Offnominal

The other big NAMM announcement from Ableton is a new integrated multisample playback device, imaginatively named SAMPLER. We don’t know a whole lot about it yet, so some inferrence has been done by pouring over AdamJay’s screenshot. It does look like we’ll be able to test it along with the rest of Live 6 once the public beta starts. Let’s take a look at it below the fold:

Price - I’m going to mention this first, because it’s a biggie - $199. This seems a bit steep, considering current Live 5 users will be shelling out around $120 for the 5->6 upgrade alone. However, as has been pointed out by some users on the forum, it may tempt one not to bother upgrading Kontakt to Universal Binary, whenever NI decides to release that particular bit of kit. Let’s take a look at some of the featureset and see what else we can find.

Sample Library Support - Compatability? Did some ask for compatability? Let’s see - Akai S1000 and S3000, GigaStudio, Logic EXS, SoundFont and Kontakt. Miss anything? I don’t personally have any need to use any other format than the ones they’ve listed, so I don’t think so.

Zoned In - It supports an unlimited number of zones, assignable via the standard keyrange grid (whilch is displayable via a “Zone” tab in the editor), with velocity and keyrange switching/xfading. It looks like it supports automapping, plus individual sample soloing and muting.

Each sample allows you to specify the normal range of sample parameters - rootkey, detune amount, amplitude, sample reverse, pan, start and end ranges and looping. From the looks of it, each sample can have a sustain loop as well as a release loop, each with crossfading and the ability to play to end, loop, and bi-directionally loop each segment. You can display the sample as stereo or mono summed, or the left and right channels alone. Parameters can be displayed in Samples or (likely) seconds, and you can snap values to zero crossings via a “snap” button. Like clips, samples are played via disk streaming, but can be loaded in RAM with a click.

The Pitch/Osc Tab - The next editor tab begins to show some of the programming flexibility of Sampler. Here we see our first envelopes of the day, which look fairly identical to their counterparts in Operator, featuring 4 individual points and synchable looping. A standard Pitch envelope along with Spread/Traspose/Detune and Glide controls live here, but more interesting is the Mod envelope. Apparently, this controls the level of a multi-waveform oscillator we can use to do either Frequency or Amplitude modulation on our selected sample. I suppose a typical usage would be as an independant LFO with envelope-controlled intensity, but I’d imagine when we crank the rate up, we’ll be in for all kinds of added harmonic goodness.

Filter/Globals Tab - Not only are we given a multimode filter with 4 stage envelope (we’d expect that). this filter has more up its sleeve with a morph control, allowing us to take it seamlessly through all of it’s modes (LP/BP/HP/Notch). Not content to give us a drive knob, we’ve got a dedicated waveshaper with multiple shaping curves - I’m expecting a mini-Saturator device. This filter promises to be quite a bit of fun to play with. This tab also gives us our Amplitude envelope and the associated parameters.

Modulation - Okay, here’s more fun. They give us another 4 stage envelope with the standard controls, routable to 2 destinations. Then, we have 3 LFO’s, each with multiple waveforms and synching capabilities. LFO 1 is fairly pedestrian, mono and hardwired to Volume, Pan, Filter Freq and Pitch. The other two offer us stereo waves, similar to what we’ve seen in AutoPan (but with stereo mode controls like we’re used to in AutoFilter and the like), with 2 assignable destinations each.

The MIDI Tab - Okay, here’s what controllers we can use - each giving us 2 modulation destinations - Key Number, Velocity, Release Velocity, Channel Pressure, Pitchbend, Modwheel and Controlles 14-17. 10 controllers, 2 destinations each - use your imagination.

What can we modulate? Well, Ableton is whetting our appetite by dropping hints with statements like this:

Every aspect of the sound, including sample start and loop position as
well as loop length, can be polyphonically modulated . . . The
ability to modulate not only post processing but also the sample
playback characteristics extends Sampler’s functionality in the
direction of wavetable and granular synthesis.

Can’t Wait. Let’s also not forget that we can automate and use clip envelopes to get things moving, plus the world of the Rack beckons…

So, is it worth it? I’m really looking forward to using this device. I love EXS, but my workflow at the moment generally keeps me away from using Logic and Live together, plus I don’t love editing EXS. Kontakt is easier to edit, but bloated doesn’t even begin to describe it, and it’s not yet UB. I have a feeling that I’m going to fall hard for this thing once I get my hands on it, but I still wonder if $200 for a device that can only be used within Live is really going to encourage a lot of folks. I’ll be glad to ditch Kontakt, honestly - and having an integrated instrument will make my Logic/Live ReWire life a whole lot easier. I suppose the final verdict is going to depend on each user’s preferred working method with Live - you’ll love it if Live is your composition environment and not really care if all you do is warp loops.

What do you guys think?