Help me find a sampling synthesizer, please!

I'm a guitarist looking to add a sampler that can be played

harmonically (chromatically?) using a keyboard (I have a MIDI

keyboard controller but I wouldn't mind the device having its own)

and can be fed custom samples from my PC. This is mandatory,

all other features are negotiable.

Does something like this exist? Korg Microsampler kind of fits the bill

and Nord Wave would be amazing but it's too expensive.

I don't think I could go higher than $700-800. Obviously, I'm a huge noob

so simplicity is also a big plus.

Thanks a bunch!

I actually picked up a Microsampler used a couple of weeks ago - I too was just after a straightforward way to trigger a sample or two via MIDI and didn't want to get buried in the technical details since it'd be for occasional use.

My thoughts on it - like some other stuff in the Korg Kaoss family, it's a bit different to operate than other keyboards - not worse, just different. Korg has seemed to conceptualize the production process a bit differently and tried to streamline it in the Kaoss family.

If your primary intention is to edit your samples on a PC and import them in the librarian, than I don't see any issues with that. You say you want to be able to play chromatically - so meaning individual notes? It will do this.

There are two basic sample playback modes - sample mode and keyboard mode. Each mode can only receive on 1 MIDI channel, but that may not the limitation it sounds like for your application.

In sample mode, each of the 36 keys is mapped to an individual sample. So you could have a kick drum on C4, snare on D4, etc. These are all saved into a bank. And for this mode, the global MIDI Rx channel is set. Also, the base pitch can be edited on any of the individual samples.

Switch to keyboard mode, and any of those individual samples can now be selected one at a time and played across the entire keyboard chromatically. This mode also has a separate receive channel #, I just had both it and the global channel set to the same, and it was firing both modes at the same time. So it would follow that you could be sending it one MIDI channel for a played part, and send it another to fire the individual samples.

One thing I like, most functions are available by holding the edit button and pressing a key, so not a lot of menu digging. Quick and easy to get something going.

On the downside the rotary dials are super sensitive and lack detents - you need a fine touch. Built in sample editing is fairly basic, but still capable.

And of course, if you're new to sampling, all the other things apply - a sample at one pitch may sound horrible one octave higher, tight loops can be sensitive to where you set the start and end points, etc. Not limitations of the Microsampler, but just things that can be challenging with sampling in general.

I'd say that if you have a good .WAV editor on your PC, and do your fine tuning there, then import to the Microsampler it should work for you.

All that said, I think the $499 price new on those is a bit steep - I got mine for $350 and that feels about right for what you get.

Thanks for the detailed response about the Microsampler.

It helps a lot to hear actual experience & advice. Yep, editing

.wav's mainly on the PC is what I'm planning although I feel

I'd end up using the mic quite a bit.

I'm seriously warming up to it. Can you (or anyone else)

comment on the pitching abilities of other devices in the similar

price range (roland 404 or akai mpc 500 using a MIDI keyboard?) ?

...as for the price, suffice to say that in this nuclear wasteland

where I live, merely seeing the item on a store's shelf is already

the greatest deal imaginable (and it does end up costing about

2 euros less than I'd spend ordering it from abroad and paying

for the postage and our own exorbitant taxes)...So it's all good.

Limitations of the Korg Microsampler:

- When you go to keyboard mode the samples don't keep their length as they go up in pitch ala Roland's variphrase technology on the V-Synth. Most DAW's have that ability to one degree or another, so you'll have to edit within another environment and then drag them back to the Microsampler.

- Effects pretty much effect everything and their's only two of them at a time.

- Obviously the keybed isn't too great, but I think it's passable for this particular application.

Other than these details it's actually a pretty good deal. I am in the same boat, looking for a keyboard sampler that I can play samples with live. At first I thought something like the Microsampler would suffice but then I realized I'm looking for a sample synth for sound design purposes. I'm pretty much between a Nord Wave, Korg Kronos, and just saying {censored} it and buying a Macbook.

Anyway, good luck on your search man.