KVR Audio

Bump1 · Post by **Bump1** » Sat Jun 17, 2017 3:13 am

Is there a guideline for how far a single sample can stretch across a keyrange? Is it relative to the sample length/duration?

I was looking to sample my ESQ-1 and realized sampling each note is going to result in a huge library.

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Sat Jun 17, 2017 3:38 am

I usually sample at least every C and F# for my sampled instruments. Sometimes its every note. Depends on the sound ... and then sometimes you need velocity layers too, so that's even more samples.

Bump1 · Post by **Bump1** » Sat Jun 17, 2017 4:04 am

Hey, thanks for the reply.

These are digital synth waveforms...so I'm not sure if ever note is needed to be sampled. I'd assume more meticulous sampling is needed for acoustic instruments??

I'm also guessing velocity is not very important in this instance as well.

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Sun Jun 18, 2017 12:57 pm

Bump1 wrote:Hey, thanks for the reply.

These are digital synth waveforms...so I'm not sure if ever note is needed to be sampled. I'd assume more meticulous sampling is needed for acoustic instruments??

I'm also guessing velocity is not very important in this instance as well.

The only digital synth I've sampled is a Nord Micromodular, and that needed 3 velocity layers for some patches. It really is dependent on whether the sound responds to velocity or not, and how accurately you want to reproduce the patch.

Bump1 · Post by **Bump1** » Tue Jun 20, 2017 9:48 am

Even if it's just the raw waveforms? I'm not sampling the patches.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Tue Jun 20, 2017 12:03 pm

Bump1 wrote:Is there a guideline for how far a single sample can stretch across a keyrange? Is it relative to the sample length/duration?

That depends on the sample itself. Some can be stretched by more than an octave, some barely a semitone.

Bump1 wrote:I was looking to sample my ESQ-1 and realized sampling each note is going to result in a huge library. [...] just the raw waveforms [...] I'm not sampling the patches.

The ESQ-1 (from 1986) loads non-factory samples from 1.4Mb floppy disks. So it's not that likely that multiple samples were put in different key zones or velocity layers. Based on that, I'd say sampling just one note (better too low than too high) would be sufficient.

maxmace · Post by **maxmace** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 7:10 pm

The ESQ-1 (from 1986) loads non-factory samples from 1.4Mb floppy disks. So it's not that likely that multiple samples were put in different key zones or velocity layers. Based on that, I'd say sampling just one note (better too low than too high) would be sufficient.

I know this post was a long time ago but both of these points are wrong.

The ESQ-1, SQ-80 and ESQ-M did not load *any* kind of samples from floppy disk. There was no re-writable wave RAM. All the sounds were based on non-updatable wavetables on the OS ROMs. 32 different waveforms for the ESQ's and ZZZ for the SQ-80. The SQ-80 had a floppy drive, but it was for patch data, sequences, external midi dumps etc, not samples.

More importantly, the wavetable samples were both multi-cycle and multi-sampled, i.e they have varying zones up and down the keyboard. Even simple waves like sine and square were multi-sampled, to (among other things) help avoid aliasing problems.

This is another reason these synths sound so unique, even with standard synth waves like saw. In fact one of the Kontakt libraries floating around out there has patches based on a SINGLE OSCILLATOR of the ESQ-1 saw wave. I think it was sampled for Kontakt based on a misunderstanding of what the ESQ BASIC patch was for (a demo utility sound that allowed music stores to audition the raw waveforms).

phreaque · Post by **phreaque** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:06 pm

Either to use extreme sample converter
Or the sampling robot of fl studio.
They both make great outcome.

AnX · Post by **AnX** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:11 pm

Bump1 wrote:Is there a guideline for how far a single sample can stretch across a keyrange? Is it relative to the sample length/duration?

I was looking to sample my ESQ-1 and realized sampling each note is going to result in a huge library.

4 notes per octave minimum.

dnekm · Post by **dnekm** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:33 pm

Do some tests and judge with your ears....

There is no right way to approach this.

I used to sample 1 note for four octaves to make multi-samples. These days everything I do is single sampled.

I always sample at middle c. HG Fortune was always trying to get me to sample an octave or two above that because it saved space. I did experiment with sampling at a higher octave but decided that the low frequencies were where my sounds had most of their energy and so never made the switch.

Had I done so, Anomaly would be a much smaller soundset - and for the most part sound the same. For the most part. My love for low frequencies won out.

Also consider what instruments you may want to use these sounds in. And also what kind of sound it is that you are sampling.

Do you need velocity layers? That all depends, I guess, if you are going for a natural instrument sound or a virtual/digital instrument sound.

In the end, it is your ears, your thoughts and your reasoning which will be you best guide.

Multisampling a synth for a soundfont