Samplers For Dance & Home Studio - An Overview

Welcome to Sampler information. Here we will attempt to offer some guidance & advice for beginners who may be confused by the new world of home & studio recording & dance music making.

To start with, these are the top-selling samplers & sampling products last month at Thomann superstore, one of the largest retailers in Europe - This shortlist gives you some pointers as to what products are popular in this category at today's date.

1010music - blackbox

akai - force

akai - force b-stock

akai - force case bundle

akai - mpx8

elektron - octatrack mkii

korg - electribe sampler red

korg - volca sample

korg - volca sample bundle

manikin-electronic - memotron vintage collection 2

manikin-electronic - memotron vintage collection 4

manikin-electronic - memotron vintage collection 5

roland - sp-404a

A sampler can fullfill a variety of functions in a studio environment, from editing & replacing audio parts to providing playable impressions of different instruments.

A PC hard disk system will provide all the facilities you need to play audio loops to cue points - a job previously taken by the studio sampler - So this leaves the sampler with the tasks listed above, as well as providing drum hit samples for fast rapid triggering, and manipulating other short audio parts such as unusual audio hooks.... For these reasons, it may be acceptable to use a sampler with a smaller memory capacity....(as low as 1 Mb).

Samplers have changed radically in the last few years... Whereas they had been used for the above tasks, nowadays the higher you go up the price range these machines will function as more & more powerful synth/workstations. The top Emu models will give you all your drums hits, multisampled patches, all your loops, & all the sounds from synths like the Vintage keys, Orbit & Morpheus etc with massively sophisticated synthesis & DSP chips... These units have soo much power in terms of memory & polyphony, they will even record all your vocal parts. Some of the Akai range can connect to an external hard drive for direct to disk recording etc.

So we have to make a distinction here. A machine like that, with a 4K price tag, will do everything in one box. Alternatively, there are samplers to fullfill the more usual tasks... although you can get a cheap budget sampler, WITH great synthesis from as little as £ 100 such as the Emax, Roland S-330/550, Casio FZ's, 12 bit akai 'S' series, or the W30 etc. (Check the Budget Midi Section)

If you intend to play live shows alot, then a sampler would probably be better from a functional/reliability point of view, than lugging a hard disk system around; although having said that, some people I know like "Freakquency Generator" takes his PC to live shows, although he's modified his soundcard to 1/4" jacks.

So this leaves us with a choice, determined by budget and use. You can go out and spend up to about £ 4000 on a large memory multi-out top of the range sampler... OR.... You can get a cheaper secondhand lower memory unit to compliment your hard disk system, in which case, unless you're loaded I'd recommend a sampler from the budget stuff which will give you plenty of scope to make some Kik-ass tracks.... Or, check out something like the Emax 2, which is a wicked machine for a pitance of money for what it will do... It's so easy to just think you have to have the latest stuff to get a sound... That's crap !!... That Dre track... "my name is..."... on the keyboard part/sample that climbs up, you can hear the alaising noise ringing away like crazy... it sounds like it was done with some 8 bit sampler like the toy casio SK-1 mini-sampling keyboard thing.... now that track sold shit-loads world-wide, and is coming from some of the most respected hip-hop producers/stable... Yup... sampling... it's not just about price tags & sampler spec's.... it's about creativity & sound!

Alternatively, if you use a Mac or Windows PC there are many samplers available in s/w form which integrate into your host sequencer programme like Cubase, Logic, Sonar etc, and there are card-based samplers such as from Creamware etc as well as Soundfonts found on many audio cards which are samples you can load, edit create, etc etc.

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For listed samplers, please leave your comments or review on the actual sampler-unit's item page - You can browse all samplers in the GEAR section - if you have an actual question, try asking on the forums.

Sampler section comments

Name: ahilej
Email: ahahilej@gmail.com
Website: ah, ahilej/myspace/music
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 11-Nov-06

hi,
i need bass and trumpet loops

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Samplers For Dance & Home Studio - An Overview

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Sampler section comments

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Here's a selection of classic & bargain dance samplers

Akai MPC60

The legendary MPC-60 (MIDI Production Center 60) is almost always thought of as a drum-machine with extensive sequencer, but it can make all sorts of sounds. A solid classic if ever there was one! ...

Emu EMAX 1

The 1st choice for a cheap sampler. I've seen 'em for as little as 350 quid and at that price, they are rediculously good value...(all of the stuff here is !!).....It has functions that make some u...

Akai S900

The legendary S900 rack sampler.... they are just a budget item, and a great little budget workhorse..... Anyhow, 12 bit sampling, 750Kb memory, Stereo + 8 mono outs, ok library, & not much to do with...

Akai S950

Akai's upgrade machine next in line from the S-900...Just scraping in to budget territory.... A great little loopmaster and general sampling workhorse , with a bigger memory, higher maximum sample rat...

Ensoniq MIRAGE

The late but great 8 bit Mirage series machines... The original hip-hop sampler.... check it out...click the title to go to the review !... this is the sound of original hip-hop sampling... 8 bit.... ...

Emu ESI-32

One of the best budget samplers you can get - Emu quality, superb filters, very cheap s/h now....

Akai S1000

The S1000 is down in price s/h ow - could be a good bargain sampler as long as extensive synthesis is not important to you.... ...

Emu SP 1200

The classic SP 1200 sampler much fabled in hiphop circles. ...

Roland W30

The famous W30 sampler keyboard, used to create all the early seminal Prodigy tracks. It's basicaly like an S550/S330 in keyboard form. ...

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Add your general sampler comments
or nominate an unlisted sampler here!