why don't you see simple keyboards like lives simpler?

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 6:56 am

just think of a keyboard with a small harddrive and some knobs to work with adsr and what not. something extremely basic like lives simpler but with a keyboard attached.

I'm thinking basic as in casio sk1 basic with actual envelope and filter controls. NO DSP sounds or effects. BASIC AND GOOD. does it exist?

(maybe usb for transfering of samples?)

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 7:13 am

I have an akai s-950 and a Roland PC-160a cheap midi controller.

Does the trick, sounds aMAZING, and you can even program multisampled patches

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 7:35 am

see thats my point, I know there are tons of rack samplers and there are bunch of sampling boxes and what not, but when it comes to a simple sampling keyboard that doesn't suck it's slim pickins. seems like they only made those in the 80's really. maybe the format just didn't stick for whatever reason. or maybe it's cause they started making "all in one machines" as apposed to "this keyboard samples" type of tools.

iamnotcool · Post by **iamnotcool** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 7:40 am

I think that such a piece of gear would only succeed in a niche market, as you'd probably have a bunch of people complaining that it doesn't have granular sampling, velocity layers, etc. If you stick those features into a keyboard, you have a slimmed down, hardware version of Kontakt with some keys attatched to it...which would be a dream come true!

It sure would be nice to see simple, one-sample-at-a-time sampling keyboard with an LCD screen for waveform display.

R.J.Dubya · Post by **R.J.Dubya** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 7:46 am

Johnisfaster wrote:see thats my point, I know there are tons of rack samplers and there are bunch of sampling boxes and what not, but when it comes to a simple sampling keyboard that doesn't suck it's slim pickins. seems like they only made those in the 80's really. maybe the format just didn't stick for whatever reason. or maybe it's cause they started making "all in one machines" as apposed to "this keyboard samples" type of tools.

Well it sort of makes sense if you think about it. Before cheap midi keyboard controllers came out, and when keyboards were actually there own instruments, I guess if someone was going to the trouble of making a keyboard instrument, they might as well throw in some decent features with it because most people wouldn't stock up on dozens of little keyboards that do extremely basic sampling. Maybe a bunch of basic racks. But usually a full keyboard would be the main instrument or one of the centerpieces for someone, so it makes sense for the manufacturers to give it some versatility. And then by the time software instruments came along, I guess it just made even less sense to make a keyboard for something that hardly takes any cpu and can be easily done on the computer, and any hardware sampler suddenly had to have tons of features to stand up to all the sampling power in software.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but I mean simpler's just a basic single sample player with envelopes and pitch-shifting. I would think that if many people made those in hardware keyboards, they wouldn't be too successful.

Johnisfaster · Post by **Johnisfaster** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 7:50 am

oh I hear you, and it makes sense in todays market, but it just seems like someone would have made one in the past. most sampling keyboards I've ever seen where very cumbersom like the mirage and what not. I'm just thinking my nord lead but as a sampler instead of a synth. I would love it. but I don't think it'll ever happen.

reset · Post by **reset** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 12:58 pm

Clavia Nord Wave?

http://www.clavia.se/main.asp

Elektron MD-UW?

www.elektron.se