One-man band, or midi vs. sampling...

[Suntag]

Hi. Sampling takes a ton of room (memory-wise), right? Midi does not. That's why it's still around, I gather. Question 1- How much impact does that have on latency? Do two sampler tracks tax the CPU as much as, say, ten midi tracks? What are the stats?

Also, I'm going to be recording various pitches (advertising, major labels, producers and publishers). Nothing near as perfect as master-recordings, but it has to be good enough for Garageband.com, Taxi and Sony music execs. Can midi cut it, or will it sound like... y'know... midi? (i.e. fake elevator musak)

In other words, (question 2) should I be buying (for example) a Proteus 2000 sound module, or an E-mu E5000 Ultra sampler? Beyond price differences, what are the pros/cons of each technology? (Yes, sampling sounds better, but does it allow as much manipulation once recorded onto a track?)

This whole sampler thing must be resolved, it's keeping me up at night (!). Any and all help would be much appreciated.

Thnx. -Tag

[LittleBigHorn]

Don't forget that with midi, you can orchestrate virtual symphonies - sampling doesn't give you that leverage. As for beats, I think sampling is the only way to go. Nothing compares. Basically, you can use both nicely, depending on what you had in mind...

[Suntag]

True enough. I'd want to put strings into my songs. Ok. So I'll need midi. But as far as sampling goes, can you sample beats off Cd's (for instance isolate parts of a song Run DMC song?). Why is taking it off of vinyl so popular? Sound quality? Also, what's with these Cd's that have various samples (drum licks, for instance - not necessarily in loops, just various clips of snare hits, etc)? How does that work and where could I get my hands on some? I hear they cost a mint... Are there any such wav. files on internet? Could I sound any more like a five-year old? Could I? Could I?

[tdukex]

Suntag: You might want to take a look at GigaSampler (nemesysmusic.com). It's a software sampler/synth that is supposed to be "the shit." There's a review of it at prorec.com. There's an upgradable Lite version for around $200.

[dmcsilva]

Suntag:

I'm going to be posting URL's to 5 zip files containing .wav drum samples tomorrow-probably in the drums forum. They are all free. You need a drum machine or sequencer to use them.

dmc

[This message has been edited by dmcsilva (edited 12-29-1999).]