whats up, being a relative noob in this side of poroduction i have a question. I see a lot of you guys have more than one sampler, is this just an obsession/collector thing or are there benefits to having more than one in your arsenal? i use the OG 404, and like everyone i love buying new gear so would jump at having an excuse to get a second sampler! can any of you lot who have a huge arsenal of sampling power explain the benefits at all?

Each one has a different sound but different features. For example my 202 sounds dirty but lacks resampling so it's good to bounce bits over to the 303 or 404.

wicked, i've got a craving for a 202 fo some lofi cunch, also it might speed up my workflow/enhance live performace possibilities. who knows!

202 is dope and real crunchy. I know it uses an old format for memory cards but its still worth buying for the crunchy dirt

Why so many samplers? Because I'm on the search for the perfect sampler. I meant to replace the former but it didn't have what the other had and vice-versa. So in this search I winded up keeping all of them except the 505, but I sold that to a true beat head that will make heavy use of it, Deckdaddy.

Before samplers, I was using two double cassette recorders and a turntable. I made mad beats with them but it was tedious work and the quality was kind of foggy (Now you cats go crazy for that, but back then it was frowned on). Then for my graduation my pops bought me a Roland MS-1 brand new. I was on top of the world with that sampler, because it had the same workflow I had with the tapedecks but time was cutted 10 fold to make beats. I rocked it from '96 to 2000 when I copped the 505. I only bought the 505 because it seemed like the MS-1 on 6 tabs of acid and a blunt. It was in a way, but lacked the master pitch that I dearly loved on the MS-1. So instead of replacing the MS-1 with the 505, I used both together, which letted me down a bit because I liked working on the MS solo. Anyway, later I copped the 303 thinking it was like the MS-1 (again) because I read that the 202 was based off it, so I can't go wrong with the 303 right? Wrong. Here I am with 3 samplers now and none of them going anywhere. Then I remember wanting that Korg ES-1 before deciding on the 505, but suddenly Korg released the first ESX, and said "Hey, maybe thats the one" I loved it too, its real dope but wasn't my style like the tapedecks which Roland had in spades in my eyes, so thats when I copped the 606, to see if Roland delivered my dream box this time but it was the same story with the other SPs, no pitch tuning. Thats when I copped the MPC500, because I heard so much about the 3000 and the 2000/XL models that I said "ok, I'll try Akai" What a headache that machine gave me, because I'm so Roland. If it wasn't for the ESX, that machine would've been out the window, because the flow is almost the same. But I enjoyed her later as time passed but didn't have that... you know, tapedeck flow. So thats when I copped the MV8800. I figured "Fuck it, I've been using Roland, they know my style and my head wraps around their products quick." Been mega happy ever since because this was what I wanted in the MS-1. So I blame the MS-1 for all my samplers. As of present I still have the MS-1, 303, 606, ESX, MPC500, and the MV8800. Thought about selling but can't do it. All the ups and downs with them grew on me.

hell yeah man! awesome story!

Definatly a intresting story Green.

I only have 2 samplers though, yet I've been through a few.. First I had the MPC1000 (before I had a MPD24) because I started making beats because of Memorecks (anyone knows him?) and I wanted to be like him. Been rocking it for a year and copped a 404SX. I didn't really liked the workflow of the MPC1000 so I didn't used it alot anymore and kept rocking SX for a while since it was so compact yet you could go apeshit on it.
After all this came the journey of the so called "sound" that comes from a machine and sold the 1000 and SX with the time. Then bought the 2KXL which's workflow was a lot nicer in my opinion and kept that rocking for a while. At first I thought the sound was different, yet not too different untill I discovered the resampling function. Later on I also wanted a more portable sampler and just HAD too buy a 303 while being greatly inspired by Madlib and Dilla. And yeah, it might be odd going from newer gear to older ones but I'm convinced that for myself, limitations boosts my creativity.

So now I'm a proud owner of the 2KXL (which I mainly use for boom bap) and the 303 (to push the limits). Though, I still feel like buying new samplers/gear for variation in workflow or something. It's like a everlasting thought. But figured I just need more records to sample, flip the script and do whatever the hell I want to make and just do me.

I've got the MV8800 and Masschine Mikro mkII, I used to have more samplers but had to sell a few and copped new ones. I still feel bad about selling the SP606 and SP404. Had great sound to it.

It's not like I need both MV and Maschine now, but the Maschine has a good link with software and I am trying to figure out if it could compliment or replace my MV8800. The MV can do almost anything and has perhaps the best sequencer I have ever used, but it's not that fast when it comes to loading / saving projects. That can be a pain when time is money.

All in all it's about 60% pure gearlust. If I'd be rich, I would buy them all.