Hi everyone,
You might have noticed myself posting recently. I’m a new moderator on the TORAIZ Forums along with D.j. Creme. I Just wanted to let you know that we’re listening to the feedback here and really appreciate seeing the passion and community forming around the TORAIZ SP-16. Ive been tasked to ensure I get back to your posts ASAP, and if I can’t help immediately I’ll raise a support ticket on your behalf direct to the TORAIZ engineers.
I feel the 32 second sample limit is a hot topic, so I thought this would be a good starting point to introduce myself officially.
Here is a brief explanation as to why we have chosen a 32 second sample limit.
When you receive the error message “CANNOT LOAD SAMPLE OVER 32 SECONDS”. This message appears when sample source files greater than 32 seconds in length are selected.
The SP-16 has 8GB of internal memory (flash ROM) and 256MB RAM for audio samples. The reason why we have limited the length of samples loaded is to ensure maximum performance utilising all performance features over all 16 TRACKS simultaneously. To switch between scenes whilst playing back the sequence, all of the samples used in the project must be loaded onto the RAM. Once above the 32 second sample length limit we start to jeopardise the performance of the hardware, hence why we need a sample length limit.
There are 16 TRACK's and 16 SCENE's, so in total there are 256 sample slots (16 x 16) in one PROJECT. The 256 sample slots share the 256MB RAM (without elaborating, 1MB per 1 sample slot). Here, we will calculate the the size of a 1 second sample as 44,100Hz x 3 Byte (24 bit) x 2 CH = 264KB. Note that some of these numbers have been rounded to the nearest whole number to make it easier to understand. 1MB divided by 264KB = 3.78 seconds. If you want to assign different samples to every TRACK in each SCENE, the samples have to be less than 3.78 seconds. Remember you have in total 256MB RAM to play with, so the previous is the most extreme. Generally, a project will consist of one shots and loops which are duplicates of other samples used across other SCENE’s. The total size of the samples exceeding 256MB is up to the user.
Next, we considered what the optimal and convenient length of a sample is. The SP-16's pattern is up to 4 bars, so the longest loop is 16 seconds at 60 BPM. However, many users want to use longer loops and set the start/end point in the playback menu, for example, you could have a 32 second sample (16 bars at 120BPM) and select 8 seconds of that sample to create a 4 bar loop. Users would also like to record over 16 second samples, since recording guitars and vocals would require margins.
From the above reasons, we've balanced out the length and performance, choosing to limit the length of a sample to 32 seconds. Having said this, we are currently investigating how we can remove this limit but as its stands this is the current specification.
We hope this helps you understand why we gave the SP-16 a 32 second limit.
Thank you for your feedback so far.
Ste
wasted breath bro.
