Sound Modules V Samplers

[Steve]

Anybody have any preferences? I've just been listening to Yamahas' new Motif Rack ES It sounds a pretty impressive piece of kit! I'm not really up on samplers or how they work! Any advice? I'm on a budget...

[john]

Hey

It depends on what kind of music you want to create. For me I like a sampler because it's good for creating tracks with realisrtic instrument sounds, while I can also use it for synth parts etc. The line between samplers and sound modules has blurred a bit. The problem with sound modules used to be that replacing the base sounds wasn't easy, and not always possible, where as a sampler was designed to easily allow you to use any waveform you could get your hands on as a source wave.

For the way I work a sampler, or sampling capability, is the core of the sound generation part of my studio, with other sound modules (software or otherwise) contributing supplementary sounds. I tend to buy sound modules because I am after a specific sound, or a specific synthesis technique that I can't easily replicate on my sampler.

I'll have a look at the sound module you are linking to, but my guess is that the only way to expand beyond the core waves is by purchasing a memory card. Even more possible is that memory cards just contain new presets based upon the core wave sounds.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

John

[Steve]

I went back and had another look. They also do the same thing as a keyboard with sampling capability! Sadly, I looked at the price... I may have to wait a few years before I can get into this kind of kit! Ah well! Back to my Soundblaster... Wish I could get my friggin Sw1000xg card to work... I wonder if Yamaha have updated the card?

[john]

What sort of budget do you have?

[Steve]

What sort of budget do you have?

Possibly, (with the right amount of conoodling to the wife) about £300.

[john]

You could get a pretty decent second hand sampler for that.

[Steve]

one of these is about to go for 250 quid on ebay!

How about something like this?Any good?

[john]

one of these is about to go for 250 quid on ebay!

How about something like this?Any good?

Both good, though I think the Yamaha is more targeted at live use, and the EMU at studio/production work. I have an Emu Esi 4000 myself.

[john]

Hey Steve

I've never used either Kontakt or Short Circuit. My soft sampler on my main recording PC is an Akai compatible soft sampler, and on my laptop I use EMU's soft sampler (I have an EMU1616M soundcard on my laptop).

I am planning to upgrade my main recording PC too, and as part of that I'm going to investigate soft synths and samplers. What makes Kontakt so good? Any idea of the price? Do you have any other recommendations I could investigate?

Cheers

John

[Steve]

How much processing power does using a softsynth use? I would be very worried that my machine would freeze! Is that something to consider? What sort of minimum spec should we be looking at here?

[FinnArild]

In general: live I would go with hardware synths/samplers instead of a laptop. If I was forced to use a laptop I would always make sure I had a spare one.

You can't go much wrong with a Motif rack. I have used the Motif synth a lot, and as I understand this is the rack version. It's all you'll ever need.

Edited January 11, 2008 by FinnArild

[Retrosaurus Rex]

How much processing power does using a softsynth use? I would be very worried that my machine would freeze! Is that something to consider? What sort of minimum spec should we be looking at here?

Hi Steve,

If I recall, you were recently bragging about your newly updated workstation, and its' specs were quite a bit more impressive than my old clunker... Due to budget I haven't invested in any of the softsynths described here, but I use quite a few freeware synths and results can vary, but my system doesn't get glitchy unless I'm running multiple synths & effects. The synths usually have better performance than the audio effects, actually. Also, the more powerful synths max things out quicker (or just don't work in real time), but I get drop-outs rather than system crashes. If I want to use a synth that is driving the system to overload I can always bounce to audio. And I stress this is using freeware. Commercial synths are, on average 40-60% more CPU efficient than freeware synths with similar capabilities. I would just want to make sure I exceed (not simply meet) the minimum requirements that the manufacturer recommends... Hope this helps...

Edited January 12, 2008 by retrosaurus

[Steve]

I want to be able to play my keyboard and hear the sounds I'm playing. When I've tried this in the past, I've always had a problem with latency! Although I do now have a better computer, I would still worry about this problem. If you have outboard kit, no problem!

[Retrosaurus Rex]

I want to be able to play my keyboard and hear the sounds I'm playing. When I've tried this in the past, I've always had a problem with latency! Although I do now have a better computer, I would still worry about this problem. If you have outboard kit, no problem!

Actually, that would be a significant problem for your intended use... I'm not a key player, so I mostly compose MIDI and play that back thru a synth in the box.

[Retrosaurus Rex]

Latency is mostly due to buffer settings in the host program and in the card itself.

What are your system specs?

What audio card are you using?

What is your host program?

Generally speaking, I have no problem with latency at all with soft synths and samplers. When I get close to overloading, I just bounce the track to an audio track. Also, when I get near the border and I need another synth. I temporarily unload one of the others, then adjust the host program's buffer for the extra load.

Like I said earlier... but then Steve said he wanted to play the keys and hear the sound, which I took to mean he wanted to get a "live" vibe from hearing the sounds respond to his playing in real time. Hard to get around soft synth latency in this case. A friend of mine uses a sound module for exactly this reason, and I know his computer is better than most, and he has the expertise to maximize its' performance... FWIW...