> does the a3000 work well as a studio tool in conjunction > with the live show stuff? i have been looking for a new > sampler and it seems intriguing but i got the impression > that you can only run one sort of set of samples in > it at a time. I think you have misunderstood the layout of the a3k. It can have 127 programs in memory at a time - one of them is active the rest are in memory only. A program is a complete setup of sounds, effects, audio routings etc. The good thing is that the program doesn't neccerarily hold the sound. Many programs can share a sample or sample bank (a multsampled instrument) so it is very easy to add or remove stuff from a live set. I have worked like this since 1997 and some of the sounds in our live set have been there sine i got the machine. My _only_ headache with the a3k is the parameter RAM. The PRAM is the memory that stores all the samples params and it is too small for my taste. It is virtually impossible for me to run out of sample ram before the puny parameter ram runs out. Now, keep in mind that I'm a ReCycle-holic, which means that almost every loop I use have been chopped up and consists of 20-50 samples and this uses up a whole lot of parameter ram. I've hit the ceiling a few times when putting together a live set. We ususally play about eight songs and they each have three to four recycled loops - that makes an average 100 samples per track so it's easy to see why this is a problem. I've had to resample the recycled samples a few times. Other than that it is a wonderful sampler. The internal layout makes it very effective when used in loop / beats oriented music. I guess it is not as suited for juggling monster-multisamples of Steinway grand pianos around, but I've never really needed that. It's filters are wonderful and the internal effects are really good. I have an expansion board to give me a total of 10 separate outs which is really good for both studio and live use. I hope this helped. Ny $0.04 (inflation) /Tage
