Tried Technosound, tried Stereomaster...looking to buy summat better!
 

Yo!


I bought an A1200 a coupla months ago and have both been using it exclusively and exclusively using it for making tunes with Octamed IV and Audiomaster IV. I sold my 80s hardware samplers when I bought it and have been loving the function and the sound, so I'm going all in with Amiga for my music, no diggedy.


I bought a Stereomaster and also ended up then getting a Technosound too. The SM was quite harsh, quiet, noisy and yet pleasantly grungey. In comparison, the TS sounded a lot warmer and fuller, so I cracked on with that. However, because I have (or had; read on...) a strict 'only sample from vinyl/cassette' rule (don't ask!), if I was sampling, for example, a quiet orchestral passage from vinyl, the surface noise would be SO loud on the sample (made worse by the Amiga's apparent tendency to grab onto/put out high freq noize) that it would be unusable, as to have it loud enough to for the music to be heard, the noise would drown out other samples in the block.


Now, I don't mind a bit of noise. I use gear from the late 80s/early 90s almost exclusively and record to and 'release' cassette tapes only, so a certain amount of noise is expected and, indeed, 'desired' - electro-magnectic-mechanical/early digital noise adds instant atmostphere to tracks. And I'll always take REAL noise from the real thing over an emulation, anyday. However, I was starting to feel a bit disillusioned by the severity of the above issue.


I'[m now loading samples in direct via PCMCIA from the WAVs I took with my Akai sampler over the last few years and, wow, completely turned that disillusionment around. LOVE the sound, so it's not the Amiga but the sampler/sampling that's the problem. However, I will still need to do new sampling before long and, to me, converting WAVs and transferring them in feels like cheating, roflz, so...


Does anyone have one of the older/bigger samplers for sale that have a bit more electronic gunf in than the 2 resistors, 2 caps and a chip that the ones I have contain? AMAS etc? As per that vid by cTrix, like? Hoping for a bit more preamp-type action. As I say, I actively like a bit of grunge (else I wouldn't be using an 8-bit machine, lolz)...but even I have my limits. I'm all in for the Amiga so I'm just looking for the best a man can get.


Is there anyone in the UK that might design and build an ULTIMATE Amiga sampler by commision? Like, a proper fancy one with banging EQ and a valve input stage or summat, ha ha.

Are you fixed to use an Amiga sampler or could you life with some other/better device that record your samples at 16 bit and afterwards convert it to 8 bit? You have less noise but still enough. :)

The problem with 8 bit resolution is that you are more or less forced to sample at max volume. The lower the volume of the source is the worse is the recorded quality. What you notice with the "quiet orchestral passage". So, a preamp kind of device between source and your sampler would be nice. I use a mixer that do the trick.

Yes, I run my record/tape decks thru a mixer before sampling.

I've just bought a couple of DBX 563x units, single-ended noise reduction, to go on the 2-buss from the mixer before the tape deck. If I set those right per song, that should do get it to acceptable, normal (for me) levels.

Cheers, big ears.

You might find this interesting:

https://github.com/echolevel/open-amiga-sampler

It was posted a few months ago, hopefully they will see it through and make the boards available at some point.

Using an Amiga for audio seems to have gone a bit 'hipster' of late (see Pete Cannon's Sound on Sound interview on youtube) which has pushed up the prices of second hand samplers, unless you get lucky on ebay when someone lists a cheap one as buy it now. It's pretty disgusting that people are selling the likes of Stereomaster for £50+ and the quality you get from it is awful. Keep a look out for the GVP DSS samplers or any of the more substantial looking ones off this page:

http://amiga.resource.cx/search.pl?amiga=500&cat=sam

But even then, the best sounding option is to convert on PC and copy across, it's a world of difference.

Cheerz, Wazza.

Yeah, I saw that Pete Cannon vid. Don't think his tunes are that authentic souonding for the most part, if he's going for the '91-'96 vibe. A bit messy. And he seemed to just use it for triggering externals rather than sampling thru the Amiga. A bit gimicky.
It was actually the cTrix one that got me onto it tho, coz before that I didn't realise Amigas could sample. I knew a lot of dudes used Atari STs for MIDI sequencing back in the day but when I saw his vid I went "Bingo! That's the sound!". Like, Some Justice - I always wondered what sampler was used for the bass at the beginning...but now I realise that it was the Octamed synth!
I can't be a hipster - I can't grow a beard for a kick off, lolz. But it does make me chortle when people just assume I'm making d'n'b and am spending all my nights chopping up Amen, ha ha. I just see it as a ch£ap 8-bit hardware sampler at the end of the day. Found out about it at a time when I needed to sell my SP and I think sampling at anything above 12-bit is pointless (since little to no character is imparted), so I went for it. I just fixed up a 500+ to run in tandem with the 1200 for to double my tracks/outputs.

Yeah, the GVPs are selling for silly money on eBay. £150 mostly and I *think* I even saw one go for around £300?!?!

As I say, coming from a hardware background, it still feels like cheating to transfer stuff in, and I've got stax o'wax waiting to be pilfered from, so the search continues...

An option to consider:

Protracker for the PC (if using Windows as the base operating system).

I have Renoise. I can rip samples all over the shop with that program! but any recording software can be used. I use Renoise as its easier to cut bits I want.

I can then either just use the samples in that program or work length/time etc and then send them over to the pc version of Protracker. The beauty of that program is that it can save out in authentic 8bit iff. Once you work out how things are going, you can send all sorts of stuff into that and end up with some really nice 8bit sounds for Octamed.

Its not quite the same as using an old school sampler cart on the Amiga though.

Cheers. Nah, I like me hardware (and I consider the Amiga hardware, lolz) and equipment of a certain age (late 80s - early 90s...95% of my 'studio' is of that era).

Just wanted to report that I'm having great success with the DBX 563x pair. A mix of the Amiga filter, mixer EQ and the NR units in the approriate amounts gets me a MUCH more satisfactory sound. Wahey!!! All but the dirtiest of samples can be cleaned up sufficiently without the NR introducing 'pumping' articfacts. Wicked. I have also now bought an old Behringer unit, which I'm assuming will be a straight rip-off of 2x 563x, to do the same thing for the A500+. Happy days.

When you are done making some MODs, post them here.

I would have to say going for the GVP DSS sampler makes a real difference, I was using a Techno Sound and Stereo Master before as well but the GVP one really made my samples stand out. I released a few tracks which were done just on Amiga hardware and sampling a few years back under the name Amiga Breaks. It is great to meet other Renoise and Octamed trackers here though.

AMAS and GVP DSS8+ are best.

Sampling requires shielding and ground control for your sources. Compare results to Amiga by connecting a sampler synth in place of the Amiga. Some synths also allow export of signed 8-bit, but FX unit is usually after so you will lose reverb etc.

Quiet portions of sounds will be noisy @ 8-bit resolution. The only way to mitigate this is to change the sound going into the sampler. Amplifier+limiter=maximizer. You can also edit the sound before sampling, e.g. change envelope or cutoff.

I have a thing for samplers. Decided to say WTH and shelled out for one of these:

Audio Engineer

From what I understand it is the best! I paid for it mind... proper ouch :(

I will be connecting it via a channel mixer panel. I will try a few audio sources like vynil, tape and hardware synths.

Personaly I have a Trilogic MK2 with gain knob. I still didn't tried it...Hopefully it will be good enough.

What about this sampler kit, does it worth anything ? I already have a sampler (trilogic) but I'd like to build another machine for a musician friend of mine...

https://www.ebay.fr/itm/195851401673...Bk9SR86Jh4KoYg


thanks

I have been looking at the same sampler, would love to buy it but I am terrible at soldering.

This kit seems simple, and the Amiga samplers were simple, and it's difficult to see how they could be improved. They do their job - A/D conversion of signal going into them.

IOW a sampler samples a signal to the best of its abilities, and if it does its job without flaws, it's like the best 8-bit samplers.

The input can be improved by source equipment that is a high quality electronic instrument, a device to control signal to noise ratio, and a device to lift ground.

This to say that replacing this particular piece of hardware is unlikely to change anything. But it's a sampler, and if you don't have one and buy it, now you have a sampler.

This is not criticism, more explaining that these are simple devices and it's more about avoiding mistakes and setting up your source.

My minimum requirement would be arbitrary sample rate. This is what prevents sampling on e.g. PC with fixed rates and then introducing distortion by conversion.

Are all Amiga sampling programs the same for sampling rates? I basically just want to sample via the audio ins on my Open Sampler card, but was wondering if it's better to get, say, Audiomaster IV for sampling rather than going directly into Octamed IV?

Sample rates are more or less limited by the used hardware. I.e. sampler and Amiga screen mode (27kHz limit versus ~56kHz).

Audiomaster IV says it can sample at 56kHz, would it be held back by the Open Amiga Sampler?

I don't know the sampler but why not just try it?

As always, I start thikiing about this stuff when away from home for a bit. Will check next week but thought someone might have some knowledge on sampling. Worth a chat.