I STAND ALONE: a 2020 sampler thread

[fcknoise]

Pros with the octa over digitakt that warrant the difference in cost (i actually realize they seem to be still quite expensive abroad, don't know why they are so cheap in sweden, but check vend.se and I am sure they can ship to italy)
- The performance slider (no joke this is amazing)
- Compact flash card for infinite storage
- Mixer cababilities
- FX-loop shit
- lots of modes for it to work as a guitar loopbox (with footswitch and all)

There are lots of info on youtube about the differences. I know it is a bit off the deep end, but honestly it is really exaggerated how difficult it is to learn. I mean, just a bit of manual and you figure it out pretty quick

I've also pondered few times to "uprgade" to an Octa, but I stay with my trusty Digitakt for few main reasons: form factor is a winner, and for my needs it's super flexible, and I can quickly mangle sounds and create stuff, use it as a standard sampler/drum-machine or as a synth in chromatic mode.
I really wonder about the live-looping capabilities of the octa sometimes, but after the last firmware update, Digitakt did a huge step forward (new filter modes, dual LFO and FINALLY the mixer for the external inputs), so I don't see a point to get a new machine, and for looping I have the Looperlative LP2 which is amazing.
I also think the rumours that "learning the elektron workflow is a pain in the ass" are way exaggerated! With DT after 2-3 days owning it and some good will I was already able to do quite a lot.

People are just lazy like that. Look at anyone who has mastered a proper MPC, you don't understand shit going on there. The reasons to go octa over the digitakt is for the stuff beyond just playing it as an instrument really. As a live mixer thing its something else. Basically all that shit I said in the beginning of the year. AAaaaaaaaand something that hits you years later is the fact that octa has a switchable card, and digitakt has a limited amt of space. But why do I always land in this octatrack promotion in digitakt conversations. I also just said to vid that I cant reaaaaally see the reason to get that new 404 over a digitakt. I can see if you are more of a hiphop person than a techno person the velocity sensitive pads are a thing to draw you in

[gila_crisis]

Pros with the octa over digitakt that warrant the difference in cost (i actually realize they seem to be still quite expensive abroad, don't know why they are so cheap in sweden, but check vend.se and I am sure they can ship to italy)
- The performance slider (no joke this is amazing)
- Compact flash card for infinite storage
- Mixer cababilities
- FX-loop shit
- lots of modes for it to work as a guitar loopbox (with footswitch and all)

There are lots of info on youtube about the differences. I know it is a bit off the deep end, but honestly it is really exaggerated how difficult it is to learn. I mean, just a bit of manual and you figure it out pretty quick

I've also pondered few times to "uprgade" to an Octa, but I stay with my trusty Digitakt for few main reasons: form factor is a winner, and for my needs it's super flexible, and I can quickly mangle sounds and create stuff, use it as a standard sampler/drum-machine or as a synth in chromatic mode.
I really wonder about the live-looping capabilities of the octa sometimes, but after the last firmware update, Digitakt did a huge step forward (new filter modes, dual LFO and FINALLY the mixer for the external inputs), so I don't see a point to get a new machine, and for looping I have the Looperlative LP2 which is amazing.
I also think the rumours that "learning the elektron workflow is a pain in the ass" are way exaggerated! With DT after 2-3 days owning it and some good will I was already able to do quite a lot.

People are just lazy like that. Look at anyone who has mastered a proper MPC, you don't understand shit going on there. The reasons to go octa over the digitakt is for the stuff beyond just playing it as an instrument really. As a live mixer thing its something else. Basically all that shit I said in the beginning of the year. AAaaaaaaaand something that hits you years later is the fact that octa has a switchable card, and digitakt has a limited amt of space. But why do I always land in this octatrack promotion in digitakt conversations. I also just said to vid that I cant reaaaaally see the reason to get that new 404 over a digitakt. I can see if you are more of a hiphop person than a techno person the velocity sensitive pads are a thing to draw you in

My needs are not your needs. If you like better octa I fully respect you and your choices.
I decided to stay with DT, because mainly I play guitars, and use synths and electronics to expand or complement what I already do with guitars & Fxs. So for my needs and workflow, DT fits perfectly in my setup.
Laziness? I don't think so. I could afford an octa, but I don't see a point in getting one now, as I'm super happy with what I already have and decided to concentrate on that very device and learn/know how to (ab)use it.
Octa has some very cool features, but do I need all of that? I may, but after an precise analisys my setup I don't need those functionalites octa offers.

[D.o.S.]

Complex things require a bit of understanding, and understanding requires a bit of effort.

This is actually why my favourite sampler is still the SP303. Because it's easy enough for an idiot like me. Last time I used the Model:Samples (which is really easy!) I had to spend a hot minute relearning it.

[fcknoise]

Pros with the octa over digitakt that warrant the difference in cost (i actually realize they seem to be still quite expensive abroad, don't know why they are so cheap in sweden, but check vend.se and I am sure they can ship to italy)
- The performance slider (no joke this is amazing)
- Compact flash card for infinite storage
- Mixer cababilities
- FX-loop shit
- lots of modes for it to work as a guitar loopbox (with footswitch and all)

There are lots of info on youtube about the differences. I know it is a bit off the deep end, but honestly it is really exaggerated how difficult it is to learn. I mean, just a bit of manual and you figure it out pretty quick

I've also pondered few times to "uprgade" to an Octa, but I stay with my trusty Digitakt for few main reasons: form factor is a winner, and for my needs it's super flexible, and I can quickly mangle sounds and create stuff, use it as a standard sampler/drum-machine or as a synth in chromatic mode.
I really wonder about the live-looping capabilities of the octa sometimes, but after the last firmware update, Digitakt did a huge step forward (new filter modes, dual LFO and FINALLY the mixer for the external inputs), so I don't see a point to get a new machine, and for looping I have the Looperlative LP2 which is amazing.
I also think the rumours that "learning the elektron workflow is a pain in the ass" are way exaggerated! With DT after 2-3 days owning it and some good will I was already able to do quite a lot.

People are just lazy like that. Look at anyone who has mastered a proper MPC, you don't understand shit going on there. The reasons to go octa over the digitakt is for the stuff beyond just playing it as an instrument really. As a live mixer thing its something else. Basically all that shit I said in the beginning of the year. AAaaaaaaaand something that hits you years later is the fact that octa has a switchable card, and digitakt has a limited amt of space. But why do I always land in this octatrack promotion in digitakt conversations. I also just said to vid that I cant reaaaaally see the reason to get that new 404 over a digitakt. I can see if you are more of a hiphop person than a techno person the velocity sensitive pads are a thing to draw you in

My needs are not your needs. If you like better octa I fully respect you and your choices.
I decided to stay with DT, because mainly I play guitars, and use synths and electronics to expand or complement what I already do with guitars & Fxs. So for my needs and workflow, DT fits perfectly in my setup.
Laziness? I don't think so. I could afford an octa, but I don't see a point in getting one now, as I'm super happy with what I already have and decided to concentrate on that very device and learn/know how to (ab)use it.
Octa has some very cool features, but do I need all of that? I may, but after an precise analisys my setup I don't need those functionalites octa offers.

Ah man I wasn't calling you lazy, I was just reacting to the end of your post. Like a comment on it in general, that listening to the internet might make one think the octa is really really difficult to learn, like learning a new language level different. It takes a little bit of youtubing per function, and a little time of dedication. So none of that was meant to call you out in any way

And as you said, needs are different, so I don't know why I end up preaching the octa sermon all the time. Silliness I supposes. But it mainly is because the whole live-jamming thing is so fun that I want to spread it, I think

[cantremember]

fcknoise is not wrong about the live jamming thing. Being able to control all of it with the fader is so fun.

[Dowi]

Necrobump'd!



Can't say that i've used the Digitakt very much in the past few months, though it's always there for when i want to noodle around.
BUT This new additions with OS1.5 are really massive and tonight i'm going to update it right away and start to learn my way through it.

[qersty]

Is there anyone here who uses samplers to beat out noises live instead of sequencing? I have been doing a lot of manglings of samples in Renoise and VST effects and would like to bring it out of the computer. I just dont rock with the timeline thing and just wanna record "to tape" sloppily and unquantized.

Been looking at the newest SP404 cause i like the pads and format. I know a lot of people who like the older ones too. As i understand the newest one Roland realized that playing samples chromatically is a good idea. Most demos though are from hiphop or dance music guys so it's mostly sequenced. I just wanna Noah Landis-out and play pitched down bitcrushed noises.

Ideally I would rather get some old emulator or whatever but I hate buying vintage keys as much as I would love it on paper

[coldbrightsunlight]

Yeah sometimes this is fun. Or I'll record a sequence but by playing live for a few repeats of the beat (again most samplers now allow the amount of microtimings to make this happen automatically) so it's sequenced but with some human variation. I think with most samplers they're not going to stop you doing this.

[qersty]

True. I guess im kind of intimidated that something like the electrons with their drum machine layout will be a sequencing power hourse and way too overkill for what i wanna do

[le lambin]

Is there anyone here who uses samplers to beat out noises live instead of sequencing? I have been doing a lot of manglings of samples in Renoise and VST effects and would like to bring it out of the computer. I just dont rock with the timeline thing and just wanna record "to tape" sloppily and unquantized.

Been looking at the newest SP404 cause i like the pads and format. I know a lot of people who like the older ones too. As i understand the newest one Roland realized that playing samples chromatically is a good idea. Most demos though are from hiphop or dance music guys so it's mostly sequenced. I just wanna Noah Landis-out and play pitched down bitcrushed noises.

Ideally I would rather get some old emulator or whatever but I hate buying vintage keys as much as I would love it on paper

I’ve used a number of things for this:

Akai 8 pad controller sample player thing- don’t get this it’s no bueno

Roland SPD Drum pad thing- cool if you use drum sticks otherwise not my fave

Roland SP-404 the new one: it’s pretty sick if you like working with Roland devices and are good with button combos and menu diving. Pads are really good, and the sample mangling abilities are serviceable. Plus lots of sample storage via sd card. But Roland/boss always feels so unintuitive to me so I didn’t keep it.

Elektron digitakt- still have this one and still use it for live looping sometimes. Hardly ever use the sequencer, which yea I know is dumb but who cares. Love how you can mangle samples on it, love the effects, it just makes sense to me. Don’t really care about the limited sample memory because you can endlessly fuck with a handful of samples. Plus they’re like 400 usd used now, what a barrrrrgain

[UglyCasanova]

I don't have a lot of experience with samplers other than the OP-1 for a couple of years, but I've had the Liven Lo-fi 12 for a while now, and I think it's a really impressive package considering the price. It has some limitations in terms of sample sizes and the layout could have been a bit more intuitive, but I think it's one of those pieces of gear that I'll always have at hand.

[Gone Fission]

Not primarily a sampler, but would Ableton Move (or its iOS kin, Note) fit the task?

[coldbrightsunlight]

Elektron digitakt- still have this one and still use it for live looping sometimes. Hardly ever use the sequencer, which yea I know is dumb but who cares. Love how you can mangle samples on it, love the effects, it just makes sense to me. Don’t really care about the limited sample memory because you can endlessly fuck with a handful of samples. Plus they’re like 400 usd used now, what a barrrrrgain

Yeah I agree with this, I get what you mean qersty about not using the full capabilities. I had one of these and mostly used the sequencer, but it is a good box that sounds great and I like the way the effects and sample editing and stuff works. People say elektron stuff is complicated but it intuitively made more sense to me pretty quickly than any other hardware sampler I've tried.

At the moment I'm into sampling in ableton - this (or any DAW really) plus a midi controller is a hugely capable but also easy to use option if you're into computers.

[MechaGodzilla]

i use the digitakt as a sort of two-in-one drum machine and midi sequencer. i'd like to get into looping alongside sequenced patterns but it's tricky. the person i bought it off had put a lot of whole songs on there i guess for breakbeat stuff and i'd like to work out how to do a bit of that as well.

[crochambeau]

Akai 8 pad controller sample player thing- don’t get this it’s no bueno

I dunno, as a lean playback phrase sampler it does the trick just fine. You do need to front load all of the sample work, as it just plays back files. If you're looking to manipulate stuff on the fly, the MPX8 is not going to be a good fit - but as a compact bank of drone oscillators or one shot chunk playback machine feeding a sea of pedals it can be handy.

I picked up a local Akai S2000 this month, manipulating samples on this thing is like building a ship in a bottle.