SAMPLESLICER MKIII

SAMPLESLICER MKIII

The Sampleslicer is the ultimate realtime sampler for your modular system.

No, it is not a sample player! It is a real-time sampler/slicer for your modular Eurorack system, with features that move it far beyond the scope of a regular sample-player.

It has been a while that the SAMPLESLICER became a classic and a sought after module. Due to the obsolete chipset chosen on the MKI and MKII I was not able to continue building these beauties. Meanwhile I am frequently asked about their availability.
Lets make use of modern times and bring the Samplesicer back to live on another level!
The MKIII is born and the SControl is added to the line!

What is new!
SD card: to load and save samples.
STYLE: sample playback character. 
REC SYNC: start sampling quantized to a clock pulse. 
PUNCH IN: rewrite chosen individual slices instead of all 16 at once. 
MONITOR: mix the incoming audio with the played back samples to the output. REVERSE: the samples can now be played backwards 
STEREO: instead of mono

And the SControl, a complete new, different way to record and control your recorded samples.

What does it do?

The SAMPLESLICER MKIII is a real-time monophonic STEREO sampler, including a 16 step voltage-controlled sequencer. The incoming sound is chopped up automatically into 16 parts by the internal or external clock signal and spread out over the 16 steps in the internal sequencer. 

How long can it sample?

The length of the recorded sample is set by a clock-divider which also functions a a "SPEED" control after recording, so the recording time is always linked to the incoming clock signal. You can choose between time divisions of /4, /3, /2/, 1, x2, x3, x4. If the divider is set to 1 the sample time is equal to 16 incoming clock-pulses. If set to x2 the clock speed is doubled and sample length is equal to 8 incoming clock-pulses, spread over 16 slices (so half the time). It will produce even more glitchy fun when set to x3, as it will spread 6 clock pulses over 16 slices.
How does the sequencer work? Inside the Sampleslicer there is a 16-step voltage controlled sequencer to play back the sound. Every step is dedicated to a 16th part of the recorded sound inside the memory. When the 16 steps are full the sequencer starts playing from the chosen start point till the chosen amount of steps are played. This can be in one-shot mode or in loop mode for infinite looping. The start point and play length is determined by potentiometers or CV input.

What is more?

Before I dive in new options first have a look at the iconic frontpanel design that is clearly a follow up on the design of the MKII. The power of the Sampleslicer is the way you can play it like an instrument which goes beyond the way most samplers are used for.
My vision on the modular world is that you get most fun out of realtime created sounds. Therefor the MKI and MKII where not equipped with an SD card reader. But, the MKIII will be!
The interface and workflow is designed in a way that it still encourages to sample realtime but the samples can be saved just by selecting one of the 16 slots and one press on the "SAVE" button. Also loading a previous sampled sound is as easy as pressing "LOAD".

There are several added "MODE" functions. These are very easy to acces as they all have their dedicated push button.
STYLE: sample playback character.
REC SYNC: start sampling quantized to a clock pulse.
PUNCH IN: rewrite chosen individual slices instead of all 16 at once.
MONITOR: mix the incoming audio with the played back samples to the output.
LOOP: select 1 shot or looping play mode.
PITCH: select different pitch ranges for the pitch knob.

The new MKIII can play "REVERSE"!
By pressing the reverse button the samples are played backwards. You can also control this with an external gate.

As many people requested the MKIII is stereo.
While the MKI and MKII where mono samplers the MKIII samples in stereo.

 

How about a controller that brings a new way of playing the SAMPLESLICER?

SCONTROL

The SCONTROL is an USB powered keyboard controller for the SAMPLESLICER. The keys on the SCONTROL correspond with the startpoint on the SAMPLESLICER. 
Imagine the keys corresponding the startpoint and play through the slices on the keys.
With the loop mode on the sampleslicer you can play in repeating loop or 1 shot mode while holding the key down.
As the MKIII has an added record mode that makes it possible to punch-in new samples on selected slices you can now create a sequence of 16 different recordings and play each slice back with the SCONTROL.
The SCONTROL has last played key priority and gives visual feedback with a LED on which slice the startpoint is selected.

Technical nerdy details

The MKIII is running on a RP2040. The RP2040 is a 32-bit dual ARM Cortex-M0+ microcontroller integrated circuit by Raspberry Pi Ltd.
The AD/DA converter for the audio path is a high quality AK4558EN 32-bit 2 channel audio CODEC with PLL by Asahi Kasei Microdevices/AKM.
The CV inputs are converted to 12bit.

16HP
+12V 99mA
-12V 25mA

Who is behind the Sampleslicer

The Sampleslicer MKIII is designed by Ginkosynthese in cooperation with Rob Bothof (firmware).

Ginkosynthese is a one man company run by Jan Willem Hagenbeek. He made his first music creation steps in 1992 using his parents computer. From there he started to experiment with sounds and trackers to make music. This resulted in a range of live acts from 2004 in collaboration with several other musicians and visual artists. His first live solo project (2004) on stage was an atari-controlled orchestra of electronic toys for kids. Since then more audio-visual and art- projects have been presented on stage. A significant milestone was establishing an electronic musical instruments company Ginkosynthese in 2012. As a professional synth designer he is always searching for new ideas to make non standard musical electronic instruments. In the past 12 years Ginkosynthese has released some highly appriciated and sought after modules like the TTLFO, the VOLTAGE RUNNER, the BATTLE and TEPHRA. And of course the classic SAMPLESLICER.

Rob Bothof (1977) works as a creative coder, artist, inventor, engineer, educator and all round technical problem solver, covering an exciting blend of commercial, technical, artistic and non profit projects. His artistic work emerges in the crossfire between art and science, is primarily focused on technology and encompasses a broad range of interests, such as machine interaction, instrument building, autonomous systems, video games, sound design, improvisation, animation and procedural generation.

A short manual to start having fun

Before you start, there are a few things that I will briefly explain as this makes your first steps in sampling easier.

Style is the way it handles the timestretching. It has two options, the first is no time stretching and this gives a clean play back but it cuts parts of the slice when the clock is getting faster and simply duplicates the sample if the clock slows down. This can bring funky rythmic effects.

The second option is a timestretch that gives some old school ring mod sound while the slice is stretched to fit the clockspeed.
Rec sync can be set to “off” or “on”, when it is off the sampling always starts directly when hit the sample button. When it is “on” it waits till the first clock pulse after you pressed sample.
Punch in is a way to overwrite only selected slices. The slices that are overwritten after you press sample are the selected slices set by the start point and play length. To resample all 16 slices by pressing the sample button you have to set the punch in mode “off”.
Monitor gives you the ability to listen to the incoming signal, I mostly set it to “on” but there might be some moments you just don't want it as you have your signal split somewhere in your patch.
Loop is the way slices are played back. If loop is “off” selected slices are only played back once and you need to give a trigger to the gate input to retrigger the playback on any moment. In Loop mode “on” the slices keep playing in a loop and the gate input only works with gate signals and the playback is quantized to the clock signal.
Pitch gives you the option to set the range of the pitch knob. It has 4 options. The first option is no range and going up to +/-5 octaves in the last option. The 3rd option is 1V/oct!

Using an SD card
The SampleSlicer can use a micro SDCard to store and retrieve 16 sample-banks of 16 audio slices.

Save
- Use the SLOT dial to select one of the 16 sample-banks.
- Press the SAVE button shortly to store the current 16 audio slices into the selected sample-bank on the SDCard.
Load
- Use the SLOT dial to select one of the 16 sample-banks.
- Press the LOAD button shortly to load 16 audio slices from the selected sample-bank into the SampleSlicer.

A fresh new SD card need to be formatted.
The SampleSlicer can format a SDCard into a single EXFat partition that is compatible with the SampleSlicer.
To format an SD card hold the LOAD and the SAVE button together for 5 seconds (until all 16 LEDs are off). All existing data will be erased!

On the formatted SD card you will find a file that is called README. This file consists more information about using the SD card.

Unfortunatly there are a few SD cards that seems to not work properly with the Sampleslicer, here is a list of SD cards to use and SD cards to avoid.

Latest firmware

You might want to try the new firmware! There has been a lot improvements made.
To load the firmware into the sampleslicer you just insert a USB cable while pressing down the small switch next to the USB socket with something small like a screwdriver. No need to power the module from an eurorack system.
The sampleslicer should pop up like a data storage on your screen (if it did not try it again as it is a bit difficult to press the switch while inserting the cable, yes I know, I should have placed that switch on the back of the module...). The zip file must be unzipped before loading the .uf2 file on the module.
After the uload is finished the module automatically disconnects!