CLASSIC HARDWARE, MODERN STUDIOS

Audio sampling has been a mainstay of music production for more than 50 years – and the first hardware samplers had terrifying price tags. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before the cost of this technology started to fall, with the first truly affordable samplers arriving before the 1980s had hit their halfway mark. Upon its release in 1984, the Ensoniq Mirage synth commanded about £1,500, still a financial stretch but considerably cheaper than before.