Which sampler...

[auditory hallucinations]

I'm stuck between choosing an Akai s3000, Yamaha a4000 or an E-mu 6400

Mainly gonna be using it for drumloops and the odd synth noise - would like something pretty easy to edit but one that can also mess the sounds up a bit.

Any recommendation as to which I should go for?

[FILTERZ]

An EMU without a doubt, i have owned quite a few samplers and the EMU`s are without doubt the best , Great sound quality, excellent filters ,
supreme modulation possibilities, FANTASTIC.

[nova]

the s3000xl is pretty good tho onest ya get the fx board init. but thats not cheap if ya buy new think its like £200 and somthing for the board but they do come up x demo and also gotta buy a filter board for the s3000& s3000xl. with the emu ya get the zplane filters & fx allready init

[FILTERZ]

An EMU without a doubt, i have owned quite a few samplers and the EMU`s are without doubt the best , Great sound quality, excellent filters ,
supreme modulation possibilities, FANTASTIC.


allthough EMU are a bunch of raastclaart bloodclaaats since they got bought out by creative

[slavestudios]

the quality of my EMU was amazing..

even jus running your mix thru it on monitor mode made it sound better lol

excellent filters

[messyfuture]

yamaha for me

just bought another a3000 for live purposes and it only cost £100 with the extra outs and expanded memory

the filters on the yamahas are pretty good to

[slavestudios]

mickey leith was dribblin over the A5000 a while back..

but hes backed off. think he's sellin his kit actually.

and messy, theres another mate of mine sellin kit. few Behringer racks, FX8 Spirit desk, Akai S2000 with extra outs.. few other bits but my memory fails me lol


drop me a pm if ya wanna know more

[FILTERZ]

yamaha for me

just bought another a3000 for live purposes and it only cost £100 with the extra outs and expanded memory

the filters on the yamahas are pretty good to


used to have one

not bad at all and i prefer these to akais but its got to be the EMU for me the converters are loverely (sic).

[Komplex]

I love the Yammy A4k's

Used to use two of them for live pa, sold one when I bought a lappy but will never let the other one go. They're VERY flexible, cant really go into details cus it will do your head in...

If you want the sound of EMU filters go the E64.

The Akai s3000 is a dinosaur compared to the other two, don't even go there cus it ain't worth it. Not saying they're bad, but they aren't up to the standard of a4/5k or E64k.

Hope that helps...

[xfive]

Since we're on the subject of emu filters... has anyone been able to compare the sound of the filters on the hardware to the sound of the sampler software on their soundcards?

Both have the Z plane filters... are they even close?

[slavestudios]

i have an 0404 & the fx are pretty solid. spesh whenu work at 24 bit.

couldnt say if they are better then the hardware as i never had both hooked up at the same time..

lotta card for £69

[auditory hallucinations]

Thanks for all the input. Think I've narrowed it down to the E-mu or the Yamaha...

Seems to me I'd be shelling out a bit more for the E-mu, and the other downside is that it looks as though it'll take up loads of space. But the filters sound cool.

The other thing I heard about the Yamaha was that when you route sounds out the seperate outputs, the gain really floors off. Can anyone with a Yamaha give more info on this ie can you simply sort that by boosting the gain on the desk, or is it terminal?

Thanx

[messyfuture]

Thanks for all the input. Think I've narrowed it down to the E-mu or the Yamaha...

Seems to me I'd be shelling out a bit more for the E-mu, and the other downside is that it looks as though it'll take up loads of space. But the filters sound cool.

The other thing I heard about the Yamaha was that when you route sounds out the seperate outputs, the gain really floors off. Can anyone with a Yamaha give more info on this ie can you simply sort that by boosting the gain on the desk, or is it terminal?

Thanx

I usally just turn up the gain in the filter section of the sampler

always seems to do the job :lol:

[Komplex]

Thanks for all the input. Think I've narrowed it down to the E-mu or the Yamaha...

Seems to me I'd be shelling out a bit more for the E-mu, and the other downside is that it looks as though it'll take up loads of space. But the filters sound cool.

The other thing I heard about the Yamaha was that when you route sounds out the seperate outputs, the gain really floors off. Can anyone with a Yamaha give more info on this ie can you simply sort that by boosting the gain on the desk, or is it terminal?

Thanx

The E64 is 4ru however even tho the A4k is 2ru, its bloody long towards the back!

With the outputs you can just jack the gain somewhere in the signal chain...


Just out of curiosity, what will you be doing with the sampler? is it for a specific purpose or just to add that extra something to your rig?

[auditory hallucinations]

"Just out of curiosity, what will you be doing with the sampler? is it for a specific purpose or just to add that extra something to your rig?"

Recently, I've got away from using the computer as I just don't really dig using a mouse and screen. So I've just been sticking to using a tr909, tb303 & lots of delay :love:

But I obviously need to add some drumloops and other sounds, so that's what the sampler is for.

But, as the 909 midi spec is really limited, I need to establish that both the E-mu & Yamaha can have 16 sounds loaded in and all assigned to the same midi channel but different notes. And also that each of these sounds (say for example a one bar drumloop) can be triggered and sustained (I imagine thru the use of envelopes) just by a 16th note?

And just really looking forward to having more present loops, man I used to spend more time trying to sort my soundcard settings to get rid of clicks & pops that making anything!

[messyfuture]

you can do that and more with the yamaha, i cant really comment on the emu though cause i have never used one

i can post more details on the use of the a3k when i get in from work tonight. (just popped home for my lunch)

[FILTERZ]

Yep, no probs for the emu either.

[Komplex]

Recently, I've got away from using the computer as I just don't really dig using a mouse and screen. So I've just been sticking to using a tr909, tb303 & lots of delay :love:

But I obviously need to add some drumloops and other sounds, so that's what the sampler is for.

But, as the 909 midi spec is really limited, I need to establish that both the E-mu & Yamaha can have 16 sounds loaded in and all assigned to the same midi channel but different notes. And also that each of these sounds (say for example a one bar drumloop) can be triggered and sustained (I imagine thru the use of envelopes) just by a 16th note?

And just really looking forward to having more present loops, man I used to spend more time trying to sort my soundcard settings to get rid of clicks & pops that making anything!

All that can be done. The only thing I have to add is be prepared to spend A LOT of time transfering and preparing samples and patches on your sampler regardless of which one you choose... Its not really like a synth where everythings there, ready for tweaking. You actually have to do a lot of work to get the most out of samplers.

Either way, you can't go wrong with the E64 or A4k for the prices you pay these days. Go a4000 over a3000 because you get the bigger screen which makes it a lot easier to program patches.

[nova]

yeah could do that with key splits. just hav 16 sounds on 16 differnt keys all on the same midi. or on 16 parts all on the same midi channel

[auditory hallucinations]

wicked! thanks for all your input - i was £2 away from winning an akai s3000 on e-bay the other day, thank feck now i didn't win it as from all the advice here i think i'll get an e-mu...although the yamaha is tempting

so, last question - which model of e-mu is the one to get? 6400?

[FILTERZ]

yes E6400 - you could get one fully expanded for little moneys .

Maybe steer clear of anything with an rfx card , allthough i have had no problems with mine , other people have.

[po]

Yo,
If you can.. get the 'E6400 Ultra' rather that the E6400. Same sampler just a bit faster. If you're coming from using a computer, the speed of the E6400 may wind you up a bit (v.slow in comparison).. Saying that, the speed of the 'E6400 Ultra' may wind you up also (compared to the computer) but.... the sound of that sampler sh*ts on Kontact/esx 24/halion/mach 5/ ten fold (Ive had a lot of experience with all of them) so well worth it anyway.
Just chill and enjoy the sound of those convertors, just be prepares to get through a zip/jazz drive every 8 months. Its what i call the click of death!! or 'E6400 tax' (zip/jazz drive are sooo cra*p in my opinion).. the click of death is when your zip/jazz drive ends its life by not doing f*ck all except making an annoying clicking noise= usually within 8mths of heavy use. (I got through 2 zips and 1 jazz drive in 3 years of using hardware samplers!)
peace.

[lunatrick]

have used all three - prefer akai myself......just personal opinion though....if you can stretch to a s5000 or s6000 second hand with the usb option it's well worth it. This allows you to connect up the sampler to your pc using a (free) program called aksys . This way you can save all your samples on your hard drive, edit them in your favourite program (I use soundforge) and then transfer them back to the sampler, which is much easier than using the tiny screen, and it also really speeds up creating keygroups etc....best of both worlds...

[FILTERZ]

just be prepares to get through a zip/jazz drive every 8 months. Its what i call the click of death!! or 'E6400 tax' (zip/jazz drive are sooo cra*p in my opinion).. the click of death is when your zip/jazz drive ends its life by not doing f*ck all except making an annoying clicking noise= usually within 8mths of heavy use. (I got through 2 zips and 1 jazz drive in 3 years of using hardware samplers!)
peace.


get a hard drive

[auditory hallucinations]

Cheers Filterz...

So, assuming I'm getting an E-mu...I should go for the e6400 ultra with a hard drive included? How much do you reckon I should be paying for that?

Also, I've seen the Ex4t (or something like that) which seems to have synth capabilities too - any comment as to whether I should go for that above the e6400 ultra?

Just want to make sure I get the best bang for the buck...

[auditory hallucinations]

Ok cool got an Emu e6400 ultra coming my way early next week. Just been looking at the manual and I'm pertrified.

Filterz, to the layman - can you explain to me please how to play a sustained sound when you've only got a 16th note trigger (ie from my 909)

Thanx

[nova]

did ya get the sample cds with it? i got the emu techno trance. pm me if interested

[FILTERZ]

Ok cool got an Emu e6400 ultra coming my way early next week. Just been looking at the manual and I'm pertrified.

Filterz, to the layman - can you explain to me please how to play a sustained sound when you've only got a 16th note trigger (ie from my 909)

Thanx

use the envelopes to leave a long release on the sample or you can set different trigger modes so that it plays the whole loop or sound until the end regardless of whether a key is held down or not .

[FILTERZ]

Cheers Filterz...

So, assuming I'm getting an E-mu...I should go for the e6400 ultra with a hard drive included? How much do you reckon I should be paying for that?

Also, I've seen the Ex4t (or something like that) which seems to have synth capabilities too - any comment as to whether I should go for that above the e6400 ultra?

Just want to make sure I get the best bang for the buck...

ex4t ultra is a e6400 ultra fully loaded with max polophony and memory
hard drive and such

hey if you want a demo on using an emu come round and i will show you
the nuts and bolts of it , going to spain for two weeks on Saturday but will be back 2nd July , im in Walthamstow .

[auditory hallucinations]

Filterz, thanks for the offer man - appreciated.

I should get it early next week...so yeh I'm sure I'll still have loads of questions in 14 days! Will be in touch...

Have a blast in Espania