Which Sampler Should I Get?

[ernstinen]

Hey Mani,I've been running GigaStudio for 3-4 years with ZERO problems.I just installed Kompakt on another computer, and I must be doing something wrong, but the for the last 2 days it crashes repeatedly. I hope to get it working next week!Ern

[mani]

Well! There's two votes for Giga! Thing is, as far as I can tell it only integrates with Logic via rewire. Unless it operates as a plain ol' VST I don't think I'd be interested.Btw, no need to apologize Nick. There is indeed an inordinate amount of virtual loutery on the internet! Anyway I've been thinking about this some more and I'm wondering if I've got a solution. If I buy the Logic 7 update will that authorize the EXS24 even for version 5.5 on PC?? I do plan on moving to MAC next year btw, so I'm gonna have to get the update eventually anyway!

[nickbatzdorf]

I don't think so, because the PC version is gone. But I don't know.

[gongchime]

I've been working with a producer who is serving as music consultant on improving my compositions. Now I'm just about ready to make a proper recording. I thought that I might be able to create my backings with an integrated sequencer sampler but I don't want to pay a lot for midi capability that I'll never use. I visualize in my mind hooking a microphone up to a keyboard and sampling single notes of all my gamelan instruments (not phrases) and then extending my orchestra's range with the note transposition of the keyboard then programming the sequencer by just playing the passages on the keyboard note by note. Then on playback I'd put one instrument on one track of my BR1180 or in a proper studio. Anyway, can anyone recommend something that will only meet my needs and not a bunch of others so I don't spend too much money. As Phillip Glass says or was that Steve Reich. I don't need 1,000 sounds and features I'll never use. I need the six sounds and features I use all the time built in. I don't need midi or synthesis capability. The keyboards I've seen with integrated sequencing and sampling seem to have all this other crap such as midi and synthesis features that I will not be paying for if I can help it. I don't know, perhaps I want a rackmounted integreated sequencer sampler that I can just control with a cheap keyboard.Be forewarned, I don't know much of the lingo in this department. Gongchime

[nickbatzdorf]

What computer(s) are you using, Gongchime?

[gongchime]

I'm not using a computer right now. I don't know what was in my post that lead you to that assumption. Since when do you need a computer to sample or sequence? Just asking. Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. Let's try this. What will make all of my melodic percussion instruments play perfectly in time and will allow me to do it quickly and inexpensively? I imagined a self contained hardware solution, not a computer or software solution which falls in the expensive category I suspect.Gongchime

[nickbatzdorf]

I asked whether you were using a computer because software and a controller keyboard would be the best and least expensive solution for what you want to do; the fact that you posted your question from a computer led me to the assumption that you could be using one, possibly even one that's up to snuff for what you want to do.Nobody makes keyboard workstations with nothing but a sampler and a sequencer. There are many keyboard workstations that have synths, etc. built in.I should add that sampling instruments well and mapping them to the keyboard is far from the trivial undertaking you envision. That's why there's such a market for sample libraries with the work already done for you.

[matto]

Quote:I don't need midi or synthesis capability. The keyboards I've seen with integrated sequencing and sampling seem to have all this other crap such as midi and synthesis features that I will not be paying for if I can help it. I don't know, perhaps I want a rackmounted integreated sequencer sampler that I can just control with a cheap keyboard.Hey Greg...how are you gonna control your rackmounted sampler/sequencer from your cheap keyboard without midi? Telepathy? I agree with Nick that a computer based solution would be the best way of doing what you'd like to do. It will also allow you to integrate your production so you can skip the step of laying the tracks over to the Boss, a process which is which is frought with numerous problems, synchronisation being one of them. Also Nick makes an excellent point about properly sampling your Gamelan being quite an undertaking...if you wanted it to sound good and realistic enough for record production you would have to sample each sound at various strike intensities from soft to hard, and then program it so the different hits are triggered according to how hard you hit the keys on your keyboard. Programming these kinds of things will be far easier and quicker using a computer screen than the tiny LCD displays of most affordable hardware units.Proper sampling of gamelan instruments with their long ring times will require a lot of Ram memory, which once again most hardware solutions will not offer (certainly the affordable one's won't). If you use a software sampler inside a computer, you can use the computer's Ram or perhaps even stream long samples from harddisk.matto

[mani]

Gong,If you do decide to go the computer route, there's a free software sampler called DS404 that comes with Computer Music magazine along with free sequencing software and other odds and ends. It'd probably be sufficient for what you want to do.

[gongchime]

Since I would also have to buy a computer then it puts that option in the impossible category for quite some time since I'm in Korea. I went shopping for computers here but all of the dialog boxes that come up are in Korean. My Korean is good but not that good. I don't have a credit card and many places won't ship overseas even if I did. I already have a computer; digi 001 with protools LE in America but the parent who has it is about as sympathetic to my music as a snail. I've asked for it before many times before but it has never been shipped. I have 13 songs which are up to snuff compositionally but it will be a VERY long time before Taxi can EVER see them because I'm not sending them until the production is happening. Are you SURE there isn't a way to do this from a fairly inexpensive Keyboard sampler sequencer or rack? Yeah, you use midi to control a rack mounted unit but you don't necessarily have 1,000 cheesey sounds either which is what I didn't want to pay for and other software such as band in the box and its ilk to run them.I access the internet from a different computer everyday in various internet cafe's. These computers aren't mine.Gongchime