X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4beta PL13]
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 2993
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.emusic-l
Date:         Fri, 9 Oct 1992 12:19:28 -0400
From:         "(Joseph D. McMahon)" <xrjdm@CALVIN.GSFC.NASA.GOV>
Subject:      Re: synth vs. sampler
Comments: To: EMUSIC-L@american.edu
              Oct 9, 92 09:33:58 am

Dana Nibby writes:
>
> I know from sampling that as you play a sample higher than it's recorded
> pitch/rate, it sounds like a sped-up tape or record... the same goes with
> playing a note lower. The only reason I'm considering buying a synth vs.
> a sampler (I would definately prefer having sampling capabilities) is that
> with a synth, you can play notes all over the scale without this speeding
> up and slowing down of sound. How does the EPS or EPS 16+ work? When you
> buy a disk with samplers, is there just one sample or are there 4-5 so
> you don't get as much speed change?
ANY sample-playing machine (including the VFX family) will suffer from
the munchkinization effect when sample playback is sped up. Analog
machines will not, since they are actually synthesizing the sound, rather
than playing a single sound a different speeds. There are ways of resynth-
esizing samples so that they are pitch-shifted with the proper relative
overtone series, but I know of no (affordable) machine that does it in real
time.

> I don't have the money to buy new modules, other synths, etc. to get more
> sounds. The keyboard I buy has to be versatile. Synths just aren't as far
> as I can tell. The sounds you have stock, plus doing some mods with
> parameters.. that's all you have.
The key here is the distancing tools that the machine has. The VFX family
has quite a number of modulators and can be very good at synthesis despite
its being a sample player instead of a "pure synthesis" box.

> With a sampler, I can get all kinds
> of disks of old analog synths. Granted, it's not the same as owning the
> original synths, but since I'm not too familiar w/the originals, I won't
> be too picky about that. (i.e. well, the sample just isn't *fat* enough,
> etc.)
I will note, and Metlay and Eirikur will confirm, that the VFX fooled
Eirikur into thinking that it was the Xpander. It can be *very* fat.

>   Please help! Should I buy an EPS/EPS 16+ or a VFX-SD? Main question is
> can I get the sampler to sound like a synth, using maybe 4 samples to span
> the keyboard.
The answer depends solely on the amount of memory you have and the amount
of time and patience you have to put in to sampling your sources. Most
sample disks you get are not extensively multisampled; you'll have to
do that yourself.

It's the paradigmatic synthesis tradeoff: Convenience and control of your
sound are almost always inversely proportional. The VFX family is a notable
exception, in that there is an unusually large amount of control provided
in a convenient package. Same argument goes for the K2000 (but it has no
24-track scratchpad sequencer).

Perhaps (I've forgotten, are you a Mac user, Dana)? You might want to
consider a sampler plus Turbosynth (sort of a software modular synth).
This conbination allows you to "synthesize" sample files and then down-
load them to your synth.

What is your target music, so to speak? This might help better define
what tools you need.

 --- Joe M.