Userfriend schreef:
Yoozer schreef:
Userfriend schreef:
And this could be a reason for manufacturers to make hardware samplers again; in these days of remakes of vintage synths, I think it´s just a question of time til we see a 8 or 12 bit hardware sampler with large memory on the market.
It'd be far cheaper to make a box with an abrasive 8/12-bit converter with digital I/O, the rest of the sampler is a bunch of standardized computer parts anyway.
Yes it's cheaper, but I would'nt be surprised anyway. Who believed in the P08 five-ten years ago?
The low bit resolution is just one part of it. A second part is individual real analog filter per voice, a third part would be a far more hands-on/real knobs interface than the old samplers had. Add to this plenty of RAM and HD, 76 note kbd, velocity and AT, and it´s not just a "remake", it´s infact a sampler which has´nt existed before at all! I think that´s hard enough to withstand to build and to use. And there´s one manufacturer today who would be most probable to make one. You know who
Actually I would not agree with the "standardized computer bits" thing - only the much later samplers resembled computers - even the Fairlight's sole - which was based on a 6809 computer running MDOS was down to huge amounts of hybrid circuitry following the computer section. Clearly many have an over simplistic idea of how the 8 and 12bit pro samplers worked. As Userfriend says, low bit DACs are only part of the "sound" of an early sampler. Many earlier samplers used tricks to improve their transposition range such as hardware oversampling with interpolation running, as Userfriend says, into discrete analog resonant filters which often went into self oscillation. In the Sequential Prophet 2000 there are over 100 components AFTER the 12 bit DACs! The analog output stages in the Emulator III are impressive - the thing was a beast.
The main point is that much of the real time dynamics of an old hardware sampler are performed in the analog domain - this is what makes them special - you feed highly harmonically rich sounds (due to aliasing) into super smooth filtered analog output stages. It's basically subtractive synthesis but using a mixture of digital and analog tricks. If you just expose your raw 8 bit DACs directly to the analog outputs you end up with an Amiga 500 - which was impressive in it's day but definitely not a match for an 8 bit pro sampler
This is why no software based sampler will ever quite sound like an Emulator II and having listened to some more demos recently I dearly want one - shame it's so huge though!
The picture is of the Sequential Prophet 2002's input/output pcb. The MC68B09 based computer section is on a separate, equally sized, pcb. The 6809 was a very popular processor in early 80's arcade machines - including the famous machines by Williams such as Defender