I am new to the sampler world and will be purchasing my first sampler soon.

I am familiar with the upgrades, options, and specs on both machines, however, I am uncertain on what one is better.

I know the emu has beat munging and auto looping. The Yamaha also has really cool options to play with loops also. I'm not sure if no auto looping is a deficit, is it easy to get perfect, in-time loops, without auto looping?

I also know the Yamaha has awesome effects and the ability to read many file types. Does this work well - Is the e-mu comparable?

I would appreciate any advice on this topic - I am an amature and look forward to seeing what you have to say.

MV

See my reply in the Yamaha section, though one thing I forgot to mention... E-mu seems to offer an upgrade path, so if you REALLY need those new features, you can get them... For example, if you own an older E6400 (Non Ultra) You can send it to E-mu and have it upgraded with a new Ultra Processor for a fee (I think around $1000) It aint cheap, but it is cheaper than trashing it and buying a new one...

Iostream