ignorant sampling question

[esl]

I have to disgrace this forum with yet another ignorant question....

If I were to sample a single note of an instrument, say a piano for example, with the intention of loading that note into a soft sampler and mapping it across the keyboard, what is the appropriate key to sample in?

For example, if I sample a single piano note in the key of "C", and then map that sound to "middle C" within the sampler, after which I would stretch the sample across all keys changing the pitch accordingly, would the pitch change be accurate accross the keys?

I think this is a basic sampling question, hopefully I explained it properly?

[thecontrolcentre]

The pitch change will be accurate but it'll sound terrible. Pianos need to be multisampled to sound anything like realistic. I tend to sample every C and every F#, then map accordingly.
There are some free/donationware piano multisamples on my website ... help yourself

[emdot_ambient]

esl, you ignorant slut!

Sorry, I couldn't help the Saturday Night Live quote.

It doesn't matter which note you sample. As long as you map that note to the correct note within the sampler, it will be tuned correctly across the keyboard. Of course sampling one note of any instrument and mapping it across the keyboard is going to make the note sound completely unreal beyond about 3 semitones up or down (depending on the original sound, of course). It'll sound horribly sped up as you play higher, and ridiculously slowed down as you play lower. Consequently, the typical way to sample an instrument is to make multisamples at least every 3 semitones (C, D#, F#, A in each octave, for example).

[Dunbar]

As long as your original sample was tuned correctly then all the stretched and squashed notes will be in tune. BUT - if you are trying to map an entire piano keyboard from a one note sample it will sound unnatural at best. At worst it will sound bloody horrible.

if i were you i'd sample each note individually at three different velocities (at the very least).
It still won't have much expression but it'll sound better than a mangled single note sample.

[esl]

Thank you all for the replies, you have answered my question.

I am not actually going to sample a piano....I just used that as an example. I am thinking about more experimental things and I wanted to be sure to start the process correctly.

[BertKoor]

Using one single sample for the whole keyboard range IS possible (there's no transpose limit) and can be used creatively for the "oldskool sampling" effect.