Portable hardware samplers are well and truly in vogue at the moment, and leaping into the competitive fray with a tasty-looking new offering comes the feature-packed Sample Boy from Donner Music.
Introduced at this year’s Beijing Modular 26 show, this new (and recently leaked over the summer on Amazon) handheld sample workstation from the Chinese-based manufacturer is ostensibly a prototype of something that Donner Music state will hit shelves within the next 12 months.
While some have already noted its resemblance to the aesthetics of Teenage Engineering's products, Sample Boy sports several features that set it apart.
As the company revealed to Sonicstate in an exclusive video, the rectangular Sample Boy features a 2.8-inch full-colour IPS LCD display, four colour-coded parameters, six touch points and 16 backlit buttons. At the heart of the unit are a fader, jog wheel and navigation pad. The prototype also comes equipped with a 7-track sequencer which allows users to build an entirely new track from raw materials captured with the unit.
The Sample Boy also features a built-in speaker and microphone, meaning that it can be an entirely standalone hub if you so wish. However data can be shared with a DAW-equipped computer via the USB-C cable.
What’s particularly appealing about Sample Boy is that the unit can receive samples from a vast range of sources. It can capture incoming audio via its line input, the internal mic, USB audio or can be processed via an internal digital tape mode for classic resampling, boasting 32-voice sampler polyphony.
The Sample Boy allows you to apply an input effect to the incoming sample too, allowing users to change its characteristics via an in-built filter, EQ, its compressor, distortion mode or coloured mode. The internal sample engine runs at 48kHz/24-bit
Using the unit’s controls and the LCD display, users are then able to adjust and slice the sample to taste using its dedicated modes.
In terms of connections, the aforementioned USB-C charging port also allows the communication of audio and MIDI data to an external computer. There’s also a mini jack MIDI IN and OUT, analog sync IN and OUT and a line input and output. Then there's a microSD slot for saving and loading samples outside of the unit.
With the hardware close to completion - and the software still being developed - the unit still has some way to go before we can expect it to retail.
Beyond this technical information, imparted to Sonicstate we have little else to report for now, other than the Sample Boy is expected to launch 2027, with its price TBC. Check out Donner Music for the latest updates.
