Check out the brand new, super affordable sampler by Sonicware

Sonicware has become quite popular in the past few years with its small portable synths like the LIVEN and the ELZ_1 synthesizers. And now, they just launched a Kickstarter Campaign for their new Sampler called SmplTrek.

SmplTrek is a small, completely portable, and standalone sampler that you can carry with and sample the world around you. You can easily sample record any sounds with the built-in microphone, your microphone or electric guitar connected to the input, or even a USB-connected smartphone or PC/Mac.

Each song project has 16 sequential parts called "Scenes". Each Scene has 10 sequencer tracks which can behave in different ways, as described below:

Loop Track: Sequencer for a looping sample
Shots Track: Sequencer for a single one-shot sample
Drum Track: Step sequencer for drums
Instrument Track: Piano roll type sequencer for musical instruments
MIDI Track: Piano roll type sequencer for external MIDI equipment

Three additional Global Audio Tracks are available for longer recordings like vocals and external instruments. These tracks can record multiple takes which can be spliced into a final version. Traditional "punch-in" style recording is also supported.

Easily structure a full song by sequencing scenes and setting how many times they repeat before moving to the next scene. You can set the order of scenes via copy and paste, or record scene order in real-time with the scene buttons.

Automation can be recorded and edited for all parameters, including the Mixer.

A song can be mixed down through mastering effects before being exported to a single audio file.

Its design reminds us the gaming portable consoles of the 90s that you can hold with both hands. But this time, instead of playing Mario, you will create beats! It is small and light and it urges you to take it with you anywhere you go and create music.

On its interface, you have an OLED display, a gamepad and two big orange buttons, 4 knobs for parameter tweaking, and 16 navigation buttons. On the bottom, you have 15 velocity-sensitive, RGB pads to play drums, notes, and sequence.

Another nice cool feature is that you can also live-stream your music by connecting the device to your phone via a single USB cable!

The SmplTrek looks like a very fun and inspiring little device. It is a feature-packed sampler and its most important advantage is its portability. Instantly capturing sounds wherever you are is an amazing feature that very few samplers offer and I believe that this is its key selling point!

The SmplTrek is right now on Kickstarter with a very generous discount, starting at 299$ (instead of 429$ which is going to be its retail price) for the super early bird backers.