THE INEXPENSIVE WAY TO QUALITY SAMPLING     <--------------------------------------->         written by André Meyer          Samplers were and are very expensive. In fact, most people cannot or do not want to afford such an expensive and big sampler like the Akai S2800, the Ensoniq ASR-10 or the Roland S760, for example. No, actually a studio sampler is not necessary for quality, comfortable sampling at all. Why to waste money for a device that is capable of sampling, although your Amiga can do this? It is also much more comfortable to edit samples on a large computer screen than on a little LC-display! Not long ago, not a single 16-bit sampler for the Amiga existed. But slowly companies recognized that 8 bit is not enough for the real musician, and they began to develop 16-bit samplers. MacroSystems is one of the first companies that produced a 16-bit sampling card. But with their "Maestro" they actually did not develop a sampler, but rather a card that offers a digital input and a digital output. In this way the Amiga can be connected to a CD-player (which has to feature a digital output, however) or a DAT-recorder, for example, and sound-datas can be transmitted without loss of sound quality. But what to do if you have not got the sound that you want to sample in digital format? Recording it through the analog input of your DAT-recorder and then transmitting it through your Maestro-card to the Amiga is naturally a solution, but a pretty uncomfortable and slow procedure. MicroDeal's "Clarity 16"-sampler goes another way. It offers two (analog) inputs and two own outputs. So you can sample directly from any analog source. Other sound-cards which are capable of sampling in 16-bit are MacroSystem's new "Toccata", Amiga Oberland's "Digital Sound Machine" and the horrable expensive cards from SunRize. Besides GVP announced the release of their 16-bit sampler for the Amiga 1200. Once you have sampled the sound you want into your Amiga, you can transmit it via MIDI Sample Dump Standard to any synthesizer you want, provided that this synthesizer - or whatsoever - supports MIDI Sample Dump. A good and inexpensive synthesizer that does support MIDI SDS is the Yamaha SY85, a synth with good editing options AND sample RAM at a good price. If you do not really need a keyboard, Peavey's DPM SP or its just launched successor DPM SP+ are the best choices, I think. Do not misunderstand me, I really do not want to advertise for any product here, but I think it is one of the most interesting sample playback modules these days. Anyway, the DPM SP(+) is NOT a sampler, but it is capable of receiving samples via MIDI SDS (as explained above), storing them on disks through its internal 3.5" HD floppy drive and - of course - playing them. The SP has 16 voices, an SCSI interface, can handle stereo samples with a sampling-rate up to 41,1 kHz and comes with 2 MB on-board with a price tag at about £750, which is really a good offer for all these features. Besides it has synthesizer options like filters (LFOs), amplitudes, envelopes etc., and can be expanded up to 32 MB with standard SIMM-RAMs (I just say: CHEEEAAAP!!!). Its successor, the DPM SP+, has got lots of other interesting options. It has 32 voices, twice as many as the SP, can be expanded up to 64 MB, and has got resonance filters. Another playback synthesizer is the Akai S1000 PB, which offers the same options like its big brother S1000, except the capability of sampling. You see, you do not have to miss quality sampling if you do not want to spend so much money for a studio sampler. Of course it is usually more comfortable to work with a real studio sampler, as it takes some time to transmit the sample from the Amiga to the sample playback- module. But I think it is not really that big problem. And the saved money - about £1000! - can be invested in other music equipment.