Trying to wrap my head around the capabilities as a sampler

Hello,

In the last couple weeks I’ve become a huge fan of open source hardware, which brought me to the Zynthian!

One of the things that I’m really looking for in a piece of hardware is something that can create similar effects to the Roland SP-404 series. Essentially, something that can play samples, while being able to use effects like stutter, filter, compressor, etc.

I see that there are a few compatible sampler plugins like Linuxsampler, etc. which looks very promising. Since I can’t find any videos out there about how the zynthian works in tandem with Linuxsampler, I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around if it’s possible to use these effects with samples, and how it would work.

Are the effects ‘hard-wired’ to the program being used? Like, if I’m using the Linuxsampler, am I limited to only the functionality of the program, or are there the equivalent of “send” effects on the Zynthian itself?

What I like about the SP-404 series is how instantaneously the effects are applied, so while it looks like the midi for the sampler can be adjusted to do just about anything I want, it would be nice to have the knob-twist functionality vs. programming it in bit-by-bit.

I know this was kind of a doozy of a post, so thanks in advance!

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Hi @Hitachii, you are very welcome here in our lovely community.

To add an effect / plugin to the output of a synth (or any other type of layer) press and hold for half a second (bold press) on the layer in the layer list. You can then add effects.

You can enable and disable the availability of effects from the web interface. Check out guides and documentation on the wiki.

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Linuxsampler is more for creating multi-layered sample based instruments with, rather than the interactive instant sample and manipulate playback device like the SP-404 or more modern loopers. We don’t really have a sampler plugin in that way yet, I don’t really think Linux does overall really! Or, if we do I haven’t messed with it :smiley: