Just thought I'd share my findings for those who may be interested.

I've always been obsessed with sampling from any source and have always loved physical sampling and cutting samples outside of the daw to mix things up instead of staring at a screen all day.

After my akai gave up its ghost my mate suggested I try a marantz pmd580 to record straight into as he found it gave that similar warmth to samplers of yesteryear.

I was pleasantly surprised when I tried his and was amazed that a solid state recorder could give me similar results.

I've sworn by this unit now for the past couple of years, especially for my jungle tunes. When I sample off a record straight into the recorder opposed to recording straight into my daw it blows it away and adds a much richer texture to the sound almost akin to most 90s dance records. I cant explain it but it just sounds so much beefier and raw.

I now spend a full day recording sample libraries onto my memory card and then transfer via usb onto my comp.

Just wanted to see if anyone else uses one of these for similar operations or anything similar and share a hidden gem.

It's that good I bought another one second hand as a backup in case this one ever fails as I don't believe they make them anymore.

What actually is it? Letters and numbers don't mean very much cheers

I had an old Fostex DMT-8VL years and years ago and i still remember liking the sound of it. Then again it was all I knew (aside from 4 track tapes) at the time. Compared to the ASR-X I had concurrently, I remember it as less beefy/sparkly and more grainy/punchy.

What audio interface are you using (it may be the problem...)? Assuming it has a SPDIF (or AES or ADAT) input, perhaps look into older ADCs like the Symetrix 620 or some other 18/20 bit converter box from the mid 90s.

Lol