Samplers / Sampling

Boss were one of the first companies to make a compact, budget phrase sampler, in the form of the Dr Sample SP202. Similar products soon followed from other manufacturers, but now, three years on, Boss are making their bid to regain the lead. Chris Carter examines this newly qualified Doctor...

All sorts of weird and wonderful instruments have been recreated in software, but IK Multimedia's Sampletank is the first serious attempt to make a high-quality workhorse sound module available in virtual form.

Most of us know of the legendary S900, which set a pattern that would be followed by succeeding generations of Akai samplers, but who remembers its contemporary, the less well-endowed S700? Paul Sellars renews the acquaintance.

Yamaha's new budget phrase sampler is designed to allow rapid creation of phrase- and loop-based music. Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser put it to the test.

Robert Alexander pays tribute to the short-lived yet truely revolutionary Prophet 3000 which, like Sequential themselves, vanished almost overnight...

Korg's Electribe family of instruments aims to combine cutting-edge dance sounds with an easy-to-use interface. Nicholas Rowland meets the latest member, the ES1 desktop sampler.

Two years after its launch, Roland's innovative SP808 sampling workstation has undergone a dramatic change in appearance, and also now benefits from new effects and improved Zip drive storeage. Chris Carter embarks on an affair with an EX...

With rival sampler manufacturers currently battling it out at the lower end of the market, Emu's latest bid for budget supremacy is the successor to their ESI32 and ESI4000 — the ESI2000. Paul Farrer takes it easy.

Yamaha's former sampling flagship, the A3000, represented a novel but very powerful approach to sampler design. The new A4000 and A5000, as Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser report, maintain the distinctive design ethos, but should provide even stronger competition to the established names.

Three years ago Paul Wiffen concluded that Akai had brought the concept of the sampling drum machine up to date with the MPC2000. Now he takes a look at its successor to see how much more you get when you XL.

Billed as the most afordable Emulator yet, the E5000 Ultra is Emu's new contender in the middleweight professional sampler stakes — and it's a force to be reckoned with.

Is it a synth, a sequencer or a sampler? The answer to all three questions is an emphatic 'yes', as Paul White finds out when he takes the E4XT Ultra into his studio.

The SU700, Yamaha's entry into the 'groove sampler' stakes, is derived from their A3000 studio sampler and inherits some of its sibling's most impressive features — including adventurous effects and imaginative sample-manipulation facilities — while adding quite a few tricks of its own. Derek Johnson and Debbie Poyser go loopy.

Norm Leete waxes lyrical about the mega-synth that introduced sampling to the world back in 1980 and went on to appear on innumerable hit singles and albums.

Philip Meehan fondly remembers his first love — a keyboard with the voice of an angel, the mind of a genius, and the body of a heavyweight boxer in a big black coat.

Akai samplers, in their familiar off‑white rackmount cases, have become fixtures in studios all over the world. Their latest models may use the same colour scheme, but they offer an entirely new user interface and a host of powerful new features.

Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser check out a product which offers up to four minutes of sample time, 22 different effects, audio processing and resampling facilities — for £199. If you'd been reading this only a few years ago , you'd have assumed that some digits had been missed off the price...

The ASRX, Ensoniq's entry into the world of all-in-one sampling and sequencing workstations, has just received a major upgrade and a fresh lick of paint. Chris Carter finds out whether the improvements justify its new 'Pro' label.

When Yamaha Launched the A3000 a year ago their approach won quite a few fans, and now they're demonstrating their renewed commitment to sampling with a comprehensive upgrade. Chris Carter's movin' on up...

The new SP808 has little in common with its namesake, the TR808; one was an analogue rhythm unit, the other is a feature-packed sampler, multitrack digital audio recorder, synth and remix tool. Clearly, Roland are hoping that some of the 'hi-tech classic' status of the TR will pass to the new SP.

The high quality converters and resonant filter imbue the 16-bit Emax II with a musicality and sonic character second to none.