14
The only thing that matters is if the sample sounds good. You have to listen to it and decide whether you want to use it. No numbers or waveforms or analysis programs are going to tell you whether the sound is good.
But be aware a sample that sounds good by itself might not sound good in a mix, and other sounds that work well in context might sound bad when ...
9
In general, yes - a high quality sample is essentially a high-quality recording, and will capture the overtones/harmonics, as well as other 'unstable' noises, that would be heard when simply listening to the instrument.
One situation where you might not hear these characteristics reproduced faithfully might be where the sample in question has a small ...
6
While the ultimate indicator of quality is what sounds best. If you're looking for the "cleanest" sound, there are a few things you should look for.
Typically, you want to find audio files in unaltered formats - though it comes at the cost of dramatically larger filesizes. These are audio formats (both compressed and uncompressed) that store the audio data ...
5
There is no blanket answer to your question. It depends. "It depends" isn't very useful though, so let's try to dive a little more into it.
Advantages and disadvantages
Generally speaking:
Sample: Less complexity, less flexibility.
Synthesis: More complexity, more flexibility.
But it's not that simple, and the weight of those cons and pros depend on ...
5
While everyone is rightfully emphasizing that the sound is, at the end of the day, the only important metric, there are still a few basic technical things to look out for:
Lossy vs. lossless: given the choice, you always want lossless WAV, FLAC, AIFF, etc. (See @Flying Soda's answer for more details.)
Stereo vs. mono: Some things, like kicks, snares, or ...
4
Right click the audio passage -> convert -> convert to new sampler track. You can also go to the audio menu and select convert to new sampler track directly.
Select create zones from transient markers, and select the sampler's range. Click ok.
And you are done.
4
Maybe I'm not understanding something about the question, but why do you say non-percussive instruments don't align to the beat?
If I'm playing a MIDI keyboard, for example, I want the sample to begin playing as soon as possible when I press the key. If there's any kind of appreciable delay, it throws off my performance. Especially at higher tempos. The ...
4
Your list contains quite a lot of different types of adjectives. I'd pick your question as "what contributes to the characteristic of the sound of a piano", as describing each and every type of sound would be too broad.
Factors which contribute to the sound (tone) of a piano note include:
Hardness / softness of hammer (bright / mellow sound)
Length of ...
4
There are no real indicators like that. Of course, in general you could say for example, that .wav files are higher quality than .mp3 or that during the production phase 24 bit may be better than 16 bit etc., but who actually tells you, that this is the original file?
If someone downloaded a 240p youtube video and converted the terrible audio file into ....
4
Other answers have given some information about the technical considerations of the audio format, and pointed out that one primary consideration is of course "is this the sound I want?".
There are also some other considerations that affect how easy it will be to get a good quality result:
Loopability of the whole file: If the sample represents a sound like ...
4
Sample libraries exist [hundreds of them], but though they all are licensed so you can use them in your own compositions for commercial use, I doubt whether any of them would permit re-use inside what is essentially another application. You'd have to ask the authors very specifically about that.
It may be different if this JavaScript app is essentially just ...
4
This boils down to "How much detail do you require, how much articulation & can your playback engine support that articulation?"
At one end of the scale we have the single sample, stretched the full length of the keyboard.
This is sampling circa 1985.
To that you could add a variable velocity-sensitive attack & a filter so loud notes are brighter ...
4
It's not clear exactly what genres (the phrase "modern music" isn't very precise) you're asking about, so I'll cover several of them:
Rock, Hard Rock, Punk, Country: More often real acoustic drums played by a drummer and recorded. Sometimes drum replacement may be used if one or more of the drum sounds is off or has a problem - that's where the acoustic ...
3
Can a song be made entirely of samples?
Of course.
For example, say I sample a single middle-c piano note. My understanding is that a DAW sampler can then change the pitches of this one sample so I could potentially get all the notes across the piano from just this one sample.
So far, you're right to an extent - simplistically-speaking, the piano is one ...
3
I think you have a number of issue combined in this question.
But about the piano sample using only middle C, you could do this but when the single sample is pitch shifted through the full piano range it will not have the right timbre.
Really good sample libraries use sample from the full range of an instrument as well as different dynamics. Really good ...
3
Because the flute can be considered (if we exclude the initial breath noise) as a single waveform that can be repeated or extended without too much problem, it is very easy to import it as a sample. The synth can then play it for as long as needed. It's basic, but it works.
Piano, however, has attack, decay, sustain and release (ADSR) so just playing the ...
3
Not sure which version of Logic you are on but this video is for Logic 8 and is a very good tutorial on a quick way to do this. Creating samples for EXS24. I'm not familiar with Logic X but I'm fairly certain that this functionality will translate with maybe minor differences, as it does translate directly to Logic 9, which I use. This guy, SFLogicNinja, ...
3
If a human is playing the samples, I would prefer it if this latency was consistent, and as close to zero as possible.
Whenever I make my own samples, I zoom right in and trim any 'silence' from the start of the sample. All my samples are saved like this.
I'm not 100% sure if I would notice 100ms of silence at the start of my samples, but I would expect ...
3
Yes, we can make music with only sampled sounds. And we do. If we're trying to imitate 'real' instruments, it's almost exclusively what we do.
There'll be more than one base sample for each instrument though. You can only shift the pitch so far before the sound becomes unreal (remember 'Pinky & Perky or the Munchkins?) A good sample set has a new ...
2
When should I use one over another?
The big advantage of using samples is that it's easier to make your hits sound like real instruments. If you sample a snare drum, and use that sample, it will sound more like the real thing vs. a synthesized snare hit, which will more likely sound synthesized.
One disadvantage of samples is they may need to be cleared (...
2
Yes, Ableton has two powerful samplers built in, Simpler and Sampler. I think some of the smaller versions of Ableton (like Live Lite) only contain Simpler. But they both can be used to create sample-based tracks. You can change pitch, speed, start/stop points, as well as modulate envelopes, filters, LFOs and other useful things. It's a great DAW for this ...
2
I would suggest looking for a Tap Tempo feature on a sampler. This should allow you to have prerecorded samples stored within a single device that can have their output tempo adjusted simply by tapping the tempo button a few times. This is fairly common on a lot of devices. My DAW, Logic, has it, my looping pedal (a Boss pedal) has it. This should give ...
2
The opening scratch to "My Name Is" is a baby scratch of a kick drum sound. "24K magic" also has a baby scratch of a kick drum. So I'd guess that's what you mean.
It may be a sample but it's probably just a normally performed scratch (probably with a turntable on Eminem and probably some kind of controller on Bruno Mars). The reason it gets used everywhere ...
2
You've misunderstood the way inputs and outputs work.
The output of one device is almost always connected to the input of another device. You don't connect inputs to inputs and outputs to outputs. You connect input to outputs.
It would look like this:
MBox S/PDIF Output -> Converter S/PDIF Input | Converter analog Output -> Electribe analog Input.
That ...
2
Samples can be dangerous. First and foremost you need to remember that you’re writing for real people, and that should always be your end goal. If you have limited experience, samples can distort your perception of balance, texture, and response throughout register. There are also many things that can’t be played back, for example, if I specify a passage on ...
2
Assuming each of those EQ diagrams is a band-pass filter, eliminating the frequencies outside the permitted band, then to EQ all after you comp the sample will affect the entire combination sample, so you will be allowing a little of the mid & high through from the low sample, & the same for the other two.
If you apply your EQ individually to each ...
2
I'm not sure why you'd have trouble finding said software because there are a lot of options.
VirtualDJ was one of the first that I remember with the ability but that was 10 years ago or more and I'm not sure what the best options are these days. I know Serato can do video now too with a plugin of some kind. Some versions of Djay Pro include video support ...
2
I'm just wondering what the point is of synth instruments (manipulating waveforms) if I can just use samples for everything.
Synthesizers don't usually make convincing substitutions for acoustic instruments and samples of synthesizers certainly exist, so you've asked a reasonable question. But samplers haven't subsumed all of synthesis and I doubt they ever ...
2
I think you have the gist pretty well already!
You certainly could use a large number of samples per drum, and select them based on striking speed, position, etc. That is by far the most common approach taken in commercial software.
Synthesising drums from scratch isn't impossible, though it is hard to do well. Synth secrets has some articles on drum ...
1
The sad truth is that if the legato of a sample library is programmed bad, it'll stay bad no matter what you do. There are not really many things you can do yourself to make sound a legato better. That's why sample libraries with real/true legato transitions also cost so much more than sample libraries with scripted legato.
You said the sample library was ...
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