CAsio Sk-5 question / lo-fi samplers

Casioooz · March 25, 2009, 04:57:15 PM

Hi,

I recently just finished a record where we used a ton of samples on the SK-5. Now we're attempting to play the music lvie and realizing we'll need at least 4 Sk-5s to get all the samples that are essential. I was wondering if anyone knew sohow to mod one of the SK5s (or the SK1 for the matter) to be able to pull more samples from another source. Any advice or a suggestion of someone who could might be able to do the mod would be very appreciated...

Josh

Circuitbenders · March 25, 2009, 06:28:04 PM

isn't it a bit tricky recreating any circuitbent stuff on an SK-5 anyway?

If it isn't circuitbent stuff why not just sample everything into another sampler to take out live? You could probably get an Akai S5000 for the price of 4 SK-5's these days!

Casioooz · March 25, 2009, 11:46:43 PM

Thanks for your response. The sounds actually aren't circuit bent, just SK5 samples through pedals.. I'm just not sure another sampler would get the same cruddy 8bit resolution that I love!

Took a look at that AKAI, but I think it would likely sound TOO good.... any recommendations on a crappy sampler that might approximate the sound of an sk5?

thanks

computer at sea · March 26, 2009, 02:57:45 AM

Boss SP-202's are sufficiently crappy. You can pick one of those up on ebay for under $100. If you do, make sure to get one that has a memory card or two, case the sampler only actually holds something like 30 seconds on its own.

Conversely, over at the yahoo SK-1 group there are detailed instructions from a fellow who posts here on occasion about how to get 64 samples out of your SK-5. Still you'd only have those 4 sample pads, though.

deathbender · March 26, 2009, 04:56:01 AM

Quote from: Casioooz on March 25, 2009, 11:46:43 PMI'm just not sure another sampler would get the same cruddy 8bit resolution that I love!

Took a look at that AKAI, but I think it would likely sound TOO good....

AFAIK you can change the sample rate in this machines. At least my AKAI S3000i can do it... this fu***** useless machine... i paid nearly 5000 DM when i bought it in the mid nineties... now i won't even get 200 € for it!!!

Circuitbenders · March 26, 2009, 07:54:50 AM

But hang on, surely an 8 or 12 bit reproduction of an 8 bit sample is just going to be even worse quality. You don't want to be sampling an 8 bit simple with another 8 bit machine do you? If you do then the Ensoniq Mirage is always a good bet.

If you take a 16 or 24 bit sample of an SK-5 sound then in theory you're getting a more or less exact reproduction of that 8 bit sound, at least audio-wise, which is surely what you want here isn't it? And you'd also getthe benefit of some kind of decent storage medium.

am i misunderstanding something here?

Gordonjcp · March 26, 2009, 12:12:06 PM

Furthermore you can degrade any sample to 8-bits by transferring it to a PC, converting to 8-bit and back to 16, then sending it back to the sampler...

Circuitbenders · March 26, 2009, 12:32:49 PM

Quote from: Gordonjcp on March 26, 2009, 12:12:06 PM
Furthermore you can degrade any sample to 8-bits by transferring it to a PC, converting to 8-bit and back to 16, then sending it back to the sampler...

Mysteriously never sounds quite as good / bad as a 8-bits sample in the first place though.

I've always been a big fan of commodore amigas for seriously lo-fi 8-bit sampling, although i'd give it all up for an original Emax

Gordonjcp · March 27, 2009, 12:50:07 AM

Quote from: Circuitbenders on March 26, 2009, 12:32:49 PM

Mysteriously never sounds quite as good / bad as a 8-bits sample in the first place though.

I've always been a big fan of commodore amigas for seriously lo-fi 8-bit sampling, although i'd give it all up for an original Emax

There's a trick to getting proper 8-bit crunch out of samples, but that's a secret I'm not giving up just yet ;-)

I had an Emax II that I swapped for an Ensoniq EPS...

S-CAT · March 27, 2009, 08:55:17 AM

There's a trick to getting proper 8-bit crunch out of samples, but that's a secret I'm not giving up just yet ;-)

I had an Emax II that I swapped for an Ensoniq EPS...

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I got banned from this site for not sharing information. We use the Akai S-1000 for making crunchy drum kits, the S-3000 for sharp vocals and have a Sequential Prophet 2000 that has some excellent analogue filters and is very good at crunching samples when you use the bit rate converter. We have also just bought an Emu unit but not had a chance to try it out yet. If you want lo-fi with body then go for the Prophet-2000, you could pick one up for around £100-£150 and the unit is built like a tank with a very good and responsive keyboard.

Has any one got any words that they sample andreverse to get different words? I have a few strange ones in my machines and will try to dig them out and post them up, there are some strange things that happen when you reverse words.

Gordonjcp · March 27, 2009, 10:17:44 AM

Quote from: S-CAT on March 27, 2009, 08:55:17 AM
There's a trick to getting proper 8-bit crunch out of samples, but that's a secret I'm not giving up just yet ;-)

I had an Emax II that I swapped for an Ensoniq EPS...

Report to moderator Logged

I got banned from this site for not sharing information.

I had a suitably pithy remark composed, but tbh I'm not going to rise to it.

Suffice it to say that someone with -61 karma can't really get away with it.

Quote from: S-CAT on March 27, 2009, 08:55:17 AM
We use the Akai S-1000 for making crunchy drum kits, the S-3000 for sharp vocals and have a Sequential Prophet 2000 that has some excellent analogue filters and is very good at crunching samples when you use the bit rate converter. We have also just bought an Emu unit but not had a chance to try it out yet. If you want lo-fi with body then go for the Prophet-2000, you could pick one up for around £100-£150 and the unit is built like a tank with a very good and responsive keyboard.

I'd love to see where you're picking up P2000s for £150. Last one I saw went on eBay for about £400 (overpriced, I thought). You can pick up a Mirage for about that though, or the considerably rarer Ensoniq SDP which is a Mirage with the samples in ROM as far as I can tell.

Quote from: S-CAT on March 27, 2009, 08:55:17 AM
Has any one got any words that they sample andreverse to get different words? I have a few strange ones in my machines and will try to dig them out and post them up, there are some strange things that happen when you reverse words.

Ever heard "Don't Stop" by The Stone Roses? If you reverse it, it sounds like "Waterfall". That's because if you reverse "Waterfall" and write down what the words sound like, then sing it and play the chords backwards you get "Don't Stop" ;-)

Of course "Full Fathom Five" was actually just "Elephant Stone" played backwards...

Circuitbenders · March 27, 2009, 12:39:05 PM

Quote from: S-CAT on March 27, 2009, 08:55:17 AM
There's a trick to getting proper 8-bit crunch out of samples, but that's a secret I'm not giving up just yet ;-)

I had an Emax II that I swapped for an Ensoniq EPS...

Report to moderator Logged

You see s-cat, no offence but thats the kind of thing that turns threads you get involved in into some kind of squabbling and confrontation. You'll note that gorden put a smiley face on the end of his comment which says to everyone that its just a lighthearted comment that shouldn't be taken seriously. Your reply might well also be joking but its a bit difficult to tell and it does come accross as just being pointlessly objectionable. So once again a perfectly normal thread where someone asks for some ideas on using SK5's live, suddenly contains loads of bad vibes and the guy who posted the original question probably won't be back.

BTW, if you are going to reply to this in the next post you don't need to quote the whole thing. It makes it easier to read if you don't.

What i really want is an Emax 1. The one that apparently has 12 bit sampling stored in 8-bit memory, as used to death by Meat Beat Manifesto on Satyricon for some absurdly crunchy breaks.

One unbelivably cool lo-fi tool i do have is an 8-bit digital delay which has a ridiculous 8 seconds of delay time! I don't even want to think what 8 seconds of 8-bit sample RAM cost in 1984-85 when this thing was made. I suspect it might be a prototype or something custom made for some research department somewhere as its obviously all hand soldered (in a rather shoddy way) and its a non standard size rack. Theres knobs for everything and even CV inputs and outputs round the back, nice.

S-CAT · March 27, 2009, 03:04:11 PM

I'd love to see where you're picking up P2000s for £150. Last one I saw went on eBay for about £400 (overpriced, I thought). You can pick up a Mirage for about that though, or the considerably rarer Ensoniq SDP which is a Mirage with the samples in ROM as far as I can tell.We bought our last one for £75.00 fully working and recently was offered another for £90.00 The place that you need to be looking is the Sound on Sound site.

S-CAT · March 27, 2009, 03:13:09 PM

It was not supposed to offend and may have not been taken so seriously if I had also included a smiley face. I am sorry if humour does not translate to well here but I did try to explain about my sense of humour to you before.

Talking of delays, we have the Bel BD-80 here, not sure what they cost new but we paid £45.00 for the BD-80 and a Bel BF-20 flanger from someone on ebay, that's £45 for the pair. You should watch the SOS site for an emax.

Circuitbenders · March 27, 2009, 03:19:37 PM

Quote from: S-CAT on March 27, 2009, 03:13:09 PM

You should watch the SOS site for an emax.

I have been, theres one up right now for the bargain price of £495!

hmmmmm............ just a little over the top