I’d be interested to know the exceptions …
Ensonic already built the perfect sampler, the Mirage…purrrrfect…im an idiot for letting that go…
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Mines due in this next batch. Cant wait.
Dont really need a really powerful computer, just a cluster of smaller ones. Usually cheaper that way too. Take a looks at peoples cluster/server farms for VSE.
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Modern day ASR10 remake could be perfect, with modern interface and storage.
I guess Ableton Push standalone could be perfect.
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Didn’t read all the above Post, so excuse me if I repeat someone.
I don’t even want a “perfect” sampler.
I like to have limitations, I get quicker results that way. The only real limitation is your creativity IMO
I feel confident I’d design the best sampler ever made if someone gave me the opportunity much like directors once gave the opportunity for Matthew McConaughey to take his shirt off.
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Does that Isla box stream both when you record and play back? I hear it doesn’t but I could be wrong. I’m taking notes either way 
I probably should have phrased that as “you need a lot of computing power”, which is why dedicated hardware samplers can’t compete.
I’m running a 2019 iMac Pro and still have to freeze tracks when I’m running quite a few virtual instruments and high-end effects. Pretty cool stuff though, like the scripting that has been done in StraightAhead Samples’ Tenor Colossus and Birth of the Trumpet.
In way, this is my dream with samples. Being able to create stuff like I’ve heard on old records with no worries about sample clearance. Horns have been very hard to get right, but it’s getting close.
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I remember a time, where I would read that and think, that it would mean a better Sp1200.
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TBF, the S2400 does look pretty good and has the best of both hi and lo res worlds with two different sampling modes. Plus way more memory and all that compared to the OG.
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I’m sure you’re right, and it wasn’t about the S2400 specifically. More a reflection of the bizarre realisation, that the (arguably) best versions of most music tech, was built long ago.
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Another funny thing about the Octatrack and looking back into the history of sampling.
From the beginning of the ’90 hardware samplers where moving to direct to disk recording techniques. Somehow this reminds me also later on with the Akai Digital DR4/8/16 harddisk recorders. From this principle I wonder whether we should see the Octatrack as a sampler at all? On the introduction it was sometimes suggested that the Octatrack was a hardware equivalent of Ableton Live.
Maybe it’s interesting to build a hardware sampler foundation until the time they started with direct to disk recording and rethink about hardware sampling potential without the ‘audio track’ approach but instead the use of a sample like a ‘X’ number of osculators, which works in relation to the polyphony.
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If you mean is it a live looper yes it is.
for my taste, E-Mu Ultra series was about perfect.
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Can Octatrack simply play samples faster (in other words, can playback rate be greater than one)?
Not pitch shift, just basic resample with faster speed? This design decision still puzzles me
…i can’t join the choir here…
mpc’s got pretty close to “perfect sampler”…and when jjos came around, all what was missing was any ot can add to the ball park…
therefor i can state…actually i do HAVE two perfect sampler instruemnts IN USE…
a mpc 2500 with jjos working hand in hand with a ot mk2…plus a heat attached…
and a mpc 1000 with jjos working hand in hand with a ot mk1…plus a oto bisquit attached…
and there is still THE app of all…samplr…and bitwigs sampler is beyond it all anyways…
sorry…what was the sonic wet dream question again…?
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are we no longer complaining about the OT’s sound quality? In that case, I recommend to that the mods close this thread. Thanks @craig, it was a good attempt at getting the only truly relevant discussion going again 
EDIT: give me an OT with more memory for flex machines and better FX + maybe a little more processing power to run delay and reverb on a single track – and maybe extend the functionality of the pickup machine into a proper looper (undo last overdub, sync loops when in slave mode etc) and boom that’s the perfect sampler right there for me…ok and maybe 4-6 note polyphony and a decent timestretch algorithm… 
until that day, the OT is damn near perfect for me.
EDIT2: Someone made a valid point earlier in this discussion, which is a sampler ≠ sampler…are we talking groovebox, sample mangler, rompler, granular synthesizer, etc? Like @DimensionsTomorrow said, I think there will be no hardware device that can beat software once all of these are combined, because the UI of such a sampler would most likely have to concede immediacy to make it possible. So in my mind, I treat the category “sampler” as a meta-category (like “string instruments”), with the above listed specifications as sub-categories.
As I am into samplers as realtime performance tools (i.e sample manglers = my fav category), the OT is almost perfect to me, minus the limitations I point out above – which are fine though, considering how long this machine has been around.
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aren’t the load times KILLING you on these? I sold my MPC1000 with JJOSXL because browsing and loading samples was SUCH a pain, be that via HDD or CF card.
People will complain about any sampler no matter how great it is. Nothing is for everyone. Unless…
-knob per function yet it’s the size of a credit card, but not crowded
-feature set so advanced Michio Kaku had to be hired as a consultant yet as easy to use as a minimoog
-streams sample library directly from its own dedicated server farm
-nuclear powered battery
-telepathic sequencer
-wirelessly eurorack compatible
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