Hardware samplers?

[yeswehavetheright]

G'day,
Can anyone recommend a good hardware sampler that can be had second hand for reasonable wonga? Was thinking of the S2000.
Anyone got a suitable candidate for sale? Will be looking to use with Recycle b.t.w. and an RM1x.
Cheers.

[Jimfish]

dont get an s2000 man, they are pretty lame..

u should be able to get a 3000 pretty cheap these days which is about 1000% better and MUCH easier to use cos of the bigger screen..

if i was you id save up £450 and get a second hand S6000 off the sos site.. now thats a good sampler!

[Malfunction]

I'd say go with an S5000/6000 with a USB card. It'll make your life a lot easier as you won't have to record into the sampler itself and you can do all of your editing in Soundforge or whatever .wav editor you're using.

[FILTERZ]

get an emu mate , the filters are way nicer than the akai ones in my opinion, e4xt ultra or any of the ultra range or even if you have a pc you could get one of their very impressive new sampling cards :clap:

s5000 and s6000 also decent machines with the usb card (if it works properly, know a few people with problems)

agree on one thing though dont touch an s2000 unless you really have to

[Basil Rush]

We've got a couple of old EMU E4XT ultra and an EMU E6400 Ultra for sale ... they are wicked if hardware sampling is your thing.

[lunatrick]

I have an akai 5000 for sale with the usb option for around £400 ono...have never had a problem with the usb port - I know earlier versions of aksys didn't allow you to save your samples onto a pc hard drive ( which was stupid) however the later versions do..

[g]

this is clearly not the point but given all the things that have happened in the last couple years, i can't help wondering: why not kontakt or some other soft sampler? hell, you could arguably buy/build a new computer strictly for use as a sampler and spend less, get more.

...ok, not less than an S2000 or ESI but i think we can all agree that's a pretty bad choice, considering. but once you talk about a spec'd out top emu or akai...

[FILTERZ]

this is clearly not the point but given all the things that have happened in the last couple years, i can't help wondering: why not kontakt or some other soft sampler? hell, you could arguably buy/build a new computer strictly for use as a sampler and spend less, get more.

...ok, not less than an S2000 or ESI but i think we can all agree that's a pretty bad choice, considering. but once you talk about a spec'd out top emu or akai...

But the quality of it depends on your computer i\o , if you actually want to record samples from hardware and stuff then you need decent converters and multiple i/o and most soundcards dont have them under a few hundred quid and if they do they are usually shite, one more thing, if my pc ****s up, i can still make tunes as the emu has a fully functioning sequencer . By the time you have bought a computer ,soundcard ,sofware,
you wouldnt have much change out of 2000 grand

[FILTERZ]

ps , i also record all my masters into the emu , so i use it as a limited hard disc recorder

[mux]

...ok, not less than an S2000 or ESI but i think we can all agree that's a pretty bad choice, considering. but once you talk about a spec'd out top emu or akai...

Actually, the prices have been dropping to near nothing, IMHO. For $500 CAD locally I can get an Emu Ultra 4000, at about half capacity for RAM etc, with original box.

To compare, I can go to the suuuuper-cheap hardware places (we're right across the pond from Japan, and get some of the best computer hardware prices in the world as a result), and build myself a nice, top-of-the-line fast new computer for about $1200 CAD, without a monitor. Then you'd need to add at *least* another $500 for a soundcard with D-A's and A-D's as good as the Emu.


By the time you have bought a computer ,soundcard ,sofware,
you wouldnt have much change out of 2000 grand

JESUS. $2,000,000 for a computer? ;)

[g]

all that being said, i'll admit that hardware samplers are still way sexy.

[acidchild]

Yamaha A4000/5000 I use the 4000 and am really happy with it. General around $350 for the 4000. They blow the Akais and Emus away imo.

[go|plastic]

But the quality of it depends on your computer i\o , if you actually want to record samples from hardware and stuff then you need decent converters and multiple i/o and most soundcards dont have them under a few hundred quid and if they do they are usually shite, one more thing, if my pc **** up, i can still make tunes as the emu has a fully functioning sequencer . By the time you have bought a computer ,soundcard ,sofware,
you wouldnt have much change out of 2000 grand

Those are really good points and I haven't thought about that, but still... computers are way more versatile - they can be samplers, synths, sequencers, fx units etc.

I’ll just use my cousin as an example: he bought an S6000XL for 1.500 euros six months ago and hasn’t used it since. He records everything through his Delta 1010 and uses HALion to sample his Juno 106 and other instruments. This means the AKAI was a complete waste of money unless he starts doing live performances.

[Jimfish]

if he allready has a computer and a decent mixer then a good hardware sampler is a worthwhile buy if you bother make the most of it..

you just cant beat the sound of a nice hardware sampler, i would definitly go back to hardware sampling myself.. and the sooner the better - especialy as the prices have dropped so damn low these days

[Kaine]

You can put together a high spec P4 system for about 600 quid these days. I've got more or less top of the range and i still use my hardware sampler for loads of stuff.... got an Yamaha A5000 and i just love that chunky sound and dirty reverb.

[Evil G]

i wish the scsi on my a5000 was faster, but other than that i dig it. 32 part multi-timbral with 129 voice polyphony, 6 onboard fx blocks with mad routing capability.

[acidchild]

Yea, the SCSI on the A series samplers is notoriously slow. I wish i had the 5000, those extra 3 effects blocks would do me good=o]