Samplers / Sampling

Two and a half years after the launch of Yamaha's impressive Motif workstation synth, the range has been further enhanced and upgraded. How much better can it get? We find out...

Yamaha' s cutting-edge reverberation processor uses convolution techniques to sample the ambience of real acoustic environments, allowing extremely accurate simulations.

Yamaha's RS7000 is a groovebox with a difference. Incorporating a sequencer, sampler and a synth, it claims to offer everything you might need for modern music production.

Yamaha's new budget phrase sampler is designed to allow rapid creation of phrase- and loop-based music. Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser put it to the test.

Yamaha's former sampling flagship, the A3000, represented a novel but very powerful approach to sampler design. The new A4000 and A5000, as Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser report, maintain the distinctive design ethos, but should provide even stronger competition to the established names.

The SU700, Yamaha's entry into the 'groove sampler' stakes, is derived from their A3000 studio sampler and inherits some of its sibling's most impressive features — including adventurous effects and imaginative sample-manipulation facilities — while adding quite a few tricks of its own. Derek Johnson and Debbie Poyser go loopy.

When Yamaha Launched the A3000 a year ago their approach won quite a few fans, and now they're demonstrating their renewed commitment to sampling with a comprehensive upgrade. Chris Carter's movin' on up...

Given the wide range of studio and synthesis equipment Yamaha make, it's perhaps odd that there's been no serious sampler in their catlogue for almost 10 years. Now, after putting a toe in the water with the well-received SU10 mini-sampler, they're taking the pro sampling plunge once more with the A3000. Chris Carter finds that still waters run deep...

After a hiatus of several years, Yamaha return to sampling with the cheapest, most portable dedicated sampler yet. Derek Johnson coins a phrase...