The Best Sampler You Never Heard About

In which I demo the VESTAX Faderboard, an innovative sampler from Japan. Made as a co-operation between Vestax and Korg, this unique instrument is the brainchild of DJ Shing02. Played with faders instead of keys, it befuddled its targeted audience and was largely forgotten. Yet it is a fantastic instrument for ambient and experimental music even today.

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TIMELINE
00:00 Intro
00:56 Specs
01:51 The Joy Of Fading
03:17 Sound Quality
04:19 Sampling
08:16 Effects
09:59 Storing Sounds
11:15 Is it really bad?
12:17 Why was it forgotten?
15:03 How I Use It
16:00 Faderboard today

[Shingtv]

Thanks Mr. Hainbach for a great review! First off, the pros and cons you humorously listed are 1, 000% true, lol. One thing I can add is MIDI capability (without velocity, unfortunately) that you can use to link with other modules, while also playing the Faderboard. There were many other improvements that I had hoped for when the first model came out around 2002, we got the global patent and maybe 500 were made.

One initial challenge was that Vestax didn’t own a sound module so we turned to Korg. However, Vestax believed they didn’t get a good deal on them, which drove the cost up and it retailed around $800. I didn’t choose the internal sound bank (yes they’re cheesy except 08), but I programmed the drum kits with available sounds from Korg Electribe series. Also, the automatic key system was incorporated into Korg Kaossilator that came out after.

Personally, for the user bank I sampled in long C tones from Hammond organs, PPG and analog synths that sound a lot better, albeit stretched over the scale. You can have them stored in the user bank so you don’t have to wait for the atrociously slow memory to load (I’ve never really used the card). You can also use vocals and ambient nature sounds on loop that sound great especially when slowed down.

So, we demonstrated the new product at NAMM, PLASA, all around the world and got a lot of positive attention. At the time, Vestax was tiring hard to secure global distribution and teamed up with Korg USA. I recall that the high-end DJ instruments were NOT received very well by the Korg USA team, they simply didn’t understand the appeal. The Faderboard followed the same fate as Q-bert’s QFO, D-Style’s Controller One, Vestax simply could not sustain the production.

Vestax parted with Korg USA and turned its focus on digital controllers. At first they were ahead of the curve and even sold at Apple Stores, but eventually got squeezed out by bigger players like Pioneer, RANE, etc. Vestax had abandoned its bread & butter of turntables and mixers, and in my opinion the company never recovered from that, resulting in bankruptcy in 2014 . Today, the Vestax brand is still alive and the repair service is still active in Tokyo, so never say never! If you want more background info, my page is still up at [e22 dot com / faderboard]. Thanks! \( ¨̮ )/

[PlugInGuruVideo]

What's very funny is hearing samples I created for Korg in the examples you played. Many years ago for Trinity and Triton voicing originally but you never know where your kids will end up!

[Eleni_Be]

instantly i had to load an ambient sound chromatically spread over 16 tracks in ableton and played them over my 2x8 apc40 faders. FADERS "as Keyboard" IS SUCH A GREAT CONCEPT. Thank you, Hainbach!

[repeatle]

Five years ago I saw one for the first time. A guy I was visiting while purchasing something else said I should buy his Faderboard. I didn't know what it was so I passed. Then read about it and got very sad I never bought it. Cue 2021. I see one for sale by another friend of mine. The only one I've seen in five years. Turns out it was the very same unit. And yes, these days it's in my studio and I will probably not part with it for another five years :)

[xenosexp]

I’ve been staring at this thing on reverb for ages. I’m glad it fell into the right hands.

[RobFlaxMusic]

14:38 for video glitch that’s perfectly timed with the words “experimental” and “not their focus”

[freestatefx]

Great idea. I was watching "Guardians of the Galaxy" the other day and was blown away by how ethereal and huge the background vocals are in "I"m not in Love" by 10cc. They used almost this exact same technique, albeit with a tape machine and console, to mix and create chords for that iconic bg vocal sound. Such a great idea to make this technique readily available with hardware. Thanks for bringing attention to in Hainbach! Your channel is awesome. Just sub'd.

[wolfdesk]

This is so cool to see again, I saw DJ Flare from invizibl Scratch Piklz doing a live show with one of these whilst on holiday in San Francisco. It was a pre release version I think, I had never seen anything like it. Amazing and unusual piece of kit. This was about 20 years ago.

[NefariousDreary]

I love this channel. You do a great job at demonstrating good sounds out of obscure tech, and your voice is so soothing.

[stiiiiiif]

Also worth noting: you can play with micro tuning -50 / +50 - Bringing really nice sonic magic to it

[JimmyLem]

Nothing better than watching Hainbach keep his cool while the file saves!

[bensharp]

Man I love this thing! Just wish i'd known about it while doing my degree, we did alot of work with max and arduino etc. Its been 10 years since I programmed anything (mainly OTB and modular now) I'm sure some bright spark with the know how could build a simple standalone version using an arduino, I always had the vision but never the technical knowledge. I'm more patch cords and knobs than ones and zeros's! Thanks for another great video Hainbach.

[Unlimitedbreadstick]

Those effects sounds VERY much like the MicroKorgs. Super interesting, I like the approach of trying to make an instrument out of playing the faders on a mixer... Definitely something there for experimental. I could see Soma Synths making something like this, they have been killing it with innovative unique experimental stuff.

[chrisharrison]

I saw this in your photo the other day and instantly looked it up on reverb. Looks fun. :) glad you made a video on it

[shanecrixus]

I remember when these were released! I was always fascinated by it but could never find one for sale. Congrats on scoring one!

[iwanwesterduin]

Realizing this workflow using Live and my Novation Launch Control XL is the first thing that came to mind at the start of the video!

Also, looking forward to downloading the pack from Patreon. Thanks Hainbach!

[abbenay]

Really cool thing! Would love to see this emulated in an iPad App or virtual instrument since the Hainbach effect will surely make the real thing pretty impossible to get hold of. I recall trying to build something like this in Ableton the first time I got my hands on a midi controller with 8 faders but I gave up. Would love to play like this again

[DUNGEONMUSICTHEATRE]

dude, you're like a national treasure. Thank you for your constant source of inspiration!

[peterpiper]

Good video. Thank you for the insides of this machine. Yes I never 'heard' of this but had my hands on it at the Musik Messe back then. Being a DJ I really liked the faders but on the other hand I could not think about a way to use it in my sets or as an instrument in production so after about 15 minutes I went to turntables to watch DJ Q-Bert :)

[DarkSideofSynth]

Such an interesting concept. Oh the SmartMedia cards... you've just reminded me I should get some for some of my Yamaha products. They don't come cheap.