Hi
I’m looking at getting a Sampler to use with my Hapax and was wondering what do u guys use or recommend?
I’ve been looking at a Mpc One, Blackbox or even a Old Akai Emu Yamaha Sampler
I want one that doesn’t need to much menu diving
Any recommendations would be great
Thanks
can’t say there isn’t a lot of menu diving but i sequence all my samples from Hapax on the MPC One and it works great. it’s a beast. had a Blackbox 1010 which was much simpler in terms of just getting samples in the box and assigned to a pad and triggered from Hapax. but you’re constrained to the 16 pads themselves (MPC has 8 banks of 16 for drum programs, by comparison). other parts of Blackbox just didn’t click with me so i upgraded to MPC. don’t sleep on the SP-404 mk2 tho, since the most recent firmware update. it sounds like a close second to the MPC in terms of overall sampling power and workflow ease
My suggestion would be an iPad running something simple like Koala Sampler (which is kind of a homage to the SP404) or there’s loads of other apps for more interesting granular stuff.
There’s kind of no way of getting around the fact that managing, organising, trimming, importing and saving samples is most easily done on some kind of computer.
I use mine with an Elektron Digitakt and it’s great.
+1
Works like a charm!
Haven’t used Koala as I have an SP404 MK2. However, the 404 uses a midi channel per sample bank (greedy) and koala is probably more flexible and certainly cheaper. So, second this. Of course, 404 effects are next level and midi controllable, so if that matters, you may want to weight it.
it all depends on what complexity you want …
the thing Ive found is, with the power the Hapax has, often I dont need the extra complexity of (e.g) my Octatrack - if anything, having an additional sequencer adds (unwanted) extra cognitive load…
figuring out how I integrate the two sequencers? (*)
so I enjoy my Octatack, but when using the Hapax, it often gets used pretty simplistically.
and frankly, I tend to use it much more for its fun ‘mangling audio side’… than sample playback.
for simple sample playback (OP doesn’t mention how much live sampling is required here?!),
I often resort to the Rample… though 4 tracks is the main limitation (Ive considered adding another one!)
currently, Im thinking, Id like to add a more complex multi-layer sampler … e.g. with sample per velocity/note.
for that, I think Im going to use my Raspberry PI + PiSound… pretty simple to setup, and alot cheaper than suggestion made here…
sure, doesn’t have the hands on nature (***) , but most of the control is going to from the Hapax anyway (via midi), so I kind of like the idea of a black box (well grey) that just does the job 
also has the huge benefit, I don’t need to buy yet more gear (as I already have the rPI+PiSound!), and frankly, Im getting tired of this constant… I just need X
(*) yes, it also gives extra flexibility, which is nice sometimes… but often too much choice can be a disadvantage when making music.
(**) obviously a rPI can pretty much do anything, from sample playback, recording, and anything else you need.
(***) actually, I can control via a web-browser over wifi,
also I have an electra one, so that could add a huge amount of hands-on capabilities.
with added benefit it’ll use same midi, as I can use for automation from hapax
Exactly for this reason I went with the pretty basic MPC500. Programming on that thing is pretty cumbersome, but since the Hapax is doing all the heavy lifting the MPC is just used to get it’s samples triggered. When used this way you can trigger all samples in all banks with just notes. Giving you easy acces to 48 samples on just one midi channel.
Pretty cheap and built like a tank.
It does have a total length of 24min in mono / 12min in stereo though which is a little limiting when using longer samples, but more than enough for drums.
I have a Blackbox and keep wishing there was a device like that (with easy on-board editing), without a damn sequencer.
unfortunately, the ‘mass market’ wants all-in-one boxes, with huge feature lists.
this means, few produce dedicated / focused products - in fear of missing out on customers.
don’t believe me?
Loopop had a ‘con’ on the Hapax due to not having a sound engine… I rest my case
surely ever more powerful , feature rich boxes is only a good thing?
no… everything has a cost, not just in $, but focus, dev effort, complexity…
sure, if you are shopping for your first instrument, its great… but once you have more than one, there is this constant overlap …
rant over 
anyway… as I said, if you move away from YouTubers, get. a bit creative,
then we live in a time where DIY tools are really powerful, simple to use.
it never been easier to create something yourself.
perfect when you want something less complex , more focused !
(the other side… you will never know an instrument better, than the one you build yourself!)
(btw: not blaming manufactures… they are just satisfying what the market wants… they really don’t have much of a choice !)
before this year, the only sampler i had was an Emax II, which i loved at the time. but also 2mb of memory and no internal HD was terrible to work with even 30 years ago (the filters tho . . . )
as much as i resisted going with one of the more all-in-one options currently, it would be hard for me to go back to just a basic sampler that didn’t also do the time stretching, beat chopping, etc. of an MPC, SP-404, or Blackbox. i can still sequence everything from Hapax (so far) but looping and beatmatching is infinitely more efficient this way.
but if E-Mu wants to join the vintage renaissance in some form, i’d love to see what their ex-employees could come up with today’s tech
I’m using a Live 1 for samples, both in standalone as a controller with Hapax and its really, really good. I mostly ignore the sequencer until pretty late, but then in the end I track into the MPC so I can render and make the project portable.
The depth and quality of fx is really amazing. You can stack fx on a pad and its track, and there are 4 send fx channels with 4 fx slots there too. If you run in controller mode you can use regular VSTS as well as the AIR and Akai ones that also work in standalone.
The DT is enjoyable with the Hapax, more so than it is on its own. Its mono, though. lacks time-stretch via algorithm and is just a lot … less of a machine?
I’d second the vote for the 404 as well. It feels like a budget MPC to me, but its sound is soooo lovely.
The MPC also has a full drum synth that the Hapax does great with so… yeah.
Yeah I noticed that too 
Firmware v3 isn’t going to make you happier about the future of Blackbox at all. 
Indeed, this topic inspired me to check whether there’s a new firmware version available for the Blackbox and noticed that v3 alpha is all about the sequencer side 