Curious Electric GmbHDeutsch

CE‑SAMPLER/TAB5

A sample player with thirty‑eight pads and one job.

Five sounds, one take. No cuts, no edit, no sound.
The Tab5 with no battery fitted: 128 by 80 by 12 millimetres, 124.5 grams, running off the cable that you already own. The kit loaded here is the RPG Night pack, one of the free example ones, and STEP4 is a file you can see in the listing below.
How to buy Try for free See the specifications

€19.90 once, for the instrument. The M5Stack Tab5 it runs on is bought separately, from a retail shop: see which device to buy, and where. Nothing recurring, no account, and the browser version below stays free whether you buy it or not.

Your folder is the kit

no library, no importer

Plug the device into your computer (Windows, Mac or Linux) and it mounts as a drive. Drag a folder with a soundpack onto it. Disconnect and reboot and your samples are live and ready for the stage within seconds. The soundpack format is totally open; create it manually or use our free Kit Editor.

NO NAME › SAMPLER25 files
  • MAP.TXT1.0 kB
  • SWORD_SHEATH.WAV70.5 kB
  • TORCH_WOOSH.WAV28.0 kB
  • CHEST_SHUT.WAV29.2 kB
  • STONE_HIT.WAV31.9 kB
  • POT2.WAV88.0 kB
  • CLOTH.WAV62.0 kB
  • POT1.WAV85.1 kB
  • BOOK_PLACE.WAV24.6 kB
  • STEP4.WAV25.3 kB
  • … 16 more, and nothing else at all
The real contents of one of the free example packs. MAP.TXT is a plain text file you can open in anything: one line per pad, SLOT: FILE.WAV. Delete it and the kit loads in filename order instead. There is no database, no proprietary container, and nothing that needs our software to read.

Thirty‑eight pads, all of them visible

free, no account

No menus, no banks to page through, no pad that is secretly another pad. What is on the screen is what will play.

Tap a pad. This is the instrument, not a picture of it.
The Tab5 runs 1280 by 720. So does the web player. Same resolution, same layout, same kit format, running in your browser with nothing installed. Drop your own sounds on it, or load one of the free example packs. It is not a demonstration of the sampler, it is the sampler. The best try-before-you-buy you will find as they say :).

128 by 80 by 12 millimetres

124.5 g

It is a device with a touch screen on it. It lies flat, it takes one cable, and it does exactly one job.

RPG NIGHT VOL 4 - 128.0 mm 80.0 mm M5STACK TAB5 · 5″ IPS · 1280 × 720
This schematic shows the layout of the M5Stack Tab5:
thirteen columns, three pad rows, the reserved mode key bottom left, and the volume blocks and stop pad on the system row above. The mode key lets you control the brightness and the rotation. Twenty-five pads lit is the RPG NIGHT pack as it's available here as an example.

What it is like to use

SWITCH ON

Under three seconds to the first hit

Power to pads, every time. There is no splash screen, no project to open and no kit to choose unless you want to.

PLAYBACK

Nothing loads, ever

Samples stream off the card as they play, so switching on is switching on and a long sample costs exactly what a short one does.

CAPACITY

No memory limit to run into

Length is bounded by the card rather than by RAM. A 16 GB card holds hundreds of kits, and a smaller card starts faster.

POWER

Any USB-C supply will do

The charger on your desk, a laptop port, a battery pack in a bag. Fit the NP-F550 and it runs about six hours away from a socket.

We also listed the things you can not do with it, and what else you should know about the device, on the device page for clarification.

Specifications

M5Stack Tab5
  • Pads 38, on screen at once
  • Display 5″ IPS, 1280 × 720
  • Sound stereo
  • Outputs 3.5 mm jack, onboard speaker
  • Polyphony one voice, new pad stops the last
  • Samples WAV, from a microSD card
  • Sample length bounded by the card
  • Kit format a folder, plus MAP.TXT
  • Transfer USB-C, mounts as a drive
  • Power USB-C, or NP-F550 battery
  • Size, weight 128 × 80 × 12 mm, 124.5 g
  • Licence one purchase, every device

Buy it once

€19.90

You have already played it, with your own sounds if you wanted to, before being asked for anything. That is deliberate: it is a better promise than a refund policy and one we can actually keep.

Buy the instrument Where to buy the Tab5

The firmware is a file you download and keep. Nothing in it checks in with a server, there is no activation and no account, so there is nothing here that could be switched off later, by us or by anybody else.

Updates are free and published here whenever there are any, including support for devices added after you bought. There is a pocket-sized one too, which is a different shape for a different job rather than a cheaper version of this.