Sampler and sound module or all in one?

[Bobsleigh]

I've been recording and mixing on a PC for five years, but I am totally new to MIDI, synths and stuff. (believe it or not)

Now I'm looking for a gadget to hook up to my cheap MIDI master keyboard, which will allow me to do the following in a live performance:

- Import my own samples of organs, synth, pianos and strings, and play them in pitch according to the notes i hit on the MIDI master.

- Playback drum loops

Do I need both a sound module (for the instruments) and a sampler for the loops? Or are there units that can do both?

We're as usual on a VERY tight band budget. Any suggestions for gear or comments?

Thanx!

- Bobsleigh

[regebro]

Any professional sampler should be able to do both.

Is there any special sampler you are looking into?

[Bobsleigh]

I've been glancing at the Korg Electribe sampler - dunno if that's "professional" or not, but it's within my budget...know anything about it?

[regebro]

Sorry, I don't know anything. In fact I knew so little I though "What? The electribe isn't a sampler", but a quick check on the Korg site showed me that in fact there are three different Electribes, one which does sampling!

Now, that Electribe rhythm sampling machine looks rather cool, but I'm not sure it does what you want. It's called a "rhythm sampler" because it is aimed at making weird modifications to rhythms. It seems to be able to work as a normal sampler too (just as the Akai MPC is ment to be a sampling drum machine/sequencer but can work as a normal sampler too), but it's kinda hard to tell from the specs, and one complaint in the reviews on zzounds said that it was hard to do a bassline...

I so I guess you have to go to a music store and try it out. I think I will, it seems really cool.
The first and obvious drawback is that it seems to save it's data on smartmedia, which is kinda expensive.

There is always the option to buy a second-hand Akai S-something for your budget. It depends on what you want to do with the samples. I've been thinking of that my self, but haven't been able to find any recommendations here on exactly what to buy... But I'm leaning towards a new (and expensive) MPC-2000xl at the moment, but I'll check out this thing first...

[Rev E]

I checked it out in the music store and was actually almost set on getting it.

What I like about it:
1. portable
2. sequencer built in
3. nice real-time control knobs to really radically change the sound
4. very nice basic sounds built in
5. has the capability to sample or play an audio source through its internal effects
6. great addition of a readily-available Smart Media card

What I don't like:
1. In order to save new samples in the user memory you have to erase the old ones... FOREVER!(there's no way to "reinitialize" the thing, so you must save the original stuff before you do anything, 'cause once it's gone it's gone)
2. it seems that the maximum sample rate is 32 kHz) So it SEEMs you'll have to sample convert to digitally convert your wav files into the format that the Electribe reads (this may not result in that much degradation)
3. while the keyboard pads are great for drum programming, they wouldn't be all that great by themselves for melodic instrument programming (i.e. make sure you have a keyboard controller on hand for melody lines).

Rev E

P.S. If someone has this piece in their studio, please let us know and either confirm or disprove my observations.

[anppilot]

Get s Akai s3000. Great sampling, clear, and pristine. Many companies make great sounds(samples) for the S3000-thus being a tone module. Using Recycle, makes it great to modify your loops and drums.

Later,
Mike

[regebro]

I checked out the Electribe too, and the main drawback for me is that they use smartmedia (which is kinda expensive, but OK, you DO get 64MB on one card which is pretty practical, instead of the 1.4MB of a floppy) and that I didn't find myself around it intuetively. I wasn't able to do *any* of the cool things the brochure said it could do without a manual... and neither could the sales rep.

I DID like that it uses the Roland way of pattern programming. It is definitely an poor mans MPC-2000! It can do a lot of what the MPC can for a third of the price. Cool.
I'll get new monitors first and see if this baby lowers the price of the MPCs.