Fastest sampler—in either hardware or software?

Right now I have an iPad hooked up to my Push with a USB-C → ADAT dongle, which lets me send audio in and out of Koala (on the iPad) from Live.

Works nicely, especially with my default Live template set to have a return track sending to the ADAT.

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Out of all samplers Chompi is the fastest i used so far. But you can’t edit a lot like on more advanced samplers.

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Hm since you are using ipad, check Samplr app. It can also record output, and it’s fun to play with it

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If you’re using Live already, I would look into the Looper effect. You can set the Song Control and Tempo Control to “None” so that it’s completely disconnected from your transport, and you can drag-and-drop recorded audio into a clip or sampler.

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Which dongle do you use? Have a link to it?

404
Skipback is wonderful, if you missed something great from your own playing, tv, youtube etc
But if know you want to sample a sound, set up the 404 to trigger on level-trim what you do not need, normalise-allocate to a pad.
Pad ready to go!

I have a MPC live 2 and it can do everything with a sample you probably can think of. But when I got the 404, I realise everything took a step or 2 more on the MPC-to give you more options, yes-but it was so damn quick, simple and easy on the 404.

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Renoise has a good sample recorder built in. Can also bake effects into your samples if needed while recording. I have Redux by Renoise, but never tried recording into it directly inside another host.

Edit: relevant manual page

https://tutorials.renoise.com/wiki/Sampler_Waveform#Recording_New_Samples

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The Octatrack can do immediate one-button sampling from three sources, two external (4x mono or 2x stereo) and and internal (main mix, cue mix, specific tracks). You can do that either on the device when you have a track selected (also plays free tracks can be used to do that for all tracks in a more limited way if you set it up right), or you can use an external MIDI controller’s buttons to trigger track recorders. I have a foot controller with a bunch of switches that works great for that.

You do need to remember to save samples after you’ve recorded them if you want to keep them after you’ve switched the OT off, but that’s really pretty fast to do. Editing is quick in my experience too.

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Op1/F and/or OP-XY are damn near immediate and more portable than 404 which is also good for the job (and a lot cheaper)

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I’ve just started to record stems using the Overbridge standalone app. It’s ridiculously easy and straight forward to setup if you’re using an Elektron device.

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That’s a really good idea. And it’ll work on the Push too.

This one:

https://www.minidsp.com/products/usb-audio-interface/mchstreamer

I’ve had the Octatrack twice, and one of the reasons I don’t still have one is that I would always record over my own samples. User error, but I just kept doing it :frowning:

The XY is pretty good for this, but if you’re in a sample-based track, it overwrites the sample you’re using. I could keep track 8 free for that kind of thing though…

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Hm, check mollilooper
https://mollilabs.com/
Desktop and ios version available

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Loopy Pro will also be good once it comes out on the Mac (the beta already works there). It has retrospective recording that is also quantized.

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TP-7. One button (memo) recording.

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Catch is an interesting device for immediacy. CATCH — Novel Music — Max for Live Devices

I don’t think anything is as fast as Koala though. Koala pushed me into buying an iPad. It’s genuinely that good.

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It would be nice if there were a small and minimalist hardware sampler specifically for recording one shots of any length.

I would envision a device which can take standard TRS audio or USB audio, with a competent gate / threshold type recorder start function and which ends either when the audio stops (automatically trims the end with the option to adjust the end point) and which has a recording buffer so in the event that you don’t want arbitrary length sample capture, the total length can be set up ahead of time or after the fact by bpm and phrase length.

It would be nice if it included the interface to slice or adjust the precise start / end point, but that it’s not a requirement to do so.

Maybe it’s just a pipe dream to think people could use something like this, but feels like a gaping hole exists for something very simple and portable which is intelligent about the way it captures audio and only does as much as you need it to.

I’d be interested because for one, I don’t use apps and don’t really have any interest in using my phone any more than I have to.

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A Raspberry Pi with a PiSound or similar audio/MIDI interface + some custom software that does that might be ideal. It would take some work and back and forth but even a programming novice could get something like that going relatively easily with the help of Claude/ChatGPT etc. If you really want something like that then I recommend going down that route.

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I’d rather pay $100 for it pre-built, to be frank. The reason I’d want this is to make my life easier and make use of the small fraction of motivation I once had in the pursuit of making music rather than burning out on sampling, resampling, editing and loading etc.

I just don’t have the motivation, but I would certainly pay $100 for it, or maybe even closer to the price of a P6, I just don’t want to work with those limitations and with that interface.

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1010 Blackbox or nanobox Tangerine can do most of these things.

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I would definitely consider a blackbox or a tangerine if someone were willing to sell me the $100 worth of one that I need, otherwise it feels a bit like buying another car just because you like the rims.

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