[sdiy] Sampler project!

[Bret Truchan]

Hello everyone!

The other day I was considering what to "make next"... and one of the best 
music tools I could think of is an interesting sampler.  The idea is based 
on a sampler I created in Reaktor that allowed me to split a sample into 32 
parts and sequence the playback of those parts.  You could do breakbeat 
stuff with it, or transform speech into gibberish.

I started looking at Doepfer's sampler.  It's pretty simple.  It's 
essentially a cheap ($7) microcontroller (PIC16C73B by Microchip) hooked up 
to a memory chip.  That microcontroller seems fast enough to do audio stuff.

At this point, I think I can create the sample-splitter-module.  However, I 
started to wonder what I could do to make the module more "open ended".  I 
would love to create a similar module, except offer the user the ability to 
program the microcontroller for various sampler fun - and low-fi effects.  
Programming a PIC16C73B seems to require a hardware programmer and serious 
software.  But, perhaps I can program it to interpret a mini-language or 
something?  I would love to create a sampler module with a few generic 
buttons and knobs, a LCD display, and a way to program the functions.... 
hmm.  I keep thinking of perhaps having it take cartridges (I've been 
playing with an Atari 2600 lately), although I know that's a terrible idea.  
:-)

PS: I think that basic stamps and oopics are too slow for this type of stuff 
- which is too bad. :-(

Cheers!
- Bret

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