u/vilk_

I am a bassist in an instrumental doom metal band, but I want to start introducing samples as sort of a replacement for vocals. Probably just like one or two ~90 second samples per song, setlist would be about 2 or 3 songs.

While form factor is important, I'm also really concerned about ease of use. I am not a tech/computer guy. I have a macbook that I open like maybe once a month. I'm imagining a kind of device where I just connect with a usb cable to my laptop, and then I just like drag and drop mp3 files into slots of some kind of software. That's how samplers work, right?

Regarding who will operate it, I was thinking we could maybe put it by the drum set and let the drummer do it, since I think I've seen other bands doing that. Though I suppose I am open to some kind of stomp box type sampler that I could operate with my foot while I'm playing.

I live in Japan, and generally only purchase used music gear from Yahoo! Auctions. So I'm not sure what will be available, but if you have any recommended styles, brands, or even specific samplers, I'm all ears. Regarding budget, I try to keep most purchases under 50,000 yen, but you can often find some really good shit on Yahoo Auctions for that amount. If I could spend less than that, I definitely would prefer not to spend my max budget.

I have found a great tone that I love, almost on accident. Fuzz (Big Muff) into the lead channel of my teal stripe *with the gain switch engaged*. Normally, fuzz into lead/gain channel sounds terrible, as it does on my Bandit with the gain switch turned off. But something about the gain switch in my teal stripe allows the fuzz to not sound "blown out"; it's thick but clear and articulate, and it reminds me of Matt Pike of High on Fire.

That's on the real amp. I want to know if the preamp pedal can do it too. Can someone please check if engaging the gain switch on their preamp pedal will clean up that usual "blown out" sound of fuzz into the lead channel? Thank you.

So as everyone knows, playing a gained up fuzz pedal into a high gain amp creates this weird blown out useless tone... as it does on the lead channel my teal stripe Bandit...

... until you engage the "gain" switch, which suddenly makes it clear. It's practically the only instance I've ever run into where putting fuzz into a lead/channel of an amp works. Except then when you disengage that gain switch, thus lowering the gain, it goes back to the normal blown out crud tone that no one uses.

What the heck is that gain switch doing??