I have been scratching my head about sampling for a while. Here is a list of products I am aware of:
Bastl Grampa
1010 Bitbox
Tiptop Audio One
ALM Salmpler
elektron Digitakt
elektron Octatrack
but then also guitar looping pedals…
Ditto x4 looper
Electro-Harmonix 45000 Stereo Multi-Track Looper
and some Chase Bliss loopers coming out.
elektron screwed up. From what I see you can’t do sampling quick with any of their 3 samplers. Geezzusss!!!
ALM’s Salmpler seems simple and immediate. But you need 19hp and a bunch of cash. Bitbox is attracting me.
Bitbox is really attracting me. This is a vast topic with specific feature sets. Please don;t suggest some guitar looper from 10 years ago. Chances are I have tried it and it doesn’t have a good clock sync.
Bitbox though…
I love how it has all these jacks but also just a simple midi input. Love how you can switch firmwares just by switch sd cards…
But then it isn’t standalone. They do make the Blackbox which is. But it doesn’t have all those trigger inputs.
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1010 Black Box looks quite fun, so many features in a great little package. I definitely want to get to know this one better. I have heard very compelling examples and one example of the unit totally glitching out without any obvious cause. I have also spoken with the guy with the guy on a couple of occasions and he seemed both personable and knowledgeable.
I wouldn’t discount the Digitakt because you are looking at specs on paper, that is definitely missing the forest for the trees. Specs don’t really come close to scratching the surface of how fun it is to use. The sampling I do is a lot of internal sampling, and that is plenty fast and easy. There are lots and lots of sound design tools that you can employ to make your own flanges and low-fi effects.
Here’s a new trick about how to use conditional triggers and ratchets to make random melodies.
The sort of thing I would do would make a melody randomizer then resample various bits of that and then make a new pattern with that sample pitched down an octave or something. I can sequence Audulus pretty well with midi and of course with modular it’s great there too.
I’m curious, do you not want to look at the Akai samplers? MPC live on the used market seems very capable and they are dedicated to building that platform out as an iOS-like app system.
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Not interested in Akai sampling. I don’t like the modern Akai products.
Also, I am way more attracted to dedicated devices. Because I have such a modular setup (non-integrated re-routable chain of devices and effects), I am after specific components. Yes, I have agonized over certain things, but I don’t generally buy beginner stuff then sell it for intermediate stuff etc. I prefer to just have a couple of serious pieces that will become timeless (Analog 4 mk1) rather than the latest $400-600 US sequencer/synth/drum machine.
There are also power issues I am considering. The Strom Power from Koma would presently allow me to play in the woods with all of my gear. I may just go for another 54hp pulp logic case instead of a standalone device. I just don’t know. But the fact that there are samplers still coming in hot tells me I am probably smart to hesitate. I need to spend some time in the shops sitting down and trying workflows. Have to admit, the Digitkt does have that addictive, results based workflow I enjoy when using Korg Gadget. Also, the idea of having a storage device for my samples is attractive.
I really should be spending more time in the Analog 4 building a massive library of my own synth presets! 
Not huge on it so far. Seems a bit big and a bit too feature rich for what I want but it needs to be here. Would have been nice if they just cut it in half and did the expansion option.
I have a Ditto x4 that I use with my bass rig that I absolutely love. With my bass playing, I use a lot of on the spot live-looping when improvising and it’s been my absolute favorite looper for the feature set. I still haven’t played around with syncing a clock to it, but that’s because I don’t use MIDI too much and it’s MIDI-syncable to a clock rather than CV-clocked.
Let me know if you have any questions on the Ditto 
Yeah I really wish they would put out a model in a 1590a or at least a 1590b that had a transport clock sync or something. The more loop layers the better. I don’t like how on some loopers your first loop sets the loop length of all other loops. I also wish they would stop adding fx and reverse and tape stop features and just make something minimal. I am aware that their base model is minimal like this but, again, no sync. Sure does make me think that I really ought to have a guitar loop pedal and a sampler.
I had something going in ableton with a custom footswitch made out of a midi video game controller, but you can’t use non mac stuff on iOS. 
This is part of what makes me think you will vibe with the Digitakt. Once you get rolling, designing with the DT pretty much the best thing to pair it with is another Elektron device. For me that’s the Digitone, but I keep looking at the Analog 4 MkI on Reverb.com for some reason.
I could also see maybe getting a second modular case. While I am selling off right now, I can definitely remember the need to expand to a point of equilibrium that covered my bases (and discovering what those bases were). The ALM SALMPLER is immediately endearing because of the intentional spelling error. If I had a criticism of the DT is that it doesn’t allow you to zoom in on the waveform once you have saved it, the SALMPLE has no visual feedback on the screen at all. I guess the ideal user will just be recording one-shots or recalling stuff they loaded on the card, but it’s really trying to be a drum machine. The Digitakt is also trying to be drum machine, but ended up like a “Digital 8” (imagine me making air quotes with my hands) synth engine with hard drive recording.
Some buyers would literally cry bloody murder and mount a class-action lawsuit.
