I just bought a sampler! No, a real one!

[Coxy]

SCSI card. Do your research. And I don't know how the situation is shaping up for Vista, but I do know that SCSi support was waning on XP. I think Adaptec may be your best bet, but definitely check for compatibility before you buy. And the appropriate SCSI cable.

I'm more than sure the SCSI card in the computer and the ESI-32 will both have built-in switchable termination, so you shouldn't need an external terminator.

Also, you'll probably want some sort of storage (hard drive or Zip, or best, SCSI card reader) to sit between the sampler and the computer. It will be viewable by both but you can never access it using both simultaneously, if you value your data that is.

You might wanna brush up on SCSI bus stuff, as it can be fickle...

I have a SCSI USB cable that is plug and play on XP, but doesn't work at all on Vista. I'm not 100% sure but I'm thinking SCSI 2 could have been left out, but it's possible a PCI card might work.

Even without being able to transfer projects to a computer it is still worth it to have the SCSI drive since they hold way more and load/save a ton faster than floppy. Also if you ebay the zip/jaz drive make sure to buy it from the computer category rather than the sampler one, it will save you quite a bit of cash.

Cool, Robr grabbed the librarian thanks

Yeah Im on XP and will be for probably forever so that's no issue. Really like the idea of scsi drive, and so cheap now too. Already lookin for 30 pin simms on ebay and yes the computer section agreed!

I'm very excited!

[deastman]

My first sampler was an Emax, which I loved to death and used A LOT! Eventually I upgraded to an ESI-32, mostly because the workflow was similar to that of the Emax. Its a good, solid sampler, especially if you max out the RAM and connect an external HD. Eventually I decided I wanted something with onscreen waveform editing, and moved over to the Kurzweil K2000 instead. Still, its a good sampler, especially at that price.

[Sam@Megablastic]

Good for you. The scsi interface means that you can add a scsi card to your PC and you can use this free librarian to transfer files.

http://www.ele4music.com/temp/esi-win_0.10.zip

It also means that you can install a Iomega scsi Jaz/Zip drive in place of the floppy or get yourself an internal HDD. Loading is a lot faster.

Nice one I've been looking for that every where

I've got an Esi-2000 here I've yet to turn on from new lol, I used to use the E-64. I loved that sampler and stupidly sold it to buy the new Emulator vsti sampler....what a pile of crap that was. The E-64 beat it in every department sound wise.

[idobs]

I have an Emu ESI4000, but it's just collecting dust. I thought it was fun to use for existing patches, but it's hard to use the small interface for sampling new stuff.

I think PC is 100 times easier for recording new samples and manageing them. But that's just my preference, I guess different people find different interfaces useful.


-Ido

[Coxy]

I think PC is 100 times easier for recording new samples and manageing them. But that's just my preference, I guess different people find different interfaces useful.


-Ido

Oh not at all, I'm with you on that. Easier, faster, slicker.
But there are many reasons why I chose this route as opposed to the software sampelr route.

A: It's cheaper than a software sampler (ones I was looking for)
B: The extra effort to sample and map samples actually promotes me to be more productive and make it work.
C: Despite what people say, this is comming from someone who was all software just yesterday, hardware is more fun! with the buttons and the knobs and the ooo I dunno the hardwareness.

Problem with me and software samplers is it's too easy, I found myself getting into a rut of just trial and error, I'd load a sample, it didn't fit or work with my track so I'd load the next and try again, I then got stuck in this endless loop.

Hardware sampler IS slightly harder especially if ur comming from software, but I appreciate these little quirks and when I sample something I actually try to make it fit, I try to make it work, because i've gone through the effort of sampling, looping, truncating etc.

[bluepride]

I think PC is 100 times easier for recording new samples and manageing them. But that's just my preference, I guess different people find different interfaces useful.


-Ido

I don't think that's quite true. Most softsamplers are very bad at managing samples. For example, with Kontakt or HALion you have to use an "external wave editor" to do even the simplest sample editing. If you're going to have to fire up WaveLab or SoundForge and move the sample back and forth from the softsampler, that's really no different than moving it back and forth to/from a hardware sampler using SMDI. A PITA, in other words. In fact, in some cases it's easier to use SMDI to/from a HW sampler and WaveLab than it is a softsampler. RIDICULOUS!

There is at least one nice exception to this nonsense though, which is DirectWave. It allows the PC interface to be used to full effect for recording, editing, and managing samples. DirectWave is freaking great, and it's also cheap ($99.00 US). If you're on Windows and you don't have it yet, you owe it to yourself to try it out.

http://www.image-line.com/documents/directwave.html

[idobs]

I think PC is 100 times easier for recording new samples and manageing them. But that's just my preference, I guess different people find different interfaces useful.


-Ido

Oh not at all, I'm with you on that. Easier, faster, slicker.
But there are many reasons why I chose this route as opposed to the software sampelr route.

A: It's cheaper than a software sampler (ones I was looking for)
B: The extra effort to sample and map samples actually promotes me to be more productive and make it work.
C: Despite what people say, this is comming from someone who was all software just yesterday, hardware is more fun! with the buttons and the knobs and the ooo I dunno the hardwareness.

Problem with me and software samplers is it's too easy, I found myself getting into a rut of just trial and error, I'd load a sample, it didn't fit or work with my track so I'd load the next and try again, I then got stuck in this endless loop.

Hardware sampler IS slightly harder especially if ur comming from software, but I appreciate these little quirks and when I sample something I actually try to make it fit, I try to make it work, because i've gone through the effort of sampling, looping, truncating etc.

I definately agree that pushing more real buttons is fun.

[pschelfh]

I think PC is 100 times easier for recording new samples and manageing them. But that's just my preference, I guess different people find different interfaces useful.


-Ido

Oh not at all, I'm with you on that. Easier, faster, slicker.
But there are many reasons why I chose this route as opposed to the software sampelr route.

A: It's cheaper than a software sampler (ones I was looking for)
B: The extra effort to sample and map samples actually promotes me to be more productive and make it work.
C: Despite what people say, this is comming from someone who was all software just yesterday, hardware is more fun! with the buttons and the knobs and the ooo I dunno the hardwareness.

Problem with me and software samplers is it's too easy, I found myself getting into a rut of just trial and error, I'd load a sample, it didn't fit or work with my track so I'd load the next and try again, I then got stuck in this endless loop.

Hardware sampler IS slightly harder especially if ur comming from software, but I appreciate these little quirks and when I sample something I actually try to make it fit, I try to make it work, because i've gone through the effort of sampling, looping, truncating etc.

Yep, that's true. On hardware I could work on just 1 sample for hours and mangle it beyond recognition. On software, I don't bother anymore, I just look for another sound.

If I ever get another hardware sampler, it will be one of those Akai S1000 or 1100 racks. I heard one of those in a studio once and it sounded amazing, especialy for drums !

Peter.

[Coxy]

Yep, that's true. On hardware I could work on just 1 sample for hours and mangle it beyond recognition. On software, I don't bother anymore, I just look for another sound.

Nail on the head. Why couldn't I say it in just that many words

If I ever get another hardware sampler, it will be one of those Akai S1000 or 1100 racks. I heard one of those in a studio once and it sounded amazing, especialy for drums !

Peter.

Tell me! I've got gear lust already.