tips for cool samples

[roon]

Yeah, it's quite easy to do, you just need to re-interpret it to the means you've got.
So I'll suggest something along these lines: reverse the sample You wish to use with your sampler (it surely have that option). Put it trough some heavy, lush reverb and record the output back to your sampler. It may require some rerouting if You're going to use an external reverb. After you record it back, reverse that new, reverberated sample again. And You should have what you asked for. It's that simple

[tallowwaters]

I agree, but I would say try reverberating the sample, then reverse it.

[roon]

I agree, but I would say try reverberating the sample, then reverse it.

I will stick to my method. But hey, I even took the effort and prepared samples of both ways
And to straighten up any missunderstandings - I didn't mean to affront you in any way or something - if I did I'm honestly sorry for that, it was not my purpose. It's just that I love to learn new things and I love sampling, so I thought I'll ilustrate both methods with samples But as I said, I'm sorry if I offended You in any way.

So, anyways! Samples!

Since I do not have a microphone I did used a speech sample from random song.
Here's the dry one. First one is 'forward' sample (your way) and the secound one is reversed one (my way). Both are dry.

Here's the reverberated one. Exactly like the dry one, first sample is 'forward' (your way), next one is reversed (my way). Sorry for the huge verb, by the way. It came out to big :/

Finally, the end product. Since I just reversed the file without any alteration to the playback order, this time first sample is done with my way, and your's the second.
As you can see, my method (the one shown on the video) reversed reverb giving this sweeping sound, yet leaving the words understandable (well, kinda but again - way to big reverb blurs everything :/), while your method just made the sample play backwards.
I hope this makes that problem solved

[tallowwaters]

I agree, but I would say try reverberating the sample, then reverse it.

I will stick to my method. But hey, I even took the effort and prepared samples of both ways
And to straighten up any missunderstandings - I didn't mean to affront you in any way or something - if I did I'm honestly sorry for that, it was not my purpose. It's just that I love to learn new things and I love sampling, so I thought I'll ilustrate both methods with samples But as I said, I'm sorry if I offended You in any way.

So, anyways! Samples!

Since I do not have a microphone I did used a speech sample from random song.
Here's the dry one. First one is 'forward' sample (your way) and the secound one is reversed one (my way). Both are dry.

Here's the reverberated one. Exactly like the dry one, first sample is 'forward' (your way), next one is reversed (my way). Sorry for the huge verb, by the way. It came out to big :/

Finally, the end product. Since I just reversed the file without any alteration to the playback order, this time first sample is done with my way, and your's the second.
As you can see, my method (the one shown on the video) reversed reverb giving this sweeping sound, yet leaving the words understandable (well, kinda but again - way to big reverb blurs everything :/), while your method just made the sample play backwards.
I hope this makes that problem solved

My way would have came out the exact same as yours (I do this all the time), I think I just communicated how to go about it very poorly, as is my custom.

And no worries man, no affronts detected. It's about sharing knowledge, not egos.

[Jabberwalky]

I sampled this into the EPS16+, then added reverb. Resampled that with the effect and but a bidirectional loop on it

http://soundcloud.com/bliptonic/sample-reverse

[Zack McConnell]

This has probably been mentioned before but Neil Rumney a.k.a "NRG" used the "record fast and play back at a lower octave" trick tallowwaters described on "I Need Your Lovin'" so he could fit all the samples in his Ensoniq EPS16+, the only board he used to make that track.

[colmon]

how do you guys deal with audible loop points in drones? i've got this beautiful short drone i want to loop, have got it down to the smoothest of crossfades on my tx16w, but there is still a very slight duck. it's soft enough that it doesn't sound like a click, but it's still there. have tried looping it as a one shot in my sequencer and playing with attack/release times and adjusting sequencer tempo but it's still there. any tips? or am i just being paranoid?

[ninja6485]

use 2 identical audio tracks and alternate between 1 instance of the audio file on one track, and the next instance on the second track, then back to the first. then crossfade the tail of the audio file with the start of the other. if there's no tail you can use some reverb, or delay to help mask.

[colmon]

that's all well and good for crossfading drones in a daw, but i don't see how it's relevant to a hardware sampler

just wondering if anybody has any tried and tested techniques for creating looped drones in a sampler, whether it be using the samplers in-built crossfade algos or whatever

[madtheory]

1. Use Antares Infinity
2. Add echo
3. Add reverb
4. Use chorus/ flange/ phaser

[ninja6485]

that's all well and good for crossfading drones in a daw, but i don't see how it's relevant to a hardware sampler

just wondering if anybody has any tried and tested techniques for creating looped drones in a sampler, whether it be using the samplers in-built crossfade algos or whatever

ah my mistake - for some reasoni imagined you sequencing in a daw. you could still have two instances of the sample and alternately trigger them, but then that takes up more momory and such. have you solved the problem yet? madtheory's reply is probably the rout i would go if i had the same issue with a drone.

[tallowwaters]

Does the TX have a backwards and forwards looping function?

[EmptySet]

Back in the older meaner days (read: students with no money for extra gear), our band used to like to sample vocals using a 2 liter plastic soda bottle (a trumpet mute also works… even better, actually). Cut the bottom part off of the plastic soda bottle (that bottom cover). And while you're there, cut off the bottom 1/4 of the actual bottle… the same height as that cap you just removed. Then, put the drinking end in your mouth and a microphone in the newly opened end and sing/speak/etc. It gives it a really cool sound for such a cheap "invention"… it compresses the source pretty nicely… and it gives it a nice EQ'd NIN telephone quality voice. As mentioned, we also had great luck using a harmon/wah mute for trumpet. It sounded even better, but slightly different… and of course, you have some variability there too that you don't get with the soda bottle. I know, I know… you're stuck with that sound since you're essentially recording the effects. But, try out and see what you think.

[Hair]

Somewhat more natural sounding old school-type aliasing in Ableton Live using the Redux effect:

1 - Take the sample/audio clip you want to "old school-ify" and either turn warping off and pitch it up a decent amount, or leave warping on, set it to repitch mode and increase your project's tempo to get the same effect
2 - Put the Redux plugin on the repitched audio's channel and season to taste. I like to put downsample somewhere in the neighborhood of soft - 1.xx-3.xx depending on the source, and bit reduction to taste (I like 12). The goal is not to obliterate the sample, just to get some digital "sheen" here and there in the highs
3 - Create a new audio track, make it's input source the track with the pitched-up sample
4 - Record/resample the pitched-up and Reduxed audio clip to the new track
5 - Pitch the newly recorded audio down to the original speed
6 - If needed, repeat steps 2-5, adjusting Redux until you're happy with the results
7 - Make another audio track, make it's input source the track with the now pitched-down resampled clip
8 - Record/resample the pitched down audio, you now have an audio clip that you can warp, Slice to MIDI etc to your hearts content

I find this gets you a lot closer to "sampled at 45 rpm and pitched down on an SP-1200" territory than using the Redux effect alone. There might be an easier way to resample, like right click on audio clip -> Consolidate, but I believe this is destructive so YMMV.

I'm sure you can apply this to any software that allows you to repitch audio via playback speed like a tape machine, has a similar plugin (or can use Jeroen Breebaart's TimeMachine VST if you're on Windows), and can resample itself. Never tried repitching in Reaper myself, but I bet it would work.

[ninja6485]

this should really be common sense; but i just figured it out so i felt like sharing. if anyone is triggering multiple looped samples live, it helps to make the loop size for all of them identical or even multiples of the original loop size(in samples). before i was adjusting the loop regions based on where the sample started and where one beat over the segment that i planned to loop started, but the loops kept drifting. i thought this would be sufficient for keeping them in time, but decided to try making one loop (starting with a kick), and then using that number (151239 @ 140bpm) as the loop size for the rest of my samples, calculating when i wanted a looped segment twice that size or half etc. i would then record a new segment @ 140 bpm (synced to a digital clock) and then enable looping, entering 151239 as the loops size. i thought i would have to adjust sample start times, but the loops turned out super tight without that! as a bonus, i also accientally figured out that even though the akai s2000 doesn't have a loop-> retriger option like the s5000, you can trick the s2000 into continuously looping if you pull the midi cable out your keyboard wile holding the key down. then when you plug the calbe back in, it's still looping until you hit the key. you can then trigger another sample and do the same thing and now you have two going! it's probably not the best thing for it, but hey: it works!