Battle of the RE samplers

[FLVZ]

I spent half an hour writing a post about sampling and my lack of knowledge in the area, hit preview and the login screen came up and lost everything, so annoying! So I'm just going to keep it short (he says). I want to explore sampling, I'm a novice at it, I want to know whats out there and how to get more interesting results than just drag from browser onto sequencer and slice with the razor tool. I'm not massively inspired using Mimic, perhaps its the UI or perhaps functionality is not aimed at someone of my taste? I like psychedelic type effects, quirky, odd results, left field type thing.

I've found a few interesting samplers in the shop, would love to know what is out there or how you're using what you use:

Panda (Seems like a one stop for weird results):
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... xture-lab/

Haaswerk (Seems quite different, potentially simple and effective?):
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... lice-unit/

Inphonik (Can mpc style sampling be achieved with this? I have a midi beatpad type controller aching for more mileage):
https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... nstrument/

If I start trials on these I'd love advice on how to best use them so I get the most out of the trials.

[dvdrtldg]

I like psychedelic type effects, quirky, odd results, left field type thing.

Definitely have a look at Torsion. You're right, it's a weird one and takes a bit of careful finessing if you want to get conventionally musical results from it. But for textures and atmospheres and drones and general fucked-upness, it's amazing

[huggermugger]

Grain offers a deep and satisfying variation on sample manipulation and playback. You can obviously make grainy clouds of sounds with it, but you can also make the grains quite long and truer to the original form. Here's a piece I did using five instances of Grain to manipulate sampled phrases of stringed instruments (solo violin and also an ensemble, including a tuning-before-a-concert sample). The original phrases can be heard, though they are partially frankensteined.

[Abstrax]

this is unhelpful for you, but mimic is probably your best bet, unfortunately.
not having something equivalent to ableton's simpler/sampler is one of my biggest gripes. I just wish I could precisely loop and crossfade a sample but mimic is kinda sloppy about it

[huggermugger]

Also, though not an RE, Portatron is made by Robotic Bean, the developer behind much of Reason's best stuff. It's a sample player, wrapped in a 4-trk cassette player. It offers some very interesting options to manipulate samples. And by its design, it's ideal for use with very long samples. On one level, you can think of it as a four-channel Mellotron.

https://roboticbean.com/products/portatron/

[Bes]

experiment with samplers and effects in a combinator

[motuscott]

I like to sample w/ high digital clarity and then run it thru a used a million times Maxell XLII cassette, you know for integrity.
And then get somebody with a name to "Produce" it.

[challism]

I was going to mention Mimic. I wish RS would give it an update, though. It seems a bit half-baked, even thought I use it all the time. I would still like to see some improvements. But what else is new.

I've also got Portatron (mentioned above). It's great! It really is lovely, but there is no on-board sampling. Kind of strange for a sampler not to have sampling. Maybe RB will give us an update someday and fix that gripe of mine.


OF the three you mentioned, I only own two of them. The Haas one never interested me. Torsion is a weird one. I hardly use it because I don't have the patience to sit and fiddle with it. But it's really capable of some unexpected strangeness. I use RX-1200 ALL THE TIME! I love it. So of the three you mentioned, I'd go with RX1200 without even giving it any thought. It's wonderful.

[FLVZ]

Definitely have a look at Torsion. You're right, it's a weird one and takes a bit of careful finessing if you want to get conventionally musical results from it. But for textures and atmospheres and drones and general fucked-upness, it's amazing

I've really used Fritz on most tracks since I got it just to add some 'odd spice' to a track. I feel like Torsion is going to fit into the same school of thought!

Grain offers a deep and satisfying variation on sample manipulation and playback. You can obviously make grainy clouds of sounds with it, but you can also make the grains quite long and truer to the original form.

I'd completely forgot about grain! Really good shout, great on that track by the way. I will definitely put that in the rack and experiment!

Also, though not an RE, Portatron is made by Robotic Bean, the developer behind much of Reason's best stuff. It's a sample player, wrapped in a 4-trk cassette player. It offers some very interesting options to manipulate samples. And by its design, it's ideal for use with very long samples. On one level, you can think of it as a four-channel Mellotron.

https://roboticbean.com/products/portatron/

I actually own a Portastudio 414mkII which cost me just a bit less than this VST, perhaps I should purchase some tapes that are prelooped and get creative with the pitch knob and the mix from the faders! I've seen people getting some real lush results from tapeloops.

I like to sample w/ high digital clarity and then run it thru a used a million times Maxell XLII cassette, you know for integrity.

You raised a good point about cassette aesthetic there, perhaps i'll blow the dust off my 414!

I was going to mention Mimic. I wish RS would give it an update, though. It seems a bit half-baked, even thought I use it all the time. I would still like to see some improvements. But what else is new.

OF the three you mentioned, I only own two of them. The Haas one never interested me. Torsion is a weird one. I hardly use it because I don't have the patience to sit and fiddle with it. But it's really capable of some unexpected strangeness. I use RX-1200 ALL THE TIME! I love it. So of the three you mentioned, I'd go with RX1200 without even giving it any thought. It's wonderful.

Yeah mimic feels like it just stops short of getting me to where I want to go with sampling, but I just spent that last half hour watching videos of rx1200 on youtube, and WOW! this really feels like the solution I've been looking for (I'm a huge fan of golden era hiphop producers, RZA/ Primo etc). A nice clean minimalistic interface with stuff under the hood to get more creative. Just the right balance between flexibility and limitations! (Thats another Inphonik device going in the rack, these guys are amazing!)