggressive and saying weird defensive shit.

Doesn’t need one.

Sells like shit off a shovel, many happy customers.

Not really, I think there’s a lot of room for improvement on the M:S (better sample management, two LFOs per track, ability to P-lock pan, loads of other stuff probably).

Whatever though, this is boring really. Only asked a question and got a fair bit of sass as a result, so I’m out.

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I just discovered this video and as I predicted the OP is using a stereo split version of a stereo file and apply it on two pads-tracks on the Digitakt. If one cant hear why stereo is better then there is nothing I could ever say or write to convince them.

So if you do a similar thing on the samples you could use 2 pads for 1 stereo file.
Or you could use 4 pads for 2 stereo layers but then you would have to use (not “have” but rather , would be one logical step) 1 drum loop on each of the last 2 pads so you still have some acoustic variety possibility.

Ok. Having said that and after all of your peoples input I decided that I will sell the samples and get the sp 404 mk2.
However if a Model Samples successor comes out with stereo I will get it.
Or if the Digitakt Mk2 or a similar successor gets stereo support I will get that probably.

Thank you for all your input and your polite manners

Cheers and stay creative