The pictures below show a 15kHz sine wave sampled at 44100Hz played at different resampling factors with various software and hardware samplers.  The notes played from left to right are C major scale from C4 to C5 and from C4 to C3. (root note is C4). Output samplerate is also 44.1kHz. All samplers are set to highest quality mode.

 

Optimal quality (synthesized)

 

Synthesized sine waves to show what the spectrum should look like. The notes from G4 to C5 are above ½ * samplerate so they are not synthesized since an ideal resampler would filter them out completely. Most samplers tested here don’t handle them correctly, but instead the notes get reflected at the top of the spectrum. See the Fruityloops picture for a good example.

 


 

Emagic EXSP24

Large amount of aliasing.

 


 

Steinberg Halion

 

Large amount of aliasing.

 


 

Matilde Tracker

 

Large amount of aliasing.

 


 

Propellerhead Reason

 

Fair amount of aliasing. Made in Sweden.

 


 

Sonic Syndicate Orion Platinum

 

Close to SB live quality. Upshifting not handled as good.

 


 

 

Creative SB live (hardware)

 

Aliasing an octave above actual frequency, but otherwise ok. Reflection at nyquist for higher frequencies causes problems.

 


 

 

Jeskola XS-1

 

One aliased note (the red one) at about 22kHz, above the limit of hearing. Perceptually equal to the optimal quality one.

 


 

 

Fruityloops 256 point SINC (non-realtime)

 

Frequencies are not filtered correctly when upshifting, so they reflect at nyquist frequency, causing high amplitude aliasing.

 


 

 

Conclusion

 

XS-1 is the clear winner of the test. Quite surprisingly it’s the only sampler that does upshifting without audible aliasing. From the others samplers, SB Live is the only one that at least attenuates the aliased frequencies a little.

 

All the samplers sorted from best to worst:

 

  1. Jeskola XS-1
  2. Fruityloops (non-realtime)
  3. Creative SB Live (hardware)
  4. Sonic Syndicate Orion Platinum
  5. Propellerhead Reason
  6. Matilde Tracker
  7. Steinberg Halion
  8. Emagic EXSP24

 

The sample used in the test can be downloaded here.

 

XS-1 page