I’ve owned a few hardware Samplers. When I was in high school my father bought me a Roland S-50. Later, I had an Akai S950 and further down the road a S3000XL. I’ve always thought sampled sounds cut through a mix in a strong interesting way. The best part of a sampler is that if you actually use it to Sample sounds you have audio that’s unique all to you. Make a song out of your kitchen pots and pans rattling? No problem.

I’m thrilled to see Korg is going to release a new hardware Sampler keyboard. The microSampler is the right size, has some effects, mic input, software control and it can apparently attach to an iPhone. I have no idea if all this will add up to yum but milk, sugar, eggs and chocolate usually equals awesome.

For the first few posts about the microSAMPLER on Matrixsynth: click here

Well here you have a great example of how touch screens are going to transform musician’s tools. Tapestri allows you to sample a sound and when you touch the waveform it plays it from the location you touched it.

“Tapestri version 1.0 is a sound sample-based synthesizer that uses the iPhone / iPod Touch touch screen interface to crisply control the playback of recorded sample material. With this innovative tool, recorded sounds can be quickly transformed into rap or electronic beats, synthy “clouds” of sound textures, or syncopated, improvised drum beats. Sounds are recorded by pushing the red record button to start and stop the recording process. When a sound is recorded, its waveform displays on the screen, and wherever you touch on the wave, the playback will rapidly jump to that location, allowing you to loop and cut up the sounds instantly!” – huffsound.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alm1k2ycLrA

I bought Tapestri and I think it will be a fun way to throw in some quick sounds into my own songs. I like the idea of a few minutes away from the mouse and screen creating a weird unexpected tidbit. Is this the new Casio SK-1?

Available for .99 at: iTunes

There are thousands of ways to mangle audio in weird and wild sound. Here’s a screencast of a trick I sometimes put to work. Here is the end result (4 samples are loaded in this player):

Download audio file (Men_Shall_Seek_Death-1.mp3)
Download audio file (Men_Shall_Seek_Death-2.mp3)
Download audio file (Men_Shall_Seek_Death-3.mp3)
Download audio file (Men_Shall_Seek_Death-4.mp3)

Here is the original sample I used:

Download audio file (16122__Incarnadine__sinister_preacher_reading_revelations.mp3)

The technique uses multiple Ableton Simplers in a Device Group. If your an Ableton wizard you will know this stuff  but if your not a regular user of Simpler and Macros you will learn something.

Sample credit: Incarnadine