Re: Sampler as Looper

[The Man Himself <altruist@shoko.CALARTS.EDU>]

On Thu, 30 Jan 1997, A.S.P. wrote:

> One question I have is: Are there any samplers that will work as real 
>time
> loopers?  To me it seems to be a perfect approach - you've got stereo
> analog to digital conversion, you've got expandable RAM, storage, 
>multiple
> outs, plus you can use standard MIDI events to trigger/sequence stuff.  
> 
> There were some updates to the later Ensoniq samplers that gave you new
> effects - wouldn't it be possible to turn an ASR10 into a real time
> looper?

The main problem with using a standard sampler as a real-time looper is
that most of the processes require a certain amount of crunch time -- in
other words, there'll be a bit of a delay between the time that you ask a
sampler to start playback, reverse the envelope, loop, etc. etc. and the
time that the process actually gets carried out.  Units like the JamMan
and Echoplex are much more limited in terms of what they can do with
regards to editing their loops, but what functions they *do* have are
essentially instantaneous.  Playback begins as soon as you stop recording,
reversal occurs immediately, etc. etc.  For real-time performance, I'd
think that a studio-type sampler would be a wee bit sluggish. 

--Andre