In the twenty years since Kraftwerk's early experemintation, digital samplers have come a long way. Today's samplers can reproduce and manipulate sounds in ways never possible before. Samplers changed the face of modern music by opening the door to technology and allowing a stifled industry to reinvent itself. They have essentially no competition. Even machines that could be considered their competition, drum machines, keyboards, turntables, etc., are generally used in conjunction with samplers.
More memory means less sound cards, which are floppy discs containing sounds or music.
Other developments come in the form of streamlining the technology and making it more user friendly. All the major manufactures claim that their product is the most user friendly. One recent development, first made availabe in Yamaha's A3000, is the ability to run completely on batteries, with no external power source. The other major manufacturers were quick to follow suit. In music, particularly in rock and roll, the instruments generally used were guitar , bass , and drums .