KVR Audio

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:01 am

'scuse me? Ever used the E-MU Hardware Sampler?

The Emulator X is the enhanced software form. It's as simple as layering samples back in the day with SF2s, but you have the Filters from the old hardware, plus additional features from their Proteus series.

It's dead simple, yet powerful. Want some impressions? Try it yourself as you seem to be one of those, who're picky about usage - so our impressions won't really help.

ReasonkillsFL · Post by **ReasonkillsFL** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:23 am

Emu lol....

nice try

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 8:32 am

Did you use an E-MU? Did you even use hardware? Do you have more to contribute but troll comments?

If you can all of that answer with no, then please shut up. Thanks.

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:00 am

bluepride wrote:Look, all I'm saying is that people expect certain things from music products sold as "samplers". It does seem to be a bit of a scam, because samplers really are supposed to digitize audio, at least strictly speaking.

"Independence" is truly bizarre - an awfully strange mix of stuff. Why on earth would Yellow integrate a "Midi Groove Player" and an ARPEGGIATOR into a sound player, and then try to sell it as a SAMPLER?

I just don't get it. If these manufacturers want the mystique that comes from selling a product that's called a "sampler", why not just include sampler features so that it's all on the up-and-up? For God's sake, it wouldn't be very hard to do today, and then they would not have to put up with so much whining from the likes of us, not to mention disgruntled customers. You should see what is showing up on the HALion board these days over at cubase.net.. that kind of thing can't be good for business.

Last night someone here commented on the "SamplerBots". Well, I say deliver just one of these "soft-sampler" products that's really a sampler, without being crippled in some important way, and we'll all shut up. In fact, we'll even buy it and help get the word out about that great product. Right now, I pretty much own all of these dumb "soft-sampler" things, and DirectWave is the closest to being complete (h/t vader..) but not available on Mac.

I have not looked at Emu X2 though. It seems to complicated for me to deal with, and I'm put off by their claim of "pristine" transposition. I like to get some grit from transposition, so I avoid "super accurate, pristine" interpolation like the plague. Has anyone here tried X2? Any impressions?

OK, which one of you is "bincbom"? Bluepride? Is that you?

Well, I still see "sampler-bot" activity there too: tenacious pursuit of the "SAMPLER" definition topic (what's with the capital letters too?), when what the guys on the Hal board are actually pissed off about is the lack of an update so they can use HALion in Cubase 3, the rest seem to be mostly bugs, etc.

Look, we could debate it all night; but obviously this is as important to you guys as editing features are to users like myself, and I respect this. So I sincerely hope and pray that they release HALion (or something) with built-in sampling. But if it f**ks up Kontakt worse than it's f**ked up now, I'll hunt you down and kill you!

ultimo · Post by **ultimo** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:54 am

Still waiting for the MOTU Mach5 V2..
Till then I'm really tempted to buy the Emulator X2, because it's the only sampler that beats my ASR-X, when it comes to useable features for the samplist.

Axxex · Post by **Axxex** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:21 am

Bah....
I simply use my K2500RS if i need to resample something Setup (Performance) that kills my Kurzweil 48 voices poliphony and i like the kurzweil high quality samplecds.
Kurzweil sounds flat, sounds truth (good for mix)...and anyway i like his filter, the kdfx effects and VAST synthesis technology ROX! I use alot it unless i must take advantage from VSTi technology.
I use SAMPLETANK, is a very nice toy.
As completely sampleplayer and sampler editing (YES U CAN WITH LOGIC AUDIO PLATINUM) I use the "EXS-24" i love this virtual sampler, integration with logic is very nice u can use logic for sampling, and editing samples then put on EXS!
It imports akai, and about filters, emagic did a nice wrk on it!

bluepride · Post by **bluepride** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 3:07 pm

bduffy wrote:

OK, which one of you is "bincbom"? Bluepride? Is that you?

Acutually no. It turns out that often times many people use uppercase for emphasis. I just read those posts and agree with them. It may seem unbelievable to some, but there are actually a lot of people who care about this issue, because it has such a big impact on what can be done with "sampling" products. The SAMPLER WARS thread is now up to 6 pages, for example.

Like shamann (and maybe unlike that person on cubase.net) I have no particular attachment to the word SAMPLER. But I do need sampler features, or at least usable drag-and-drop. Call me "sampler bot."

bluepride · Post by **bluepride** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 3:29 pm

Axxex said:

HARDWARE DO IT BETTER!

Well, for a lot of things it still takes hardware to do it at all! These crappy softsampler toys don't even do resampling. Heck, out of all of them I think only Emulator X *might* do it.

"Softsampler" products are still toys compared to real samplers, and this has become frustrating to many. There is no reason why the vendors of these products can't round them out into samplers. It wouldn't even be that much work. In most cases it would just take adding another screen to the implementation, or augmenting the current "loop display" page that most softsamplers have to include sample editing and a sampling mode. The guts of their sample playback engines would have to be extended a little, too but not that much...

It's frustrating for us, but self destructive for them (Steinberg, NI, ...) Because as that person on the Cubase.net HALion forum pointed out, it's not like there isn't demand for this. Just think about the huge hip-hop industry, and how many people are stuck doing creative sampling work on Akai MPC or other stone knives & bearskins-type kit. We're talking about many thousands of people here.

And I noticed something else on that HALion forum - did you see that the most-read post on that dumb forum was on this topic, with a "steinberg fairlight" in the subject heading? Something like 20,000 views? Looks like we "sampler bots" might have a point.

lordvader48 · Post by **lordvader48** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 5:20 pm

Hmmmm, I just noticed this:

http://www.motu.com/products/software/machfive/

Drag & drop the way it should be

Creating keymaps has never been easier with MachFive's drag and drop features. Simply drag samples from your desktop or host application to the MachFive keyboard. Drag multiple samples in one step to map chromatically, on white keys only or by pitch according to their name. You can also audition samples when importing them, listening to each note as you stretch a keymap over a range of keys.

Anyone looked at this yet?

dentaldetox · Post by **dentaldetox** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 12:33 pm

Emulator x2 is the only soft-sampler (that I know of) that actually samples in and maps it automatically , also sets loop and crossfade points (if you wish it to)! Easy stuff. I'm not an emu fan boy, but so far I'm impressed. Check out the emux2 videos over at sonic state and pay close attention to the "swith swipe" feature. I have many gripes with emux2, but so far it has saved me some time..I posted a similar post over in the sample forum, I thought I'd let some of you know a little about emux2 since there is no demo for it.

kgdrum · Post by **kgdrum** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:05 pm

i use a mix of software and hardware based "samplers",different tools,for different tasks.I bought the Akai Z-8,without hesitation (akai service and support could not be more lame).....it gives me flexibility that Software based systems,still do not offer.the fact that you have a blank canvas pushes me in directions I would not go if all I had was sample playback.
the software based manufacturer also has no reason to give you the ability to not have to buy their libraries,the income stream is more about libraries than samplers......... EW or NI makes more $$ on each VI than NI can make with an open(ability to actually sample) Kontakt, we spend much more now on samples because of this model.
I still have 1 foot always w/ hardware, software based systems have inherent limitations and liabilities,that I still feel a bit uneasy with,software updates,drive failures,auth's etc........and if a company goes bankrupt or if they decide not to update to new O.S............
.Bomb factory left a funny taste in my mouth when they decided no OSX upgrade.......Waves WUP polcy had me abandon Waves Gold as well when the OS9-OS10 transition happened.
I like being able to turn on my Akai Z8(with my own samples or collected samples) or Roland XP 30,or Vdrums and PLAY knowing it will work with or without my DAW.the person who bought my S5000 can still make music with a sampler I bought 8 years ago,try that with a 8 year old sample playback(Kontakt) 8 years later with a newer system.............

Sampler Wars?