DIY sampler...

[Andrew Schrock]

On Tue, 21 Apr 1998, Steven Maietta wrote:
> I was wondering if anyone has built a sampler out of one of those voice
> recording chips available from RadioShack and other electronics places..
> It would have to be triggerable for use with analog stuff or modulars..  I
> am cloudy on exactly how it could be configured..  I guess it would have to
> be like this: (think of it as panel mounted)  Mic and 1/4 input(or whatever
> your system uses), some kind of trigger to get it going, maybe some cool
> effects like pitch bend or vib or any of the standard effects I guess..  to
> be able to slow it down or speed it up of course.. maybe while retaining
> the original pitch...
> Just an idea....no Idea on how easily feasible it would be or whatever.. 
> any input on this??

Ah, You've discovered one of my projects which has been put on hold.. my
idea was to stick a 20-second ISO chip, VCF, AR envelope, envelope
generator and LFO in a (modular!) little box with all the controls on the
front... I got as far as getting the LFO, AR and env generator working
then shelved it in frustration at how busy I was at the time. If I do get
it working this summer it will make a nice little filter box for external
sounds. There's more on this in the archives I would imagine. 

They chips you're referring to are pretty nice for what they cost.. I
forget if they're triggered by a +5v or ground pushbutton switch. If it's
the former, you're set, just use a gate/trigger out.. if it's the latter
just rig up a transistor switch. One complaint of mine is that it is just
triggerable... you don't seem to be able to set it up to start and stop
the sample at will. For the music I make this is important. 

I haven't actually gotten mine working, but then again I haven't been
working on it. I figure these chips make for a nice low-fi sampler for
screwing around with, even if you never get to use them in the studio.
Maybe you could use the loop function on a very small section of the
waveform (from 0 to .125 seconds or so) and use that as a source for 
noise, modulation, etc? Funny I never considered this before... 

Pitch bend would mean changing the sampling rate.. I don't think these
chips are capable of this (maybe somebody can check specs and prove me
wrong). Doing vibrato would be easy, just run it through a VCA modulated
by an LFO. Maybe not as neat a solution as you would like, but probably
the best. 

Andrew