Veni, MIDI, vici ... "tricks" and best practices for MIDI stuff, DAW and final mixing

Technique
623

Story of my life :slight_smile:

So, I am experimenting with slicing a sample, ie:

  • I have a sample that says “Hurensohn” (= “Son of a Bitch”)
  • I want to manipulate it, like this: “huuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnsssssssssoooooooooooooooooohhhhhhn”
  • So, I guess I need to slice it like this /H/u/r/e/n/s/o/hn/, adding it to the sampler and then assign a MIDI pattern to get the effect that I want? I know, this is different from the gating approach, but might give me some more degrees of freedom.
  • I learned from Perplexity that MeloDyne is not the right tool and I learned from testing that the Studio One built-in tool is not great for this (in auto mode)

Question: how do you slice? Manually?

Also, I have a sample where I want to do something differently:

  • The sample says “TÜV”
  • In this case I want to slice it like this /T/Ü/V/
  • When playing via the sampler, I want to hear “T” at key press. While holding, I want to loop “Ü” and when released I want to hear “V”.
  • The difference with the previous use case (“Hurensohn”) is, that I want to play this sample with one key, and use different keys for pitching.

But how?

624

First get the actual samplers, then see how trivial a question you just asked is

1 Like
625

I have three samplers to test now:

  • Decent sampler
  • Sample One
  • CR8

My problem is to slice the samples right. MeloDyne does not give a proper indication for the exact location where to slice, the bend tool from Studio One also fails.
And my experiments with manual slicing are very tedious.

1 Like
626

That’s because you’re assuming you need to slice them. Look in to looping sample regions, gating and stuttering.

2 Likes
627

Decent is config file based - so that’s of my list…

628

Not sure what you mean but it has a sample editor and developer mode for creating presets (which is what you are trying to do, just in the maximally tedious way)

629

Oh you mean no sample editor gui. Ok that’s fair.

Really recommend looking for a free or used version of HALion.

630

Yep, you need to create something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 800 400 
<!-- First vocal chop -->
<sample
  path="Samples/Chop_C3.wav"
  rootNote="48"
  loNote="48"
  hiNote="48"
  loVel="1"
  hiVel="127"
  volume="0"
  loopMode="off"
/>

<!-- Second vocal chop -->
<sample
  path="Samples/Chop_D3.wav"
  rootNote="50"
  loNote="50"
  hiNote="50"
  loVel="1"
  hiVel="127"
  volume="0"
  loopMode="off"
/>

<!-- Third vocal chop -->
<sample
  path="Samples/Chop_E3.wav"
  rootNote="52"
  loNote="52"
  hiNote="52"
  loVel="1"
  hiVel="127"
  volume="0"
  loopMode="off"
/>
631

I wonder if HALion is transferrable. If so a used version would give you a nice instrument. If not then a sale would be a good bet.

A used old version of Cubase would be another way to get it (and Retrologue, which is awesome too).

Cubase is one of the best DAW for MIDI work as well.

632

According to Knobcloud it is:

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But 129€ is still too much, as long as I don’t know how much I will do with samplers.
Currently, it’s for one song that nobody wants me to do :slight_smile:

1 Like
633

That’s a good deal, roughly its sale price

634

Perplexity says I should try this:

1 Like
635

That looks like a solid option.

BTW you do realize SynthMaster has sample oscillator support, right?

1 Like
636

Ha!
Synthmaster intimidates me, so it’s presets until I properly learned all about synths (soon)…

1 Like
637

Meh :frowning:

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image1920×1080 393 KB

638

wekk, it IS Windows :rofl:

1 Like
639

Ha, yeah! It s#cks!

Trying this now:

1 Like
640

Getting a good sampler will open a lot of doors for you. They are every bit as much a musical instrument as your bass is, so can take time to learn, but are very capable.

For example, one way to do what I think you want in a sampler with an actual brain (like, say, the one in phase plant) even without slicing or editing would be to set an LFO to DAW time sync and a sawtooth wave, use that to modulate the sample start offset, and then just use the MIDI editor to draw notes where you want the sample to play.

You could also probably do real interesting things along the lines you want to with a Granular oscillator.

641

Ah, telepathy!

So, something like this would be an idea?

Pigments can do granular too, right? So, Grainferno makes no sense…

I’m still reluctant. All granular stuff I heard up to now was some very noisy background synth stuff I don’t need.

Also, on my priority list I have:

  1. A proper synth solution. Simple, powerful and giving me a comprehensive approach to all kinds of tones
  2. A sampler that also solves my splicing nightmares
  3. Granular stuff, maybe

That said: I am planning to move a little more to my own recorded samples. This week I started to not leave my home without a Zoom Mictrak M2, so I could sample interesting noises

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image474×266 27.5 KB

“Is that a Zoomtrack in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” :slight_smile:

I’m experimenting with “Einstürzende Neubauten”-style songs, but have not managed to convince my park punk chick that punk and hiphop is for pussies, and Avant Garde Industrial is where non-conformism and true art lives!

642

Granular oscillators play tiny random slices of samples at a high rate to produce sonic textures, yes. Often used in soundscapes.

But you can also do other funky things with them. What you want to do is not their normal use but you might get some cool use out of them.

And yes, all (or most) flagship synths now have granular oscillators builtin.

1 Like