hardware sampler questions

In that price range, you should be able to pick up a Roland SP-808 off eBay. Has all the features you're looking for plus many more. The stock model doesn't come with digital outs, but you might find one with the optional OP-1 expansion on it which does provide digital I/O. Some folks are anti-"Roland Groove", but personally, I find it to be an amazing machine. It's also got a four track recorder that allows you to record audio to tracks and/or sequence sample pads to tracks for building songs. Keep in mind that the samples are recorded onto zip disks, and as far as drums, individual drum hits are problematic because the samples are read from disk, which causes "disk too busy" messages. Drums are best triggered and sequenced as multi bar loops.

Thanks for the info, as its stuff I have to factor in. I hadn't thought of digital outs, but that would help cut down some latency, especially would help with drums. Regarding "Roland Groove", I don't know what that is. I referred to Spectrasonics products that use their "Groove Control" feature. Is this similar to the Roland Groove that you mentioned? Spectrasonics Groove Control lets you edit the loop/patterns performance and tempo (by "mixing" and tempo adjusting a MIDI file, I think). This would be a handy feature to extend the flexibility of the loops, but I'm not sure of its drawbacks. Good point, too, about ZIP disc speed. I expected to need a sampler with an internal drive to store and playback samples and loops. What is the cost range of the current samplers on the market, from basic to advanced features models? Does it cost a lot more for a keyboard sampler? I don't have a good keyboard, so it may warrant spending more for a sampler with a keyboard. Is $600 not enough to get into a good used sampler? Further comments and suggesions would be appreciated, dave patterson / knobville

"Roland Groove" is a line of several different products targeted towards the loop style music makers, remixers, etc. Not the same groove as Spectrasonic. As far as it being a "clumsy toy", you'd have to decide for yourself. I find it invaluable as a sampler and don't find it clumsy in any way. It doesn't rack at all that I'm aware of - it's a table top sampler. However, it is an excellent, inexpensive sampler - and does not rely on memory, making sample length a non-issue (46 minutes of 44k samples, up to 1,024 individual samples per 100mb zip disk). You can also find newer models with 250mb disks. Many users have swapped out the 100mb for the 250mb zip drive on their older SP-808's. It also has built in time stretching, a full suite of effects(albeit not top of the line, but definitely usable). Overall not too shabby for the money. As far as samplers go, it has way more features than a "traditional" sampler, maybe more than you need for sure. The real issue for you is sequencing drums. The SP-808 can sequence samples, but it was designed to sequence sampled loops (like 4 bar loops sequenced in a particular order), not the same thing as sequencing individual drum samples like kick, snare and hihat type stuff. I build drum loops with Fruity loops, or a keyboard sequencer, and then sample the loop. Wav fand Aiff iles import and export with a free Mac/PC software converter from Roland.

EMU ESI 4000. This is one hot box. Incredible sounds. Compatible with the huge E-MU sample library. $300 is about the going rate. It sounds amazing and has tons of editing facilities. I'd stay away from Roland. I used them, but they are very backwards in the OS. Akai is excellent, but in your price range you'd be looking at a S-950 which is good, but 12 bit. The ESI is 16 bit stereo, expandeble to 64 MB RAM, has scsi which is a key to saving sounds on a zip or a hard drive. optional digi i/o, although the analog filters are half the reason to use this box. Drums sound great coming off of it, either loops or drum hits. The acoustic sounds are amazing, Guitar and strings are super realistic. You can't go wrong with this box.

I have using the ESI-32 since 1995. It's very easy to use. They should cheap too. Make sure it has SCSI. Though, I always wanted to have samplecell because you save all the contents of you song in one folder on your computer. In my pre Pro Tools days, my songs would consist of sequences in the computer, then I would have to load in the corresponding sample bank from the zip drive to the ESI-32. It easier to just open an file and have your song play, such is how Pro Tools works. My old songs are archived in two places, Mac CD's and ESI-32 zips. I didn't really label my zips good, so it always takes me a while to find the bank I'm looking for.