"Unofficial - VSampler Help Desk"

[Jake Jackson]

AKJ:

I don't want to merge the programs because I want to control them independently and straightforwardly---all I'm doing is creating a set of hammer thump samples that I want to put in my default instrument, so whenever I load a piano library (which is about all I ever load), I can control the volume, timing, and filter on these thumps separately. If I merged the instruments, I could still control them, since they would be a group, but when I went into the program to edit any velocity layers\filters\etc, I would have to worry too much about selecting the right group and not accidentally editing all of the groups. Not a big concern if I'm careful, but I don't want to have these worries and mouse clicks when I'm editing. Keeping the hammer strike samples separate just makes editing a lot cleaner.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. Merging is a great tool.

[AKJ]

actually, you can achieve separate control of volume even with merged instruments without any fear. this by a controller. this is what I generally do: edit the extended zones settings for a group and assign a controller to the volume. I just need to move a controller on my keyboard then to adjust the volume of eg a release layer.

[AKJ]

vsampler was about the ONLY thing that was good about my sonar 3 experience! (er, the sonitus were good too, but only a few are "vst")

I have questions please (and yes I'll read all this thread later)

a. vsampler is pretty old in terms of updates and such........is there a list somewhere of how it stacks/is compatible with other samplers?

b. Kinda an add-on to the above, but is it "current" aka kontakt 2 (er, not expecting 3 yet for sure), halion 3, etc?

c. It was a bit rough for the "newbie" back then, but did they ever actually make a manual? Seems to me this was something people were waiting for back in the day.........

sorry if it's been answered, but it's one of the things I have that isn't being used that COULD be used, if appropriate

import has not been updated for newer sampler formats. however, I would suggest to get a converter tool for that task anyway. extreme sample converter might soon even have direct vs3 support. a manual not convering everything (but still it is some 60-70 pages) can be downloaded from the maz page.

[lowkey]

We need Glennbo. He wrote alot of info on VSampler, including how to do round robins. He used to hang out on the Sonar boards. Im sure there was a pdf with his how to's but I cant find it at the moment.

Seriously, this guy is a VSampler legend!

[Mixtremist]

We need Glennbo. He wrote alot of info on VSampler, including how to do round robins. He used to hang out on the Sonar boards. Im sure there was a pdf with his how to's but I cant find it at the moment.

Seriously, this guy is a VSampler legend!

Well, I'm not Glennbo (though I did chat with him back in the day on the Sonar forum), but I did manage to catalog some of his tips. I'm glad to see people using this thread again - that's why I resurrected it. Here ya go .........

Glennbo VSampler Tips

Getting the sounds loaded and assigned to midi channels - By Glennbo

1. Get a Vsampler going. (duh!)
2. Switch to editor view by clicking "View|Editor View"
3. Click the "Import" button on the right
4. Click the "Gig" button at the top. (should work the same for other file types, but I've only used Giga)
5. Select a file to import
6. Click a midi channel on the right to assign the imported sample to.
7. Click the import button.
8. Repeat steps 4 thru 7 until you've assigned all your drum parts.

Assigning the imported sounds to separate outputs

1. Click the "midi" button on the right
2. Double click the "Output Device" to the right of one your imported samples
3. Double click an output device. You have now hooked that sound up to a specific output.

Making the hihats work correctly

1. Click the "VS" button on the right
2. Click the "Zones" button at the bottom
3. Click the "Manage Poly Groups" button at the top (it's the one with three dots)
4. Click "Poly Group #1". Your sounds show up in the middle column.
5. Click a sound (like open hihat) and click the > button. This puts the sound in the Assigned column.
6. Repeat #5 until you have the sounds you want in the group on the right.
7. Spin the "Voices Per Group" gadget at the bottom right down to 1 voice (mono)
Create a drum map to match the Vsampler setup and you're ready to rock!


Part Two.
Well, after spending all day with it, I found some more cool stuff to play with in Vsampler.

1. Sample rotation.
This is a great function, because you can assign Left / Right drum hits to it, and they will alternate with every hit of the same midi note, which is _very_ good for pad controllers. You can throw as many samples into the pool as you like, and it will make a round robin cycling through the group. To use this function, goto View|Editor View, Click VS on the right, click Zones at the bottom left, Click the button near the top right with the three dots on it (right under poly group) Click the tab that says "Cycle Groups", Click on the left column where it says "Cycle-Group#1", pick some sounds (like left and right snare drum) from the middle column and then click the single arrow to send them to the right column. At the bottom of the third column is a drop down list for mode, select "Round Robin". Play your single note snare drum (like from a pad) and it hits alternating
left and right hand samples.

2. Extended Zone Mapping.
This one I'm totally grooving on, and may have trouble explaining, because I've spent the better part of the day trying to figure it out. My brain is fried, but it was definately worth it. This function allows you to use a continous controller (like a Roland hihat pedal or mod wheel on a keyboard) to switch between samples. I just got my V-Drums hihat pedal working better than it ever did in Gigastudio. Rocking the pedal from full up to full down now morphs through 16 different multi-layered hihat samples from real loose and sloshy, to super tight. Warning: you will spend an eternity trying to zero in on the right numbers to make it all work, but it's worth it. For those without drum controllers, this same stuff could be done with the mod wheel on a keyboard.
Sweep the wheel to get all the variations of hihat. To get into the extended zone mappings, first select a single note group of samples by right clicking the middle area, while lined up with the keyboard below. Goto "Select|Select all zones containing note zzz". This will highlight the whole column of samples for that note. Right click the column you just selected, and select "Extended Zone Settings". On the top left, is a pull down list that says "Play zone if". Pull the list down, and you'll see a bunch of things to pick from. I used "# 4 Foot Controller" which is what my V-Drums transmits. From here, you set a range, such that the zone you are editing, will only play when the continous controller is between a specified range. I did mine so that one zone's from and through range overlapped the next zone's range by eight. You'll just have to play with it to see what works with your particular samples. On my set, I mapped 16 different zones, all across the same span of midi keys, and all assigned the same root note, but assigned to only kick in when the CC value was within the range. This same functionality is where you could do cool stuff like assign multiple samples across the same range and then switch or crossfade them via mod wheel. A few variations of a B3 could work real swell with this, as you could assign a slow Leslie group of samples to mod wheel all the way down, with sample sets of faster and faster Leslie as you rock the mod wheel forward. Any way, these are a couple more things you guys might want to play around with. Both are fairly advanced and take a bit of thinking to figure out just how to set it. So don't expect to instantly get it, even with my cheat sheet here. Like I said, I've been trying to hit the right combination for numerous hours now, and have only just succeeded getting my stuff mapped.

Part 3

As promised, another installment in the "how to use Vsampler without a manual"
series. This installment is on making your own soundfont with Vsampler.

Step 1.
Record in Sonar a bunch of tracks that each contain one single note.I did a quick and not so perfectly tuned sample set of my voice, starting at C3 and going up to A2. This ended up being 22 tracks, each containing one note.
Step 2.
Export to wave, one track at a time, naming the exported wave files, A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,etc. I screwed up twice naming them C1, C#1, Etc. and 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, etc. Problem is, when you import them, Vsampler treats the names like ascii, and sorts them wrong, so just use letters and they will sort properly.
Step 3.
Once you have a folder with your samples in it, with names like a.wav, b.wav, c.wav, etc. load up Vsampler and go to the import page by selecting, View|Editor View, then clicking the "Import" button on the right. Then click the "Wav" button at he top, and set the "Base Directory" to the location of your wave files. Make sure the following items are checked. "One Instrument Per Directory" and "Sepatate Keys". Once you have those set, make sure the "Start" note is what you want. I used C3, then click "Proceed". This will put the name of your wave folder on the grid, at bank 1, patch 1. Then in the right panel, click to select Channel 1 Instrument, and click the "Import" button. You should get a bunch of zones mapped to a bunch of keys just above the little keyboard.
Step 4.
Play some stuff on your master midi keyboard. You should hear your samples playback. I haven't gotten into the looping, or envelopes yet, but this ought to get you started on building your own sample set.
Step 5.
Click "File|Export" and select "Export Soundfont SF2". Give it a killer name, like "CrapVox.sf2" and you're off to the races.

Hope this stuff helps somebody.

[AKJ]

there is a much easier way to assign intruments to midi channels and outputs: use the midi pane!

[Lagrange]

BTW does Vsampler allow for MIDI thru (per channel)? For example if I wanted to trigger multiple instances from one controller? Just a thought..

L

[lowkey]

Cheers Mixtremist

Lagrange, yes you can. Load your sample then press the "midi" button. On the top middle move the slider to thru.

[Lagrange]

Great info on the Extended Zone Mapping! I use this one all the time and love it!!

Also thanks for clearing up the Round Robin thing.. Seems the reason it was not working for me was because I assumed it was for triggering multiple SUCCESSIVE samples (by holding down one key it would trigger a string of samples).

My next questions are, how to switch presets (in MIDI) without dropouts or cutting off sustained notes when switching??.. Is this possible? I wouldnt be surprised if not..

How to apply external vst effects directly to samples and make it acutally sound good IYO ..

L