Greetings all, first time poster here.

I'm hoping someone may be able to give me some helpful guidance--I'm completely new to the world of sampling, here's my situation and what I'm trying to accomplish...

I play bass in 3 piece heavy rock band. I've been writing lots of music on guitar and want to integrate guitar playing into our band's performances via a new doubleneck bass/guitar, while playing bass notes and chords with my feet via midi triggers. I just purchased a Roland FC-200 for this purpose.

For the triggered bass sounds, I want to record actual DI samples of single notes and chords from my bass guitar, and rout them to my bass rig while i play guitar through a separate guitar rig--kind of like reamping in the studio.

I'm trying to figure out which piece of hardware would make the most sense to achieve this end.

Would an actual sampler like the Roland SP-404 be my best option?

I was wondering if a looper like the Boss RC-505 or RC-300 could be used with the FC-200 to trigger phrases, as "one shot" loops? I would probably need to trigger 6 to 8 pre recorded notes/chords per song. This would be the most desirable option for me if workable, as I like the idea of being able to have the looping functions as well.

I was also considering using some type of software sampler via a laptop or iPad, but I'm not crazy about the idea of relying on a computer for this task, as it's not uncommon for beer and bodies to be flying around during our shows, so a relatively rugged piece of hardware would be a big plus...

Like I said, this stuff is new to me and outside of my comfort zone, so any helpful comments would be greatly appreciated.

You could do it with a real sampler, not a looper, probably wouldn’t want a phrase sampler for this. Not sure that it work out great for dynamics/etc though.

A synth would likely be serviceable enough as well.


Or could just fake it with an octave pedal like a Pog, run the wet out to its own amp.

Thanks for your response, kslight.

Cool, I'll look into a real sampler for this.

I have a POG as well, awesome pedal for what it is. What I'm trying to do requires an actual guitar, as I'll be doing parallel lead lines with the guitarist, and some 6 note chords that rely on b and a strings.

Synth would be cool, but I'm trying to match as closely as possible the sound of my actual bass guitar.

Dynamics shouldn't be too much of an issue--I run a parallel rig of SVT>8x10/Marshall>guitar 4x12, with lots of distortion--big wall of sound. I will have a separate half stack on stage for the guitar that I'll switch to with an a/b/y box.

You might be surprised how close an FM synth could sound to a bass guitar, especially if you ran into your rig with dirt/etc...


Or even, if you have a spare iPad or iPhone you could use your foot pedal to trigger one of many apps for synths or samples.