Hardware samplers...
 

I need a sampler... I could buy Kontakt, but for around the same price I can get a used hardware box (which I prefare to use).

My previous experience of sampling is with the yamaha A3000 and thats basically it.

I want the sampler to do mainly drums and also to sample synth sounds for that "hard trance" type sound. - this will probably change as I run around like a madman with a microphone

My choices are:-

* Get an Akai S5000/6000 for about £300-400 + another £300 to fully load it with USB+effects . I love the large screen and removable controls on the S6000

* Get a Yamaha A5000 for about £200, Total Bargain for what it does , even worth the money just to use it as an effects processor.

* Get an Emu E4 ultra for about £400. Not had any experience with them.

So Im leaning towards either the Akai or the Yamaha, my pocket says the Yam but my "that will look cool in my rack" side says the akai.

Does anyone here fancy throwing some input in to help me with this rather hard choice ? :)

Every piece of Yamaha gear I've owned has sounded great, been of quality construction, and priced fairly. But the Akai's workflow might be easier with the big screen. Is there a software editor for either model? Which one can you load up and configure the way you want easiest?

I've always wanted a hardware sampler. Maybe next year.

:)

yeah , i think you can get an editor for the akai via its usb.

ive just been speaking to a guy with an akai S6000 which he wants £200 for.

I think Ill be going that route. Hopefully he wont rip me off when I send him the money :)

Whoa! Be careful. Is it eBAY you are looking at the Akai on? If so, common sense will keep you safe:

(1) No Payments via Western Union outside of the auction,
(2) No payments with anything other than Paypal as they give you $1,000 buyers protection, your credit card should also,
(3) Only deal with sellers that have a decent amount of transactions (20 or so) over the course of a year or more with as close to 100% feedback as possible.
(4) Look at their profile to see if they have sold any music gear before if you can.
(5) Also, ask them a question or two about the piece of kit to test their knowledge of it and read the reply to see if they are at least knowledgeable about its basic functions.
(6) Ask them to post an additional picture, something a little obscure, like the item with a small stuffed animal on top of it, as doing so is a good way to prove that they have the item in their possession and that they are not just grabbing JPEGs of gear off Google and listing them for sale on eBAY in an attempt to scam gear whores like us.

This info is important, it would have saved me from getting scammed a year or so ago. I bid on a Mackie Onyx Satellite before Christmas in 2007. The seller actually had decent stats, 30 or so transactions, 99.xx% positive feedback, looked normal. I didn't ask any questions of the guy, I just kind of bid on good faith, bad move. It turns out that the guy's eBAY account AND PayPal account had been hijacked by some dude in China. Since the guy's username and password were the same on both sites the hijacker changed the payment details to be accessible to him in China, then listed a bunch of gear on eBAY, with stock pictures and a few others that he Googled (I researched this after the incident). The Satellite did not arrive after a month, I emailed the seller, no response for a week. The seller's name on eBAY was "AndyKee." When I tried to access the same user's info on my PayPal profile it was a very Asian name, like "Xiao Ying" or something like that. PayPal recoverd $260 0f the $285 I paid, but it took almost a month. I've bought alot of gear on eBAY, and luckily only been scammed once and not too badly, but this incident was a wake up call.

Good luck.

-Alex

no its not ebay , its from some obscure local "stuff for sale" type website/forum I found online.

Ive spoken to the guy via phone and email and he wanted me to collect in person (which I cannot do due to work/distance)

I have his full name, his full address and his work phone number and address. I guess I have to trust this guy and my gut feeling is that he is legit.

wish me luck :)

also sorry about your misfortune with ebay , I dont use ebay apart from the odd cables n bits for this very reason. I prefer to deal with people who dont hide behind log in names who share full contact details.

One last thing, After this purchase, my little home studio will probably be nearing completion (not bad for 4 months of not boozing, living the life of a recluse and selling everything else I own) so it will be just the final polishing steps left. Im thinking of an Aphex 204 exciter.. are they worth having or do they do more harm than good. Ive read a few reviews online and it sounds just the ticket , is it hype ?

That's a good point you make about eBAY having questionable validity overall as all users can hide behind aliases of one variety or another. There's no substitute for first hand exposure to the product and to the current owner I guess.

As far as the Aphex Aural exciter, I've heard very little good about it, see here:

http://studio-central.com/phpbb/view...+aural+exciter

Tweak's site is an amazing resource. I learned all I needed to for my first year of recording by reading through Tweak's Guide (http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm) and by reading the forums.

As far as good vocals, there's a few things for certain you will need:

(1) Good microphone
(2) Good microphone preamplifier
(3) Good nearfield monitors to check the tracks
(4) A room with good acoustics
(5) A singer who actually knows how to sing!

;)

My quest for an ideal DAW configuration has been interesting, I'm almost done actually considering my budget and overall lack of time to utilize it all. The best adice I've come across is "Buy good quality gear, and buy it once."

-Alex

The Akai S5000/S6000 series are a bit problematic in terms of stability, they tend to freeze quite oftenly without even giving you the ability to save your program. If you want a computerish unstable sampler with many cool features - get Kontakt, i think it's the best software sampler available today.

However, if you still want to go the hardware route, get yourself an Akai S3200XL (but XL not the regular S3200) or EMU E4K if you'll find one. EMU E6400Ultra is also a good choice, but you can forget about the RFX card because it's way too buggy.

When buying an EMU, pay attention to the data wheel to make sure it doesn't skips data. When buying an Akai, pay attention to the screen backlight to make sure it doesn't fades out. Those are the most common problems with those samplers.

Nice info, XLR8A, thanks for that.

-Alex

An S6000/Zip/Hard drive/lots of cards should be arriving by post tomorrow. Ive tried the software route with synths/samplers and it just doesnt connect with me. I find it tedious instead of fun to program sounds. Also my pc runs out of steam rather quickly after a few softsynths/effects so prefer to use the hardware bits, though Ill probably get the Kore2/Komplete 5 set when Ive updated the pc towards the end of the year.

What are the older Akais like ? I know you can get the S1100/S950s etc for beer money on ebay and Ive been quite tempted to get one just to try out.

cheers

Well, the older generation Akais have much slower DSPs (something that pisses off any experienced Akai user) and another problem is that they aren't communicating well with the newer computers over SCSI. That means, if you want to hook it up with a computer to transfer samples back and forth - you'll have to find an old P3 with Win98, or a better option would be an old Mac G4 with OS9. That's it, you stuck in a stone age here. Another option is sample transfer over MIDI but it takes ages and kills your workflow, and the last option is to insert and eject and insert and eject and insert and eject Zip drives and being prepared for losing all your data quite often... Btw, older Akais have only one 12db Low-Pass filter and that's it, except S3200 and S1100 with the second filter board that adds a nice HPF BPF and Notch filters. For some people it's not a problem at all though, depends on the type of music you make.