Share your shortcircuit sampler techniques here!

[keyman_sam]

This thread is meant for SC fans like myself, to share tips and techniques using the free softsampler Shortcircuit from vember audio.

I'll go first :
Gating tricks with loops
1). Load a drum/phrase loop into a zone, and enable forward loop mode.
2). Make sure that the loop's tempo is project tempo.
3). In the zone's mod matrix, select "temposync (1 bar)" if its a one bar loop and destination as zone start.
4). Set intensity to 100%, for a loop in 120bpm (and so forth).

Now, in your midi track which is outputted to SC, you can place midi notes anywhere you want, and Shortcircuit will play catchup. i.e. depending on the SPP, shortcircuit will decide where in the sample to start playing, when the note is triggered.

Where can you use it? You can create a gating effect using midi notes, whereby you control the release time of each beat in the loop, or wherever you wish. Easy to do this in EXT using slice notes. Pretty cool methinks.

[keyman_sam]

Automapping keyranges :
Name your wave files containing the root key notes, such as C4, D4, etc. Now, drag all your samples into the multi view, and SC will automatically map out your samples AND spread them out evenly, such that there are no gaps.

Automapping for velocity splits :
Name your wave files with velocity information such as _064 _032, etc., and select all those files and drag and drop them under a single key. SC will take care of the velocity splits for ya. Note that Highlife can be used to auto sample VSTs and include velocity information in the samples themselves.

This method doesnt work when you use "Load samples". It only works with drag and drop into the mapping editor.

[keyman_sam]

Source intensity Destination
: Modwheel -200% rate(linear)
Modwheel 100% zone start


Instant forward/reverse control of the sample using the modwheel.

This technique was taken from the vemberaudio forums (posted by claes).

[keyman_sam]

Total Slice control :

1).Follow tip 1. After you're done with that, clone the same zone to, say, 10 or 12 different keys using the "clone to next free key" option. Select all those zones and set a common choke group number so that only one of them plays at any given time.
2).Now in your sequencer, create some random midi notes that fall within those 10 or 12 notes that you assigned in 1).
3).Modify each of those 12 zones in zone-edit, treating each individual zone as if it were a slice. The advantage in this method, is that, the slice is not "static"...i.e. lets say one of the zones had pitched up to 12 semitones, one of the zones has a LP filter in it, one of the zones has a morph filter in it, etc. Mini-tip : When you're doing this (i.e. creating variations of original zone), you'll find it useful to use the "A" key for auditioning the changes you make to the sample. Hold down the A key while making the changes. After you're done with this you can trigger any part of the loop, using a certain zone, at any time you want! This means, you can cycle through different processes of the same loop, in any order you want, and they'd all sync to the sequencer seamlessly!

We're just getting started.

[keyman_sam]

Simple keyboard shortcuts incase you're lazy to read the manual :
press A to audition current zone.
Press L to locate the zone that you just played in your midi keyboard.
use arrow keys to go thru zones.

[poonna]

Thanks for these! BTW, are these for SC1 or SC2?

[keyman_sam]

Thanks for these! BTW, are these for SC1 or SC2?

These are all for SC1, unless I specifically mention otherwise.

BTW, the total slice control thing really works like wonders here in Energy-XT. Smooth transition between 4 different sets of effects, filters and whatnot, as if I were automating them, but they're just different zones!

Man i had more to share while I was working with SC earlier today, but I simply was too lazy to write them down....

[lunatic]

Nice thread!

[Download SOphist]

i'll have to het started with SC... it's been dusting on my HD for ages! thanks for the thread.

[MaliceX]

Shortcircuit is probably the most powerful (free) sampler out there at the moment. From playing multi-velocity/sampled sounds to rather extreme sound mangling to even using it as a wavetable-like synthesizer!

While version 1 doesn't have reverb, it's still all good.

Remember, when organising samples, holding shift and pressing the first then the last ones does work, in case people are unaware. (However in terms of ease of use when shifting samples is not easy, at least the only way I've managed is to reimport them in the right order at the correct root keys as necessary)

*Multi-selected samples also can be edited as a whole where changes will take effect as soon as you alter the corresponding setting. It's handy if editing a group alone doesn't have something you need.

Oh yeah, version 1's GUI is a bit of a lug. You may notice slowdowns at times. Either close the GUI or click the word (MULTI) and you'll see your CPU magically go down. (for some reason it goes up when viewing samples.)

It is advisory that you group all your samples imported, use the ctrl-click trick above, right-click and click new group. Right-click again and click move to>new group. You can change the name of the group by clicking the group and going to the bottom-left section.

*ONCE GROUPED, REMEMBER TO CHECK THE POLYPHONY SETTING ASSIGNED TO THE GROUP.

Easy modwheel stutterglitch:
On any sample or group, have a MICROGATE effect set up.
Set Threshold to 5.0dB
Set Hold to your liking. (more means it'll hold the stutter for longer before it restutters or releases)
Set Loop to 100% or a BIT less.
Set reduction to 0dB
Now on the matrix, reserve two rows with the first column with MODWHEEL
First row: middle value should be a large negative number, and the next set to THRESHOLD
Second row: middle value should be a negative percentage number (don't go past -100% though, try to play around with this. The lower the negative number the slower the stutter on max value.)
Optionally, have your samples set with large PB ranges to your liking.

Duplicating sounds to simulate a chorus works well, and doesn't affect your CPU (provided the GUI isn't viewing sample editing.) Right-clicking and cloning is very handy; set panranges for the copies as well as minor changes such as tuning in cents..

On FWD until RELEASE mode, make sure you set your amplitude EG's release up a bit to be able to hear the ending trail when you let go of the note.

[keyman_sam]

Thanks! Keep 'em coming!

Here's some stuff that you probably won't find in the manual :

1). In the zonelist view, rightclicking any key on the virtual piano will set the root note for the selected zone - SUPER handy.
2). Zonelist view is the only place where you can create velocity-crossfades. To create velocity crossfades, simply overlap two regions, and shift-click and drag the borders of the regions to desired velocity.

[keyman_sam]

You can use SC as a 256-oscillator VA Synth!! Ok, here's a tutorial to do a 2-oscillator synth.

Import any sample, and set play mode to forward loop. Set the root note of the sample to G8, low key to C-2 and high key to G8. Set some random loop points. In the filter menu, select sine wave, or sawtooth, or square wave. Turn down the dry mix till you can't hear the sample. You got a one oscillator synth now!

To make it into a two oscillator synth, simply right click on the sample and select "clone (same keyrange)" Voila! You got a 2-osc synth now!


You can repeat this process to get a bloody fat analog sound-monster.

[keyman_sam]

Wish you had reverb on shortcircuit? No problemo....

Here's how to setup aux in Energy-XT
Go to settings, set stereo outputs to atleast 4. In EXT's comp window, double click on sequencer and set the outputs to two stereo outputs. Place the free, and excellent "Glaceverb" reverb plug-in, and connect the second stereo out of the seq into Glaceverb's Input, and connect GV to main outs.

Now, press "F7" in Sequencer window, and right click on shortcircuit's channel, and select "Outputs-->Audio Out 02 --> Master Out 2". Yer done.

You could do this for 8 stereo aux busses, not counting the 16 mono outputs. That should be quite enough, imo.

[keyman_sam]

If you want to layer a lot of groups, I'd suggest avoiding the Group modulation options, and use the zone-level modulations, when you're creating the patches.

Reason is this : When you finally come to the point where you want to layer two different patches for one sound, you can easily click on one of the layers, select all samples, and move them to the other layer. You won't compromise anything if you hadn't used the group-level modulations.

The advantage of doing this is that, when you save it as a group+samples, your entire patch will be saved safely, without any "missing samples".

[MaliceX]

I can't for the life of me figure out what "ONE" is, in the modulation matrix.