Hardware vs Software Sampling

The latest episode of composer Tom Holkenborg’s Studio Time With Junkie XL series takes a look at hardware vs software sampling. 

Holkenborg is best known for his soundtracks for films like Mac Max: Fury Road and Deadpool and his production career as Junkie XL. In his Studio Time series, though, Holkenborg offers an in-depth look at his gear and the way that he works.

For an in-depth discussion with Holkeborg, see the interview Junkie XL & The Art Of Scoring With Synthesizers.

14 thoughts on “Hardware vs Software Sampling

  1. You guys skipped the Reverb video!! I’m pretty sure he produced that one exclusively for the commenters on Synthtopia.

  2. OMG.. S50 in the early eighties hardly!
    Ensonique first sampler after synclavier and fairlight ..what! How about the EMULATOR.
    Please you history in shape because a lot kids are taking your info in ..and its wrong.

  3. actually the Mirage was the 4th major sampler after The Fairlight, Synclavier and Emulator. It was revolutionary in 1985 as it had a retail price approx $1700 compared to $12k for the Emulator. Programming in Hexadecimal on a 2 digit display was actually pretty easy once you got the hang of counting in base16. If for some reason you thought 8bit 22khz sampling sounded bad (no one did back then, really, no one) Ensoniq also made an addon card to get higher sample rates. If you were wealthy you could even hook it to a 1985 Macintosh 512k and do visual editing with a 3rd part app.

  4. So excellent. I have wanted to hear a systematic comparison like this for years — particularly between the Mirage, Roland and Kontakt. Thumbs up to JXL.

    1. It’s not just octaves- the sample rate, bit rate & digital-analog converters also play a part. Transposing makes the difference more obvious.

      It would’ve been cool if old mate Tom discussed that in depth. But after dealing with that Ensoniq I can empathize with ending the shoot there. Great video nonetheless!

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