Is this a dumb question??

[DjDelay]

I've read a sh*t load of articles/posts on sampling hardware vs software etc..

But could someone explain to me, why using a hardware sampler is better than using a software sampler? (I'm talking only sampling, not sequencing)

Apart from the whole debate about hardware sounds better because of its circuitry and bla bla. I've never used a hardware sampler and in the finacial situation i'm in now i see no advantage.

With a software samplers i can do all sorts of features, like adding compression, eq's, reverse, time stretch and all that with the click of my mouse. Whats the advantage of using an mpc or emu etc?

I was a few months ago going to buy an mpc2K just for the pure fact that everyone in hiphop has one. But then i saw the price and thought i could spend all that ca$h on better stuff

Please help clarify for me:headbang:

 

[mercurywaters]

for me its different feeling making beats on hardware for me. i just like banging on pads. it gives me the feeling of playing an instrument. of course now that they have the mpd 16 midi controller that's just like the mpc pads, i may have to go software.

as a side note can anybody tell me if any of the software samplers can change thier bit rate or resample to a lower bit rate?

 

[DjDelay]

It's a bit funny but the soft samplers don't actually record the audio. So you'd record into a wave editor, and yes in the wave editors you can increases or decrease the bit rate

 

[mercurywaters]

so can you sequence in the soft sampler?

i mean is the process:
1. record with a wave editor
2. chop and process with a soft sampler
3. multi-track sequence in a whole other program


lol. i sound like a damn newbie. aaarrrggghhhh!

 

[N.U.G.]

Originally posted by DjDelay
I've read a sh*t load of articles/posts on sampling hardware vs software etc..

But could someone explain to me, why using a hardware sampler is better than using a software sampler? (I'm talking only sampling, not sequencing)

Apart from the whole debate about hardware sounds better because of its circuitry and bla bla. I've never used a hardware sampler and in the finacial situation i'm in now i see no advantage.

With a software samplers i can do all sorts of features, like adding compression, eq's, reverse, time stretch and all that with the click of my mouse. Whats the advantage of using an mpc or emu etc?

I was a few months ago going to buy an mpc2K just for the pure fact that everyone in hiphop has one. But then i saw the price and thought i could spend all that ca$h on better stuff

Please help clarify for me:headbang:

yo dog, the way I see it is it's just a personal thing. You can get excellent results from software or hardware but some people just prefer one over the other. Shieet, I like both and am still exploring the possibilities of both hardware and software but no matter what I'm using I'll be making dope ish. I'd suggest trying a few things and then going with what you feel most comfortable with...

 

[boneyboys]

K, this is all a bit sciencey but here goes - Essentially a software and hardware sampler do the same thing, they take snapshots of the waveform you are putting in over and over again so it can read the different levels and put together a picture of the original sound. The changing bitrate affects how much information about the position is taken per sample so a higher bitrate will give a more accurate representation of what you're putting in. The change in sample rate will also affect quality because if you aren't sampling often enough you will miss parts of the wave out and it won't sound the same. In general you have to sample at twice the highest frequency to capture everything (cause this will get the peak and the trough) so most is done at 44000 Hz. The highest a human ear can pick up is around 20000 Hz. The main difference between sampling using software and hardware will be in the background noise, and this will depend on your soundcard and the quality of your hardware sampler. In general I'd say that a sampler will give less noise as it is specifically designed for the purpose whereas a soundcard has other stuff to be doing, but the difference with a good soundcard will be almost unnoticable I'd say. Sorry if that was all a bit confusing.
Merc - Your wave editor will most likely act as a software sampler and capture the bit you want. If not there are dedicated ones around. Then once you've captured it you mess round with it in a wave editor then multitrack it in another prog. Hope thats cleared that up

 

[Equality 7-2521]

i use a 2kxl for seqencing but NOT sampling. although it is a sampler, i would NEVER use it to sample if i didnt need to. th reason is beause having all your sounds on your pc gives you much quicker access to listening to your sounds and you can chop easier and add effects.

i sample into my pc and then transport to mpc via zip.

so if your going to sequence on software, forget the idea of wasting your money on a hardware sampler

 

[MIKELABZ]

ASIDE FROM BEING THE FUTURE OF MUSIC PRODUCTION. SOTWARE IS CONVENIENT AND LESS EXPENSIVE. YOU DECIDE.

 

[Kevin A]

a FACT

All hardware samplers, and most hardware gear will have a motherboard and software on it. The advantage with these are that they were specifically design for one purpose.

Your cpu is also hardware, but it is a multipurpose hardware that allows you to run multiple and numerous programs.


The advantage with hardware is that if it's not garbage in the first place, then it will do what it gonna do very well as oppose to cpu's, if you don't have the right stuff in it, you will run into problems like high latency. You will never hear a mpc skip a beat even though the motherboard and software and ram that's in it is less than what you have in your computer. More ram on anything is always good though.

Cpu's, like the hardware manufacturer, you depend on the software manufacturer to produce a good product, you have alot to choose from.

 

[Formant024]

Dont forget A/D, a hardware sampler mostly has a good A/D - D/A where the software sampler depends on the soundcard or dsp card's converters which in most cases arent as good as the hardware provided A/D - D/A. RNS outputs are also much bigger sometimes ranging up to SNR 120dB, which can hardly be improved by the regular base of soundcards available, except the expensive ones ( 400 and over ).

Another thing is that with software you need a pc which isn't always flawless and less direct than a hardware sampler.

FX/dynamics features are definitly embedded with new skool samplers, mpc's dont but majority of Emu, Akai and Roland racksamplers do supply these utilities. It's good to implement them but it's more convenience than quality which is mostly the case with emulated dynamics, fx just depends on, I find like 30% usefull.

In any case I look at the filters, good filters-> good machine. MPC2kXl wack filters, wack sampler. Don't hate me for saying so, I own 2 xl's but dont get me started on that sampler. The only thing I can say about it is that the best way to use the sampler is to feed source to the input and sample it, dont bother with sampledisc etc, recording onto it sounds much better.