Rompler is a nickname for an
electronic musical instrumentAn electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical audio signal that ultimately drives a loudspeaker....
that plays back
sampleIn music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song. This is typically done with a sampler, which can be a piece of hardware or a computer program on a digital computer. Sampling is also...
s stored in
ROMRead-only memory is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified , it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM...
chips to generate sound. Romplers lack the ability to record such samples and have limited or no capability for generating original waveforms. This is in contrast to
samplerIn music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song. This is typically done with a sampler, which can be a piece of hardware or a computer program on a digital computer. Sampling is also...
s, which let the user record samples as well as play them back.
The term
rompler is a portmanteau of the terms
ROM and
sampler, and as with samplers, a rompler can have additional sound editing features, such as layering of several waveforms and modulation with
ADSR envelopeAn ADSR envelope is a component of many synthesizers, samplers, and other electronic musical instruments. Its function is to modulate some aspect of the instrument's sound — often its loudness — over time...
s and
LFOThe term low-frequency oscillation is an audio signal usually below 20 Hz which creates a pulsating rhythm rather than an audible tone. LFO predominantly refers to an audio technique specifically used in the production of electronic music...
s.
The
E-mu SystemsE-mu Systems, Inc. is a synthesizer maker and pioneer in the manufacture of low-cost digital sampling music workstations.-History:Founded in 1971 by Scott Wedge and Dave Rossum, E-mu began making modular synthesizers...
Proteus line of products and the
Roland U-20The Roland U-20 is a musical keyboard and rompler produced by the Roland Corporation released in 1989. Note that 1-unit rack mount version is labelled as U-220...
are well-known romplers.
Rompler is a nickname for an
electronic musical instrumentAn electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical audio signal that ultimately drives a loudspeaker....
that plays back
sampleIn music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song. This is typically done with a sampler, which can be a piece of hardware or a computer program on a digital computer. Sampling is also...
s stored in
ROMRead-only memory is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified , it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM...
chips to generate sound. Romplers lack the ability to record such samples and have limited or no capability for generating original waveforms. This is in contrast to
samplerIn music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song. This is typically done with a sampler, which can be a piece of hardware or a computer program on a digital computer. Sampling is also...
s, which let the user record samples as well as play them back.
The term
rompler is a portmanteau of the terms
ROM and
sampler, and as with samplers, a rompler can have additional sound editing features, such as layering of several waveforms and modulation with
ADSR envelopeAn ADSR envelope is a component of many synthesizers, samplers, and other electronic musical instruments. Its function is to modulate some aspect of the instrument's sound — often its loudness — over time...
s and
LFOThe term low-frequency oscillation is an audio signal usually below 20 Hz which creates a pulsating rhythm rather than an audible tone. LFO predominantly refers to an audio technique specifically used in the production of electronic music...
s.
The
E-mu SystemsE-mu Systems, Inc. is a synthesizer maker and pioneer in the manufacture of low-cost digital sampling music workstations.-History:Founded in 1971 by Scott Wedge and Dave Rossum, E-mu began making modular synthesizers...
Proteus line of products and the
Roland U-20The Roland U-20 is a musical keyboard and rompler produced by the Roland Corporation released in 1989. Note that 1-unit rack mount version is labelled as U-220...
are well-known romplers. Romplers are often packaged as
sound moduleA sound module is an electronic musical instrument without a human-playable interface such as a keyboard, for example. Sound modules have to be "played" using an externally connected device...
s. Almost all
digital pianoA digital piano is a modern electronic musical instrument designed to serve primarily as an alternative to a traditional piano, both in the way it feels to play and in the sound produced. Some digital pianos are also designed to look like an acoustic piano...
s and many
electronic keyboardAn electronic keyboard or digital keyboard is a sample-based keyboard instrument. Its sound is generated or amplified by one or more electronic devices....
s made for the home market (such as the Yamaha PSR-290) are romplers.
The term
rompler is sometimes use to describe software instruments (such as
VSTiSteinberg's Virtual Studio Technology is an interface for integrating software audio synthesizer and effect plugins with audio editors and hard-disk recording systems. VST and similar technologies use Digital Signal Processing to simulate traditional recording studio hardware with software...
s) that only play sounds (samples), with no ability to record new sounds. In this instance the samples are played back from computer
RAMRandom-access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order...
after being loaded from disk, rather than from
ROMRead-only memory is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified , it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM...
chips. Many software instruments described as samplers have no ability to "sample" audio and therefore might be described more correctly as "sample players".