Resampler FX shootout

[MCMorrise]

I made this shootout video in hopes that it would be helpful for people looking to use a resampler plugin to dirty up their sound in an SP1200/S950 vein. It includes features of Beatskillz SampleX, Inphonik RX950, WaveTracing SP950, and Togu Audio Line TAL-DAC. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2UxtIQ1UrI

[kidslow]

Thank you for putting this together and sharing. I found it helpful to a point, being comparison of UI. The interface of the SP950 is quite clean and simple comparatively, but having both RX950 and TAL DAC (and Chipcrusher + Decimort2), I feel well-covered in the space. Your conclusion about SampleX as overpriced is a bit overwrought. It's not really a shootout that you deliver in the end. Would have liked to see more of a point by point comparison of the other three. Why might one choose one of the three over the others? You never crowned a "winner" in your opinion, just a loser.

Sounds fine. The choice of sample to test with is copacetic. The production quality of your piece is good except the insert of yourself. Seems overexposed and lacks sharpness compared to the rest of the frame. I would say the white balance is off as well. With a few tweaks, you can take your overall production value up a notch. Personally, I'd like more of a shootout if you're going to call it a shootout. Less bash SampleX and more which one do you use day-to-day and why? What decision matrix went into the plugin you choose to use?

[jbuonacc]

all of these "old sampler" fx do pretty much the same thing.


here's a test with the 'SP950', d16 'Decimort 2', 'TAL-DAC', Ableton 'Redux', and NI 'Bite' (not in that order, original dry loop plays first)...

https://soundcloud.com/jbuonacc/tomcat-test


here's an old recording i did splicing together two bars each from TAL 'Sampler', 112db 'Morgana', NI Maschine 'S1200', and Ableton 'Redux' (can't recall the exact order).

https://soundcloud.com/jbuonacc/grits

[ilmai]

here's a test with the 'SP950', d16 'Decimort 2', 'TAL-DAC', Ableton 'Redux', and NI 'Bite' (not in that order, original dry loop plays first)...

https://soundcloud.com/jbuonacc/tomcat-test

All of those sound quite different to each other though, with the exception of 1 and 3 which are quite similar. You could also say "all delays do pretty much the same thing", which would be correct but miss the point.

[GRUMP]

Complement:
- MPC Software Legacy Modes
- Impulse Responses (Sampler Crunch, pasttofuture, ...) + N4 Librarys (signaltonoize)

should be mentioned, too - as well as considering different Solutions like a Channel Strip + regular BR/SR FX.
Steinberg sound pretty good, too imO.

[jbuonacc]

All of those sound quite different to each other though, with the exception of 1 and 3 which are quite similar. You could also say "all delays do pretty much the same thing", which would be correct but miss the point.

they all have the characteristic “SP ringing” which everyone says is so impossible to get, and which people are praising the ‘SP950’ emulation for. i just got them in the ballpark, i didn’t spend too much time to match them exactly.

even if they don’t all sound exactly the same, most RE-201 tape delay emulations “do pretty much the same thing” in exhibiting the characteristic sound of a tape delay feeding back. most delays don’t.

you can’t take just any delay and get an “authentic” tape delay sound, but you can get basically the same results from just about any bitcrusher or sampler emulation. i love the ‘SP950’ (‘Morgana’, TAL, etc) emulation for a number of reasons, but if i want to “emulate the sound of an SP-1200” or any other old sampler i (anyone) could have done that 15+ years ago using just stock Ableton fx.

the results are so close (even to the original machines) that nobody could tell the difference.

[ilmai]

you can’t take just any delay and get an “authentic” tape delay sound, but you can get basically the same results from just about any bitcrusher or sampler emulation. i love the ‘SP950’ (‘Morgana’, TAL, etc) emulation for a number of reasons, but if i want to “emulate the sound of an SP-1200” or any other old sampler i (anyone) could have done that 15+ years ago using just stock Ableton fx.

the results are so close (even to the original machines) that nobody could tell the difference.

Maybe the listener can't tell a difference, but nuances (and workflow!) absolutely matter when creating music. I mean that's why there's a bazillion subtly different guitars out there, even though they all do roughly the same thing and the listener probably has zero interest in which one the player used (EDIT: Unless they are guitar players themselves)?