Howdy. New guy, first post, have mercy. I've come into a small bit of cash and am going to buy my first sampler. I'm thinking of either the SP-555 or the Korg Microsampler.

My background - I've been into music my whole life, i've mostly played sax and guitar, but I got into synths in the 1980s and did some midi sequencing. I have a few old synths: Roland Juno 106, Roland SH-101 and a Yamaha SY-22, and Kawai rack mount drume machine. Mostly the stuff has sat unused in my office and I've been playing live music, but now I've decided I want to get back into just doing stuff on my own.

I've always wanted a sampler, but just never got around to getting one. I'll be (hopefully assuming I can figure it all out) drive everything from Cubase on either a PC or Mac, so I'm not as interested in the sampler-as-sequencer aspect (like the MPC). I've played around with the MPC and (as someone else said) it seemed a bit like programing a TI calculator, so I'm disinclined to go that route.

The last time I was reading about samplers I really wanted an E-mu ASR-X, but there were niggling glitches w/ it.

So I've been looking on the web and am thinking one of these two, SP-555 or Korg MS might be a good first choice for me.
The advantage I see to the Korg is that it seems to have a lot of obvious controls: buttons, knobs and lights to tell you what's going on. And the mini-keyboard.

The advantage of the SP-555 seems to be that it has pads (the one great thing I liked about the MPC's I've played with), the D-beam (which is trippy).

Thanks in advance (I did read the similar thread but that fellow already had several SP's so it was a different situation.) I prefer to buy new this time.

are you wanting to play the drums live? or would you be more into programming them? i think the sp series and mpc series of stuff is great but i think the korg electribe stuff is great for beginners and can be pushed hard too. if you were looking at the ms2000r the electribes are "similar"... ive tried to leave my esx several times and move on to another piece of gear but i always come back. i was using a 404 then a 606 long with my esx although all i have right now is the esx due to an issue with craigslist. i like the tribes and you can make a wide range of music on them even though a lot of whats out there on youtbe is techno type stuff..

my two cents

the 555 or mpc might be overkill if you just want to arrange some samples and do the rest in a DAW. I think the 404sx would probably be a good starter. Thats only if you really want a stand along sampler. If you are using a DAW, you could get a triggerfinger or mpd pad and just use a program in your DAW to assign to pads like a sampler which is what a lot of software guys do *me included*
I have the Maschine as well and it is capable of pretty much anything in that spectrum. The advantage of the maschine is that you can drag and drop your drum patterns into Cubase for example and it will create a new track with the wav file you just dragged over.
no bouncing wav's to folder then reloading in program, just quiick flow.

I have a 404 and a microsampler. I like the microsampler but I almost always just use the 404. Plus the 404 is way easier to get around on. I know you asked about the 555, they're about the same.

I say the microsampler is prob a more complete and useful tool. all the sampling modes and ways of getting recorded samples onto the keys and playing them. the effects are okay from what I hear. I can't really give an answer b/c I haven't used either extensively, but I can tell you that my homie Complex Realmz who I work real close with over the years sold his 555 and copped a microsampler, a decision he is happy about, he has a 404 in the mix but he says the MS makes a better centerpiece than the 555. for him at least