Batch auto looper?

[Sascha Franck]

Hi folks,

I'm getting SO sick of adjusting loop points when doing my sampler patches, especially considering that for quite some of them I end up using the same loop length and a 100% x-fade setting anyways.

Now, I know there's some good tools to autofind (and autoadjust) looppoints, such as Zero-X seamless looper or WaveLab (I'm using the latter), but I'd need something to batch process things.
Mainly all I'd need was a setting for loop start, loop length, x-fade amount and probably something like "auto-trim sample post loop".
Would be even better if there still was an autofind loop thingy integrated, but for most things I'd get away fine with those features.

Anything like that out there, preferably not all that expensive?

[Yossarian]

Not sure about their batch processing capabilities but SampleRobot and the new Samplit from www.cdxtract.com both do auto-looping. They’re also both rather expensive, tho.

/Yoss

[Sascha Franck]

Yeah, I know about both of them. But, they're also doing all the sample generation job (i.e. recording, trimming, naming, etc), something I don't need (at least not for now) as I'm extremely quick with those things (let alone, when sampling virtual instruments, chainer does it all automatically anyways).

WaveLab actually is capable of batch processing, but the offered operations don't include the loop/crossfade editor

[Yossarian]

You probably also know about KeyMap and Autosampler from www.redmatica.com . It’s all Mac/EXS24-centered but I know you’re a Logic user and have been looking at the Mac, so...

/Yoss

[Sascha Franck]

Yeah, I know about Autosampler (actually, I must've been one of the first persons to ever listen to some examples, but that was back when the developer was still programming things for Windows).
But, a) I don't want to wait for my Mac switch (which won't happen all that soon, as I just recently decided I've gonna get me some other things first), b) Autosampler apparently doesn't loop things.

[Yossarian]

No, but according to the website KeyMap has an auto-looping feature. Don't know how well it works, tho.

/Yoss

[Bassballjg]

I have Zero-X Seamless Looper, and like it, but the more I get into developing libraries and wanting to optimize their quality, I've found myself moving away from it not because of its quality but because I'm questioning the efficacy of bulk/batch looping. I find that I more often or not have to go back and do the samples individually anyway, so that each sample is the best it can be; I think that Seamless Looper seems to do less well when it has a lot to process. Also, considering the time spent auditioning the loops found for each sample, and you're basically still doing it one sample at a time anyway.

So I have become skeptical about batch looping, as lovely a dream as it is. Multisampleed instruments,no, but beat/performance loops, yes; when trimmed properly, batching in Zero-X set to full length is great for setting loop markers. Auto-looping, however, is a different matter, and more on-point with what I think you're complaining about in your present workflow, Sascha.

Do use Seampless Looper et al to auto detect loop points, it is a huge time saver compared to Wavelab or other such editor. I never use Sound Forge for multisample looping. It is too much of a PITA to hunt for loop points and set crossfades etc. You definately need something to get out of the manual approach you're doing now, and there are alternatives. I just find the idea of batch procressing multisample loops to be dubious in actual experience.

My multisample editor is VSampler. It has excellent looping tools and all the editing basics. The real value of it is that you are editing in an instrument context, because you would be first importing the samples for that instrument and assigning them to zones, and then editing them. You can then export as wav or sf2. The looping is reminicent in style and quality to Seamless Looper, and editing functions include trim, gain, reverse, change bit depth and sample rate, and stereo-mono interconversion. It has become and indespensable tool, and I would say that little done here at Dangerous Bear would be possible without it. Worth checking out for anyone serious about multisample creation.

[Sascha Franck]

VSampler, huh! Never thought about it as I allways found it clumsy from the handling side of things. But, now that you reminded me of its export options (I allready knew about them, just forgot..), I may give it another shot one day.

As far as autolooping goes: See, I'm not talking about anything complicated here. And, as I've been processing a multitude of files with the same settings manually allready, I know it'd just work fine with a lot of what I'm sampling. For instance, I just did some sort of megapad patch - 7 samples per octave over 6 octaves, 6 velocity splits, that's 252 samples in total. I'm still not done looping even half of them, even if I'm just using the same setting (something like loop points from 3s to 6s, 100% x-fade, cut after right loop point) all over. For such patches a batch looper would just be a godsend.

Gonna give VSampler another try though (even if it won't help in batchlooping), so thanks for the reminder.

[Bassballjg]

I see your point about such a huge instrument, as long as you're sure that the same loop point will work for all samples, then yes, you need a batch solution.

I do think you should get Seampless Looper, I'm just saying that in my experience that the auto detector is of greater value vs hunting manually in Sound Forge than the batch aspect. By the time I've gone through all the potential loops that SL discovers, and it does made a difference somtimes to select different loops for different samples of the same instrument, it takes the same amount of time as if I had done esch sample one at a time in VSampler. On the other hand, I'm mostly doing single layer, 3-4 sample per octave stuff.

VSampler's reputed(and actually experienced) clunkiness has more to do with it's function as an instrument than as an instrument builder/editor. Once you get down the import-edit-export functions, it works beautifully. I do still like the pitch detection in Reason's NNXT better, and sometimes I use it to find out what is what when working with samples lacking that info, but I digress.

[Void and Vista]

Where are we at now (in 2023) with batch looping?

We have been using Loop Editor (Zynaptiq) alongside Wavelab. Neither seem to do batch looping.

[pocvecem]

Maybe take a closer look here:

https://hgsounds.com/product/batch-xfader/

[Sascha Franck]

Maybe take a closer look here:

https://hgsounds.com/product/batch-xfader/

That's looking great.
However, these days I'm usually fine with Logic's Auto Sampler.
Will consider that xfader thing as soon as I might be dealing with real world samples again.
Fwiw, from all I know, Reaper allows for a kind of batch x-fading/looping, too. I think there's a video somewhere on YT.

[nicotronic]

Perhaps with this :