Sampler

Fairlight - the first full-fledged sampler, controlled from the keyboard of the piano type (Australia, 1979)

Autonomous sampler ("brains") Akai S1000 (1990 model)

Drum sampler (with sequencer ) Akai MPC 2000 (1997 model)

The sampler ^[1] ^[2] , the sampler ^[2] ( English sampler ) is an electronic musical instrument , as well as a device for playing, recording and processing sampled sounds.

Content

Brief Feature

Unlike synthesizers , in the sampler, instead of sound wave generators, a sampled-in-memory digitized sound of an acoustic or (less often) electronic musical instrument is used. In the usual case, the performer controls the sampler from the piano keyboard. A sampler as an autonomous device (in the jargon of musicians - “brains”) can also act as a modifier of the sound of any electromusical instruments (for example, electric guitars ).

Sounds that have a short duration (as in most percussion instruments) are most suitable for sampling and effective (natural) for later reproduction in real time. Sounds of considerable length (violin, piano, trumpet, etc.), with a complex structure of envelopes, taking into account the formants and non-harmonic overtones present in them, are much more difficult for sampling. To give such sounds a “natural” look, samplers (especially inexpensive ones) use looping (loop) of the sample, numerous filters and “masking” sound effects (more often than others, reverb and chorus ) - these means of modification and processing of the original bring the sampler closer to a conventional synthesizer .

History

The first digital sampler was developed in London in 1969 by EMS; it was called MUSYS. Its authors are Peter Grogono (programming), David Cockerell (hardware and interface) and Peter Zinoviev (system design and algorithmization). The system was run on two mini-computers that had only 12 KB of memory, saved information on a hard disk with a size of 32 KB and on a tape recorder .

In 1979 in Australia the first commercial sampler was released - Fairlight , which cost 20 thousand dollars. Two years later, in the United States appeared E-mu Emulator , which has similar capabilities. Cheaper than “Fairlight”, “Emulator” is widespread among musicians. In 1982, the sampling option was successfully implemented in the American synthesizer "Sinclavir II" , which (despite the high cost) in the 1980s. also became extremely common among musicians.

In 1985, the Japanese company Akai released the first mass sampler Akai S612 . It was a 12-bit, 6-voice device that supports a sampling rate of 32 kilohertz, the memory capacity was 128 KB. In 1986, he was replaced by the Akai S900 , which had even more capabilities.

Two years later, the Akai S1000 was released, which was a 16-bit sampler with a sampling frequency of up to 44,100 Hz, a memory of 2 MB (expanded to 32 MB by SIMM modules ), polyphony of 16 voices, and the wide possibilities of internal processing of samples. His famous “time-stretch” became the hallmark of the early jungle and hardcore, and the presence of a SCSI interface made it possible to connect hard disks and CD drives . An extensive library of sounds was created for the Akai samplers, and the AKAI S1000 sample disc format became extremely popular for a long time ^[3] , and only the appearance of software samplers shaken its position.

Popular Samplers

Akai Professional : MPC 500 , MPC 1000 (BK / BK-N) , MPC 2000 (and XL) , MPC 2500 (and SE) , MPC 4000 , MPC 5000
Emagic : EXSP24
E-mu Systems : Emax , Emulator , Emulator II , Emulator III , ESI-32 , SP-1200
Ensoniq : ASR-10 , ASR-X , ASR-X Pro
IK Multimedia : SampleTank
Korg : Electribe ES-1 , Electribe ESX-1
Kurzweil : Kurzweil K2000, K2000R, K2500, K2500R
MOTU : MOTU MachFive
Native Instruments : Kompakt , Kontakt , Intakt , Battery
Roland : S10 , S220 , S330 , S50 , SP-808 , SP-404 , VP-9000 , W30
Sequential Circuits : Prophet 2000 , Prophet 3000
SpeedSoft : VSampler
Steinberg : Halion
Wusik : Wusikstation
Yamaha : A3000 , A4000

E-mu Emulator - the first keyboard sampler with a sequencer , that is, the first sampling workstation.

Among the software samplers can be called cross-platform free LinuxSampler .

Notes

↑ Russian spelling dictionary / Russian Academy of Sciences . Institute of Russian Language. V.V. Vinogradov / Under. ed. V. V. Lopatina , O. E. Ivanova. - Ed. 4th, rev. and additional .. - M .: AST-Press Book , 2012. - P. 677. - (Fundamental dictionaries of the Russian language). - ISBN 978-5-462-01272-3 .
↑ ¹ ² BDT, 2016 , p. 518.
↑ S1000 used The Prodigy, Apollo 440, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, LTJ Bukem, Mr. Oizo, Crystal Method, Pet Shop Boys, Gary Numan, Future Sound of London, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Mouse on Mars and many other famous musicians and producers.

Literature

Sampler // Social Partnership - Television [Electronic resource]. - 2016. - P. 518. - (The Great Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 tons.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004–2017, Vol. 31). - ISBN 978-5-85270-368-2 .

Links

Museum of Soviet Synthesizers
Synth Site - Large archive of EMI specifications
Synth Zone - The largest catalog of resources on music production
Vintage Synth Explorer - Largest EMI resource

[1] Russian spelling dictionary / Russian Academy of Sciences . Institute of Russian Language. V.V. Vinogradov / Under. ed. V. V. Lopatina , O. E. Ivanova. - Ed. 4th, rev. and additional .. - M .: AST-Press Book , 2012. - P. 677. - (Fundamental dictionaries of the Russian language). - ISBN 978-5-462-01272-3 .

[_b7598fd3ce5ef684-2] ¹ ² BDT, 2016 , p. 518.

[3] S1000 used The Prodigy, Apollo 440, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, LTJ Bukem, Mr. Oizo, Crystal Method, Pet Shop Boys, Gary Numan, Future Sound of London, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Mouse on Mars and many other famous musicians and producers.