What's the point of RAM?

Isn't it the CF card that governs your sampling time? Plus I thought RAM deleted every time the machine is shut off?

Housemaster wrote:Isn't it the CF card that governs your sampling time? Plus I thought RAM deleted every time the machine is shut off?

its how much sampling time you have every time your machine is on and running.once the ram is full,you cant add anymore samples to that program.

Housemaster wrote:Isn't it the CF card that governs your sampling time? Plus I thought RAM deleted every time the machine is shut off?

2. yes it is deleted.

1. no it is the RAM that governs. if you have 16megs of ram u can't use more than 16megs of samples without taking a 'time out' to purge some from memory and load some more from the flashcard/hd into RAM.

Random Access Memory
You load your sounds from a disk or flashcard into the RAM, then the MPC accesses them from there. I don't the the processor in an MPC is powerful enough to program and sequence strait from a flash card without hella lag, and a whole bunch of other problems. The RAM lets your MPC play the sounds as soon as you press the drum pad, in same way a computer uses RAM.

ram conrolls how many samples you can work with while the machine is on.


the cf card will govern how much you can save when you want to turn the machine off.

Although with certain samplers, the CF card does extend sampling time. I think my old SP-202 did that.

i just used this analogy with someone the other day regarding RAM.

ram is your workspace on the mpc. so if you have an 11 X 17 piece of paper (128mg RAM) and you're drawing on that paper, you would be able to draw more on it than if you had a paper that is 3 X 5 (16mb RAM). the CF card (or hard drive) is like your note book that you put all of your drawings in to save them. but just like a piece of paper, if you don't save it, it's lost (thrown in the garbage) hence turning your mpc off without saving.

M.ic P.ro C.rusher wrote:Although with certain samplers, the CF card does extend sampling time. I think my old SP-202 did that.

that's not true due to the fact that you can not stream anything to/from the CF card or hard drive.

Sparq wrote:

M.ic P.ro C.rusher wrote: Although with certain samplers, the CF card does extend sampling time. I think my old SP-202 did that.

that's not true due to the fact that you can not stream anything to/from the CF card or hard drive.

Really? I maybe typo-ed CF instead of SC but peep:

Harmony Central wrote: You'll be able to use both 2 and 4 Mbyte Smart Cards with the Dr. Sample. With a 2MByte card the sample time ranges from 2 min. 14 sec. in Hi-Fi to 17 min. 51 sec. in Lo-Fi 2. And with a 4Mbyte card the range is 4 min 27 sec in Hi-Fi to over 35 min in Lo-Fi 2. I'm not sure what you'll need with over 35 minutes with this little guy, but what the hey!

M.ic P.ro C.rusher wrote:

Sparq wrote:

M.ic P.ro C.rusher wrote: Although with certain samplers, the CF card does extend sampling time. I think my old SP-202 did that.

that's not true due to the fact that you can not stream anything to/from the CF card or hard drive.

Really? I maybe typo-ed CF instead of SC but peep:

Harmony Central wrote: You'll be able to use both 2 and 4 Mbyte Smart Cards with the Dr. Sample. With a 2MByte card the sample time ranges from 2 min. 14 sec. in Hi-Fi to 17 min. 51 sec. in Lo-Fi 2. And with a 4Mbyte card the range is 4 min 27 sec in Hi-Fi to over 35 min in Lo-Fi 2. I'm not sure what you'll need with over 35 minutes with this little guy, but what the hey!

i don't know about the sp-202 or Dr. sample but i was talking about the mpc.

Harmony Central wrote: You'll be able to use both 2 and 4 Mbyte Smart Cards with the Dr. Sample. With a 2MByte card the sample time ranges from 2 min. 14 sec. in Hi-Fi to 17 min. 51 sec. in Lo-Fi 2. And with a 4Mbyte card the range is 4 min 27 sec in Hi-Fi to over 35 min in Lo-Fi 2. I'm not sure what you'll need with over 35 minutes with this little guy, but what the hey!

This is kinda like Recording a Movie on DVD or VHS in LP (Long Play) SLP (Super long play) ELP (Extra long play), the quality of the samples goes way down when you use the Lo Fi settings.

Hi Fi is 44.1k at 16bit, and Lo fi is 11k at 16 bits, so with the Nyquist theory of samples: in Hi Fi the highest frequency you could sample would be 22kHz, and in LoFi it would be 5.5kHz.

That would totally loose the crisp hi end of the sample.
It may produce longer sample times, but it still only uses 2 or 4mb.

Oh, alright I see what you're saying now. Thanks for droppin knowledge y'all.

"I think my old SP-202 did that."

Yeah that's what it's like with my 404.