Sampling has become the new by-word of the modern musician. Those without some are now considered terminally under-nourished in the musical hardware department.

The launch of the Ensoniq Mirage sampling keyboard in February '85 sent tremours of excitement through the industry and at last, it seemed, anyone could own a Synclavier... TYPE keyboard; anyone with £1,700 to spare, that is, and that certainly isn't everyone. What's more the difference between an Ensoniq and a fully blown Synclavier is massive — both musically and financially. But that's another story.

So what about some genuine 'Sampling For The People'? There has been no shortage of rumours concerning imminent launches of really cheap samplers, but until now nothing had materialised.

Now, Yamaha have unleashed their 49-note, mini keyboard, the VSS-100 which cleverly combines a simple 21-voice preset FM autoplay keyboard featuring auto bass line and drums (12 preset patterns), with a sampling synth offering a total of eight seconds of mono sampling time — all for approx £179.00. It's a member of the PortaSound range and as such is clearly aimed primarily at the 'fun' market. But is there something here for the angst-ridden creative artiste, rich in ideas and poor in pocket?

Two major drawbacks are that it has a mini keyboard and that there is no means of externally controlling it — no MIDI, no VC, no nothing. What you see is what you get, and if you're used to exercising any playing technique, as a performance/recording synth the VS-100 falls very short.

For a low cost auto-play keyboard, however, the sounds aren't at all bad although some are a little noisy. A lack of technical spec makes the number of operators in use purely guesswork: I should say four maximum and possibly only two. Played manually the FM section is eight-note polyphonic, though only two-note polyphonic when used with the auto-play section. There are no pedals available and the only effects are fixed vibrato and fixed length sustain. The sampled sounds can be played via the keyboard together with the FM sounds (although of course they're only monophonic) or they can be used as the voice for the auto-play bass line. The FM presets are as follows:

Jazz organ, Pipe Organ, Clarinet, Flute, Violin, Trumpet, Horn, Sax, Oboe, Accordion, Piano, Music Box, Electric Piano, Harpsichord, Koto, Electric Guitar, Vibes, Cosmic, Popsynth, Funksynth and Slapsynth.

It's a simple matter to sample either acoustic sounds via a built-in microphone, or electronic sources via a line input. An LED meter and gain control allow you to get the best recording level.

The eight seconds of sampling time can be used in one long sample, or split up into four two second samples triggered via the four different octaves of the keyboard. This could even mean an approximate form of multisampling, or more probably having four different short sound effects available at a time.

It is thought that the sampler apparently uses an eight-bit system which should speak well of it except that the reproduction is rather noisy and the frequency response notably limited. Sampling rate is not given, and thus a technical explanation of its subjective effect can't be given.

An interesting range of 58 sampled sounds are provided as standard on a cassette tape. There is something of a lack of individual musical samples: no piano, no woodwind or brass, etc, although there are sounds of complete orchestras crashing a chord, etc, which could be useful.

This is not a replacement for the Mirage or the newer Prophet 2000, but it does sample real sounds and is possibly usable as an effects generator. You won't be washing your arrangements with lush string and brass sections, however.

The FM sounds are very usable, although the mini, non-MIDI, keyboard might be restrictive. The auto-play section could come in useful for quick demos, and if the combination of the three — FM, sampling and auto-play — meet your needs, the VSS-100 is excellent value.

YAMAHA VSS-100 Sampling Synth: £179.00