Are there different kinds of digital musical instruments?
Yes, there are two basic catagories. One is called sampling. A sample is a digital “snapshot,” or recording, of an acoustic instrument’s sound. The sample is stored digitally in computer memory, and is used as the “model” for recreating the instrument’s sound. Samplers like the Ensoniq EPS, ASR, EMU, Kurzweil 2500, etc. are among the most remarkable achievements of advanced computer technology. Samples contain an enormous amount of digitally encoded data about musical sound, and require large quantities of computer memory much more than is required for any other type of digital musical instrument. In order to be useful, samplers must be able to manipulate all of its data instantly in order to produce a note as soon as the musician strikes a key on the sampler.
