Looking for a good sampler

[blendomatic]

Hey guys, I'm just looking to expand my limited setup a little bit with both a sampler and some effects. My budget is anywhere around $400, preferably lower but possibly higher. Musically, I need something that I can grow with, and something that can be used for almost any situation. My current application would be some live spacey stuff, with a lot of layering ect. I've done a lot of research, but as I live out in the middle of nowhere I have no real music store to try this stuff out. SO, I thought I'd just ask anyone who's owned one or more of these:

-Korg ESX-1: This seems like a good option, because it's built to work well with the EMX-1. Or, an ES 1.

-Boss SP 303: I'm told that this is a great sampler, but i don't have any really solid opinion.

-Some random loop pedal (like a Boss RC-2): Nice and cheap, but seems limited.

-Kaoss Pad: At first I thought that this would be perfect, but I heard that the sampling is actually limited due to loading times.

-Korg AX3B: This seems to good to be true, and I'm just wondering if it sucks or not.

-One final consideration I had was just running some freeware sampler (I was thinking LividLooper) through a controller. I am wary of bringing laptops into the formula, because I'm thinking about live applications, but I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world.

So, thats my list so far. Let me know what you think, and if I've overlooked anything.

[ramos]

esx for sure