Good crunchy, dirty, lofi samplers

[Stab Frenzy]

I guess this has something to do with how the PCM itself works to filter the data? I know only enough filter theory to be dangerous...(on the dance floor!)

It's to do with how the audio is reconstructed from the PCM data. You need a filter at the sampling rate to remove aliasing.

At half the sample rate actually.

[Chewy]

I use Kontakt compressed format rather than WAV. Either way, Kontakt saves the loop points in the preset because audio files only support a single loop point, Kontakt can have 8.

Oh ok, that's cool they can have 8

[madtheory]

I guess this has something to do with how the PCM itself works to filter the data? I know only enough filter theory to be dangerous...(on the dance floor!)

It's to do with how the audio is reconstructed from the PCM data. You need a filter at the sampling rate to remove aliasing.

At half the sample rate actually.

Woops, yes! The Casio one is proper, it actually tracks the keyboard. It's an amazing piece of engineering really, not a toy at all under the hood. Although it is clearly built to a cost, whereas the FZ-1 is a lot more serious (discovered in another thread that it has an OTT PSU).

[Chewy]

Back with an update!

I bought a VSS-30 yesterday for about $200 + $20 shipping. A little bit higher than I originally would've liked to pay for it, but not too bad considering other recent BIN ones have been around $250 and even $300, and both auction only ones I bid on before got up to about $200, too.

I was going to try to get another Mirage rack, which was $300, before I bought the VSS, but ended up being too late (It wasn't on there for very long after I first saw it). I ended up going with the VSS because I wanted to stop waiting and looking for deals and just jump in. I did experience a little regret though, as yet another Mirage rack appeared for $310 only a few hours after I bought the VSS...

The VSS-30 does have the main thing I wanted (8 bit sampler) as well as other cool features like a sequencer, arpeggiator, and "effects," so it will definitely be very useful for me. Can't do as many things as the Mirage, but it should be more than fine for what I wanna do. I may try to get a filter box to run it through, or use my BSII or Monotribe for that.

On an unrelated note, anyone know of some good multi-effects processors to run synths, samples, and possibly vocals through that won't break the bank?

[Stab Frenzy]

If you can solder, the WTPA2 is the ultimate lo-fi sampler at the moment.

http://blog.narrat1ve.com/wtpa2/

[sequentialsoftshock]

If you can solder, the WTPA2 is the ultimate lo-fi sampler at the moment.

http://blog.narrat1ve.com/wtpa2/

OMG I want one.

[Chewy]

If you can solder, the WTPA2 is the ultimate lo-fi sampler at the moment.

I remember coming across WTPA a good while ago while searching on google for lo-fi/8 bit samplers, but I don't think I got to the same page you provided, so thanks for that!

Heh, I don't have much experience soldering, the only time I have was in jewelry class when I was a freshman in high school. That was only a few years ago, but I probably don't have very good skills. Still though, I may try sometime!

For anyone interested, pre-assembled units are also available! They're about $200 more than buying the main board, jack board, memory board, and enclosure and assembling it yourself, but that's definitely understandable

[Stab Frenzy]

The v2 only recently was released, which is why you didn't find it before.

[phineus_ii]

Phineus here, aka, the #1 akai s-series sampler don! Not quite sure what page1 is all about regarding the s2000. You can't lower the bit-rate. only the sample rate. Where does all this 8bit nonsense come from?

My vote goes to the s900/s950, you just can't beat that sound. Name me another digital sampler that will let you overdrive the inputs and let you get away with it

[madtheory]

Where does all this 8bit nonsense come from?

Recording at a very low level is somewhat equivalent to lowering the bit depth. Rule of thumb is 6dB per bit. But it doesn't get the crunch because of dither. You just get more noise. Plus, the two other components of the crunch are the aliasing, and the transposing. S2000 doesn't alias much and had clean transposing.

[phineus_ii]

Where does all this 8bit nonsense come from?

Recording at a very low level is somewhat equivalent to lowering the bit depth. Rule of thumb is 6dB per bit. But it doesn't get the crunch because of dither. You just get more noise. Plus, the two other components of the crunch are the aliasing, and the transposing. S2000 doesn't alias much and had clean transposing.

True i'll have to give that a go with my s2000. I remember that guy on youtube, the one who does all those ensoniq videos saying something about that low input volume thingy.

[sequentialsoftshock]

Name me another digital sampler that will let you overdrive the inputs and let you get away with it

MPC60

[Chewy]

Phineus here, aka, the #1 akai s-series sampler don! Not quite sure what page1 is all about regarding the s2000. You can't lower the bit-rate. only the sample rate. Where does all this 8bit nonsense come from?

8 bit "nonsense?" The newest OS does indeed let you sample at 8 bit. It's not like I just pulled that out of my a*s. Nukeitfromorbit already corroborated this.

It's a sampler from the late 90's, and therefore has relatively good anti-aliasing filters, so it will still sound fairly "clean," but again, can be used at 8 bit with the newest OS.
If you can't accept that the new OS is different, then okay, suit yourself, but denying facts and calling them "nonsense" is stupid.

True i'll have to give that a go with my s2000. I remember that guy on youtube, the one who does all those ensoniq videos saying something about that low input volume thingy.

Or you could pick up the newest OS, drop it to 8 bit so you can see for yourself, and try what mad said on top of that...

[commodorejohn]

You can't lower the bit-rate.

Yes you can, you just discard a certain number of the least significant bits, either setting them to 0 (which does slightly weird things to the amplitude range/scaling) or duplicating the most significant bits into their place (which offers a closer match to the native scaling.) It's simple enough that you can even do it on samplers that don't technically offer it as an option, by pulling the samples into a computer, converting them to a lower bit depth, and converting them back up to its native bit depth. Easy-peasy.

[madtheory]

but denying facts and calling them "nonsense" is stupid.

No it's not. It's actually perfectly reasonable because there is no evidence of said OS update with 8 bit sampling, except your say so. Do you have a link? I didn't find anything via a Google search. My old studio partner still has our S2000, I'd like to see what this sounds like. Even though I always preferred my TX16W at the time.