by J. Arif Verner

With their SU10, Yamaha engineers have they've designed a back-to-the-basics sampler with a very affordable price tag.

At about the size of a VHS tape, the SU10 sports an array of interesting features. The unit records up to 48 stereo samples at 16 bit resolution. Sounds are located in 4 banks - each containing 12 samples. Internally there's 384 kb of RAM.

On the front panel are a series of rubber pads and buttons. These handle editing and control functions. Above the buttons are a large LCD display and a long ribbon controller. This controller is used to add real-time effects to the samples.

It can also be used to change pad volume and start, loop and end points. On the sides are 1/8'' mini-jack connectors for line in, line out, headphones and microphone input. There are also MIDI in and outs.

The SU10 is geared for anyone who wants to set up drum or percussion loops and add sound effects. Yamaha was smart to include two sampling CDs that include everything necessary to get started sampling.

The SU10's editing features include setting loop points, copying and moving samples to different pads, splitting a sample into two, adjusting volume and MIDI note numbers and playing samples in reverse. However, the most unique feature of this box is the ribbon controller. By moving your fingers across the ribbon, you can control the sample's pitch, filter, crossfades and add scratching noises. Another interesting feature is the ability to scale a sample. This sets a different pitch on each of the 12 pads to make a scale. Once your samples are organized, songs can be constructed. The SU10 can memorize and playback four songs.

The SU10 makes no attempt at being a full fledged workstation. Rather its goal is to fill the need as an entry-level sampler with useable features. And it does this very well.