With the introduction of Play+, there was no mention of an increase of the overall sample pool capacity allowed per project.
Even though the internals have improved, there has been no increase to sample memory and it is still limited to approx 30mb which is the same as the OG Play and now the Play+ allows stereo samples to be used, this in turn, reduces the amount of samples that can be used in a project
What do you want to achieve?
It would be nice to see the total sample memory per project increased on the Play+ to allow the use of longer samples and allow access to more stereo samples in our projects
Are there any workarounds?
Reducing samples to mono (which defeats the purpose of introducing stereo samples in the first place) or reducing their sample rate.
I want to give this all 5 of my votes. This is a massive limitation. After using the Dirtywave M8, which can stream arbitrarily long stereo samples straight from the SD card, coming back to the Play+ has been very difficult.
The sample randomization per folder feature is so cool, but with such a limited sample pool I rarely feel like I can fully utilize it.
It’s not bug fix delays or anything else: This is the number one thing that is making me consider selling my Play+.
Yeah for me I’d like to be able to use some long background noise or soundscape samples to integrate with the drums and percussion but because some of the samples can be quite large due to their duration the Play+ isn’t the best contender for these types of samples, you have to look at combining with other devices like the Digitakt, SP404 which can handle larger samples.
I’d much prefer to just do it all on the Play+, it clicks with me and thats the dream right there, if they can improve on this along with the sample based synth engine (to finally be able to use melodic samples properly on the Play devices) and the all important sample slicing feature, personally I don’t think I would need anything else
Wow, didn’t know about that… I always thought that the sample capacity was increased in plus…
It’s true that you can fill the sample pool very quickly. It’s weird when you don’t have any idea if your sample is mono or stereo and maybe you are filling the sample pool with samples that you don’t need in stereo.
I’m guessing this comes down to whether there is more RAM available on the new device that may not be unlocked yet or if SD card streaming could be implemented?
I’d like to think there were some sort of improvements to the project memory size considering it’s a Play MkII and to cater for stereo samples that now takes up more space on a sample pack/project, at the very least doubling the memory to 64mb and even that is quite small, but still more useable, especially when wanting to use a few longer soundscape samples on the Play devices.
comparing to 404, most sample-based devices are just ridiculous. it has 32-voice polyphony and each sample can be up to 18 minutes long, if my memory serves me right. even without SD card it can hold tons of audio available straight from its internal memory. almost every Play™ problem discussed here in the forum can be solved by using Oxi One with 404, and memory pool would be easily the first.
I get what your saying, I have a Digitakt if I want to use longer samples too, this is more to do with using the Play as a single device for music or idea creation.
Even so, the unique way the Play uses it’s randomise algorithms on sample folders is not something I can replicate or have come across on other devices and this is what I use mainly with my personal sample packs that I create for Play, I just find I run out of memory way to easily when creating packs for it, especially now when trying to load stereo samples into it.
As I mentioned above , theres only a few things it’s missing for me to use it as a single device.
Hopefully we see the fruits of Play+ in the coming updates, I can totally get customers frustration the past month or so, with updates being pushed back multiple times, not a single update since the Play+ was released other than 1 patch with some fixes and to unlock the synth patch editor which should have been available when released anyways.
It honestly feels like the Play/Play+ gets so little attention compared to the Trackers, it’s a shame really.
On 404 you can treat banks as folders, each bank has its own midi channel (10 banks, 16 slots each per project; 160 samples each up to 16 mins, isnt’ it ridiculous? x426 times bigger than Play). So, if needed you just randomise notes sending to that channel straight from Oxi One – voila, you have random sample. Moreover, just for example, if you have three samples to randomize and one of them should trigger more frequently – fill more slots with that one and leave a couple or two for the rest. It could be even the same sample, but resampled with any of numrous effects. If I’m not mistaken, Play doesn’t allow you to choose what sample you want more often (weights/probabilites). And (this may be important) Play will treat them as samples from the same choke group – any samples from the same lane choke each other. I guess it could be done straight from Oxi even without all the copying, just using 3 slots, I don’t remember, actually.
Play has its own perks, surely. But some limitations, including the crippled memory pool, are just not fixable, unfortunately. All the rest – maybe fixable, maybe not, I decided that I can’t just sit and wait. All I wanted to say is the randomization features are not unique or irreplaceble. Also there’s Midihub by Blokas that allows pretty wild randomisation features for any midi-enabled device. Combined with some good sequencer they do wonders.
Today, I was surprised when I was creating Kits in a project and saw a limit of 20 folders. Even though I had only used 98 samples out of 255. I’m not sure what this limitation is related to, but it seems strange on modern equipment.
This roughly equates to around 30mb give or take, which for a device that now allows stereo samples is way too low, the OG Digitakt had 64mb for just mono samples and increased it to 400mb now that it uses stereo samples.
Obviously I don’t expect the same in Play as it’s a different device, but it definitely needs a bump in sample memory.
Cheers for the 404 info, I’m still getting used to the Digitakt, I’m good with Play+ though, I don’t mind waiting for the updates, if a little frustrating, but I just click with it when creating ideas quickly and thats one of the key things for me, especially when you have little time to mess about on your hobby