Not many people are familiar with a company called Red Sound. RedSound is based out of the UK, and unfortunately I'm not too sure what's going on with the company overall. The last time a product was put out was back in 2007 and that was RedSound's SoundBite Pro. The SoundBite Pro is in general a sampler based off of their well received SoundBite XL but it's been upgraded to a level that Artists / DJs / Musicians / Remixers have long been waiting for.
The SoundBite Pro is a sampler that has the ability to sample based on beat counts, it has the ability to play those samples forward - but can even do it backwards!! It has a built in filter as well that is tactile controlled - I'll explain this feature a bit more in detail later. When RedSound released their SoundBite XL - it was a really well built piece of equipment, it was hard to find here in Canada but, when I found it - I had to pay a bit for it but I absolutely loved it! In fact, my SoundBite XL is in mint condition, and still to this day functions just like when it first came out of the box.
The SoundBite Pro is a loop based sampler. It features 6 buttons - banks that tell you how many beats it will loop. It's capable of doing 1 beat - 2 beats - 4 beats [x2] - 8 beats - up to 16 beats. Their are alternatives to those though, by pressing one of the buttons, and rotating the tactile control [jog dial] you can adjust the length of the beat loop. As well, what I really enjoyed is that the SoundBite can have it set for the buttons to either do a one shot loop, or you can have it set to seamless. You're wondering what makes this a " Pro " piece of equipment? The " Pro " comes from an upgrade that I patiently have waited for - it now boasts an on-board 1 GB of internal memory. This is a HUGE benefit that I knew it was going to happen but it was just a matter of when. And they answered the when, and still they brought it a bit further then what I was anticipating. When the XL came out the moment that the machine was turned off you lost all your loops, and then you had to capture your loops all over again from the audio source of your choosing.
The Pro allows you to keep those loops, those samples in the on-board memory. Which is a huge absolutely HUGE benefit. The 1 GB of internal memory will allow you to store up to 12 minutes of samples. But they didn't stop there. They took it one step further. The Pro allows you to export the samples, the loops to your computer so you can store them on your laptop, and you can then transfer the loops back and forth to load, and reload the SoundBite Pro with your library of loops. They developed software for it as well, SoundBite Arranger Utility which is still available for download for your PC or Mac. I know for sure that the way the SoundBite Pro codes your files allows them to be used with Native Instruments Traktor software.
The SoundBite Pro has a built in filter that can be selected for use. This filter is absolutely awesome! It's controlled by the jog dial - turn to the left, and the filter is faded out, but if you go to the right - the filter then is applied, and continues to increase in it's intensity. But. Oh yeah there is a BUT. When you've found the right amount of filter, using the buttons - banks you can then program the filter's intensity into the memory. Which means then you can switch between 6 different intensity's of filter. This was an additional feature that I enjoyed playing with.
The equipment has stereo inputs, and outputs. Left, and Right channels. It has a 1/4 inch headphone input. So you can sample audio from any source you really want, but to really get the most out of this piece of equipment you need to hook this up so an effects specific input / output that you can choose which channels you're sampling from. It's an awesome piece of equipment which I'm trying to find some sources to purchase this from. It's vintage, and there are software that allows you to sample also, but sometimes I find that it's just a bit more convenient, and better [for me] to have a piece of hardware specifically for my desired function.
From when I first stumbled onto RedSound back in 2002 or 2003 - I realized that all of their products are absolutely awesome. They put great thought into the body of the product because no professional loves to feel plastic we need to know that it's solid, they put a lot of thinking into making it look aesthetically pleasing. But I'm not sure if we're going to see anything from RedSound again or not, I do know however that the Peavey Corporation did make a "spoof" of the RedSound SoundBite Pro, but seriously when you have RedSound you have an innovator, and original in your hands.
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