Nice to see him playing with samplers. I remember when I was 18 years old and I had the ASR-10. I lost myself for 3 years in my room. I got out and I was 21 already.

Excellent video!!! Tom, i hope i'm allowed to add some extras: 1) actually just two of the samplers in here use variable clock rate (sampler changing the sample rate to play the sample) and those are the Akai S950 and E-MU Emulator II 2) all of the others use realtime resampling, which means they have fixed clock sample rate just like software samplers. However they differ from most software in the way they interpolate the data, They use primitive Linear interpolation, which produces certain artefacts, while most of the software uses far superior interpolation algorhitms nowadays. However some software samplers like Reasampleomatic 4000 let you choose linear interpolation. There are two oddballs in the last group which i have to mention: a) Ensoniq Mirage uses fixed clock rate but uses drop-sample interpolation (31kHz clock) which is super crude. I don't know of any soft sampler which does that but i guess it can be implemented. Yamaha DX-7 (49 kHz clock) uses this interpolation method as well. And so does the Prophet VS (250 kHz clock) and the PPG 2.3 (195 kHz clock). b) Roland S-770. It uses something that resembles Sinc interpolation but with Roland's cooking recipe. No matter what you sample in 770, it sounds super musical, magical and super sexy. Roland are masters of ear candy! Just listen to Super JV, would you believe i tell you it contains 8 bit waveforms, but with a lot of magic behind to unpack them into 16 bit data. Addendum: Actually Akai once made a sampler with Sinc interpolation. In fact it has a separate circuit just for that. It is model S1100. It is Akai's Rolls Royce and comes with incredible FX unit that screams 90's techno! However, Akai figured out this interpolation was way too expensive to put in the follow up models, hence why with S3000 and XL models, they degraded them back to Linear interpolation. Again, there is a way you can implement interpolation, it can look perfect from engineer's POV, but might not sound best in musical sense! So just because software samplers now offer sinc, it doesn't necessary mean it is exact same sinc as Akai engineers designed theirs. Keep in mind this was super expensive back then, one can assume they pulled some trickery behind, which of course results in unique sound. Give S1100 a shot, just for that incredible FX unit. There is so much more to tell... perhaps some other time.

One of the greatest youtube videos EVER!

You're doing such a great job, Tom! Amazing knowledge, you're an excellent teacher and providing a huge wealth of information to the scene! Thanks!

That piano from hell patch on the Yamaha A series sampler was simply mind blowing. Thank you for making these videos as accessible to everyone. Long time sampler fan since 2000.

thank you junkie for showing how you work in your studio.. um the best series so far on youtube. regards

A masterclass! The message is simple; know your gear.

My job once as an Audio Producer for MTV Brazil (early 90's) was basically an Akai S1000 for EVERYTHING, even the voice overs,and I remember loving it's sound. Then when I sampled on software it was never as much fun. Now I got an Emulator 2, the Nalbantov USB thing and it's just addictive

Thanks for doing a hardware sampler series. I'm just "rediscovering" an old ESI sampler I have, and your video is inspirational. Can't wait for part 2!

This could be a TED talk on sampler history, Very informative

Thank you so much Tom, the arpeggios of the emulator brought tears into my eyes. You reminded me of the incredible sound of my own samplers, the newer emulators. I was always missing something from the DAW samplers, now i´ll go and get my machines back to work! Thank you!

Thank you VERY much for sharing this! it's not so usual to have an insight to the sound of this great machines.

This is by far one of the most informative videos I've ever watched. ❤️

Loved this episode so much. Really enjoyed the history of the machines. Best part was when you played the samples on the Yamaha a 4000 and the Mirage. Just beautiful. Thanks so much for this Tom.

This is absolutely priceless. I thank u for how much I learn from you.

been into all this music tech since 83 when i started buying.. seen a lot of studios through the years , and loads on line.. ive never seen anyone have as much stuff as Tom has... he has almost everything !!! amazing.

great video, ive got the s750 ,s330 , and all the akai's. i love these old samplers, I guess i couldn't afford them back in the day

Hi Tom. Thank you for taking the time to go through your sampler collection. I have several samplers and I am considering more. 👍

Thanks for the video, Tom! Wow, that sound at 20:00 is absolutely gorgeous! And the sound right after at 20:30 is also great.

So much equipment. And the most cool, he really dig and mastered all. Amazing.

Bob moog said the following to me at a namm show. "Chris"..in the very near future a little trick called sampling will make it possible to record a sound from any source which means all that expensive gear that you might not be able to afford can be taken on the road or in the studio all inside one simple and elligant box called a workstation. He was doing demos for farlight then and that changed my life and how i do electronic music. Peace christo

this is fascinating! what a beauty comes out off these machines. thank you so much Tom!

This is absolutely brilliant, thank you so much for shedding light on the hardware and techniques, as a new convert to sampling (SP-404 and MPC 1000) I am truly humbled.

The sound of the noisy cable is great, very cool idea!

great vid, was really fun to revisit those old digital classics, what a treat! thanks

Always loved my old Mirage, I had the keyboard version that we built an interface for so it was linked to Amiga A2000 computer systems providing synthesis, sampling and control with the Music-X software running on one of the Amiga computers. It ended up with a VFX SD, Roland D10, TB-303 and various other fun boxes from back in the day. Looking back now it was somewhat over complicated but provided a wonderful blend of hardware and software allowing for multi-track sequencing, incredible sample layering, analog and digital synthesis & FX. After many years away from music I have recently dived back into electronics and started building my own custom analog synths and a hybrid analog/digital synth rack is gradually growing. One thing that has not changed over time is that synths and audio gear always needs way more space than expected. :-) Keep up the good work Sir. !

Glad to see the love for the Ensoniq Mirage. I still have a keyboard version tucked away under my desk.

Hi Tom, I would like to thank you for you all that work and time that you put into these episodes. They are very informative, entertaining and the topics you chose to talk about are super interesting! This episode in particular really helped me out and answered a lot of my questions about hardware samplers. I would love to see the second part of this, where you compare the workflow, the advantages and disadvantages and the sound of working with kontakt and these samplers. Cheers, Arthur

Great Tour! I don't have a Hardware Sampler but i like the TAL-Sampler PlugIn from Togu Audio Line. It's not that complex than Kontakt is but you can just load Samples in it and playing around with the massive filter and modulation stuff!

I would be interested in hearing who the "doctor" you keep referring to is. Where do you send these magnificent machines for repair?

Didnt realize I just watched 30 minutes of old school synths I got an emu e64 ultra, Akai 1000, kurzweil k2500 I find myself still playing these wonderful machines.

Love these videos. How you explain the hardware, demonstrate it and your passion for it :-) Groetjes uit Holland

This is a goldmine of a video right here

Ok!!! Thumbs up! I have K200S, K2500R & K2600S since 1995 (for the 2000). Still use them and still love them! Keep sampling and synthing dude!

I can't live without my S3000XL, the AD/DA converters are very good!

So after coming back a bunch of times to this video to witness the Ensoniq Mirage, I happened to buy one, so thanks Mr XL x)

I'm impressed with your knowledge about all of your equipment thank you

I'm a big fan...this guy is concise, digestible and likeable...great knowledge too.

Excellent video! I learnt a lot about sampling just from this! I have an a5000 I'm trying to get my head around. Now I think I am gassing for a Roland 770 after seeing yours! Terrific work, thanks so much for sharing your studio & knowledge.

Great hardware sampler memories flood back seeing his collection in action.🙂

Inspirational Video. I have a ASR 10 keyboard which I mothballed when I stopped live performance. This has motivated me to plug it back into my set up and play around. Thank you.

Great video! First time i watch your stuff. From now on i will come back to your channel.

Absolutely fantastic. Thanks for sharing this info!

"Yamaha has a tendency to make everything overly complicated." - Junkie XL. Yes! Thank you Tom, I am vindicated! 😄

Tom, this is a brilliant tutorial. Nice one mate! I’ve learnt loads about my studio of various hardware samplers just from 30 mins of your time. And yeah, I just bought an 8 bit Mirage after watching this :)

Tom, het is allemaal heel schandelijk en onzedelijk. Fijn om even een half uurtje bij je te zijn vanuit mijn Friese huiskamer. Wat een feest. En ja, hier heb ik mijn W30 aan de Gotek tegenwoordig. De tijd vliegt, maar mooie samplers blijven mooie samplers. Hartelijke hartelijke groet! Peter Sijbenga,

Aaah. Sampler NIRVANA! The Roland S-50 was my first sampler. I had it, a Roland R-8, a Technics 1200MKII turntable and an Alesis MMT-8 hardware sequencer. I miss that setup. The video out was so cool! And when I discovered subtones? WHOOO!

Fantastic ! Tom, you're our hero !!

I have no experience with hardware samplers, but I am blown away by the quality. How does it do that!? Wow!

Dear Tom! I think humanity need some time to understand what You have done! So much information, so much experience goes with Your words. And You share it for free! All that videos... That's the spirit! Believe in humanity just got restored again! Thank You....

Excellent video! Mind numbing collection. SMH.. Just incredible!

Now i am happy, that i kept my E-MU ESI 32 Sampler. You made me start experimenting again.

Thanks, awesome episode! The mirage and the emulator II omg..

How on earth haven't I found this channel sooner. Awesome stuff.

The patch of emu I remember my hammon and reclick second sound repitins in lesli but in your studio , great thanks

I'm having the best breakfast with this.

What drew me to the K-200RS is that you can run any sample through the VAST synth engine. It also had unheard of features like replicate, Mix beat, mix echo and the automatic ability to sample itself that pt it head and shoulders above anything that Akai had at the time. It's a beast to reckoned with even today - for those willing to look under the hood.

Thanks again for another great video, Junkie! I look forward to your video where you will compare Kontakt to some of your older hardware samplers. I've been waiting for someone to do that. I was born in 1969, so I used and paid a lot of money "back in the day" for many of the equipment that you've showcased in your videos. I love modern technology, but I sure do miss the sound of many of the older gear that I used to own. Keep up the great work, and if you are ever in the Boise, Idaho area, please feel free to contact me, as I'd love to show you around my beautiful city. :)

Awesome video!. Very clear concepts, very instructive. Many thanks!.

Those sounds omg!!...just can dream of having these great samplers

I sold my S950 last year, that whas a very good toy that i used for many years. Tom,. dank je voor al deze video's, het is echt een pracht om naar te kijken.

Hi Tom, loving your videos. I wonder if one day you may take us through some of your outboard effects. In particular Eventide racks :)

Nice vid! You’ve got all the toys man! I made some of my early tracks using the Mirage keyboard of a friend. Then he got an EPS keyboard that I also used. I eventually got an Akai S01 new, a used S900 and a MPC3000 which became the brain of my setup. I actually loved the Mirage and didn’t think the operating system was difficult. Of course at that time, I had nothing to compare it too.

Wow! That was a great episode! Million thanks for that tour of your wonderful wizard's world.... ;-)

Excellent, really enjoyed that. Gave me some reassurance that I'm not the only old school sample nerd out there. You can keep all the modern convenience. Not even relevant. It's the sound that matters. Maybe I'm just old!

Awesome. I would love to see a demo on how you make a nice sample, from start to finish, with the filters and such.

Very informative, well presented. Learned alot. I also sample everything into an ASR-10 or ASR-X, it really adds to the sound. Having great effects surely also helps!

I recently sold all my equipment to go with the “all in the box” approach. NI machine, a macbook and every sound from VSTi's. To be compact and quick in producing. But now you made me want to buy samplers and sound modules again! :-)

Thanks for a great series, Tom. S950 was my first sampler, still have it! My workhorse was S3000XL, used them live until 2008 - same OS as 3200XL and just wonderful. A friend helped me modify them to load from CompactFlash cards sitting in a module replacing the floppydrive - the card comes up in the OS as an internal HD - technically connected via an SCSI-IDE conversion chipset :-)

Amazing, thank you Tom!

I would totally love to see you in this studio with a MPC One and giving some in depths about everything you think about its sound!

Bringing back memories. I had an S550 when it came out.

Basically soundwise the shortcomings of the hardware became the go to character and sound. The Fairlight is in particular very recognizable.

You have the most envious studio setup!!! 😱 I'm surprised you don't have a couple of S-760s too though, better OS and editing, but still no effects. Anyway, I'm drooling here... 💖😜

Living Legend, Salute! Great Video!

Superb Overview.

LOVE these videos!!! MORE PLEASE!!!

I love this channel. im new to Tom's work

Tom, I'm learning so much from these videos, and how much gear i want to buy lol. can you please show soon how you work with samples made on analog gear, and use them in kontakt! thanks again

Liked your video, you are so right about Yamaha over complicating. I had a chance to get one of their digital mixer and chose Tascam instead even though the Yamaha had more features there was a higher learning curve involved.

Awesome content Tom!

Yes!!! The ASR10 is still fantastic! I have the keyboard version with patch select buttons and polyphonic aftertouch. The sound is to die for! I also had a Mirage but at the time it was in this "almost new" valley were great gear seems to suck even if they don't so I kind of just disowned it haha! shame really, now! There were some sounds worth saving for now ... oh, well. eBay? :D

Ensoniq Mirage ...My first sampler. Love that old beast ;) (Like the EII, the Mirage has an Analog Filter as well ...Curtis chip) Thanks for sharing! .

Opened my ears that. Thank you

This is so Dope ! Thank you !!!

Mind Blown. Thank You!

Great job!

I totally agree about the mirage and with an sd card reader its a killer sampler!

As an avowed solder-fume junkie, I'd personally love to see some repair videos, Tom!

Very interesting workflow

Great video as usual!!

Boy oh boy do i remember having to struggle with that TX16W operating sys. for a lot of the early 90s :( Great sounding sampler but it took forever to get anything done on it with the yamaha OS. There was a third party operating system developed for it called "Typhoon" that we eventually moved to around 95 or 96 and that made all the difference.

I can watch these videos forever

24:05 - 25:40 So great, really cool soundtrack pad sounds!!

And for a short while I had a fully expanded s6000 akai which was great to work with ,I think it had 128 MB of ram via a memory stick ,I was using that in the studio for lots of stuff ,even before there was software that can play audio ,I was using cakewalk midi software to lock it via timecode from the 24 track studer,cakewalk was sending midi to things like effects units,and changing patches,automating delays ,,,cool stuff at that time

CoOl stuff. Love it. Thanks

Hey Tom, Thanks so much for doing these videos, much respect for your knowledge and experience. Looking forward to the hardware vs software sampler comparison as well. I would also like to hear how you catalog your sounds from the hardware synths and samplers.

Excellent video.. Thanks! :)

I really enjoy your videos.

This is like my new favourite TV show.