KVR Audio

Funkybot · Post by **Funkybot** » Sat May 28, 2005 7:11 pm

Hi guys, does any sampler allow for free running samples? By that I mean the samples will constantly be running in the background as opposed to starting anew from a note on event? Reason I ask is I'm thinking about picking up an Optigan and sampling it, and would like the same functionality as the real unit (where the rhthyms were continously running in the background). Anyone know of a sampler that does this?

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Sat May 28, 2005 7:36 pm

Kontakt should be able to.. there are LOTS of options for that kind of thing.

Funkybot · Post by **Funkybot** » Sat May 28, 2005 9:58 pm

Anyone know if this is the case, and if so how to do it? I basically just need the chord/rhthym samples to loop constantly in the background, while the melody samples would do the same. Also if the initial note on could be the triggering for this, that'd be great. Also is it possible that Symptohm does this (as I already own that)?

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Sat May 28, 2005 11:21 pm

Well, looking at Kontakt, you can set it so that within an "instrument" (a patch), any particular sample will not be transposed and will simply play at its intended pitch over any range. With Kontakt, you can change loop points of any sample independently to begin with, and add crossfades if you want to make the loops smoother. As for triggering, you can set all the parts of the patch to trigger at the same time (which happens naturally with the note on event) or you could set it up any other way you want; eg. one part will only trigger if the modwheel is above 45, or whatever.

Funkybot · Post by **Funkybot** » Sat May 28, 2005 11:34 pm

Ok, but how do I get the samples to run constantly in the background only sounding when I want them to? It's hard to explain, but think of an Optigan, it runs it's samples off a disk which is constantly spinning. This works so that you can play chords/rhthyms with your left hand, and that when you change chords/rhthyms, let's say mid bar (or anywhere else for that matter) the new chord/rhthym will automatically begin at that exact same point in its loop (instead of triggering anew from the start). Does this make sense? I had a go at the Kontakt demo a while back, and really couldn't make heads nor tails of it, and I'm wondering if this is possible with it.

Actually let's put it like this, let's say you have two drum loops at the same tempo assigned to different notes. The thing is that you only want to use the first part of drum loop one for let's say half a bar, and for the second half of that bar you only want to use drumloop two (starting right where one left off). Then maybe next time round you want the change to occur three-quarters of the way through drumloop one, using the last quarter of drumloop two, etc. Mind you, all you want to do is change notes whenever you want these changes to occur, and you want the flexibility to have the changes occur automatically whenever you please. Can Kontakt do this?

droolmaster0 · Post by **droolmaster0** » Sun May 29, 2005 12:08 am

Funkybot wrote:Hi guys, does any sampler allow for free running samples? By that I mean the samples will constantly be running in the background as opposed to starting anew from a note on event? Reason I ask is I'm thinking about picking up an Optigan and sampling it, and would like the same functionality as the real unit (where the rhthyms were continously running in the background). Anyone know of a sampler that does this?

Good question. I dunno, but even with synths it's not very common. Other than the virtual modulars, which soft synths can do this? I love this feature, and I wish that more developers would include it as an option. I remember once, when Waldorf was still alive, trying to get them to add that as a feature on the Microwave II and XT. They agreed that it's a great feature, but were concerned that having a multitimbral instrument with this feature would potentially confuse users...(where's that sound coming from?).

Rellik · Post by **Rellik** » Sun May 29, 2005 1:01 am

On the synth end, z3ta+ does this - beyond that, I don't know for sure. I think Synth1 does it, but that could be phase randomization.

On the sampler end, sorry, no idea

. You could do it manually, obviously: just set the loop up playing in the background, and automate mute. If you're using a flexible host like energyXT, you could even use MIDI plugins to assign key-ranges to CC's which mute and unmute the loop!

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Sun May 29, 2005 2:26 am

Funkybot wrote:Ok, but how do I get the samples to run constantly in the background only sounding when I want them to? It's hard to explain, but think of an Optigan, it runs it's samples off a disk which is constantly spinning. This works so that you can play chords/rhthyms with your left hand, and that when you change chords/rhthyms, let's say mid bar (or anywhere else for that matter) the new chord/rhthym will automatically begin at that exact same point in its loop (instead of triggering anew from the start). Does this make sense? I had a go at the Kontakt demo a while back, and really couldn't make heads nor tails of it, and I'm wondering if this is possible with it.

Actually let's put it like this, let's say you have two drum loops at the same tempo assigned to different notes. The thing is that you only want to use the first part of drum loop one for let's say half a bar, and for the second half of that bar you only want to use drumloop two (starting right where one left off). Then maybe next time round you want the change to occur three-quarters of the way through drumloop one, using the last quarter of drumloop two, etc. Mind you, all you want to do is change notes whenever you want these changes to occur, and you want the flexibility to have the changes occur automatically whenever you please. Can Kontakt do this?

Hmm.. so in other words, you want to be able to switch or crossfade between several different sounds without losing sync or rhythm. That's definitely possible in Kontakt, though the control method is up to you. One solution is setting it so the modwheel crossfades between the sounds, with different values of the modwheel controlling which sound is present. You could have it so that striking certain keys will switch between sounds as well, even mid-sound. However, you would need to make sure that the sounds will play in sync naturally - eg. they are the same length/loop length. Otherwise I don't think it would work.

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Sun May 29, 2005 4:21 am

I never tried such things with Kontakt, but you could set up an envelope which would trigger whatever looped sound with infinite release (I actually don't even know whether infinite releases are possible - might give that a try later on). So, once you're playing the first note, it'd just repeat infinitely. The rest of the controlling (switching between sounds) could be done as zircon allready mentioned, just depending on your taste of what you'd like using to switch them.

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Sun May 29, 2005 9:13 am

Rellik wrote:You could do it manually, obviously: just set the loop up playing in the background, and automate mute. If you're using a flexible host like energyXT, you could even use MIDI plugins to assign key-ranges to CC's which mute and unmute the loop!

I'd second this approach. It's probably the easiest.

I was trying to think how I'd do it in the rgc:audio sampler, sfz, and came up with something similar. You'd set up a single note as the "on" switch and another as the "off" switch. These would start or stop all the samples playing. But they'd have their volume dependent on what other notes were being played, so be silent to start with. When you played a note, the volume could be taken from the velocity and only apply to a particular sample.

I've not actually tried it in sfz so it may not actually be possible but it's worth giving it a go.

Sampler With Free Running Samples (Like Osc's)?