Selecting the Best SamplerBuying Guide

If the guitar era stretched from the 1950s to 1970s, then the decades since have been the golden era of synthesis and sampling. Alongside analog and digital synthesis, the hardware sampler was right there at the birth of house, electro, techno, and hip-hop in the form of gear like the Fairlight CMI, Akai MPC, E-MU Systems SP-12 and SP-1200, and others.

After sampling largely shifted music software and laptop production in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, hardware samplers made a stunning return in recent years. Now, those looking to explore classic and cutting edge samplers have a wealth of options at their disposal.

We take a look at some iconic and modern samplers in the list below. Since past and present samplers often double as synthesizers, it’s helpful to remember that whatever piece of kit you settle on, you’ll likely be getting a powerful hybrid tool.

Keyboard Samplers at a glance:

• The first major sampler available to the masses
• Big, powerful, and expensive creative tools
• Cross-genre appeal

The first keyboard-based samplers were all behemoths and uniformly expensive. This iconic breed of samplers, from the Fairlight CMI to the E-mu Emulator and Synclavier, practically exists in a category all by itself. These samplers were incredibly powerful and sonically ubiquitous in 1980s music. (While the Mellotron is, by definition, a sampler of sorts, it was quite limited in features and playability. Sound-wise it is iconic, but its capabilities pale in comparison to the Failight, Emulator, and Synclavier.)

By the mid-1980s, Devo were well-known users of the Fairlight CMI. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) also used it quite a lot, especially on the track “If You Leave.” But the Fairlight also found favor with 1970s pop artists like Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, and Todd Rundgren.

Many people will recall the E-mu Emulator from the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. When Ferris calls in sick, he uses the Emulator II to play sounds that fake an illness. Depeche Mode used an Emulator on recordings, but also the Talking Heads, New Order, and pioneering acid house act 808 State.

The Synclavier, on the other hand, began its life as an FM synthesizer. Its creators licensed FM technology from Yamaha, who later used it in their DX series synths. In later iterations, the Synclavier became the first sampler to exploit 16-bit digital sampling technology. Pionering electronic musicians Laurie Anderson and Suzanne Ciani both used the Synclavier on projects. But it also found use on two other major 1980s albums—Krafterk’s Electric Cafe and Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

As samplers transitioned into drum machine and rackmount form factors and their technology eclipsed that of the Fairlight, Emulator, and Synclavier, these behemoth samplers gradually fell out of favor. But they’re still highly regarded and sought-after, even decades after release.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ensoniq put out several keyboard samplers. A number of techno producers, especially Autechre, latched onto these keyboards, and even Kanye West owned an ASR-10. Why? Because these artists found that they could really warp their samplers with Ensoniq’s sampling and synthesis technology. In retrospect, Ensoniq’s work can be viewed as a bridge between the Fairlight-type of sampling and the 1990s and early 2000s obsession with sampling keyboard workstations.

Roland also released sampler keyboards in the 1980s, like the S-10 and S-50. They might not be as heralded as E-mu and Ensoniq keyboards, but Roland’s offerings were very capable instruments.

Drum Machine & Groovebox Samplers at a glance:

• Pioneered by Akai and EMU
• Built-in drum pads and sequencers
• Popularized by hip hop and electronic music artists

The drum machine sampler category begins with the Akai MPC and E-mu Systems SP series, respectively. Akai and E-mu early releases established the format—desktop units with drum pads and sound tweaking capabilities. We could also call these machines “sampler grooveboxes.”

As far as legendary Akai MPCs go, the 60 and 2000XL are known both for their sound and how users can edit and trigger samples with the Roger Linn-designed drum pads. Although those two samplers are legendary, E-mu’s SP-12 and SP-1200 are both revered by hip-hop producers, many of whom produced a number of tracks on these machines throughout the 1990s.

As Akai gradually moved away from hardware samplers in the late 2000s, Roland’s SP-404 series samplers became popular sampler grooveboxes. Later, Elektron filled the gap with its Octatrack. Extremely powerful but notoriously difficult to program, the Octatrack has been used by the likes of Panda Bear and NIN’s Alessandro Cortini.

In 2017, Elektron released the Digitakt, a much more user friendly sampler groovebox—or, as they call it, “drum computer.” And in the last few years, Pioneer entered the sampler groovebox category with its DJ Toraiz SP-16, a powerful machine that boasts analog circuitry from Sequential’s Dave Smith.

Rackmount Samplers at a glance:

• Once again, Akai and E-mu were the big players
• Powerful machines with MIDI connectivity for computer sequencing or keyboard play
• Cheaper alternatives to the iconic sampler drum machines

These days, rackmount samplers hardly get much attention. But back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they were very useful tools in the electronic music community.

Boards of Canada, for instance, have noted on several occasions that they mastered an Akai S1000 rackmount sampler. It’s likely that this piece of kit, and not some mysterious arsenal of analog synthesizers and reel-to-reels, allowed the duo to impart a degraded and psychedelic sound to their recordings.

Not surprisingly, E-mu also released several high quality rackmount samplers over the years. The company’s ESI series offers a number of polyphonic samplers. E-mu’s Ultra series were also great rackmount samplers, released in the years leading up to the explosion in DAWs.

Yamaha’s A400 and Roland’s Fantom XR and S-550 are a few other options for rackmount samplers. They don’t have the street cred of the old Akai and Emu offerings, but they’re more than capable samplers.