Sonicware SmplTrek is a new neat portable, feature-rich sampler for on the go for little money, now on Kickstarter starting at $299 USD.
There are tons of analog and digital synthesizers on the market. I think the market is well supplied at the moment. Wherever there is still room, there is the sampler market.
Today the young developers from Sonicware, creators of Liven grooveboxes, launched a compact sampler on Kickstarter that looks really tempting.
Sonicware SmplTrek
SmplTrek is a compact, portable sampler that is affordable for everyone. It is not tied to the studio allowing to compose and perform anywhere and anytime. SamplTrek features 16 scenes (1 song) where each scene gives you 10 sequencer tracks. It consists of loop, one-shot, drum, instrument, and MIDI tracks.
The engine is built around a one-touch sample recording feature with an auto-slicing feature that splits automatically your samples across the pads. Sampling is versatile. You can sample any sounds with the built-in microphone, via the inputs (mic/guitar/line) or via a USB-connected smartphone/PC/Mac. It also allows you to record instantly a signal with an effect processor like distortion on your guitars. Alternatively, you can import samples from a SD card.
Time-stretching, pitch-changing and resampling functions are also onboard. But nowadays every modern sampler has to have that to be honest. To refine your sounds, SmplTrek features 30 internal DSP effects. All the engine parameters including the mixer can be recorded in the sequences as automation. Once you track is done, you can mix down it through a mastering effect chain and export it as a single audio file. Clever feature that enables producing right in the single box.
According to Dr. Endo, the main developer, SmplTrek has 30 voices in total. A final decision how many voices a track can have is not yet fixed. He says in a chat: “we didn’t decide number of voices per track so far. Because each track can share voice processing resource. Every voice have priority level. And when new voice will happen, most lowest priority voice will be muted”.
Interface
The interface is reminiscent of some gamepad-style controller. Yes. that’s the concept behind it. It is operable with gamepad style controls, 2 big orange buttons, and transport controls. Plus, you get a 4 parameter push/turn control knobs, and 16 navigation buttons allowing to operate the scenes and the step sequencer.
For performing your sounds, it hosts 15 full-color velocity sensitive LED pads. They can be used as drum pads or keyboard. An Elektron-style OLED display gives you a visual representation of the menu. Small but enough for the format in my opinion. On the left side, you also have built-in speaks making it ready for mobile music production.
Backside
Connection side, you get a two line inputs where one is compatible with guitars and two outputs. It also has a full MIDI interface (in/out) on DIN sockets and a DC12V power supply input. Cool feature for mobile musicians, you can also operate it with batteries.
Also important to know is that there is an USB port. Sonicware promises effortless music streaming. Thus you can full-quality audio to your audiences all over the internet with a single USB cable. Interesting, I’m curious how this will be implemented. Lastly, the developers ship it with 500+ high-quality factory sample sounds.
At first glance it looks like a solid little sampler for little money. If you are interested, you should not miss the 2-day offer
Sonicware SmplTrek is available now for pre-order on Kickstarter. For 48 hours only, you can purchase it for a super early bid price for under $299 USD. Then the next 8 days the price will be under $314 USD, $329 USD the next days and finally the standard Kickstarter price will be $399 USD.
More information here: Kickstarter
Backed these guys even tho I have an spmk2 and soon to be m8 lol
I like their products and feel they aren’t very known which is a shame since they pack so much into their products and keep the prices low but they are relatively new to the scene so it’s understandable.
Any company that puts 8 audio outputs on these toys will clean up the market.
and this device will cost like twice or more because you need a different case, circuit etc.
Looks good! I-want-that!
stereo, waveform editting, timestretching, sampling… A lot of ‘phrase samplers’ have too many restrictions. This device has a lot of features that I’m looking for..