How large do PCM samples have to be to sound good?

[sync]

I've been using SampleTank and now I want to get my first sound module, a used Roland JV1010. I see that all of the samples in the JV1010 take only 8MB. In SampleTank just six samples can easily take about 64MB. I see that more current sound modules still only use 64MB to hold all their samples.

So I'm wondering how important sample size is when considering a sound module. Are the SampleTank samples larger than they need to be or are they better than what what you get in most sound modules? Or is there another way I should be looking at this?

 

[rjt]

I would let your ears be the judge. In general, if a "real" instruments is sampled more often (so each sample is transposed less) and at different velocities, it will sound more realistic and be larger. In the old days, a lot of companies did good work by a) editing their sample loop points very, very well and b) reducing bit depth on some samples. As a result, with a small sample set, some sounds are usually okay (stuff with a short attack that doesn't change much like a pipe organ or flute) while instruments with a lot of articulations or which change over time, are suspect... like string ensembles, solo strings, sax etc. Basically, the key is, use your ears... if you like the sounds and the price is good to you... enjoy!


Take Care

 

[sync]

Thanks. I'm not in a location where I can listen to this before I buy one. I have to buy mail order.

 

[lumbago]

Well you could do a lot worse than a JV-1010 for a variety of useful sounds. The Roland sounds tend to occupy about half of the size of other regular samples owing to their compression. This doesn't result in degradation.

But they certainly sound 16 bit in nature. The JV1010 is more useful than not. And you can take out the Studio expansion card (which comes standard) and drop in a differfent JV expansion card.