If you hate modern samplers with all their supposed fidelity, longing instead for the glitchy digital distortion of samplers past, a DIY project has brought you the sounds you love. “Where’s the Party At?” has been inspiring tingly sensations in digital lovers since I first wrote about it in September.
Now, the kit version is shipping. It’s a unique-looking combination of reliability and sonic unreliability, good open source design engineering and, as the creator puts it, a certain “crustiness.”
Apocryphal Feature List and General Horn-Tooting:
- 8-bit max sample depth, 1-bit minimum.
- 20kHz (or so, user adjustable) max sample rate, no minimum.
- 512k SRAM, about 26 seconds (minimum) or sample time.
- Big, versatile 6 button, 7 knob, 8 LED user interface. For Cavemen.
- Even more big and versatile full MIDI control in and out capability. Fully sequenceable. For people who use Live and general bespectacled electronic music nerds.
- Sample banking — multi-timbral recording, playback and audio processing across all banks.
- Sample multiplication, XOR, ABS, and all sorts of other weird sample processing and cross-modulation.
- Real time overdubbing.
- Preferences saved in permanent memory.
- Hackable analog clock source which can be syncronized to other synths.
- Non-Hackable crystal clock source which will always do Exactly What You Tell it.
- Programmable clock jitter, bit rate reduction, aliasing, and sample clock errors all adjustable in real time.
- All the normal backwards masking and half time and typical sampling features common to many commercial samplers.
- On-The-Fly Granular reconstruction of samples.
- Full pitch control of samples.
- Self test mode for debugging.
- 2.8Hz-357kHz frequency response (measured).
- Sub-audible noise floor.
- Looks nerdy and attracts people with stringy hair. Possibly bad skin.
Details on this kit, plus a video sampler version made for a specific party here in NYC, at creator Todd Bailey’s site:
Updated: Complete information on the kit itself, at US$75 – Some Assembly Required (read: you’d better have a soldering iron handy and know how to use it!)
Where’s the Party At, Hardware Version 1.01
I also love the bag of shiny hardware for aiding in making yours nice!
wow, this looks amazing. is there a video somewhere to get an impression how it works and sounds? couldn't find something … so curious ::)
I sooo want one of these!
Yeah, I checked out the website… they have instructions for building it, but not instructions for using it.
I want this for the name alone, and if anyone asks me to show them what it does I'll just say I hurt my hand or something.
Can I get a witness?!
is anyone else not getting any audio at all in the video posted in peter's original september article?
Sexy.
Oh yeah, that circuit is bad. It's been a naughty sampler.
@friesandgravy – yeah, but the same vid is hosted on the where's the party site. tbh, i think he could do a wAAAAy better vid than that. this kit looks teh seks.
I'm also very interested. We need to see a good demo of this thing in action!
Very cool, I just picked up a Roland JS-20 8bit sampler and I'm loving the sounds you can get out of it.
looks awesome
That looks cool, I wish I had the time right now to build one!
[…] [via Create Digital Music] […]
Sweet.
I've been following this since the first link, checking in at the site every couple of days or so. I'm hoping that it can replace my old, falling-apart Mirage, but I get the impression that WTPA? is more of a phrase-looper, like the first Kaoss Pad.
Either way, I'm getting one.
I went to the lecture/event Sunday with Todd- funny guy, really nice. And the WTPA sampler is pretty dope!
mitchell-
Can you give us a rundown on what the little beast can do?
[…] [via Create Digital Music] […]
[…] been in New York pimping some kind of technology. Landing in Chicago it turns out that both CDM and Hackaday were cool enough to talk about WTPA (thanks!) and suddenly I’m (even more) […]
If you did more emulator III like it would be cooler. Why no 8-16mb and adjustable bit (1-16)&sample rate (10k-44,1k)?
If you did more emulator III like it would be cooler. Why no 8-16mb and adjustable bit (1-16)&sample rate (10k-44,1k)?
If you did more emulator III like it would be cooler. Why no 8-16mb and adjustable bit (1-16)&sample rate (10k-44,1k)?
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll give it a try, but just some ideas for version 2..
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll give it a try, but just some ideas for version 2..
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll give it a try, but just some ideas for version 2..