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Budget Phrase Samplers Go Head To Head
The Zoom SampleTrak ST-224 and the Yamaha SU200 both want to make you loopy for their looping
by Markkus Rovito
August 9, 2000
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Summing it Up
For about the same street price, both of these similarly spec'ed machines offer plenty of power per square inch, and each would make an appropriate first piece of gear or live performance loop sampler.
The difference boils down to this. The Zoom SampleTrak ST-224 has a simple sequencer, more effects, more polyphony, better resampling, and a few other features that make it a little more suitable for a budget studio musician who needs an inexpensive but respectable sampler. However, Yamaha's SU200 edges out the Zoom in ease of use, adds some unique effects, runs on batteries, and comes bundled with a nicer sample CD, all of which seem to make it the choice for gigging DJs who want to spice up their sets with killer loops.
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The Zoom SampleTrak ST-224 (left) and the Yamaha SU200 (right) sell for about the same street price and offer almost the same functionality, but not quite. |
By now, it's nothing new. Loop-based music -- or at least loop-assisted music -- is everywhere, transcending all musical genres. Loops dominate the pop charts, backing the scores to hit movies, and -- especially -- popping the eardrums of boogying club-goers. Loops are a favored tool for remixer/DJ/producers, and I'm told that turntables now outsell guitars. Though that may be because people buy them two at a time, the point remains that the art of looping is more than a passing trend. And manufacturers have acknowledged as much by offering low-cost machines designed for anyone -- from the guitarist who wants to practice or write along with a nice two-bar rhythm, to the DJ who's looking to go beyond two turntables and a microphone.
Two machines on the market, the Zoom SampleTrak ST-224, and the just-hatched Yamaha SU200 Loop Factory, dole out budget, loop-oriented sampling and effects for sampling beginners, dance music artists, or loop junkies of all kinds. We'll have a look at each machine in turn, then examine how they match up.
Bundled CD Battle
Both samples come packaged with audio CDs that brim with loops and single hits.
The quality of the material on the Zoom CD is strong, but the selection leaves something to be desired. There are tons of great conga, shaker, cowbell, tambourine, maraca, and bongo loops, but staples such as ride cymbal and open/closed hi-hat loops are all but missing. Likewise, many of the drum loops sound like song intros; a selection of meat-and-potatoes drum loops that could sustain a track would have been useful. The best drum loops are of Latin and rock style. Another big negative: The documentation fails to include tempo information for the loops.
The Zoom CD also includes some very nice analog synth stabs and chords, Rhodes, Clav, and funk guitar licks, and string washes. Again, documentation is sparse. Neither the key nor the tempo of these samples is provided; both would be helpful.
Some very interesting bits of twisted sound design round out the collection, but I have to question the necessity of such items in a collection for a low-memory rhythm sampler.
On the SU200's CD you'll find hundreds of loops, some of them from commercial sample CDs by such artists as Coldcut, Norman Cook, Black II Black, and Vince Clarke. The first 25 tracks are eight-loop construction kits in typical dance styles, designed to work with the SU200's three banks of eight samples -- all of them highly usable. The rest of the disc is jammed with live and programmed drum loops, single percussion hits, instrument licks and arpeggios, and one-off vocal, instrument, and found-sound samples. The sounds are clearly targeted at producers and DJs working in hip-hop, big beat, house, trance, or drum 'n' bass.
Yamaha has wisely listed the tempo and note (or chord) values for almost every loop, riff and hit on the CD. They've also included the essential ingredients for making many styles of music: A beginner can get maximum potential from the SU200 using only this one CD. The Yamaha has the upper hand in terms of quantity too, clocking in at just under 74 minutes of material, compared to the Zoom's anemic 44 minutes (including demo song).
Next Page: Zoom SampleTrak ST-224....
Markkus Rovito is an assistant editor for Harmony Central. He was formerly assistant editor at Keyboard.
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