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Geddy Lee - Samplers/Sequencers/Foot Controllers - where to start?

#21
So far, so good with this 708II sampler. One more question, though. I sampled "Haah" sound from AC/DC - Dirty Deeds, which occurs on every downbeat of the verse. I can't get the pedal to play it at the precise moment I need it played, though - there always seems to be a delay between when I push the left pedal and when the sound comes out.

Doing that sound vocally is a REAL voice killer.

Any ideas?

--joe Link Removed
 
#22
I made my own live sampler very cheaply, and it works like a charm. I use an old IBM Thinkpad 600 with a custom-made software/hardware interface setup. The triggers are old NES peripherals. I use the plain NES controller velcroed to the upper horn of my bass, my drummer gets a NES Advantage, and on the floor for my guitarist and I, there's a PowerPad. Each trigger has it's own sets of samples with 16 different banks for a total of 448 available samples live! I've yet to find the polyphony limit. The only size limitation for samples is disk space, which is a 9GB hard drive. I've even coded in programmable button modes like looping, stopping, and mommentary playback. Planning on adding pausing, reversing, and maybe even some speed/tap in functions. All in all, I could rebuild the whole setup for under $250, including the price of the laptop.
 
#24
snoopyjc said:
Ok - I'm game - tell me more! Are you running Windoze on it or Linux? Can you send me some schematics? How do you tie all of those controllers in to the computer? What does the software do? Is it written in C?
--joe
Click to expand...

Unfortunatey, my current gigging version is running on a Win98 Pentium 266MHz w/192MB. The interface is through the parallel port. The current software was thrown together in Visual Basic 5.0 with the DirectX 9 API, and was originally only meant to be temporary. But it's run reliably for about 3 years now, through about 60+ shows. It has some flaws at the moment. Minor timing issues (up to 1/4 sec delay), minimal sample management, being written in VB for windows, etc. I've started working of a C version for Linux, which will be 11 times better, for many reasons, which I'm thinking of officially releasing.
 
#25
snoopyjc said:
So far, so good with this 708II sampler. One more question, though. I sampled "Haah" sound from AC/DC - Dirty Deeds, which occurs on every downbeat of the verse. I can't get the pedal to play it at the precise moment I need it played, though - there always seems to be a delay between when I push the left pedal and when the sound comes out.

Doing that sound vocally is a REAL voice killer.

Any ideas?

--joe Link Removed
Click to expand...
Ok - I finally gave up and spent some money on a Roland SPD-S sampling pad. I sampled and loaded the sound into it, and it works seamlessly, playing the sample as soon as the pad is hit. Unfortunately, our drummer can't hit it at the right time, so I bought a footswitch for it and I do the sound myself. In fact, I turned off all of the pads and just use the footswitch (a boss FS-6) alone. This lets me get at 2 different sounds, and I can change the patch and get at 2 more sounds any time I want to. I stuck the pad on top of my amp and wire the footswitch down next to my 708II. I wire the output of the pad into the "AUX" input of the 708II, which works great as a little mixer!!

top_L.jpg


[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

--joe
 
#26
Neat solution ... but I wonder if there's anything better these days. All I want is to be able to trigger samples (one-shot) with my feet. 2 samples per patch (that would be per song for me) with 8 patches would probably be adequate.

I can see the SPD-SX is an update on the SPD-S but I'm actually thinking of something much simpler ... I don't need the drum pads, just a simple trigger by footswitch solution.

Any ideas ?
 
#28
Not sure of your budget, but these are the real analog synths I use to play our Rush covers, and they absolutely nail the sounds. The Moog Phatty (Geddy's main touring lead synth) on top is for high leads & solos, the Dave Smith Prophet '08 is splittable & polyphonic, and I use it on Tom Sawyer, Subdivisions & a few others, and the Moog Taurus are used on most of the older Rush classics & also for MIDI-triggering a Roland sampler (not shown). Total outlay was around $5.5k, but you could do a similar digital setup for less than 1/2 of what I paid.

taurussetup1002.gif
 
#29
snoopyjc said:
iPad??
Click to expand...

Key thing for me is triggering it with my foot. So in addition to the iPad I'd be looking at boss footswitches plus some kind of trigger to midi converter ... starting to look expensive (trigger to midi converters => Roland TMC-6.)

I'd like to be able to get away with footswitches + either Yamaha SU10 or else Boss SP404. But either of those would need a trigger-to-midi converter, which is why the SPD-S setup above is the best solution I've seen yet. I was just somehow hoping that in the intervening 8 years something better might have come along.
 
#30
superdick2112 said:
Not sure of your budget, but these are the real analog synths ...
Click to expand...

That may suit the OP but it's an order of magnitude bigger and more expensive than what I had in mind. I have no interest in synths, just want to add the odd vocal sample or percussion sample here or there. Here's my ideal solution:

yamaha-su-10.jpg


plus

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Unfortunately it looks like I need to add the expensive

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in between to make it work.
 
#32
snoopyjc said:
I wonder if this would work with the iPad?
Link Removed
Click to expand...

That looks promising, for use with Jamup at least (Invalid Link Removed).

JamUp lets you assign a variety of actions to each switch, the most obvious of which is to simply turn an effect unit on and off. You could also use it to toggle a whole preset collection of amps and effects, or control the Jam Player or Sampler units within JamUp.
Click to expand...
 
#34
BigBeatNut said:
So, let me understand, you're connecting the boss footswitch pedal to the trigger input ? I'm asking because the manual doesn't seem to suggest you can do that. It's talking about settings for all kinds of Roland sensors but not a footswitch.
Click to expand...

Actually, I don't remember. I sold both a few years back and just do those sounds orally now. For other intro samples, like "Bring Me To Life", I just record them on my zoom pedal directly because the startup delay doesn't matter for them.
 

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