Roland Aira P-6 Sampler Evaluate: Nice Sound, Sophisticated Interface

Along with crunching your samples into digital oblivion, you’ll be able to course of them with a ton of various results like reverb, delay, a multi-mode filter, and most significantly, a vinyl simulator for that true 404 taste. The six pattern pads throughout the entrance aren’t velocity-sensitive, however they’re massive and responsive sufficient to do some primary finger drumming.

Sadly, chopping a pattern spreads it throughout the smaller keyboard on the underside, fairly than the bigger pattern pads. These keys are tiny, mushy, and ugly to play. Nonetheless, if you’d like one thing small for tossing collectively lo-fi or boom-bap beats on the go, the P-6 isn’t a foul alternative.

A Tiny Software Equipment

When constructing a beat, you’ve obtained numerous instruments at your disposal. You possibly can place steps manually utilizing the step sequencer, or play them in reside to maintain issues off the grid. You’ve obtained 64 steps to work with, plus chance, sub-steps, micro-timing, and movement recording so as to add complexity and selection.

Then, as soon as your loop is prepared, you need to use a handful of results to create on-the-fly builds, breakdowns, and fills. Most notably there are Scatter, Step Loop, and the ​​DJFX Looper borrowed from the SP-404.

Scatter is divisive, to say the least. It provides stutter and glitch results primarily based on preprogrammed patterns. It might sound OK when used sparingly and with the proper settings, however it’s something however refined and may flip extra advanced and melodic beats into unlistenable chaos.

Step Loop merely loops the steps you maintain down on the sequencer. It’s a extra versatile and attention-grabbing tackle the form of beat repeat results you’ll find on different gadgets just like the Teenage Engineering PO-133. It’s nice for creating reside fills and variations whereas jamming. It’s actually one in all my favourite efficiency options on any piece of music gear, and I’d like to see it on extra stuff.