Best Sampler for recording and live?

[mingo]

Do you guys have any recommendations for samplers for recording and playing in a live setting? Looking to make folk-pop based music with electronic twist.

Thanks!

[LSchefman]

Have you tried Ableton Live? It's quite interesting.

[g-nem]

If you want to use a computer, ableton live is the easiest and maybe best way to go.

If you want a standalone sampler, the boss sp-303 is supposed to be pretty good.

What are you looking for in a sampler? Are you planning on using it to play drum loops for a whole song, to sequence chord progressions, to do one shot samples, what? Different samplers will give you different things.

[mingo]

thanks for your replies...i'll look into those products.

i want to sample some drum stuff, and maybe do chord progressions.

anything i would have on an album that i can't do live. just to make it sound as close as possible

but i'm interetsed in learning more about doing that sutff to put on an album. does anyone have any advice on how to start learning about them and using them?

[flicker180]

the Native Instruments stuff is VERY good. I've got the complete "set" including Kontakt, Kompakt, Battery, et. al and while they've got a learning curve, they are VERY powerful.

dave

[g-nem]

It sounds like you're looking to be able to play backing tracks for songs live, as wel as do some loop based recording. In that case using ableton and a laptop will probably be your best bet. If you haven't ever used a sampler the native instrument stuff might have too much of qa learning curve for you.

[mingo]

sounds good, thanks for the reply... i'm watching some demo videos for abelton live. looks cool.

any other recomendations that would be cheaper than buying a laptop and the software??

would the boss be good?? does it have stock samples in it already?? is is very versitile? and also easy to use?

[jokerjkny]

MPC's are your friend.

and i have yet to see a DJ use abe over a good used MPC.

[g-nem]

Excellent suggestion- MPC's are defintely a good way to go- but I have a feeling that Mingo might be more comfortable using ableton's interface. But he should check out an mpc.

[g-nem]

Originally posted by mingo
sounds good, thanks for the reply... i'm watching some demo videos for abelton live. looks cool.

any other recomendations that would be cheaper than buying a laptop and the software??

would the boss be good?? does it have stock samples in it already?? is is very versitile? and also easy to use?

The sp303 is pretty basic- it does come with samples, and you can sequence them together, but to perfrom music that has a lot of different sections or changes you'd be better off with a more pwerful sampler. The sp303 is great as a simple sampler to trigger sampler or do simple loops.

Not that I've ever used one, but that's what I'm told;-)

[mingo]

is this what you are talking about when you say mpc??

an Akai MPC ?

[g-nem]

Yeah- still not a cheap option, but cheaper than a laptop and more gigable, probably.