Computer Corner
SampleCell 1 A Brief Reveiw
Well, someone recently asked me about this so I thought I may as well write it up a little.-Thanks -Steve!
I wouldn't consider myself a 'power user' so may well have overlooked one or two bits and pieces. But hey!, that's where you lot can interact and put me right ;]
I've used screen shots so it may take a little time to load- sorry!.
Contents
Specifications
16 voice with up to 8mb of ram- the card came with 2mb as standard.
4x stereo outputs.
Came with the SC cd-rom which has a pretty good basic library on it, some really nice orchestral stuff. I think there's quite a few ROMs around for SampleCell - OSC's 'a poke in the ear with a sharp stick' series.....
SampleCell II - Main differences
Well for a start you get 32 voices, you can have up to 32mb ram and you can use (old Mac-cheap) standard 30pin ram.
SCII also has filters -hooray! though it's not tremendously exciting as they don't offer any resonance - boo!
TDM compatability - if you own a Pro-Tools System you can patch the SC outputs to PT aux inputs which allows you to use the high-quality o/p's of the Pro-Tools system. I guess this also means that you can apply various plug-in modules to the SC outputs as well.
That's about all I know so mail me with any other details please!
Compatibility
I used to run a Mac II that was fine for the SampleCell 1. Then I got a Quadra 800 that (according to Digi) Apple had changed the NUBUS architecture in somewhat. This rendered the SC card unusable. However, I sent the card to Digi and had a mod done and it worked fine- as long as you have at least the 2.03 init, SC midi driver and SampleCell editor v2.03.
PPC: This card also works fine in my PPC 8100/100 which is what I use now - I have the feeling that Digi don't recommend this combo but it DOES work for me.
I can't comment on any other compatibility's- sorry.
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Features
What you get is a pretty basic sample playback system. It does sound good -in my opinion. It has a sort of 'deeper wider' quality about it. It was considered to sound good a the time - certainly it has the edge over the Akai S1000 with a better bottom end.
The architecture is quite straightforward - you have banks which can contain up to 8 (I think) instruments - you to assign an instrument to a particular SampleCell card. An instrument can be a single sample, multi-sample (stereo or mono)
You can map the volume and pan to midi controllers.
The Editor
The version I use is 2.03 though no doubt there's a newer version available.
The editor is the same as the one that's used for SCII- so some parameters do not affect the SCI card.
Using the editor you can import regions into memory or files. I think you can use any sample rate/ bit -depth though I only have experience of 8/22k + 16/44.1
Samples are imported into keygroups (much like the akais) though re-assigning the keygroups is a little cumbersome - I sure wouldn't want to set up a 30 multi-sample instrument 3 times a day!
It's also worth noting that you can't edit loop points as you can in a dedicated sampler in real time as you play you're midi sequence. Generally, I use Sound Designer to put the loops together.
The memory loading erasing can be a little slow and frustrating- much like older samplers. You ever tried deleting a small sample from a fully loaded S1000?
Though perhaps by some way of consolation it is possible to drag and drop up to 30 sound files onto the SC editor icon and have it automatically map them to keygroups.
There is a SoundDesigner II SC version which allows you to use the software without needing a Digidesign sound card (AMII or ProTools etc)
Top News- Some people do find SC editing software to be a pain in the ass. A li'l bird told me that there is a major overhaul of the software in the pipeline. - It may be a third party developer.
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Parameters
Sample parameters are simple,
Keygroup pan,
amplitude,
samplestart coarse/medium,
zone start-(not sure what this does)
Midi Root note
Direction -forward/rev
Loop1,2 enable and fine tune
Sample Fine tune.
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Envelopes
There's 3 envelopes per keygroup with env 3 devoted to amplitude, they are simple- drag the blob editing and are pretty intuitive.
The other 2 envs can modulate a number of parameters including:
Pitch,
panning,
send 1or2 vol, -you can assign any o/p as aux busses
sample start point-(nice!),
Modify the other envelope adsr parameters
LFO 1+2 speed
Filter- SCII only.
Infact all of the above mod destinations can be modulated by a number of sources:
Midi note number
Velocity
Release velocity
Pressure
Mod wheel
pitch wheel
Sustain
Env 1,2,3
Ramp generator - I'm not too sure about this one
Tracking generator1 or 2 - user editable key track curve
Random generator
Midi Controller A or B - User definable
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LFO's
Not forgetting LFOs 1+2
with modes:
Free run
Sync
Trig
Sync+Trig
Waveforms:
Sine
Triangle
Up + Down Saw
Square
Random
Noise
So, quite a number of possible combinations there! Some of the instruments on the CDrom use the modulation to good effect but mostly pretty tamely - note-> pan modwheel ->pan modulation etc.
Each instrument has twenty?! routing paths.
Tight as a tight thing!
There's been quite a bit of grumbling about the abillity of midi to play 'tightly' - which can be true. Midi is pretty wobbly if you're running a big system. SampleCell on the other hand doesn't use midi - if you run it from Logic Audio or some other such sequencer. Most of these packages have SampleCell drivers available. Using SampleCell in this way I've found it to be pretty water tight. I haven't done any subjective testing but I have to say that I've never had cause to as it's always been fine.
I must admit, just writing this and re-aquainting myself with some of the more esoteric functions has got my creative juices flowing! I think you can pick these (SCI's) up for very little cash and I would thoroughly recommend one. If you can, get hold of as many CD-rom libraries as possible- then lend them to me as I only have the one ;-]
Gallery Software make a translation program that allows the Mac to read Akai format CD-Roms and translates program and samples to the SC format. So that does increase the library potential.
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