Roland Aira P-6 Sampler Review: Great Sound, Complicated Interface

Extremely portable. Excellent show effects. Borrows heavy from the SP-404. Surprisingly decent granular synth engine. Very feature-rich for the price.

Overly analyzable interface. Menus are hard to decipher. Cheap-feeling hardware.

It took a agelong clip for Roland to marque a superior play successful the portable fund synth abstraction that Korg supercharged with its Volca lineup. One happening that had been missing from the Aira Compact bid until now, however, was a sampler.

Considering Roland is down the iconic SP-404, it seemed a foregone decision that, eventually, the institution would physique a scaled-down mentation for its Compact line. The P-6 Creative Sampler is the inevitable matrimony of the SP-404 psyche and Aira Compact signifier factor. If you’ve been eyeing the 404, but person been hesitant to driblet $500 connected one, the P-6 mightiness look beauteous compelling. It’s tiny, packs a astonishing magnitude of features, and costs lone $220. But, arsenic you mightiness expect, determination are immoderate beauteous important trade-offs. I don't hatred it, but you tin find easier-to-use and better-made instruments for this price, truthful you'll privation to work connected to spot if the P-6 is close for you.

An Archaic Interface

The P-6 is simply a amazingly almighty and feature-rich device. Unfortunately, the constricted hands-on controls are crammed into a precise tiny space. This leads to a batch of digit gymnastics and fundamentally demands you support the manual handy.

Roland’s Aira Compact enactment continues to person possibly the astir infuriating interface I’ve ever encountered successful a philharmonic instrument. The four-character, seven-segment show is astir inexcusable successful 2024. Just springiness america a show that we tin understand.

While picking a illustration and placing it successful the measurement sequencer is elemental enough, astir much precocious features necessitate immoderate operation of fastener presses and/or deciphering obtuse menus. For example, if you privation to tweak the filter connected a sample, you request to property displacement and the filter fastener (G# connected the keyboard). The knob labeled Start past controls the cutoff, which is comparatively casual to fig out, since erstwhile you crook the knob you spot a large missive C. But I had to look successful the manual to fig retired what the CTRL1 knob does. Turning it displays what looks similar a Y but I deliberation is really expected to beryllium a K, since seemingly it changes cardinal tracking.

Even things similar copying and pasting steps is unnecessarily convoluted. First, you request to property Record, past prime what you privation to transcript either by turning the main encoder oregon holding down the due step. Then you request to clasp down the KYBD fastener and property Menu, past crook the main encoder to copy, past property enter. Easy? Not really. To paste that measurement you request to bash the aforesaid process but crook the encoder to prime paste (PSTE) earlier hitting enter.

Surprisingly Powerful

Using the P-6 tin beryllium mildly infuriating astatine times, but if you tin travel to grips with its interface, past you mightiness beryllium pleasantly amazed by what it’s susceptible of.

At its astir basic, it’s a bread-and-butter sampler that captures mono samples of up to six seconds astatine 44.1 kHz (or 3 seconds successful stereo). With 48 full illustration slots, that amounts to 285 seconds, oregon a spot shy of 5 minutes. There are samplers with much storage, but that should beryllium capable to support you engaged making tracks for a while.

Frankly, things are a batch much absorbing if you commencement lowering the illustration rate. This gets you much illustration time, but besides thing a spot much characterful. While you tin spell each the mode down to 11.025 kHz (23.7 seconds per pad/19 minutes full successful mono), I deliberation the saccharine spot is 14.7 kHz. This gets you immoderate beauteous integer crunch without introducing truthful overmuch sound and aliasing that your recordings dependable similar they were made connected a greeting card. Then again, I similar the enactment to spell low: Sometimes that utmost level of integer lo-fi is precisely what you need.

In summation to crunching your samples into integer oblivion, you tin process them with a ton of antithetic effects similar reverb, delay, a multi-mode filter, and astir importantly, a vinyl simulator for that existent 404 flavor. The six illustration pads crossed the beforehand aren’t velocity-sensitive, but they’re ample and responsive capable to bash immoderate basal digit drumming.

Unfortunately, chopping a illustration spreads it crossed the smaller keyboard connected the bottom, alternatively than the larger illustration pads. Those keys are tiny, mushy, and unpleasant to play. Still, if you privation thing tiny for tossing unneurotic lo-fi oregon boom-bap beats connected the go, the P-6 isn’t a atrocious choice.

A Tiny Tool Kit

When gathering a beat, you’ve got rather a batch of tools astatine your disposal. You tin spot steps manually utilizing the measurement sequencer, oregon play them successful unrecorded to support things disconnected the grid. You’ve got 64 steps to enactment with, positive probability, sub-steps, micro-timing, and question signaling to adhd complexity and variety.

Then, erstwhile your loop is ready, you tin usage a fistful of effects to make on-the-fly builds, breakdowns, and fills. Most notably determination are Scatter, Step Loop, and the ​​DJFX Looper borrowed from the SP-404.

Scatter is divisive, to accidental the least. It adds stutter and glitch effects based connected preprogrammed patterns. It tin dependable OK erstwhile utilized sparingly and with the close settings, but it is thing but subtle and tin crook much analyzable and melodic beats into unlistenable chaos.

Step Loop simply loops the steps you clasp down connected the sequencer. It’s a much flexible and absorbing instrumentality connected the benignant of bushed repetition effects you tin find connected different devices similar the Teenage Engineering PO-133. It’s large for creating unrecorded fills and variations portion jamming. It’s genuinely 1 of my favourite show features connected immoderate portion of euphony gear, and I’d emotion to spot it connected much stuff.

The DJFX Looper sounds elemental connected its surface, but is rather almighty erstwhile you maestro it. There are 3 parameters you person power over. One changes the size of the chunk of audio to beryllium looped, the 2nd changes the velocity and absorption of playback, and the 3rd simply turns the looper connected and off. When utilized properly, you tin make tape-stop effects, bushed repeats, quiescent breakdowns, and adjacent ringing mod-esque glitchiness. It’s 1 of the cornerstones of lo-fi hep hop and the SP-404, truthful it’s a large woody that it’s here.

It’s worthy mentioning that the P-6 besides has a amazingly decent granular synth wrong of it. Granular is simply a sample-based signifier of synthesis. (Greatly simplified: It chops a dependable record into small bits, rearranges them, and spits them backmost out.) So it’s not a immense agelong for immoderate sampler to beryllium utilized for granular. But, hardware granular synths inactive aren’t peculiarly common. The P-6 isn’t the champion granular synth connected the market, though it does a decent capable occupation of creating those glitchy clouds that are its hallmark. Plus, it gives you 1 much mode to make melody and harmony without conscionable playing backmost one-shots.

This is simply a shockingly almighty and feature-rich instrumentality for a $220 sampler that you tin stash successful a brace of cargo shorts. The problem? It's a spot similar a pouch weapon with excessively galore tools inside. It’s acold much susceptible than the Elektron Model:Samples oregon the Teenage Engineering PO-133, some of which outgo $100 more, but I find those instruments overmuch much fun, and that’s benignant of a large crushed to marque music. The P-6 conscionable feels excessively analyzable for its ain good.

If portability is simply a precedence and the quality to bash treble work arsenic a granular synth excites you, the P-6 could precise good beryllium worthy the money. I’d decidedly take it implicit the Korg Volca Sample if I was connected a budget, though I’d astir apt take Teenage Engineering’s $99 PO-33 implicit both. In general, though, I deliberation astir would beryllium amended disconnected redeeming up a small spot much and springing for either the PO-133 oregon Roland’s SP-404MKII, some of which are much intuitive. Intuition and easiness of use, successful my opinion, substance a spot much successful music-making than however susceptible your sampler is.