Examples are the Korg M1, Roland U-110, Yamaha's SY series, and the Kawai K series of instruments. The Korg DSS-1 and Roland's S-Series followed shortly afterwards.ĭuring the 1980s, hybrid synthesizers began to utilize short samples (such as the attack phase of an instrument) along with digital synthesis to create more realistic imitations of instruments than had previously been possible. The E-mu Emulator brought the price down to under $10,000 but it was not until the mid-1980s that genuinely affordable keyboard samplers began to hit the market with the Ensoniq Mirage in 1985 and the E-mu Emax the following year, which had a sub-$2000 price point. Sampling keyboards were notable for their high price which was out of reach for the majority of working musicians – with the early Fairlight starting at $30,000. These early sampling synthesizers used wavetable sample-based synthesis. The first commercially available sampling synthesizer was the Computer Music Melodian by Harry Mendell (1976), while the first polyphonic digital sampling synthesizer was the Australian-produced Fairlight CMI, first available in 1979. EMS equipment was used to control the world's first digital studio (EMS London (Putney) Studio), and their earliest digital sampling was done on that system during 1971–1972 for Harrison Birtwistle's " Chronometer" released in 1975. These had a pair of fast D/A and A/D converters, 12,000 (12k) bytes of core memory ( RAM), backed up by a hard drive of 32k and by tape storage (DecTape). The system ran on two mini-computers, Digital Equipment PDP-8's. The earliest digital sampling was done on the EMS Musys system, developed by Peter Grogono (software), David Cockerell (hardware and interfacing) and Peter Zinovieff (system design and operation) at their London (Putney) Studio c. The emergence of the digital sampler made sampling far more practical. To change sounds a new set of tapes had to be installed in the instrument. The Mellotron was the most notable model, used by a number of groups in the late 1960s and the 1970s, but such systems were expensive and heavy due to the multiple tape mechanisms involved, and the range of the instrument was limited to three octaves at the most. When a key is pressed the tape head contacts the moving tape and plays a sound. Prior to computer memory-based samplers, musicians used tape replay keyboards, which store recordings on analog tape. Many are also polyphonic – they are able to play more than one note at the same time.ĮMS MUSYS-3 (1970) (based on Nunzio 2014) Most samplers have Multitimbrality capabilities – they can play back different sounds simultaneously. Often samplers offer filters, effects units, modulation via low frequency oscillation and other synthesizer-like processes that allow the original sound to be modified in many different ways. A single sample may be pitch-shifted to different pitches to produce musical scales and chords. Because these samples are usually stored in digital memory, the information can be quickly accessed. The samples can be played back by means of the sampler program itself, a MIDI keyboard, sequencer or another triggering device (e.g., electronic drums). Samples may be loaded or recorded by the user or by a manufacturer. As technology improved, cheaper standalone samplers with more memory emerged, such as the E-mu Emulator, Akai S950 and Akai MPC. The mid-20th century saw the introduction of keyboard instruments that played sounds recorded on tape, such as the Mellotron. Samples may comprise elements such as rhythm, melody, speech, sound effects or longer portions of music. An AKAI MPC2000 sampling sequencer (1997)Ī sampler is an electronic musical instrument that records and plays back samples (portions of sound recordings).
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