Rompler is a nickname for an electronic musical instrument that specializes in the playback of samples stored in ROM chips. Romplers lack the ability to record such samples and have limited or no capability for synthesis. This is in contrast to samplers, which let the user record samples as well as play them back, and PCM-based synthesizers, which play back samples but have the ability to modify sounds through synthesis technologies such as filters and LFOs. The term rompler is a portmanteau of the terms ROM and sampler. An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. ... In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording. ... Rom is also the name of a toy and comic book character Rom (Spaceknight). ... An AKAI MPC2000 sampler A sampler is an electronic musical instrument that can record and store audio signal samples, generally recordings of existing sounds, and play them back at a range of pitches. ... PCM is an initialism which can have different meanings: Phase Change Material Pulse-code modulation Potential Cancer Marker Communist Party of Mexico This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A classic FM synthesizer, the Yamaha DX7. ... An audio filter is a type of filter used for processing sound signals. ... An electronic oscillator is an electronic circuit that produces a repetitive electronic signal, often a sine wave or a square wave. ... A portmanteau (plural: portmanteaux or portmanteaus) is a word that is formed by combining both sounds and meanings from two or more words. ...

While romplers cannot record custom waveforms (samples), they can reproduce the samples they contain as well as any sampler. The chief advantage of romplers over samplers is cost.

The E-mu Systems Proteus line of products and the Roland U-20 are well-known romplers. Almost all digital pianos and many electronic keyboards made for the home market (such as the Yamaha PSR-290) qualify as romplers. Romplers are often packaged as sound modules. Drum modules (sound modules specializing in percussion sounds) are almost always romplers. Also, most drum machines use sample playback technology. Grooveboxes like the Roland MC-303 are usually romplers, but some contain actual synthesis engines. E-mu Systems was a synthesizer maker and pioneer in the manufacture of low-cost digital sampling music workstations. ... Roland EXR-3 Keyboard Roland Corporation is a manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. ... A digital piano is a modern electronic musical instrument that is intended to function as a standard piano, often adding other features. ... An electronic keyboard is a keyboard instrument which uses electricity to produce or amplify its sound. ... The Yamaha Corporation (ヤマハ株式会社) is a Japanese company with a large number of product areas. ... A Sound module is an electronic musical instrument without a human-playable interface such as a keyboard, for example. ... It has been suggested that drum machine programming be merged into this article or section. ...

Because the rompler moniker betrays the fact that an instrument uses sample playback technology but lacks the ability to create samples, the term is never used in the marketing of electronic instruments thusly designed.