IK Multimedia’s Sampletron is a VST plugin for DAWs, or Digital Audio Workstations. VSTs are Virtual Studio Technology applications that enable further capability, processing power, instrumentation etc for software-driven music.
In this case I wanted to post about a product called Sampletron:
The image above is what you see when you are working with Sampletron in a DAW. If you look at the list on the right side, you’ll see various names like Mellotron, Chamberlin, Novatron and others and these are actually old keyboard instruments, essentially the first samplers, that played back tape loops of recorded notes of various instruments. This way, musicians could add choirs, string sections, orchestral ensembles, horn sections and other sounds to their tracks that would otherwise be too costly or logistically prohibitive.
If you’ve listened to records from the 60s and 70s then you have undoubtedly heard one of these machines even though you probably never knew it. While expensive, these machines were widely used in an era when synthesizers were barely coming around, were insanely expensive and very difficult to use. In fact most musicians could not operate original synthesizers, as they were more about engineering than music.
With the passage of time and changes in musical fads and technology, such instruments fell out of favor, with first analog and then digital synths dominating contemporary production. However, with the advent of computer-based music and DAWs, and the development of affordable technology, older technologies are being emulated. With Sampletron, an effort has been made to recreate, in gritty detail, the sounds from the original ‘Trons. This product is the result of that effort.
You can listen to some examples right here.
You’ll note immediately the recognizable textures. What I like about VST technology such as this is that it enables musicians to explore new worlds of sound at an affordable price. In an era where record labels no longer control content and genres, when anything is possible, combing old sounds with contemporary production techniques can yield some amazing results.
You can hear an original example, from one of my many music projects, here, where I mixed contemporary dubstep wobbles, metal guitars, and marimba, string and horn sections from Sampletron. Hey, don’t let the goofy name or images fool you, it’s all with a wink.
To learn more about such instruments then please look here.
Eric Chamberlain 