Laptop with Kontakt and an RME interface (Ableton kinda started as a sampler).
3 Likes
And adding a pair of fantastic converters, or options like proper analog transformers and other modern niceties would be really cool. I feel that the industry was a little too quick to jump head first into software for sampling, and it’s pretty easy to see why that might be - it offers the ability to build whatever you like, both hard and soft (you choose the converter, pre, etc) to form a super-sampler of the sort I could only dream about in the 80s or 90s. However, I also feel that the hardware sampler has been brought back to life as a specialty machine, with different instruments providing variations on only a few themes. It’s astonishing to me that I can’t map as many velocity layers on a brand new MPC as I could on my 33 year old EPS.
The time is ripe for a reassessment of the hardware sampler as a comprehensive platform for building great-sounding and playable instruments. In the past, the high cost of DSP power and memory forced compromises. No longer. I want my super-Emulator, dammit.
11 Likes
Are you really asking for a useful tool, though?
It sounds more like you’re asking for a complete set of features, which may not be useful in practice.
Machines must have a usable interface that directly relates to the available features. The machine you are referring to might be prohibitively expensive.
10 Likes
Yes!
3 Likes
probably best to buy a laptop , ableton/bitwig or something…
at least they exist… 
2 Likes
If you take Elektron’s idea of machines, I don’t think it would be a poor user experience. Simply choose your options at the start of the process, then get a useable set of features dedicated to that machine, whether that’s pristine recording quality, retro low-res sampling, proper granular, etc etc etc.
3 Likes
Yes yes yes, ofc. But as I said in the first post, let’s stick to discussing hardware samplers for funsies.
2 Likes
An « all featured » Sampler would be too scary for the mass if I base my judgment around the OT. A lot of people are scared of the OT because it does so much. I just can’t imagine a Sampler that does it all. Too many options is a workflow killer. We live in an « immediacy » era, so just a few people would be willing to accept the challenge to tame the Beast. I think some companies had this reflexion and in the end they probably just think that it’s going to be a commercial flop.
5 Likes
You the one who started the generative thread last week? Polishing your chops, I see. Good job!
Car designed with everything people want. I’m sure the sampler would turn out the same
19 Likes
Aye. It was getting a little boring round here
5 Likes
Less forum, more noise making 
3 Likes
Done that earlier. It’s 3:30 in the morning here. Why aren’t you making music now
4 Likes
Emu E4XT Ultra. Comes with arpeggiator, multitrack sequencer and tons of effects. Piles of filters including Z planes. Multi step ADSR’s, etc. I wish my Octatrack had that engine.
6 Likes
If EMU or Ensoniq had not been acquired and then vaporized, they would have continued to pioneer. Those old machines still have their place but modern storage and transfer connectivity is necessary, for me. I still use my old samplers, and continue to spy for the next great box. Heck, half my posts are in those types of threads!
Edit: I ordered a Circuit Rhythm direct from Novation 2 days ago. Def not the deep workstation but I always wanted an intuitive sampler that was more of a performance groovebox. Also not bloated with features I don’t need. The modern MPCs are very powerful, but performing on them the way I want is a janky mess.
I end most sampler rants with this: I’m still holding out hope Roger Linn comes back to crush it with a hybrid, sampling drum machine with modern specs, MPE pads, tempest like modulation and performance controls.
7 Likes
you can have any colour as long as it’s green
3 Likes
An Elektron/Teenage Engineering collaboration to combine and expand the best elements of the Digitakt and OP-1 in an OP-1 format would probably be my perfect sampler. Plus zero crossing detection from Octatrack.
1 Like
Yep, as many people have said so far, it’d be a UI/UX nightmare. Enough people are confused by the OT as it is, even with the additional button functionality.
Steinberger and Parker Fly guitars are arguably perfect. Practically indestructible and incredibly stable in terms of tuning. The only thing holding back the “perfect” guitar is vintage fetishism.
3 Likes
I don’t know how we all get by using a sampler with out a built in espresso machine but we somehow manage.
7 Likes
Not a point of distinction by the op but another aspect to consider is the combo of sampler and sequencer. This muddies the waters quite a bit I think.
2 Likes