Please help me choose a "bus sampler".

[spaceman75]

(That's bus as in "public transport", not bus as in "signal routing").

@Mods: I'm asking about a hardware sampler, so I posted in the hardware forum. But please move this to the sampling forum - or elsewhere - if there's a better place for it. Thank you.

tl;dr

Roland P-6? TE PO-33 KO…? Something else?
Opinions sought. TIA.

more

Christmas is coming
The goose is getting fat

…And my commute is about to get significantly longer

Instead of staring out the window, I'd like to spend the time sketching ideas (or noodling randomly). So I'm looking for a hardware sampler that's:

• easy i.e. has enough features to be musically interesting, but won't take months to learn

• portable fits in my bag, and runs on batteries

• has a headphone output because - almost unbelievably - there are people in this world who don't appreciate rambling lo fi psychedelia first thing in the morning

• cheap-ish so I won't be gutted ~~if~~ when I inevitably leave it on the bus

Things I've discounted:

• Koala Sampler. It's a great app, but my phone is bluetooth only (= annoying latency) and my tablet is too old to run it. Also I'd prefer something with pads I can bash.

• My laptop. Which is - ironically - too big to fit comfortably on my lap (…and see above, re: pads).

• Woovebox. Which is interesting and feature-packed, but more of a synth/groovebox, I think (hence, presumably, the name…)

Thank you for reading.

[cryophonik]

Have you looked at the Sonicware products (e.g., SmplTrek)? Or the 1010music stuff, like the Blackbox or Bento? I’ve never used any of them, but they seem to get good reviews and check most of your boxes ( pun not intended), I think.

[spaceman75]

Hey cryophonik; thanks for replying

Have you looked at the Sonicware products (e.g., SmplTrek)?

I considered their Liven LoFi-12. I liked the idea: vibey sound, "limitations breed creativity" (maybe). I can't remember why I discounted it(?) Perhaps I should look again. I didn't look at the SamplTrek, which looks much more capable; I'll check it out.

…Though for the same price I could get a Roland sp404 mkII, which people clearly love. The sp404 seems more feature-rich, and maybe less "immediate"(?) But it also looks like it would cope better with being lugged around and shoved in and out of a bag.

The 1010music bento looks great: good feature set, sleek design etc. But - being honest - there's a non-zero possibility I'll leave it behind one day and ~£800 is definitely more than I want to leave on the bus.

Thanks for the tip with the SamplTrek

[lfm]

Checkout Akai MPC-series, Live and others. Not sure which goes on batteries.
"Rechargeable 4hr battery life"

https://www.akaipro.com/mpc-live-3.html

Check out second hand in MPC series, around $400-$600 here. eBay and Reverb probably better prices than that.

[Uncle E]

The SP-404 is incredibly immediate. That and the effects are precisely why people love it. I had the SmplTrek and found it to be much less immediate.

Ableton Move checks all the boxes.

[justin3am]

I have a Roland P-6 which I like a lot. I had only gotten it for a specific project and a few performances, with the intention of passing it on when I was done. I liked it enough that I'm still using it after a little more than a year.

The P-6 can do a lot. Too much, if you ask me. There are so many feature crammed into limited UI, that it can be difficult to remember it all. It's pretty easy to record new samples into it or transfer them over with the APP. It has enough real time control to be fun to jam with. I like the granular mode for what it is but it feels a bit crammed in. Still, lots of fun to play with. It runs on batteries for longer than I realized but I can't remember exactly how long. At least 3 or 4 hours.

Everyone I know who has an SP-404 mkII loves the hell out of it. In that size, it's less portable than the P-6 but certainly much more capable!

[justin3am]

The SP-404 is incredibly immediate. That and the effects are precisely why people love it. I had the SmplTrek and found it to be much less immediate.

Ableton Move checks all the boxes.

Yeah, Ableton Move would be another good suggestion. Slightly more portable than the SP404 but super capable!

[elxsound]

My vote would be for Ableton Move.
TE’s PO-33, is fun but very limiting. You’ll need access to things to sample, and while it’s easy to sample from a mobile device on your commute, I find more self contained devices easier to take out and use.
EP-133 is another option, but it’s not my favorite workflow and I’ve left it sitting in a box that I’ll likely sell off at some point.

Move is very capable in that it’s not limited to samples, with both on board synths and effects. It has resampling capabilities which should be thought of as creative tool, not just space constraint issue. It is limited to the 4 tracks, but a single track featuring a Drum Rack is like having 16 separate tracks, as you can adjust the pitch per pad. Then the Capture button is a wonderful thing especially if using it while commuting.

Super easy workflow for getting things off Move into Live, if you also use Live.

[audiojunkie]

These (below) are the ones that I've been looking at seriously:

* Roland SP404 MKII -- Very immediate and powerful, but doesn't work well as a midi slave (which shouldn't be a problem on a bus)
* Akai MPC Live III -- Aside from being expensive, this is a complete all in one solution

[Uncle E]

Maschine+ is a great all-in-one but no battery.

[spaceman75]

Checkout Akai MPC-series, Live and others.

I played around with a friend's MPC once; I remember the pads felt good. And I like the fact that all MPCs work basically the same way.

The thing that puts me off is the feeling that it's "a DAW in a box": it's a computer, with menus and pages and icons …but with a really small screen, no keyboard etc.

Thank you for the recommendation …but I'm not sure I want to go down that road. IDK.

[spaceman75]

The SP-404 […] I had the SmplTrek and found it to be much less immediate.

Thank you, that's very useful. They're both £444 on thomann so it's a good comparison.

A lot of people rave about the SP, and I think the built-in effects are probably my kind of thing.

Ableton Move checks all the boxes.

Yeah, this is the thing! It looks great; if I was an Ableton user this would be a no-brainer…

[spaceman75]

I liked it enough that I'm still using it after a little more than a year.

A good sign

Everyone I know who has an SP-404 mkII loves the hell out of it.

Yeah, I definitely get that feeling!

This feels like a vote for "Team Roland", but I need to think carefully about the trade off between features and portability.

[whyterabbyt]

The SP-404 […] I had the SmplTrek and found it to be much less immediate.

Thank you, that's very useful. They're both £444 on thomann so it's a good comparison.

FWIW, that's crazy for the SmplTrek; Amazon, Juno etc have them around the £350 mark.

[spaceman75]

Yeah, Ableton Move would be another good suggestion.

See above.

I kind of wish I was an Ableton user right now!