High quality sampler circuit?

gmeredith · Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:12 pm Post subject: High quality sampler circuit?

Are there any chips or circuits for a recorder that samples at more than the ISD chips maximum 8kHz rate, maybe somewhere around 15K would be good? Or can the ISD recorder chips be reclocked to sample around this speed?

Cheers, Graham

zipzap · Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 1:41 am Post subject:

There is that old book by dieter doepfer called "Sound sampler". It´s really old school, modular 12bit sampler, well explained. Most of the circutry may still be up to date, although i guess there are better chips by now. Found it in the library and it tought me haow a sampler is constructed. Maybe by now things are realized completly different, so this hint might be bullshit.
I was also searching the web, but didn´t really find anything. I would like to have a little (lofi) sampler module in my modular that can tune to 1v/oct and that can mod the start/end point of the loop. I read about some of the voice recorder chips, and they all seem to have big limitations.

gmeredith · Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2006 5:31 pm Post subject:

I just found this ISD chip, from the Winbond site:

http://www.winbond-usa.com/mambo/content/view/160/290

It has variable sample rate from 4 - 12KHz, recording time 26 - 120 seconds. That's getting kind of useful in quality. Anyone made one using this?

cheers, Graham

zipzap · Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 2:50 am Post subject:

I read somewhere that these chips always have a short delay before they start recording or playback. Maybe not with this one though. Do you know the price of that chip?

gmeredith · Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 4:07 pm Post subject:

I haven't been able to find anyone with a price on them. According to the Winbond site, they've only just released them in April 2006, so maybe distributers haven't had many requests for them yet to advertise them.
As for the delay, Apparently that depends on the way you set them up, and the output device. According to the specs the actual response time is in the order of milliseconds. All of the ISD chips are like this, even the old 1416 chip, which I have, and I notice an appreciable delay when using the output to run a relay, for example.

These new chips look promising, you can even buy a pre-built test board that connects via USB to your computer to load wav files, set loop points, etc.

Cheers, Graham

zipzap · Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 4:20 pm Post subject:

Well that does sound promising! If you get one of those and build something please tell us how it went. I would like to have that dog bark and the breaking window in my drumbox!

gmeredith · Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 4:26 pm Post subject:

"..dog bark and the breaking window.."
Ahh! Where would we be without the 80's Laughing

I'm planning to shoehorn one of these or more into my Casio SK8 to make it into a mega-loop sampler. This new chip also has a better sampling rate than the casio as well, good for percussion sounds.

Cheers, Graham

Gimpoid · Joined: Jul 19, 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Ireland

sounds good g, something i have also been thinking about .any links on the web you know ,for some extra info. Twisted Evil

p.s nice to meet y`all Very Happy

gmeredith · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 6:06 pm Post subject:

Hi Gimpoid,

Here is a link to the demo board you can buy from Winbond, the ISD chip manufacturer:

The ISD-ES-1700-USB-PB
Evaluation System for ISD1700 Series

http://www.winbond-usa.com/mambo/content/view/45/140/#ES17xxUSB

This board is an already functioning message recorder/sampling board, already built. You can connect it to a computer via USB and upload samples, set loop points, etc. It also functions as a stand-alone board, running off batteries, with an external speaker.

Cheers, Graham