Dedicated Sampler Laptop.... advice?

[behndy]

soooooooo.... just starting up a new project, and my singer is using my Korg Kontrol49 with my home audio pc running Kontakt. works out perfectly, but i've done pc's at live shows, don't want to do that again.

after talking to a bud about hardware synth options and looking at the prices, it seems like the better way to go would be a good hardware sampler with a nice midi keyboard. i like the idea of having the same sound library to draw from at my house and on the keys, and we're digging on the Kontakt and Massive library (i use Komplete) so......

what's y'all's recommendations? Akai MPC? lol. THAT IS THE ONLY ONE I KNOW. i don't know SHIT about hardware samplers.

to be able to switch between synth/keys patches with no lag is an internal HDD necessary? that's the most important part.

murrrrrrrr? help a honky out.

EDIT - changed thread title because looks like i'm going to run a laptop dedicated to Kontakt as a solution.

[MannequinRaces]

Since you like NI stuff have you looked at Maschine or the Maschine Mikro? Might be able to maximize the best bang for your buck since you can use the other NI sound libraries with it (I'm pretty sure).

[behndy]

yah. i have a Maschine. love it. thing is, it's a midi controller that still needs a pc to run sounds.

i think i want a hardware sampler to load soundbanks of keys and synth stuff into to use a midi keyboard with. trying to side-step the downfalls of relying on a pc to not crash live.

thanks though!

[MannequinRaces]

yah. i have a Maschine. love it. thing is, it's a midi controller that still needs a pc to run sounds.

i think i want a hardware sampler to load soundbanks of keys and synth stuff into to use a midi keyboard with. trying to side-step the downfalls of relying on a pc to not crash live.

thanks though!

Gotcha, my bad. I'm also apparently pretty clueless when it comes to hardware samplers! Have you checked out the Korg microSampler? Looks like that might fit your needs.

[behndy]

that's funny. another bud pointed me to that too, the thing is the keyboard part would be useless, since my singer would hate the micro keys and would want more octaves. and it's sampling looks more...... toy like than useful.

i was hoping for something with a decent sized hard drive that's a dedicated verbose sampler, that doesn't have load times between patches. yur. again, don't know shit about hardware samplers so was hoping for some advice on what to look at.

thanks though!

[MannequinRaces]

that's funny. another bud pointed me to that too, the thing is the keyboard part would be useless, since my singer would hate the micro keys and would want more octaves. and it's sampling looks more...... toy like than useful.

i was hoping for something with a decent sized hard drive that's a dedicated verbose sampler, that doesn't have load times between patches. yur. again, don't know shit about hardware samplers so was hoping for some advice on what to look at.

thanks though!

Nice. I think you'll be hard pressed to find a sampler that doesn't have a load time between patches (if you're talking about large patches for like keys and other sounds that would take up all the pads/keys). I could be wrong though. I'll sit back and watch this thread unfold. Maybe I'll learn something!

[behndy]

the Akai Z8 looks sort of like what i'm thinking of? i think? they have like 80 gig hard drives.

urm. mebbe i'm going about this wrong. do hardware samplers only load up as many sounds as fit across the pads? or can they load up a different patch per pad?

only hardware'ish sampler interface i've used is the Maschine. on that in each group you can load an entire synth patch or drum kit to each of the pads then use a midi keyboard to play through whatever octave range that patch is set at. i'd love to have something identical but all hardware based instead of running off of a pc.

murrrrrrrrrrrr?

[oinkbanana]

excellent question: how big are the patches that you need?
are you willing to bounce entire octaves of samples to trigger afterwards?


for a while I was using Roland SP404sx for my string pads. lets be honest, i've only got 5 chords in a song, and 2 variations of each mean I was only needing 10 samples per song.
so bouncing a dozen pads individually, and then loading them and mapping them to the SP404 was quite easy and simple.
(just make sure your bounces are longer then you need... just in case you play the tune a little slower during, don't want to run out of note.
the SX version uses SD cards, a 4GB of samples (15$ card) with no load time was pretty neat, and easy to interface with the computer (as opposed to CF cards or whatnot)

but that works for me.
10 banks, 12 buttons per bank.
you're playing pads instead of a keyboard - might be easier - might be tougher.
maybe with an MPC you can map notes to the pads? i dunno.


if you're looking for a hardware synth to map a full keyboards worth of samples (88keys)... and then have multiple banks at that.. i dunno,.
nord wave will do it - but you'll be limited to 800Mb of memory (c'mon clavia... memory is cheap... give us 16gb for the 2000$ keyboard)

just remember, if you want to use a sampler version of the NI stuff - you'll have to record every sound you want to use and then map it accordingly.
batch mapping might be an option, but batch recording/bouncing/exporting/sample editing won't



that's my 2cents of experience.

[behndy]

thanks meng. so, sounds like this might be a pain in the ass way to go. hurm.

i've never really paid attention to hardware samplers. it seems weird to me with how fast and cheap cpu and ram and hdd space has gotten that there would be a viable hardware version of running a soft-synth sampler. that's really all i want. don't care about effects or sampling off of other sources, just want to be able to load up patches and have a hardware sound module full of tones that i want.

but looking around and your description of using the sp404 sounds like what i'm looking for doesn't exist? kinda a bummer.

[behndy]

yeah. reading around it looks like getting a dedicated laptop would be way cheaper and easier. kinda wanted to avoid that but i'll check out some hardware synths and see if there's something around what i want to spend that does what we're looking for through synthesis engines.

thanks!

[oinkbanana]

soft synth and sample playback are the two very different monsters.

Massive doesn't use samples.. it synthesizes the sound based on oscillators. you can't just load that into something that's not running windows or osX
you'll have to make your own 'wave samples'


you're right that with todays technology we should be there - but computers are multitaskers
in the studio - fine- buffering - loading--- bla bla - moments wasted
you can't waste time like that on stage.
which is why dedicated hardware still is expensive.
hardware synths are still a viable market for a reason.

I know running a laptop is a bitch (i hate it) but the problems most people have is not having a dedicated laptop.
a 250$ netbook, an apogee duet & a midi controller can be a super powerful system.
just don't use that netbook for browsing the internet, or installing photoshop & every other fun thing you can also use a netbook for.
if you treat it like a dedicated single purpose instrument - the chances of it fucking up will decrease significantly.
it's hard... i know... you'll be in a bind and you'll install skype.... and that new driver you needed for the wireless to work just risked the stability of your netbook and you'll be fucked wondering if it'll crash.
we're all in the same boat.


why the FUCK won't the Nord Wave have 16GB of flash memory. mother fuckers.
because then you could do exactly what you want.

[sonidero]

Roland Fantom series... Any kinda rack mount Akai sampler... Getting confused on terminology though... Are you making sounds or just want to load sounds from a computer or you wanna play like a Rhodes and then an organ and then a xylophone??? There are lots of ways to do each...

[behndy]

Oinko - yah. i get that you have to be super steadfast in keeping a dedicated laptop... dedicated. i think i can stick to that.

i used Live to run backing tracks, click track and host Kontakt in my last band. worked.... most of the time. i guess i could look into running that on a system. i was hoping to get away from using a computer live for stability issues. urf.

lol. i hate delving into stuff i know nothing about. 's frustrating.

soNiDe' - i was spacing on that Massive was synthesis based instead of sample, so i really just want to load up sample banks from Kontakt to a sampler. ideally to have a bank a few different instruments at a time.

don't want to load preplayed samples, want to load up instruments for my singer to play through. so use it like a hardware synth, but with the instruments i have in Kontakt.

i'll take a look at the Roland Fantom stuff. i did see the Akai Z8. the sample size of 512 mgs seems pretty restrictive though, 'specially to have more than one instrument per bank?

[behndy]

holy piss flaps. just looked at the Roland Fantom stuff. $4,000? fuck ME. that's um..... that's way too much. shit. i was trying to stay under a $1,000 for the hardware and the midi controller.

JEBUS.

[oinkbanana]

well if you're using a backing track, just make a good mix and play back the entire mix.
just have your singer pretend to be playing the patches... :shrug:
you could probably even use an ipod shuffle for that.

/end joke