Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: The Mellotron Group

--- On Thu, 8/21/08, Tom Doncourt <tomdcour@amnh.org> wrote:
From: Tom Doncourt <tomdcour@amnh.org>
Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Off topic Samplers
To: newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, August 21, 2008, 9:01 AM

Re: [newmellotrongroup] Off topic Samplers


> I could also recommend the Akai Z4 or Z8. You can expand it up to 512 meg >which means you have a lot of sounds to play around with before you have >to load again from the hard disk. I find the architecture very easy for me >to use. You would have to connect an external CD drive or load sounds >directly from the computer via usb. The Akai interface software has been >easy for me to use also.



i second the akai suggestion.
the newer ones have:
usb available for direct connection to a computer

software [free] that utilizes that interface

allows direct importing of .wav files for EASY importing of just about any audio file you might want to put in it

i have an ensoniq asr-10 and an emu esi4000.
they both have serious limitations that cannot be overcome.
they are, in some ways, complimentary, and i use them both all the time.
but... the recent akais have, to put it simply, removed all the limitations that make these others cumbersome difficult and restrictive. if i recall the s5000 and s6000 are both usb-capable as are the z-∗ series, but do verify this before purchasing. they are all available on ebay all the time.

some people find the akai operating system unfriendly, but i think it's one of those things that the more you use it the easier it becomes, and just a small investment in time makes it all worthwhile...


>I am thinking of buying a sampler, but I do not know much about them. I >would be buying second hand in New Zealand so it would probably be be 4-5 >years old and would be a very popular model. Being a small country there >is a very limited choice of musical equipment anything even slightly >unusual is not likely to be imported.
>
>It would need to be simple and load from CD rom and connect via usb to a >midi keyboard.


can you please clarify this statement?
midi and usb are, obviously, not the same, and not for the same purposes.


>If anyone can help with advice and has the time to answer some questions, >please contact me off list.



>Thanks
>Mark