What's the best way to play variable-tempo samples live?

Question

When I play with my band, I'd love to integrate background samples into our music. However, our group isn't fond of playing to a click track.

Ideally, when a sample is to be played, we could dial in the tempo we're currently playing at and have the sample play back at that tempo. This would allow us to play freely with the benefits of samples.

The options I've seen to do this so far are:

1. Play to a click track. This guarantees you'll be playing at the same speed as the sample. Annoying to do, though.
2. If the sample was created by a synth: open the sample's MIDI in a DAW and adjust the tempo on the fly. This doesn't seem to be a simple, straightforward process (in FL Studio at least - maybe other DAWs are better at this?).

Is anyone aware of a solid solution to this problem?

Answer 1

I would suggest looking for a Tap Tempo feature on a sampler. This should allow you to have prerecorded samples stored within a single device that can have their output tempo adjusted simply by tapping the tempo button a few times. This is fairly common on a lot of devices. My DAW, Logic, has it, my looping pedal (a Boss pedal) has it. This should give you the term to use in your search for a device or within software. I just did a quick search for "sampler with tap tempo" and the results provided just what I would imagine: a lot of options.