Minimal Wave Records

How much has sampling been used in the minimal synth world mainly with the old analog Akai and Emu samplers? I know Depeche hit the nail on the head with that. But, has any one else more obscure done so? I have an idea, as someone with not too many synths, to sample their drum sounds sequenced by a good midi sequencer sync’d with a 606 sending out triggers to work other sequencers/basslines/etc.

samplers in minimal/wave songs

Back in the day there were not so many sampling options out there but there were delays that could ‘hold’ a digital recording until power was cycled and play it back when a gate was received… I hear some of that going on on some old records.

Some current bands use samples live to avoid lugging tons of gear around.  For example I compose in the studio on old synths and then record sections into an MPC-500 so that I don’t have to bring as much gear to play live.  It sounds pretty good/organic since there is still plenty of subtle variation among notes, drum hits etc (not the same BD every time, not a single bass synth note played back at different pitches.)

It does require an extra annoying step in preparing a track for live play, and it also limits the possibility for a different live sound or improvisation.  I’m going to try to get away from that moving forward… it’s been a helpful strategy but is beccoming an obvious creative obstruction in some ways.

Your idea of using some sampled synth percussion sounds seems workable, particularly if the sequencer lets you switch   patterns on the fly and has a tempo knob or fader.

yeah, extensive sampling was the basically strictly the province of trevor horn and other multi-gazillionaires until the mid-late 80’s…but by 84/85, most relatively big synthpop and industrial acts still active went that route (cabaret voltaire, spk ptv, etc). sampling does pop up here and there in some later minimal acts, glenn winter springs to mind.

boss has one of those half-rack units that has maybe 2 seconds of sampling memory, and can be triggered - i think it’s the rds-10. is that what you’re referring to, david? something like that has always seemed almost useful to me….but not quite…maybe it’d be great if you had like, 6 of them…

how were you planning on syncing the 606 to the sampler, hayden?

that rsd-10 looks pretty interesting, could make a fun toy. i have a korg kms-30 that can convert din sync to midi and visa versa. So I could sync my 606 with a midi sequencer/sampler. Another kind of roundabout idea I had that would still keep maximum interaction would be to get a drum machine with all the pattern programming benefits common to old machienes and indv outs (707? or mod my 606? or the rare stix?) and run those outs into the triggers of my Octapad which then can translate that midi information into an inexpensive 12bit old school sampler. But, I think the 707 can send out midi messages so that would eliminate the whole octapad thing. Or just go with the initial mpc thing sync’d to the analog world.

minimal sampling

I wasn’t thinking of the RSD, but I’m sure one of those would be rad.  The RSD takes a sine wave input (as I understand it) rather than CV/gate.  (as an aside, those half rack Boss FX are very very cool for hacking… I put a CV input on an RPS-10 that allows live FM of delays… extremely strange sounds, hacked the flanger for CV in too.)

There is a Vesta Kaza delay that has CV/gate and Ed DMX has another, maybe a bel?  Yeah, here it is:
http://www.durftal.com/music/edmx/dmxstudio/bd80.htm
looks super sweet!

What about digging up the simmons sampler?  it should have all the triggers inputs ready to go and it looks VR.  there is a casio gadget out there, RZ-1/CZ-101 era, that does triggers to midi.  Hook that up to an EMAX rack or S-700 and you should be squared away.  Ah the S-700… my first sampler… I’ve got to dig up some of those old industrial/home taper tracks from the early ‘90s.

I don’t even want to think about what Hayden was doing in the early ‘90s!

well, during the early nineties i was a middle-aged businessman traveling the world making millions of dollars by investing in various textile and pager factories. now, i have retired and settled into college campuses surrounded by some synthesizers…

that simmons sdx (sampling drum machine computer) looks pretty awesome. it’s a tank. well, I think Shari may be picking up an emax rack this weekend (!!). I also see some prophet 2000’s on ebay and one of those would be nice to have. also considering just getting an mpc to make sequencing samples all compact. i think there are ways to make it more “interactive.” time will tell…