Atari Sound Samplers

Introduction

My interest in sound samplers perhaps stems from my interest in Hip Hop as a teenager, from which the sampler was popularised.  This, along with my interest in computers, namely at that time the Atari ST.  

Samplers sometimes tend to get snubbed, as many believe they are only used for loop based music.  This is far from the truth, as like all instruments their limitation is often in the creative mind or lack thereof.  They are very versatile pieces of equipment, and in terms of sound, can be whatever you want them to be. 

From the Mellotron, to the the very first digital sampler which was conceived out of the UK, the EMS MUSYS, to the first commercially available digital sampler the Computer Music Melodian, and subsequently the first polyphonic digital sampler to be readily furnished in studios, albeit wealthy studios, Australia's Fairlight CMI, samplers were first introduced to me on coverdisks.  I remember being fascinated by some of the samplers which were becoming available for the Atari ST.  This led me to purchasing software based samplers such as Master Sound, before graduating to samplers and editors such as Replay 16, Avalon, Squash it! and Zero-X, alongside hardware samplers such as the Roland MS-1, Akai S2000, and Akai MPC2500.

I therefore decided to compile a non exhaustive list of the samplers which were available for the Atari 16 and 32-bit platforms.  This list was started with a handful of entries on the Atari Forum WIKI by a user named Zenichiro back in 2007, staying static for a while with a simple list of 15 entries.  In 2015 I decided to take this list, expand it, and write a small narrative about each piece of software.  As such the list in its latest maintained state can be viewed below, given the Atari Forum WIKI has proved to be unstable as of late, and I would like to retain the time and effort I put into this list. 

I still have an offline list of samplers and sample editors to research and include, so this will continue to be an ongoing catalogue.

Overview

The first samplers for the TOS range of computers started to appear in 1986.  The following non exhaustive list aims to catalogue those very samplers* and sample editors**.

*The term sampler, commonly evolved from the once termed sound digitiser, in this context meaning a tool used for digitising sound, typically shorter in length and saved to memory, both software and / or hardware based.

Not to be confused with multitrack and / or Direct to Disk (D2D) recording, once coined Tapeless Recording which later evolved to Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs).   However some listed here, although not full blown DAWs are the beginnings of what we now associate with the term offering D2D, the defining moment when samplers merged with multitracks later evolving to DAWs.  This is why people confuse traditional samplers with DAWs today.

**Lastly to distinguish, sample editors are those that only edit samples, and therefore do not sample (i.e do not create digital sounds via an ADC).  However editing is naturally a feature of all samplers.

Inclusions

·       Samplers

·       Sample Editors

·       MIDI Sample Editors

·       Sound Generators

·       D2D software / hardware offering up to two tracks of recording maximum, whether it be mono or stereo

Exclusions

·       D2D multitrack recorders (early DAWs)

·       Universal Patch Editors / Librarians not dedicated to samplers

·       Sample players

·       Samplers and sample editors included in digital trackers, as these are deemed a feature of the tracker

List