• Registered: 2011-08-30
  • Posts: 39

Topic: performance sampler or laptop for live band?

Yo Robots,
I thought I should pick your collective brain about options for my friends live band.

He has asked my advice on how best to update their palatte of live sounds due to their current equipment wearing out.
He is replacing a Virus ,some Novation synth and an Electribe for dropping samples
.
They aren't doing any live 'synthesis' basically playing simple riffs on patches with filter tweaking.

He has been advised to get a laptop and go the soft synths/samplers route.

I am suggesting to him that a hardware sampler is a more reliable option ,and that without investment in summing and a decent soundcard ,a laptop will not perform very well.

What I need to find him is a hardware sampler with USB/Card connectivity ,that can have samples assigned to key ranges in performance banks.Preferrably with decent onboard filters/lfos.

From what I can see their options for buying new are limited to MPC's and the Korg Microsampler
Their budget is around 700euro .I am lobbying for 2 microsamplers.

Can anyone think of any other options for what they need?

I am aware that my personal prejudice against computers in an unpredictable live environment is clouding my judgement.

Thanks in advance:)

(also what is the learning curve for the MPC? (with regards to the sample management and key mapping functionality?))

  • From: chroot
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 680

Re: performance sampler or laptop for live band?

my two cents on it:
I have been using a computer for making music for many years - now it's only used for audio recording.
For my composing needs, I now depend on a MPC1000 and a MV8800 - bear in mind that I don't do live sets, so my needs
are probably different - but for me I want as well a computer free environment during composition.

For tracking, clearly a computer is invaluable, but for everything else is much better.

the MPC can be pretty steep to learn if someone is not used to samples, but for some with experience is not that difficult to
get into it - maybe there is some more to learn if one goes the JJ OS route - but you get as well additional functions that
are not available in the stock MPC.

again, YMMV, so this is just my opinion.
a.

  • Registered: 2008-07-09
  • Posts: 211

Re: performance sampler or laptop for live band?

I have seen a couple bands use the korg microsampler, I was curious about what "real" musicians thought about it (since I am not) and they said really liked the additional value during their sets.

I have one myself as well that i use for radio shows and ambient shit, and as a non-keyboard/hardware guy even I was able to pick it up very fast. It has nice FX, very straightforward interface, plenty of sampling space (as long as you don't require 48k quality), a useful resample option that doesn't take up space, and a little sequencer (though no step sequencer). The mic is a nice bonus for adding weird sounds or whatever. Being able to record and loop stuff and add fx on the fly is a lot of fun.

For live performance as an actual keyboard there is one drawback and that is how the keyboard function has been implemented. Only one sample at a time can be assigned to that, and changing that isn't quite as fast. But i don't use this feature a lot so perhaps there is a quicker way around it.

It does not have LFO or filters though. From what I can tell the MPCs are probably deeper, but also pricier and a bit more complex. the MPC looks better too imo wink