SAMPLERS

The Mellotron device was rather complicated. It was, in fact, several independent tape recorders, the number of which was equal to the number of keys. Pressing each key played the sound that was recorded on the tape recorder corresponding to that key. This instrument could sound like a flute, like a string orchestra, like an organ, like a drum kit. Mellotrons were very popular in rock music, their sound can be heard on the recordings of such legends as The Beatles (in the song Strawberry Fields Forever we can play it playing the sound of a flute), and in King Krimson and Led Zeppelin mellotrons often replaced the string orchestra.

However, the mechanical structure, the tape drive mechanism (which needed cleaning the rollers and recording and erasing magnetic heads, maintenance of the springs), wear and tear of the magnetic tape, all this contributed, on the one hand, to the rapid deterioration of these tools, and on the other hand, regular maintenance and repairs and components cost a lot of money.

Therefore, the MUSYS digital samplers, developed in London by EMS in 1969, gradually replaced the mellotron, in which the sound was no longer recorded on a magnetic medium, but on a computer hard disk. However, MUSYS had a rather small memory size - only 32 KB.

In 1976, Computer Music Inc. developed the Melodian tool based on the PDP-8 Digital Equipment Corporation computer. Melodian was first used by Stevie Wonder on his Stevie Wonder's Journey Through album "The Secret Life of Plants".

It was only in 1979 that the first industrial commercial digital device was released. It happened in Australia. Its price was very high, Fairlight cost 20 thousand dollars. A more affordable instrument, the E-mu Emulator, was released just two years later in America and quickly became popular with musicians. And in the 80s, the Synclavier instruments of the English company New England Digital were extremely popular.

Samplers have changed the way music sounds since the 70s. It was possible not only to play ready-made instruments, but also to create their own, unique sounds. The Kraftwerk group was one of the first to use the sampler as an independent instrument, sampling voices and making rhythmic textures from them (Boing Boom Tschak from the 1986 Electric Café album and 1983 Tour De France.

You can buy a sampler in our Colorsound store. Modern devices in this category bear little resemblance to their first examples. Instruments can contain drum patterns, bass sounds, chord progressions, recorded instrument loops. Many manufacturers such as Korg, Akai complete them with a built-in sequencer. Packed with compression, reverb, delay effects, these instruments can not only complement musicians' live sets, but also be a ready-made solution for performances. They can also be controlled by external MIDI keyboards or controllers, or directly from your software sequencer. One of the varieties is the phrase sampler, designed to play ready-made phrases using velocity-sensitive pads. These simplified instruments, which do not require a keyboard, are produced in the so-called "groovebox" format and are one of the most popular due to their small size and rich features. The most popular models of this format are produced by the Korg company.

Nowadays, you can buy a variety of samplers and their use is limited only by your imagination. First, we need to decide on the budget, size and select the necessary parameters.

Modern samplers differ in several ways:

Genderandphony : How many simultaneous voices (or notes) are played

Sample Memory : How much memory is available for loading samples

Channels : How many available MIDI channels for instruments

Bit depth : What is the supported resolution for recording and playing samples

Outputs : How many available analog audio outputs are there

Popular companies producing this equipment are Korg, Akai, Roland. Our store offers a wide range of devices of different classes, purposes and budgets. Having picked up what you need, you can make an order by phone or directly on the website, and we guarantee quality, timely delivery by courier to your address in Kiev or one of the carriers in Ukraine.