Surprised I don’t see any posts here on the 4ms sampler or other Eurorack sampler/fx rigs.
Been eyeing a morphagene, 4ms stereo triggered sampler, and even the 1010 bitbox.
Seems like you’d have a lot more flexibility with Eurorack as opposed to hardware samplers when it comes to routing, modulation and effects.
The 4ms can handle hour long samples. Which I haven’t seen a sampler capable of yet. Not that I need that but it opens a lot of doors not having limitations on sample length especially in a live set.
I jammed on a Eurorack for the first time today and it’s crazy how intuitive it is. I feel like a lot of it relies on randomization which I like but wouldn’t want to be stuck with that as my only option of sequencing. I need to look into more sequencers but idk, feel like I could sell a lot of stuff and replace it with modules have something more contained and seemingly more inspiring.
But yeah anyone out there with any sampler based rigs, or considering it?
I have a Euro system but not interested in a Euro sampler personally.
I keep the sampling and sample manipulation within my DAW and plugins.
Euro samplers though generally hands on and intuitive, I have found just don’t have the macro control necessary that only top hardware samplers and software samplers can provide, that I personally want. This can be a positive though as they are generally easy to learn, sound great and tons of fun to use.
The euro sampler closest with functionality that i would want is the ER-301 by Orthogonal Devices. It is really powerful but because of this not so sure on how intuitive it is. Kind of defeating the purpose of Euro I guess. Although expensive their modules are some of the most well built in the game.
All modules have pros and cons so it takes a fair bit of research to find the right ones for the job
I first started my modular rig with the idea of doing live sampling with the sampleslicer, but quickly hated its lo-fi character. Then I gave up with modular samplers.
The up coming Rossum assimil8or module looks to be extremely powerful. It will be easier to get hold of over the er-301 which are made to order.
I have a Rossum control forge and it is a beast, although you do need to spend a bit of time programming in what you want. I find with euro I prefer modules with no screen, no sub menus, it makes things faster to get what you want over programming on a tiny screen for ages.
Saying that I absolutely love my DT and DN combo which relies on its screens. Since I got them I haven’t touched my modular.
It seems like there’s been a void in the euro sampler format. And now a bunch of companies are starting to make them. And very powerful ones at that.
I want to attach a link to the 4ms
I don’t work for perfect circuit or anything just my favorite local shop.
Yea I like the idea of not having a screen as well. Something where I can record loop and edit parameters very quickly and intuitively. I think I’m sold on it. Planning on putting up my Virus for sale and buying a case and morphagene once I get rid of it. And then either scramble up the extra 500 or sell the octatrack for the 4ms one. Such a tough decision
The octatrack has easily been my favorite piece of hardware. But I’m not really a fan of the sample limit time. I know I can just import the samples but I like to record all my samples in real time.
Makes me wish I was into modular. This is like a modular version of the mlrv app for monome grids. I want hardware version of that and this is it… plus some!
that whole “modular is so expensive” thing is 99% because of its addictiveness…
once you buy a semi-decent case and PSU, it is no longer really much more expensive than buying “normal” gear…
i.e. this:
Rossum Assimil8or retails for 800-900€ new.
add to this any sequencer (you might already have) or something like the BeatstepPro mentioned… plus a case and PSU… and you´ll end up with something priced similar to a new Octatrack mk2.
Will it do the same stuff?
No.
Might do more, might do less - depends on your use-case and how creative you can get, really.
Anyhow, I do recommend that you should NOT get into modular just because you see a new toy and you think “I must have that”… trust me, it´s a DEEP rabbit-hole to just dive down into…
QUESTION:
is there a euro sampler that pitch shifts without stretching? or I guess “transpose”.
and or can stretch without pitching? [which hardware stamps do that, for that matter]
I believe the Bitbox series has two options:
Clips can time stretch (change bpm) without changing pitch. You can’t use pitch notes to this as far as I know - it’s only for bpm changes I think.
If you use the other sample machine/option then I’m not sure, it might play samples faster/slower to pitch them.
If you mean affect pitch and time separately, I know 1010 Music Bitbox (all versions), and Qu-bit Nebulae 2 can. ADDAC 112 also have various methods for pitching, timestretch being one of them, but it’s more of a looper/granular than a sampler.
I think the default is going to be “pitch shifts without stretching”, so you’re pretty much covered with whatever you get there. The Morphagene can do both, but is a bit fiddily to use like a traditional sampler - a small breeze will affect the pitch, 1V/Oct tracking is a pain in the ass to set up and you’re not getting a lot of bang for your buck from a sampler perspective since it’s basically one channel w/ zones in sampler lingo. Insanely good sound quality + controls for manipulating that channel though.
Stretch without pitching is possible on anything with a modulatable loop window/start point if you feed it a clocked ramp wave (this is basically what the Morphagene is doing behind the scenes to its Slide control when it’s in time stretch mode, and you’ll be able to pull this trick really nicely with a lot of granular modules). I’ve had some success doing this on the Assimil8or, both in one shot + loop mode and with audio rate (or at least decently fast) triggers where the channel is set to gated triggering and the start point is being modulated. A module which gives you an envelope for the loop window will help this sound better (eg. one designed for granular synthesis, which makes sense since pretty much all high quality time stretching is doing a granular synthesis thing to the audio).
