The thing about the ASR-10 is - it is capable of sampler rate conversion after you sample. Most people have no clue about this feature and claim it's only capable of recording/playing samples at either 44 or 22 kHz.
I honestly think the ensoniq samplers sounded 👍 great. The sp 1200 was pretty nice too....The best mpc to me was the 2000...overall ensoniq was better to me. Great comparison video
Ensoniq was so far ahead of it's time - the sound is amazing !! considering it was the cheapest sampler on the market at the time . and you could play and load a song at the same time . you even had live line in to the fx +filters and a sort of direct to disc recording if you had the scsi option
I had a Mirage, an EPS, then an ASR-10R which had a whopping 10MB RAM expander, and a formidable dozen or so Syquest 270MB disks of great factory and user samples. The ASR-10 was easily the greatest investment (and instrument) I made during my pro-playing hey-day. Pity it fried itself when the on/off switch broke and it stayed on in a cozy rack case over a long weekend during a heatwave.
This is an amazing video, thank you. Despite it all though, it really comes to sample choice, gain staging, a little EQ - but most importantly - how you use the sounds that make the difference. Not so much the machine. Remember that people.
I know nothing about music.I have a untrained ear for this type of stuff but I did conclude the exact same results as you did. EPS 16 and the S950 for the win!
@@RoomAtTheTopStudio Hey Luke.Yes,I like jungle music from the 90's.I also like House Music as well. Take care and be safe as possible brother ! Covid 19 is here to stay!
@@marsallefrancisco4851 that's probably why you went for those two samplers. You subconsciously hear the sounds of your favorite records in them. I'm the same with synthesizers too
I was very impressed with the sound of the ASR-X. The ASR-10 was a little disappointing to my ears EPS 16+, s900/50, SP 12/00 all sounded incredible. I don’t really dig the sound of the first Akai, but to each their own. Cool video. Thanks for sharing!
Current weapon since 2015 has been the 2000xl; had an SP505 briefly and made a few beats but couldn't get with the layout. Got into the MPC world in '97 with the 2000 and never looked back. Other prior samplers used: Casio SK-1, Realistic Concertmate 500, Ensoniq Mirage, Yamaha Vss-30, and Akai Remix 16.
I like all these machines ! My preference is the Akai S950, MPC 3000, the SP12, the E-mu Emax, the Ensoniq EPS 16... Don't forget the ASR 10 rack also... Fantastic video ! 😎👌 🔥🔥
I love that you've done this. thank you. Maybe you could do another video with the samples playing at the same transposition from sampler to sampler and then back again. I think it would make the comparison easy to tell the differences. By the time you've walked one sampler down the pitches and you've gotten to the next sampler I've mostly forgotten what the previous sampler sounds like at the first pitch. I'm a studio engineer by trade, easiest comparison is when there's only one variable changing. In this case the sampler. Still though I know this was alot of work and I can still hear the differences, just could potentially use an easier arrangement of the samples. I know that makes like 21 times as much video editing which is why you probably didn't do it that way.
Excellent stuff, thanks! The SP-202 was my first sampler and I really liked its tone, then the ASR-X which made everything sound phat but its sequencer was a pain. I sold it for an EMU ESI but missed the grain of the ASR-X. Then I got fully in the box with Reason/Recycle/Ableton, etc. but have been missing the sort of personality these old dedicated machines have to offer. The AKAIs are known for their metallic punch for a good reason! It's so cool to be able to listen to all these alongside each other.
My Emu ESI-32 samples my analog cassettes so perfectly that I can't tell one from the other. The bass response, the softness and everything is copied exactly. It's an unbelievable experience. I have no idea how they pull off those shenanigans but leaves me wondering if I can sample vinyl and exactly preserve the sound.
Awesome sound comparison and a valuable resource for any beatmakers. Every sampler is so unique sounding and its great to be able to hear them all in one place. My personal fav sounding machines are: BOSS SP-303 AKAI S900/S950 AKAI MPC 2000XL Ensoniq EPS 16+
If you like the SP-12/1200 sound but can't or don't want to pay the nowadays outlandish prices for one I'd strongly suggest taking a close look at the Zoom Sampletrak ST-224. Nicknamed "the poor man's SP-1200" for very good reasons, the sequencer or MIDI isn't quite up to par but it will give you all the filth and crunch of the SP's sampling engine for fraction of the cost, even the SP-1200 owners and aficionados themselves will testify to this. Extremely underrated and slept on sampler which only in recent years have started getting the recognition and praise it deserves.
It's a really fun concept to do a shootout like this. We do need to be mindful of relative volumes, as in comparison mode, our ears will prefer the perceivably louder sound (which gives the S950 a bit of an unfair bump, although all credit due as part of its current mythological state). CZcams compression doesn't do much justice either. Having said that, this is super fun, and indicative per the samplers here that I've known. Well done assembling this.
For mangling a sample the ASR-X Pro smashes it. SP404 comes in second but way behind. MPC2000 sounded the warmest and punchiest out of the MPC family But the EPS 16+ edges it for punch from this demonstration The MPC2000XL was a bit louder and more detailed in the top end than the 2000 S950 has some serious punch I'm not sure if I really want a S3000 again As for the E-mu SP's I realize that I'm an MPC fan so give me a MPC60 over both of them and I'm good. Great comparison video. Definitely gave me food for thought.
Those 303/404/505s crank hard. I slept on those. I got a 950/3k/ASR10 and I just learned a few things. AMAZINGLY DOPE VIDEO for those on the fence. No matter what, you gotta have a 950 in the stash. Just does too much.
Nuttkase Beatz just checked out your video on the dss1. Sounds great! I didn't even know about that one! Thanks. I just bought an sp12. In the market for an akai s950. Hard to find these days:( dudes in the UK won't ship. I've been rocking out the Roland mc808 lately. Sampling is ok on it but the drum sounds and sequencing on it are legendary.
so i dont own any of these samplers but this is what i did, ive listened to hip hop boom bap to trap and all that and i just let it play on the background until i heard a version of the loop that caught my ear and only one made me stop what i was doing to look at what it was, i did this three times without looking at it but doing a blind screenshot, it always came back to the s900/s950 that caught my attention, i guess ima have to get the vst and see how close that comes to the hardware, lol
this is an excellent video but i feel like the mpc1000 example got spoiled by a background hum/buzz that is NOT supposed to be there. something’s wrong with that picture. anyway, my biggest takeaway is that akai from the s900 on through the 90s really do make drums sound harder even with no distortion at the highest bit/sample rates. i’d always read people talking about how those akais had some kind of emphasis circuitry built-in that made them punchy but a test like this really shows it in the flesh. truthfully they all sound great in their own way. i wouldn’t ever fuss with the s612 again or x7000, i had the s612 without the huge disk drive and it made some cool sounds but its just too limited to build a song with. basically the others can handle making a beat with them and nothing else. some are only phrase samplers and can’t do pitched stuff across the keyboard, and some can’t have keygroup/velocity multisamples. otherwise it’s pretty much all about what workflow is most encouraging for YOU as an individual artist. 8/12-bit can be magical on some sounds but its more important to have something that helps you get stuff done.
I'm curious about the ways you processed the loop with the various samplers: I mean, you played the same loop several times with each sampler, and sometimes it's pretty clear how you treated it, sometimes not. Can you explain that? Dope video btw.
Yamaha TX16W 0:05
Boss SP202 0:32
Boss SP303 1:11
Roland SP404 1:33
Roland SP505 2:12
Roland SP606 2:52
Roland W-30 3:11
Akai S612 3:48
Akai S900/Akai s950 4:28
Akai S3000XL 4:58
Akai X7000 5:25
Akai MPC 1000 5:36
Akai MPC 2000 (+cassete player) 6:16
Akai MPC 2000XL 7:01
Akai MPC 3000 7:40
E-mu Emax 8:19
E-mu SP-12 9:11
E-mu SP-1200 9:49
Ensoniq ASR 10 10:12
Ensoniq ASR-X Pro 11:03
Ensoniq EPS 12:19
Ensoniq EPS 16+ 12:37
Where Korg?
nuttkasemusic.bandcamp.com/album/vintage-samplers-sound-test
Nuttkase Beatz BLESS YOU!!
You forgot the akai s 20
No disrespect. Just saying cus I still have mine .. no doubt
i honestly loved the TX16W with the lighter gain, S900 sounds beautiful as well
Holy shit. The most comprehensive drum sampling comparison in history!!!
For me the best one is the SP12. Its crisp modern and in your face but its also crunchy and warm (at least to my ears)
The compression/clipping on the SP-12 is so juicy. It rounds off the bass drum perfectly to my ears.
that S3000XL ... just amazing
Thumbs up for the TX16W (Typhoon), will never let mine go, it's griity yet hifi.
The ASR-10 was nice and that EPS 16+ was a monster. Those E-MU’s wow!
The thing about the ASR-10 is - it is capable of sampler rate conversion after you sample. Most people have no clue about this feature and claim it's only capable of recording/playing samples at either 44 or 22 kHz.
Hit the nail right on it’s head!!!
I honestly think the ensoniq samplers sounded 👍 great. The sp 1200 was pretty nice too....The best mpc to me was the 2000...overall ensoniq was better to me. Great comparison video
I was embarrassed to say it about the MPC's but yeah according to my ears the 2000 sounded the best, even over the 3000. That's mad but true
Ensoniq was so far ahead of it's time - the sound is amazing !! considering it was the cheapest sampler on the market at the time . and you could play and load a song at the same time . you even had live line in to the fx +filters and a sort of direct to disc recording if you had the scsi option
I had a Mirage, an EPS, then an ASR-10R which had a whopping 10MB RAM expander, and a formidable dozen or so Syquest 270MB disks of great factory and user samples. The ASR-10 was easily the greatest investment (and instrument) I made during my pro-playing hey-day. Pity it fried itself when the on/off switch broke and it stayed on in a cozy rack case over a long weekend during a heatwave.
Just picked up a asrx pro for 5 dollars at a thrift shop.... crazy!!!
Salvador Madero Are u kidding me? That’s just crazy!
@@salvadormadero1573what ? $5 insane
The sp202 and 606 is and S612 are so legendary to hip hop
Lol
We need a video like this when they compare al the software crap with these beast samplers.
172Break spot on.
@* AnimalHeadSpirit * The main thing lacking in software are the levels. If you crank up the gain there isnt a lot in it.
Agreed buuuuuut I am using the RX950 VST and it gets close albeit ofc not being the real thing
ASR X Pro is from another world
This is an amazing video, thank you.
Despite it all though, it really comes to sample choice, gain staging, a little EQ - but most importantly - how you use the sounds that make the difference.
Not so much the machine.
Remember that people.
@@darianjohnston1658 Its not about sound, its about concept.
@@darianjohnston1658 fax bro
the EPS 16+ and the S950 are clearly monsters !
I know nothing about music.I have a untrained ear for this type of stuff but I did conclude the exact same results as you did. EPS 16 and the S950 for the win!
@@marsallefrancisco4851 do you like early 90's Jungle? Along with the S900 these two samplers where the dominant samplers of the early era of Jungle
@@RoomAtTheTopStudio Hey Luke.Yes,I like jungle music from the 90's.I also like House Music as well.
Take care and be safe as possible brother ! Covid 19 is here to stay!
@@marsallefrancisco4851 that's probably why you went for those two samplers. You subconsciously hear the sounds of your favorite records in them. I'm the same with synthesizers too
@@RoomAtTheTopStudio Perhaps you're right.The sub conscious mind is powerful! lol
I’m still rocking my s5000 , wiv a floppy usb emulator and old school recycle ♻️
One of my favorite CZcams videos ever
Eps16, emax , sp1200 and s612 are exeptional machines. Jah love
So many different opinions and everybody’s right! ( well, almost everybody)
The E-MU SP-12 & SP1200 as well as the Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus sounded very nice!!
Thanks for uploading this.
I know it took a minute to even prep posting this Vid so Salute, just 4 that.... 👑✨👑
I was very impressed with the sound of the ASR-X.
The ASR-10 was a little disappointing to my ears
EPS 16+, s900/50, SP 12/00 all sounded incredible.
I don’t really dig the sound of the first Akai, but to each their own.
Cool video. Thanks for sharing!
Best from that list: E-mu SP12, Ensoniq EPS 16+, Yamaha , S950, ASRX in that order
Current weapon since 2015 has been the 2000xl; had an SP505 briefly and made a few beats but couldn't get with the layout. Got into the MPC world in '97 with the 2000 and never looked back. Other prior samplers used: Casio SK-1, Realistic Concertmate 500, Ensoniq Mirage, Yamaha Vss-30, and Akai Remix 16.
god damn i love how the asr-x sounds. shame the workflow just kills it for me
Ensoniq EPS 16+ was my favorite. I wish I had one.
thanks a ton for this vid. really impressed with the tx16w, never heard that joint before.
edzer beats I had 1 back in the day dope ish used dr 660 to trigger and an mmmt 8.
the tx16w sound like what i expected from the sp 12/1200. insane!
Maaaaaan!!!
Same here. Oh wow. And nobody knows about them like the SPs and MPCs. Shhhhh...
Chill. Either Im to stupid or the OS is f#ckn complicated. I never made a best with it. But sample through it is fire.
The MPC3000 makes the sample sound so rich and full of life sound.
S950 Hard hitting!
now thats some public service, great stuff
Awesome comparison!! The Yamaha TX16W is best for me.
I like all these machines ! My preference is the Akai S950, MPC 3000, the SP12, the E-mu Emax, the Ensoniq EPS 16...
Don't forget the ASR 10 rack also...
Fantastic video ! 😎👌 🔥🔥
I love that you've done this. thank you. Maybe you could do another video with the samples playing at the same transposition from sampler to sampler and then back again. I think it would make the comparison easy to tell the differences. By the time you've walked one sampler down the pitches and you've gotten to the next sampler I've mostly forgotten what the previous sampler sounds like at the first pitch. I'm a studio engineer by trade, easiest comparison is when there's only one variable changing. In this case the sampler. Still though I know this was alot of work and I can still hear the differences, just could potentially use an easier arrangement of the samples. I know that makes like 21 times as much video editing which is why you probably didn't do it that way.
Had a ASR-X loved the effects on it there were some many things you could do with it I beat myself up that I had to sell it
Sp-1200 & the Mpc 3000>>>
ASRX and 16 wins.
Excellent stuff, thanks!
The SP-202 was my first sampler and I really liked its tone, then the ASR-X which made everything sound phat but its sequencer was a pain. I sold it for an EMU ESI but missed the grain of the ASR-X.
Then I got fully in the box with Reason/Recycle/Ableton, etc. but have been missing the sort of personality these old dedicated machines have to offer.
The AKAIs are known for their metallic punch for a good reason!
It's so cool to be able to listen to all these alongside each other.
S950 & sp12/1200 were my faves
That Roland W30 was not playing around. Neither was the Akai s612
W30 was EPMD's sampler for years.
REGEND That's why I copped it!
Apparently guys like Michael Brauer like using the S612 as an insert to musically distort things. I bet everything sounds better through it.
I still love the Roland W30. Still wish I had one.
Have one still
Emu samplers winning for my ears.
My Emu ESI-32 samples my analog cassettes so perfectly that I can't tell one from the other. The bass response, the softness and everything is copied exactly. It's an unbelievable experience. I have no idea how they pull off those shenanigans but leaves me wondering if I can sample vinyl and exactly preserve the sound.
SP 12 & 1200, S950, ASR 10, MPC 3000 & 60 ....the SP 202, 303 and 505 are lowkey great for the price.
I just love every part of this
Nice
I like the ASR 10 the MPC 2000XL and SP1200 the most!
Awesome sound comparison and a valuable resource for any beatmakers. Every sampler is so unique sounding and its great to be able to hear them all in one place. My personal fav sounding machines are:
BOSS SP-303
AKAI S900/S950
AKAI MPC 2000XL
Ensoniq EPS 16+
Shit... I really have to admit the SP12 and SP1200 have a sound to them that makes these samplers really appealing. I have an E4XT Ultra and an S330
If you like the SP-12/1200 sound but can't or don't want to pay the nowadays outlandish prices for one I'd strongly suggest taking a close look at the Zoom Sampletrak ST-224. Nicknamed "the poor man's SP-1200" for very good reasons, the sequencer or MIDI isn't quite up to par but it will give you all the filth and crunch of the SP's sampling engine for fraction of the cost, even the SP-1200 owners and aficionados themselves will testify to this. Extremely underrated and slept on sampler which only in recent years have started getting the recognition and praise it deserves.
@@rumham9911 Or wait for the behringer remake.
I be using a Roland ms, sp505, 606 and mirage. 🤪😎
SP606 was the big surprise for me! Love the last two sampes.
It's a really fun concept to do a shootout like this. We do need to be mindful of relative volumes, as in comparison mode, our ears will prefer the perceivably louder sound (which gives the S950 a bit of an unfair bump, although all credit due as part of its current mythological state). CZcams compression doesn't do much justice either. Having said that, this is super fun, and indicative per the samplers here that I've known. Well done assembling this.
Ima go with the Mpc1000, & its portable but they all great👍
In respect to its completion I gotta admit it held its own!
the eps was my work horse
No surprises here -- the best sound comes from S950, SP1200, ASR10 and EPS16+.
Where is ST224?
No S-1000/S-1100, sadly. And no Roland samplers.
S612 is a beast.
That Yamaha TX16W sound great, grimy but still big sounding AF
Didn't see anything about the overlooked/ underrated/ ahead of it's time ROLAND MV8k samplers.
The goat!
tx16w sp 303 mpc 3000 sp1200 asr10 top 5 greatest EPS 16+ sound like a sp12!
Mpc 2000
Obviously the newer samplers have better sound quality but there's something about the SP-1200 that makes it stand out from the rest.
For mangling a sample the ASR-X Pro smashes it.
SP404 comes in second but way behind.
MPC2000 sounded the warmest and punchiest out of the MPC family
But the EPS 16+ edges it for punch from this demonstration
The MPC2000XL was a bit louder and more detailed in the top end than the 2000
S950 has some serious punch
I'm not sure if I really want a S3000 again
As for the E-mu SP's I realize that I'm an MPC fan so give me a MPC60 over both of them and I'm good.
Great comparison video. Definitely gave me food for thought.
Good job! For some reason, the S612 doesn´t sound as good as it should. At it´s higher sampling rate it should sound "better".
I agree I have one and it sound better than this
Mine sounds better too, but mine is recapped
Meet you downstairs in the bar and hurt
🎶🎶
mpc2000xl is well dry sound, i love it
EMU SP 1200 MPC 2000 XL AKAI S900 Y EPS 16 PLUS IS HONEY TO MY EARS
Also filter resonance on the AkaiS612 fucking rules. Love Akai filters. Easily the most essential tool on my MPC 1000.
eps 16 and the s900/950 are where it's at for me
Those 303/404/505s crank hard. I slept on those. I got a 950/3k/ASR10 and I just learned a few things. AMAZINGLY DOPE VIDEO for those on the fence. No matter what, you gotta have a 950 in the stash. Just does too much.
Sp12 all day.
Asr10 Asr-x MPC2000xl and Classic EPS16
For me SP12 Perfect !
If you want to add MPC 60 and Digitakt to this, send me the original file and I'll get it over to you 👍
i like the way it rolls off the high end and goes crusty
31 haters' sampler didn't sound like the s950.
Eps 16 + is the winner 🥇
good choice, ASR-10 is to me
SP202 and TX16W
1. Akai s950
2. Emu sp12
3. MPC 3000
4. Yamaha tx16w
5. Ensoniq eps 16
6. Emu sp1200
Brett Von Brendel korg dss1 - evil drums
Nuttkase Beatz just checked out your video on the dss1. Sounds great! I didn't even know about that one! Thanks. I just bought an sp12. In the market for an akai s950. Hard to find these days:( dudes in the UK won't ship. I've been rocking out the Roland mc808 lately. Sampling is ok on it but the drum sounds and sequencing on it are legendary.
At the time 90s. I used to regret i got a TX-16, No magic happened with 16bit without CFM SSM chip
so i dont own any of these samplers but this is what i did, ive listened to hip hop boom bap to trap and all that and i just let it play on the background until i heard a version of the loop that caught my ear and only one made me stop what i was doing to look at what it was, i did this three times without looking at it but doing a blind screenshot, it always came back to the s900/s950 that caught my attention, i guess ima have to get the vst and see how close that comes to the hardware, lol
Splendide!!! Merci
Steinberg groove agent is really good for anyone who wants this hardware like thump/degrade in a vst.
this is an excellent video but i feel like the mpc1000 example got spoiled by a background hum/buzz that is NOT supposed to be there. something’s wrong with that picture. anyway, my biggest takeaway is that akai from the s900 on through the 90s really do make drums sound harder even with no distortion at the highest bit/sample rates. i’d always read people talking about how those akais had some kind of emphasis circuitry built-in that made them punchy but a test like this really shows it in the flesh. truthfully they all sound great in their own way. i wouldn’t ever fuss with the s612 again or x7000, i had the s612 without the huge disk drive and it made some cool sounds but its just too limited to build a song with. basically the others can handle making a beat with them and nothing else. some are only phrase samplers and can’t do pitched stuff across the keyboard, and some can’t have keygroup/velocity multisamples. otherwise it’s pretty much all about what workflow is most encouraging for YOU as an individual artist. 8/12-bit can be magical on some sounds but its more important to have something that helps you get stuff done.
The little chips of bobbington pip.
Found a cheap W30 recently, this thing can sound really lofi and punchy :)
Esoniq EPS 16 + & SP1200!
I miss my 16+. Best ever
0:01 0:32 0:42 0:52 1:12 1:17 1:30 1:39 2:13 2:18 2:23 2:55 4:38 8:31 8:36 9:12 9:34 9:55 9:59 10:04 10:13 12:20 12:22 12:25 12:31 12:34 12:43 13:00 13:11
2:23 9:49 9:55 09:59 10:09 8:31 9:23 9:34 0:32 1:17 1:35 2:08 2:18 11:04
How is this a comparison when you add reverb and fx in Ensoniq ASRX
I thought I heard reverb , makes the asrx sound the best
Killer video man! 💎⛏🔥💣🧨🎧👀
I'm curious about the ways you processed the loop with the various samplers: I mean, you played the same loop several times with each sampler, and sometimes it's pretty clear how you treated it, sometimes not. Can you explain that? Dope video btw.
Wondering how the volca sample would compare to the rest, because its one of the punchiest modern samplers around
Its thr sp1200 and sp404 4 me 😵💫🔥🔥
The AK-47 SR Pro
The MPC 2000 classic is so warm
Said no 60 or 3000 owner, ever 😜
The s950 is the snare pimp.
Different machines can do different things . I want them all. But sp 12 and 1200 than mpc 60 and 3000 then the asr 16 and x.
Ensoniq 4 da win.
This was soooo dope!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥❤🎯🎧🎶🎶🎶
ASR 10 sweeeeeet
🔥 404 sp1200 mpc3000
7:43 Akai MPC3000 = 9:49 E-mu SP-1200. So close!
The S612 has such a mean filter. Damn.
The Roland mv8800 won....I didn’t see it though..
Yamaha for me.