Homer Simpson Sampler

• Homer Simpson Sampler 2017
• Homer Simpson Ampersand

It was a great feature for controlled chaos. Along with a sequencer (I used 'Creator', this was back in 1991) you could 'scan' through long tracks with often amazing results. My experiments involved among others, Miles Davis and Weather Report tracks, and 4 arrange layers of various loops (and you could set loops to things like swing value lengths.) They would became insane new 'free jazz' tracks, I still get tranced out to them.After coming across Jan's music and realizing it was this same method, I tried to recreate the effect with software (wound up with something close using James Walker Hall's samplers). Still, somehow have not gotten the same feel. Click to expand.I don't think sound-wise it was so much different (with the caveat that the built-in effects were great, especially for that the time.) From my standpoint it could have been a lot of things, and truth be told, I have not put an excessive amount of time into the 'recreation' of the entire system.

Homer Simpson Sampler 2017

'Creator'/The Atari were used in a very 'systems' fashion, my studio at the time being very optimised/biased towards particular ways of experimentation. The looping options of 'Creator's' four arrange levels, it's ability to edit the loops to fractional values, the Atari's MIDI timing, and little things like having the ASR running a very slow, long LFO to alter the pitch in a micro-tonal value, other functions having random values, it all adds up to a particular sound of a particular 'machine' (meaning the whole set-up). For sure, things like the 'Transwave' function are still unique, but I am not saying that the sample scan technique cannot not be properly done to be indistinguishable from the ASR in software, I just have not been able to do it to a level of success that would inspire me to not use my ASR. Plus, even though I own several software samplers I have only gotten it to work properly in Reaktor.As to oversampling, it was a clean sounding sampler for sure, but most of the competition (price-wise) and anything since has, generally speaking, a similar level of quality (which those who love 12 bit MPC's do not prefer!).

The pitch-shifting algorithm was very pleasant though, different sounding than say an EMU, so I suppose it did have enough of a certain sonic character to be unique. I think it was just a particular combination of features, sound, price, and effects (a single engine version of what later became the DSP/4 because the effects were so sited) that made/make it so popular. Click to expand.It was much like a wavetable (the purchased ones were just different waves strung together), but the Transwave could be a SINGLE user sample.

Homer Simpson Ampersand

The general idea has pretty much been represented and varied in UL uploads such as those by Rick Scott (especially his application of the 'Fluxus' module), John Nowak, and way to many others of equal stature to mention, BUT, the ASR was creating these types of sounds back in the early 90's!The 'magic' was the application of various and multiple modulators (velocity, lfo, pitch, random, etc). I once let it run on a sample of a babbling brook, after awhile it morphed itself into a near perfect imitation of Fred Flintstone yelling 'Yabba Dabba Doo!' Pretty bizarre. I would sometimes let it run for days, recording it every couple of hours. It was the closest thing to circuit bending I have heard without the bending;-).

It was much like a wavetable (the purchased ones were just different waves strung together), but the Transwave could be a SINGLE user sample. The general idea has pretty much been represented and varied in UL uploads such as those by Rick Scott (especially his application of the 'Fluxus' module), John Nowak, and way to many others of equal stature to mention, BUT, the ASR was creating these types of sounds back in the early 90's!The 'magic' was the application of various and multiple modulators (velocity, lfo, pitch, random, etc). I once let it run on a sample of a babbling brook, after awhile it morphed itself into a near perfect imitation of Fred Flintstone yelling 'Yabba Dabba Doo!'

Pretty bizarre. I would sometimes let it run for days, recording it every couple of hours. It was the closest thing to circuit bending I have heard without the bending;-).