Your Opinion Please about Soft Samplers??

[Twitch]

Okay.. I'm looking to buy a Software based sampler.. any sampler worth checking out? Thanks for all your opinions?
Also keep in mind I mean a TRUE sampler a software that actually samples audio sound.. I know th Emulator X2 does is there anything else..maybe alittle cheaper than $249? I really don't need all the other bells an whistles but if so.. Then so be it.. It will all come in handy


Twitch

[Oculatus Abis]

Recording a sound is one thing and shouldn't always be related to sampling. Recording is a process of turning an analogue sound into ones and zeroes ie sound in digital form.

If a recording option is missing, don't consider this a drawback. Most if not all DAWs provide many easy ways to record a sound. However, there are dedicated software tools, such as Adobe's Audition or Steinberg's WaveLab that can do analogue recording and a whole lot more.

What you need is a tool to turn your sound to ones and zeroes. Once this is done, the sound (preferably in raw .wav format) is at your hands for treatment.

Back in the "old" days, a real sampler was a combination of a recorder plus an audio editor for more elaborate treatments. Nowadays, there are numerous tools that can "sample" ie transform a sound to digital file.

There isn't such a term as a "true" sampler. Hardware samplers are the ones you refer to but their software brothers can do a whole lot more than basic sampling and average sound treatments.

Modern soft samplers are ready-made VSTis, and don't just participate in the sound editing process. As for me, I use Steinberg's HALion 3 as my main sound module and Steinberg's WaveLab for analogue recording and loops creation. I record at 32bit-float/96kHz resolution.

For some of the best in the market, have a look at:

Steinberg HALion
Native Instruments Kontakt (considered by many as the most complete sampling solution)
E-Mu Emulator X
IK Multimedia SampleTank
Bitheadz Unity DS-1 (provides a stereo recording facility too)
MOTU MachFive
Wusik Wusikstation

To sum up, a software sampler is related to three key features:
1. Analogue sampling
2. Sound editing
3. Virtual instrument implementation (integrated as an instrument in a virtual studio environment)

Imho, hardware samplers have already missed the train of sampling. Compared to their software equivalents, they seem redundant...

[Oculatus Abis]

Oh, one more thing. If you happen to sample hardware synths, you can use SampleRobot. This is a very smart and professional automatic sampling tool that can be very useful to synth sampling. More info at http://www.samplerobot.de/english/was.htm

[Twitch]

I know most of this already... I'm not looking into sampling instruments as I said audio.. I know about ones an zeros when I went to school.. I understand an I'm thankful for your help.. I guess what I'm trying to say is I woul dlike a software sampler that is comparable to my MPC, sometimes I like create music in my PC than using hardware at times.. Once again thanks for your help...

[Oculatus Abis]

Well I'm not sure I'm following you You are not very clear on your "sampling" needs...

[earthloop]

Twitch, maybe this is worth looking at? It is from Image Line (Fruity Loops). I think it is $99. (click plug ins on menu at top)

http://www.flstudio.com/English/frames.html

"Direct Wave is a powerful and versatile sampler featuring a fully programmable synthesis section and features such as inbuilt FX, velocity-layering, looping, automatic sampling of VSTi plugins and the ability to 'sample' (record sound) when loaded into a mixer track on an effect slot."

[adhesive]

Agree with earthloop. I have FLStudio, thusly also DirectWave. The samples that came with it were not overly impressive, but as a tool it seems totally adequate to the task.

Of course, if you're in school right now (elementary through grad, plus teachers) you could get a full-featured sampler like HALion for about $140 on academic discount, AND get some pretty nice samples "for free" with purchase.

[Twitch]

Of course, if you're in school right now (elementary through grad, plus teachers) you could get a full-featured sampler like HALion for about $140 on academic discount, AND get some pretty nice samples "for free" with purchase.

I'm not in school right now I went to Music school a couple of years back.. but thanks for your help.. I guess I'm not making any sense.. Okay here we go again.. I would like a software sampler that can sample real-audio, I understand about the instruments those are not TRUE samplers.. but if I wanted to sample a vocals from my last cd and others that I produce, is there a sampler that can do this.. I don't think FL can do this.. A true sampler can re-sample audio.. none of the above can sample only you can load actually samples or snippetts from drum kits and various instruments. Maybe a Dj tool type of software.. like my MPC but only software of course..

[Oculatus Abis]

If I'm not mistaken, what you are after is analogue (real sound) to digital (1-0) conversion. If this is the case, you need an audio interface with at least 2 ADCs and a software that can process the instream. After that, you should take care of the dynamics and overall exposure of the recording in order to achieve a clean and loud signal.

Btw, there are no true and false samplers. If you tend to perceive an AKAI S series as a true sampler and Steinberg's HALion as a false one, then you are wrong. In the same aspect, the Absynth is not a real synth compared to Korg's M1. Well Absynth is as "synthy" as M1 is and a whole lot more.

Do not judge a product by its form but from what it is capable to produce. And I have to admit that modern software synthesizers & samplers have gone many miles ahead compared to their hardware alternatives. You see, any product, be it software or not, relies on its processing power and modern DAWs are light years ahead of those simple hardware carriers

[TeamLDCO]

i think i know what you mean...

try out native instruments Battery 2 (version 3 coming out in october i think if you want to wait for that). I got my copy as part of the NI bundle and i LOVE it!!

route a drum pad controller to it like a trigger finger, and i think you have a software version of the mpc. IMO... it's far easier to work with, more verstatile, and sounds just as nice.

Drop some drum sounds, or even audio hits and loops into each of its cells. when i use the trigger finger, i use 16 cells (one for each pad), and up to 72 cells when i use my keyboard. my hip-hop head friends were very impressed with the quality. mpc is like 1 grand, battery is $200. the sound banks it comes with are great too. I think that setup ($200 for Battery and $200 for trigger finger or drum pad of the like) is what you may be looking for. if you need a sequencer, FL 6 as was suggested is excellent for doing music that uses loops (among other things;))

[TeamLDCO]

as a side note i forgot to mention

for the actual recording of an audio sample, you'll need a separate app for that... adobe audition, sound forge, and wavelab are the most popular. if money is a concern, you can also get audacity, which is a free audio recorder.

hope this helps

[Twitch]

Thanks alot.. I will check into this.. I have wavelab 5 already... I will use Sonar 5 or Cubase SX3 for my sequencer..

Oculatus Abis

What I meant by a true sampler is not sample instruments cuz everything you can find software wise can do this (gigastudio, motu mach five, etc..) a real sampler has the ability to sample an re-sample audio (not drums, actually verses or vocal phrases) now if any of the items you have list can do this then I'm wrong.. somewhere you have not read my first post about the Emu X2 and sample real audio.. It's all good though I might have to look at the Emu X2..

[Yacithane]

this might be a dumb question but...

for the actual recording of an audio sample, you'll need a separate app for that... adobe audition, sound forge, and wavelab are the most popular. if money is a concern, you can also get audacity, which is a free audio recorder.

then how do i accually get the sound from somthing like say a turntable into one of those apps (meaning what is the signal path from the turntable to the app)?

-jack

[TeamLDCO]

You would hook your turntable into an input of your soundcard, and tell your audio recording app to record fromt he channels to which your turntable is connected. hit record and take your sample. then highlight the sections you want to keep and cut out teh rest (aka chopping). save the chopped up samples as a file and import them into your sequencer, and/or sampler and ur set.

[Underground_Wisdom]

Well, if you have any of the sequencers running a softsampler, you don't really NEED the soft sampler to do any recording, do you? That functionality is provided by the DAW anyway.

For what you are describing, I would actually look at Ableton.

I mean a sampler really does a few things :

Records stuff

Plays back stuff

Gives you access to parameters to tweak stuff that's playing...