Samplyr first hour observations

i think there will be some downloadable ( hopefully pre-configged? ) folders of samples to download soon. meantime i think Robert just wanted those that purchased “in like Flynn”  to not have to wait any longer..  
for me , after a lot of testing etc , i found the most important factors to be A) format the microSD card Fat32 BUT best ( imho ) is to up the ‘Allocation Unit! size to double the default ie: 8192kb , this seemed to make scrolling through samples much quicker 
B) very important , is to always prepare yr sample folders and copy them all on at ONE time , for the linear Byte allocation that reading direct of the sd card needs ,, so for example if you wanted to keep the samples already on the card , copy them off , format card - then copy ALL folders back on in one go ..  i can’t stress how important it is to do a proper format as just erasing everything doesn’t seem to be totally effective and if it had info on there before it will mess with the way Samplyr reads samples ( ie: may give info from an adjacent sample etc )
proper PREP of the card is the key!
 there is nothing to be done about having to go through each sample and letting it build the waveform info file (.par) one at a time when first installing the card , especially with long files ... best practise is once that is done , to copy the contents off onto yr PC so when you add folders and copy it all back on again ( probably onto a bigger & better quality card? ) those folders already have been configured and just the add ons need going through on the samplyr to build the files.
 if i may ask , which firmware version comes up when it boots? 
there will be a small programmer board available to flash newer firmware onto it soon .   
which is good as I’m finding that some of my samples aren’t remembering what ‘mode’ i have saved them as ,, a small quibble but might need investigating.
 the ‘Gate’ mode , ie: pausing and playing a sample works ok for me , but if you just want a sample playing ‘gated’ as normal then just select ‘one shot‘ or possibly LoopFWD mode and use a gate cv?  probably not best terminology for robert to use that word for the ‘special’ mode but it’s supposed to imply that in this mode you use the GATE input to stop & start a long sample , that and ‘Tapeloop’ are special case modes hence at the end of the list.
 the encoder is better than it was for long samples but still needs tweaks i think ( button press & hold to increase increments has been suggested )
  
i think because of the big FAFF of formatting & loading the SDcard , it’s better to get a high quality 4GB one and get all 26 folders filled with stuff on there.. the less toing and froing to the computer the better.
 but i have actually been really loving the sound quality of the mu-law/a-law 8bit and even the straight 8 ...

just adding extra folders onto the card was a recipe for all manner of dissatisfaction

yes i have 1.3 .. probably current version,

and yes you are right , a gate signal into GATE will only trigger the whole sample ( or defined area , oops all that scrolling again! ) in One Shot or LoopFWD etc...  i think it needs another ‘mode’ setting to set a normal standard trigger OR gate for ONE SHOT.  hopefully that can be done soon ..   i guess some of us ( ahem   ) were too focussed on the more esoteric modes when testing ,, i always thought of it more as a lofi tape machine than any drum sample or keyboard sampler ...  probably due to the complete lack of polyphony of any kind ,,
 ‘Gating’ does work really great using ‘gated’ mode with envelope signals BUT of course you would have to define a really small area of the sample to get the effect of ‘a note’ you are looking for, so not a great workaround.. the ‘Tapeloop’  mode does essentially the same BUT you have to trigger the sample first and use LPON do the gated Stop/Start. nice for old style rhythmic gated audio signals but without needing a vca or actual gate.
 
 i’m pretty sure that as Robert has labeled that input as GATE , it will be possible to play samples in the way you imagined.. soon. 
meantime just a little more AEccentricity in the system!

Good point, a typical case of why did I not think of that.  Probably thinking too much of regular sampler/players. A vca might do what i had in mind, it will just make patching a bit more complex, an require another vca in the patch. Will have to do further testing.

I definitely see it as either a sample player like a radio (one shot plays from trigger to end of sample) or oscillator where you would patch it before ENV/VCA.

All this sound quality compliments make me seriously think about getting one for the first time.. I love dust. 

However, seeing the quite complicated SD card sample loading, makes me think it'll just sit in the rack without fresh samples, cause I never plan ahead when music making haha.

...more on that...

You get a folder named A-Z, and 0-9.wav in each.

I think I'm inclined to set up drum kits (or something similar) and zip them up-- so you can have, say, an 808 kit with kick, snare, etc in a single folder.

Does Samplyr ignore files that aren't named .wav or .par? Like, if I stick a README.TXT in each folder or put a bunch of .zip files in a directory ("Zipfiles" so it's at the end 8), will it ignore them or will that cause problems? I guess I can experiment, or just stick a bunch of zip files somewhere.

Anyway, I'm happy to share out my ridiculous pile of samples and loops and stuff.

We are a few weeks in and I noticed that I best boot the 2x16 rack with my samplyr module before booting the 4x16 rack that has its power supply connected to the same powerstrip. If I do it the other way around more often than not my samplyr will not boot up properly and instead show a screen full of noise and not respond to any signals or button presses.

Man, all this sounds like too much work. I was hoping to use the sampler to get some field recordings while out on the river, then run that through filters, VCAs, CLOUDS and etc. But man, all this copying, formatting, booting, errors is too much for me.