12 bit sampler that doesn't cost thousands?

[DrGonzo]

Try looking for a Cheetah SX16 Sampler ... I had 2 of them of the 90's and they can sample audio in 8,10,12 & 16 bit iirc.

Man you are making me itch for one of those. Love the sound of these units. Did you manage to find one?

[T-CM11]

When I bought my Juno 106, the seller through in a Roland w30 for free. Not sure if they are worth anything these days (7% inflation, my arse), it seemed a pretty solid 12 bit sampling keyboard but I guess not exactly valued.

Depends, although it's disk based so that means it doesn't record sounds.

What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?

w30back2.jpg

[dellboy]

Try looking for a Cheetah SX16 Sampler ... I had 2 of them of the 90's and they can sample audio in 8,10,12 & 16 bit iirc. They are generally much cheaper than AKAI etc, as the OS takes a bit of getting used to. Only 512k memory tho' and floppy disk export

Here are some tracks I made in 1997 using the Cheetah SX16s ...

https://ashfelt.bandcamp.com/track/people-from-jupiter (almost everything)
https://ashfelt.bandcamp.com/track/klik (almost everything)
https://marineville.bandcamp.com/track/encryption (drums, riffs & voice edits)
https://marineville.bandcamp.com/track/east-4 (drums & voice edits)

The name "Cheetah" brings back fond memories. I remember playing on the prototype Zeus 24 analogue synth at the British Music Fair in 1993. It had 24 note polyphony and was 12 part multi-timbral with aftertouch.Only four were ever made and it contributed to the the companies downfall. I wonder where they are now?

[stash98]

Love the Pocket Operator Ko-33. Highly recommend this one.

[pekbro]

Probably not 12 bit (easily anyway) but there are some rasberry pi based samplers that you
can build for under $100 bucks.

[thecontrolcentre]

https://marineville.bandcamp.com/track/encryption
I dig your soundtracks, specially encryption.

Thanks

Here's a short vid of the Cheetah SX-16 demonstrating how the different bitrates sound.

[drsyncenstein]

The E-mu Emulator II is what you want. It sounds fantastic. Super crunchy and lo-fi. It's instant Depeche Mode circa Violator and earlier albums.

To me the E-II is the only hardware sampler worth owning for its crunchy warm sound. I think you can replace the floppy drive with a Zip drive or something similar. But I think you are still stuck with the limited memory. That’s why I would get TAL Sampler and call it a day.

Guys; maybe it's time to meet a E-II in person.
E-mu did everything they could to prevent it being crunchy. Some 16 bit samplers are more crunchy. An E-II won't ever be able to read zip disks. A zip disk has 5 times the amount of storage an E-II can handle. It was designed for one specific harddrive that's long gone. Currently the only replacement is a DREM emulator board.

If you want crunch buy an Emax I (or any other sampler that can transpose all the way down to the last octave and has low, adjustable, samplingrates)
The E-II has a fixed sampling rate of 27K, the Emax is adjustable and can go as low as 10K. Real crunch and less warmth. The Emax filters are comparable to the E-II.
That's probably why it's getting ridiculously expensive.

Depeche Mode used lots of Emax since the thing was released around 1986, that's probably responsible for a lot of the crunch you hear. Violator also has E-III and lots of Akai over it.

See the limited memory as an asset., It sounds the way it sounds because you need to make sounds with a few seconds of sound. And need to get by with short loops. Tal sampler won't come close in sound when you treat it as a modern sampler. Use low sampling rates for sounds with less high frequency content. Read 80-ies books about sampling and see how they did it.
It sounds vintage when you feed it vintage stuff.

For getting closer to the old digital stuff you should also try the free Pockey2 plugin: https://www.airwindows.com/pockey2/
Other nice stuff from there is the E-IV like filter plugins that start their name with z (zlowpass etc.).

If you want it to sound more like early consoles/computers you should look into chipcrusher: https://www.plogue.com/products/chipcrusher.html
Or any other of their "chipsound style" synthesizers.
They specialize in that.

[CoolColJ]

Ugh I sold my S-550 +monitor+mouse for $100, crazy.....

[jonston1]

Liven-12, made couple albums with it now.

[ChamomileShark]

Liven-12, made couple albums with it now.

Is it true that it actually samples at 16 bit rather then 12 bit. The 12 bit is a playback mode or a post playback effect?

[jonston1]

Effect

[ChamomileShark]

Effect

thanks for clarifying.