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I am sure you can tell from the title of this post that I am new to this Korg World but what exactly is a sample and can samples be played on Korg Pa50 keyboards? Thank you.

Hi!
I will try to describe you what are samples. My english is not so good, but I'll try to be useful..
First lets me describe what is sampler. Sampler is device that's able to record sounds from outside world (its usually done with microphone or cable...) and then converts these sounds to digital format that later can be playbacked on electronic instruments (such as keyboards). Sampler store records in its own memory or hard disk...
For example, your friend is guitarist and you want to play his guitar sound on your keyboard. First of all, you'll need a sampler. Your friend will play each note one by one. Sampler will record each note as separate audio file (C1, C#1, D1, D#1, E1, F1, F#1, G1......C2, C#2....B2,,,,D4....). When recording is finished you should edit these records (cut silence at beginning, do noise reduction and volume corrections etc...). After editing you will have new (edited) audio files. At this point you will define which file will be playbacked when you press desired key on keyboard. You can also assign several audio files to same key (note) depending on velocity (of course, your friend will need to play same note on his guitar with several velocity levels...).
Two kinds of samplers are known - software samplers (program on your computer like Steinberg's HALion) and hardware samplers (devices like AKAI S3000 or keyboards like Korg Triton). When all sampling processes are done, sampler will store an file (called program) that contains all parameters that you defined before.
Sampling is very complex process. Some instruments (like guitars) have sound that depend from many factors (position where player pick a string etc). Drums are also very difficult for sampling because its sound depend of dynamic, position where stick hits drum etc.

I hope that you understand "my" english.
Best regards!

Hello friend. Yes I absolutely understood your English. Your English is very good matter as a matter of fact. I just wanted to appreciate for your beautiful and thorough answer. Just out of curiosity, are sample files very large?

In real you don't have to sample (record) all notes from an instrument. Often only few notes per octave are sampled. In this case sampler will "calculate" other notes. Then programs are smaller because they use less number of samples.
Also, you can create few programs using same samples if you apply different filters (cutoff, attack, release...) on each program.
Next, all samplers have its own sample format that compress files.
Older AKAI samplers (for example S1000) uses floppy disks for storage! Even on floppy disks they can store very very good samples (you need to hear it!).
Today's VST instruments (virtual instruments - plugins for popular programs such Cubase etc...) also uses sampled instruments (for example Colossus, Battery and many others). Theirs sample libraries are often few gigabytes large!
For example Korg Pa80 uses flash card (up to 16MB) for sample storage, but it is enough for very good samples! Korg have its own technology how to keep samples smaller without loss in quality.
You asked whether Korg Pa50 can load samples. It can't! Korg Pa50 haven't flash card slot. I seen on this forum that some guys modified theirs Pa 50 (did hardware and software modifications) and now they can use samples, but I can't recommend these tweaks. Btw, keyboard that cost about 1000€ will never sounds as keyboard that cost 2500€, even with samples!
Stay tuned!
Best regards!