Editing Sample-based synthesis (section)

==Sampling synthesizers==
A more flexible sample-based synthesis design allowing the user to record arbitrary waveforms to form a sound's basic timbre is called a [[sampler (musical instrument)|sampler]].  Early samplers were very expensive, and typically had low [[sample rate]]s and [[Audio bit depth|bit depth]], resulting in grainy and [[aliasing|aliased]] sound.  Since the late-1980s, however, samplers have featured specifications at least as good as [[CD]]s.  By the late 1990s, the huge increases in computer processor speed permitted the widespread development of [[software synthesizer]]s and [[software sampler]]s.  The vast storage capacity of modern computers was ideally suited to sample-based synthesis, and many samplers have thus migrated to software implementations or been superseded by new software samplers.