The original MED was cool - remember the "jumping man" mouse pointer?!
@mooncloud:
As for sampling - a sampler at its most basic level turns an analogue waveform (in this case, an audible sound) into a digital pattern that the Amiga can use to subsequently play back at different rates, generating different pitches.
As you're no doubt aware, the Amiga has four audio channels, meaning it can play back four of these sampled sounds simultaneously. There are various software tricks, however, as used by OctaMED and Octalyzer that will increase the apparent number of channels at the expense of sound quality.
- Ali