Sampler (musical instrument)

What Is a Sampler?

A sampler is an electronic or digital musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer. However, instead of generating new sounds with Voltage-controlled oscillators, it uses recordings (or "samples") of real or artificial instrument sounds. Though digital sampling has existed since the 1960s, Harry Mendell's Computer Music Melodian and Fairlight's CMI (Computer Musical Instrument) were the first commercially available models. It might seem primitive by today's standards. However, it was a revolutionary machine that offered sampling at 24 kHz and edited waveforms with it. What's more, it was expensive (around 18,000 $ which is 58,000 $ in today's money). So, it was available only to established artists and early adopters like Peter Gabriel, Thomas Dolby, and Kate Bush.

Tape Replay Keyboards

Before computer memory-based samplers, musicians used tape replay keyboards, which store recordings on analog tape. After pressing a key, the tape head contacts the moving tape and plays a sound. The Mellotron was the most notable model. Many groups used it in the late 1960s and the 1970s, but such systems were expensive and heavy due to the multiple tape mechanisms involved. Additionally, the range of the instrument was limited to three octaves at the most. Moreover, musicians had to install a new set of tapes to change sounds. The emergence of the digital sampler made sampling far more practical.

The Emergence of Cheap Samplers

Thanks to the decreasing manufacturing costs of digital technology, the first relatively cheap samplers began to appear in the mid-to-late '80s. Classic hardware like the E-MU SP-1200 and Akai S950 made sampling available to studios that didn't have astronomical budgets, and hip-hop was the first genre to explore the sampler's ability to recycle musical ideas and put them into entirely new contexts. Hip-hop had been founded on the instrumental breaks of Funk and Rock tracks since the '70s, and pre-sampling records like The Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight and West Street Mob's Break Dance utilized session musicians replaying famous grooves or turntablists cutting up breaks. Now, producers can sample their favorite parts of songs and cut them up in exciting new ways.

Controlling a Sampler

Usually, you can control a sampler with an attached music keyboard or other external MIDI controller or source. Each note message received by the sampler accesses a particular sample. Often, multiple samples are arranged across the keyboard, each assigned to a note or group of notes. Keyboard tracking allows samples to be shifted in pitch by an appropriate amount, typically in semitones and tones. Each group of notes to which a single sample has been assigned is often called a "keyzone," and the resultant set of zones is called a keymap.

How Does a Sampler Work?

Many samplers work as described above: the key mapping system "spreads out" a sample over a specific range of keys. This has side effects that may be desirable in some contexts, such as speeding up or slowing down drum loops. However, such a keymap's higher and lower-pitched parts may sound unnatural. For example, if a harpsichord is sampled in its lower register and the samples are moved up to very high pitches, the high notes may not sound natural and authentic. When arranging a pitched instrument over several keymaps, the transition from one to another may be too noticeable for a realistic imitation of the instrument – the art is to make transitions as smooth as possible.

Phase Samplers

Some phrase samplers are more optimized for triggering single "one-shot" sounds, such as drum hits. Each keymap spans only a single key, requiring many zones (61 on a five-octave keyboard), each with its settings. "Phrase sampling" aims to simplify this, particularly on interfaces such as the 16 pads on the Akai MPC series: the fact that each pad is a note is hidden from the user. The sampling engine does not re-pitch samples; it only plays them back. The user interface is simplified. Phrase samplers often have a groove box format, which makes them lightweight, easy to operate, and light to carry.

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• Sampler (Musical Instrument)