A big hello from out of nowhere,

I have a question, or actually two or three. I’ve owned a Yamaha s90 for about six months now, have made a few tracks, and am now looking to ‘expand the studio’. The first question is…

-Is getting plug-ins a good idea?
I’ve noticed that the s90 has three slots for such expansions, and considering the fact that I don’t have access to a 128 piece orchestra, I’ve been thinking plug ins might be a interesting route to take.

Now for question two

-What sampler to get?
I’m not looking for the ‘cutting edge’, but I’d like something that has a fair amount of FX, size doesn’t really matter, and anything preferably under $400 USD would be nice. I’ve been looking at the Kaoss Pad 3, so far it seems nice, but I’m open to suggestions.

Thanks and Cheers,
-Corpheus

Hi Corpheus:
I’m a believer of the idea that, if you have a piece of gear that you really like and are productive with, blow it out to get the most of its potential. So, in this case, I think you adding some expansion cards would be a good idea to add some very usable new sounds to a piece of gear you’re already proficient with. Expanding your studio slowly and incrementally lets you stay creative, rather than being overwhelmed with new things to learn.

Regarding the sampler, I could recommend a few options. If you want to stick with hardware, you might as well consider staying in the Yamaha family. There are old Yamaha A5000 samplers out there that you could find on Ebay for your $400-or-less limit, and they even have the fully expanded RAM, a CD-ROM drive and a bunch of sample CDs included. These are very good machines that were top of the heap when they were released in 2000. And they include some really cool effects.

Part of the reason hardware samplers like those are so inexpensive now is that the popularity of hardware samplers — other than workstations like Akai MPCs and Roland MV-8800, etc. — has fallen fast. Many people are using software sampling now, so you could consider going that route. Yamaha has made the S90 with a USB port, and it integrates very well with Steinberg Cubase or Nuendo software, since Steinberg is now owned by Yamaha. Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) like Cubase now have pretty good software sampling capabilities. Cubase 4 Studio sells at a street price of about $400 and includes the HALion One sample-playback plug-in instrument. The full Cubase 4 also includes HALion One and many other pro features and instruments, but streets for about $800. Either way, you’d have to pay extra to upgrade to the full professional version of Steinberg HALion 3 software sampler.

I think your choice comes down to whether or not you want to more into computer production. If you want to stick to hardware, try the S90 expansion boards and a hardware sampler. Otherwise, if you think you’ll like computer production, you might as well get into it now. You can get both sampling and new synth sounds through software, plus I like the workflow of computer music better, however, it may come at a higher initial investment.