yooooo this is straight fuego, holy hell
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Cassette tapeā¦ā¦ā¦
I was able to cop an St-224. Was wondering if you record any drum loops into it and are able to keep them synced up? For example lets say I have a model cyles beat and I want to sample it into the Zoom as a perfect loop. Is that possible to do? The sequencig on the Cycles is so good Iād hate to just send one shots from it.
As far as capturing loops goes, there is no fixed length recording. You can enable threshold recording by pressing special and record. But you will still need to mark the end point of your loop. If you use the arrows when youāre doing that you can get pretty precise with it.
So you have to do it by ear, but itās doable.
Thereās also an auto sync function that I donāt remember exactly how to use but you can repitch or timestretch a pad to match your songās tempo or another pad.
But as far as syncing things up, I would just trigger the pad from your Cycles. I think that would be the easiest way to make sure things stay lined up. The only thing to remember there is that you need to set your note length because the Sampletrak treats all MIDI notes as gated.
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āBut as far as syncing things up, I would just trigger the pad from your Cycles.ā
Ok cool, you mean trigger the pad on Cycles and use threshold record? That should be fine I think.
I got spoiled by the 1010 Blackbox fixed length recording, it is amazing but the 1010 canāt get gritty like these older lo-fi samplers.
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My two centsā¦
If been trying to get that vintage sampler sound for some time now. The āmagicā of the machines like the SP12(00) or S950 -at least in my opinion/theory- is the combination of the DAC, the filtering of the sounds and the way the pitching of the samples introduces these nice artifacts (ringing sounds). Iāve never had one of these machines myself thoughā¦
There is an intense paper by David T. Yeh and others from 2007 that analyzes what is happening to the samples/signal inside the SP12: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~dtyeh/papers/yeh07_icmc_sp12.pdf
Based upon this, there is a tool available that emulates the pitching algorithm of the SP12: https://github.com/mwcm/pitcher
The a/m eSPi1200 software by Low Hiss also does the job with a much nicer GUI, sequencer, etc. (a complete emulation of the SP1200 actually). Unfortunately, he seems to have quit his hardware prototype.
There is also a nice bit crusher available which emulates the ringing of the sounds like the SP12. Best sounding software bit crusher IMHO if youāre looking for a SP12-like sound (better that Decimort I think) but it does actually not pitch samples: waveTracing - SP950 plugin
Heās working on a sampler VST at the very moment.
To complement my work flow, I wish this SP12 algorithm would be implemented in Abletonās Sampler/Simpler devices straight forward 
. I would also not hesitate to buy a cheaper version of Rossum Electro SP or a Behringer clone if they were available.
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I wonder what it would sound like with your SDE1k. Did you record any stuff?
Yeah I used the sp950 plug-in before I started grabbing lo fi samplers. Honestly I prefer the sound of my sp202 since I like how it pitches better and I can control the aliasing. The 202 adds some grit to the sound that isnāt overwhelming, it just works.
There is something about these hardware samplers that gets me better and faster results than plug-in. And they are tricky to find but not super expensive so itās worth it to me. Iām talking even the pocket operator ko33 here, nothing boutique.
I have been busy trying to finish some songs and havenāt had the time to explore it in depth but I did an initial test and it does add some artifacts and seems to roll off the highs especially the more pitched up I made the loop. I basically just sent a loop I had out of the Digitakt (pitched up at different intervals) through the sde-1000 and back into the DT. I will record the results next time Iām at the studio and post here.
Alright, I ran a test last night running a loop from the Digitakt into the Roland SDE-1000. Hereās how the audio is laid out.
The first clip is the original sample.
The second clip I pitched up seven notches. The first 4 bars is the loop internally resampled into the DT and pitched back down to the original pitch. The next 4 bars is the same process but running through the SDE-1000. That sequence then repeats but I put a little pause between the internally sampled loop and the one running through the SDE-1000.
The third clip is the same process as number 2 but pitched up and octave.
The fourth clip is the same process but pitched up 2 octaves.
This was probably not the best loop to use for this demonstration but I think it ended up giving an idea of the effect the SDE-1000 has. On the first couple of listens I didnāt really hear much difference in the one that was pitched up 7 semitones (not sure if this is the right word). But after that I did start to perceive a slight edge on the bass drum especially. The next two clips the effect the SDE-1000 had was much more overt and really show the degradation of the loop. I personally started to prefer the subtler effect of the 7 semitones one best but I could see the other settings being useful as well. Overall, Iām pretty happy with the coloration the SDE will provide and the delay is pretty useful as well.
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My Sampletrak showd up but the inputs are not working unless I pull the patch cable out almost all the way. The audio fades up and down in volume. Outputs are working fine though.
Thinking I may need to clean with some deoxit so I am going to grab some and see. I took it apart and the machine is super clean besides this issue, so I am not sure what else I can do if the deoxit doesnāt work.
EDIT - Update, the Deoxit worked incredibly well. The sampler sounds super clean now. Amazing on kics. Ran a Model Cycles kick through it and it sounds great in lo-fi and standard mode. When I pitch down in Standard mode it gets that Sp1200 ring on the kick, just awesome.
Will run the 909 thorugh it tomorrow, but this thing is great.
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Gonna post this here just because this thread is more active in one month than the Microgranny thread has been in like 10 years lol.
Picked up the MG Monolith which is the new version of the Microgranny. That is, new shell, it uses a PCB casing and has new knobs but itās still the same old Microgranny 2.5. Never had the original so I donāt know what the old shell felt like (it looked like cheaper material but who knows). The Mg2 became discontinued earlier this year which felt like a bummer to me as I always intended to get one.
I like it but itās definitely a one trick pony. The 8 bit sampling sounds really dope though and I like how easier it is to automate everything (Iām setting up a Hapax template but working out some kinks on the Hapax side). Iād say this device is far cooler to sample notes and play them chromatically than it is to try and use it like a drum machine. The granular stuff is definitely cooler on single notes or chord samples than using it on like a vocal or drum loop.
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I was gonna respond to this closer to when you posted it but forgot.
I definitely like the way the 404 MKII sounds but mainly for HiFi stuff. I like the creative effects but I do agree that it does sound āfakeā when it comes to the lofi stuff. The analog inspired distortions are probably the weakest points imo and even the digital lofi effects just sound alright but yeah, nothing like a true sub-16 bit sampler. But given itās price and everything it can do I think itās great value.
MPC I do agree with you on. I think most people find the effects, especially the reverbs, lacking on MPC. But now that they are charging for effects plug-ins I bet thereās gonna be better paid stuff down the road, lol.
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sample some 808/909 hats through the granny for some really really nice hat sounds. i use all these samplers for character. they all do certain things rather well.
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Iād respectfully disagree, I thought the MG was great with drums! 
new enclosure definitely looks better - the old one was laser cut polycarbonate, which is fine, but looks like the pcb material matches up edges a lot more snugly.
I should probably get mine back out really, it definitely has something.
oh, cool, thereās a new preset sample pack too!
i need to leave this thread cause itās convincing me to get a sampletrak
the tracks you and @Sleepyhead shared are really special!
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Itās good for processing drums, sure. But using it as a drum machine feels like itās not utilizing itās super power effectively. Though it is pretty fun to automate all the parameters while a drum pattern is playing, I did that with the Hapax.
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Nah donāt use it as a drum machine. Get your sounds on it and sample them into something else.
Thats how I use the Granny, 202 and Sampletrak. The Sampletrak I may make a beat on though, just for fun because itās that damn good.
Another trick I like is to record a percussion break that I made on a machine like the Bastl Kastle drum or Rytm into the Granny and the modulate paramters like you just mentioned. I then record that into the DAW or wherever for when I need it.
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