Looking for a beat slicer that will allow export of slices to individual .wav files.
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- KVRAF
- 1703 posts since 11 Nov, 2004 from Kansas City, MO
Trying to slice a loop and export the individual slices for use in my Volca Sample. Any info or links appreciated.
"The Law speaks too softly to be heard amid the din of arms." -- Gaius Marius {Roman consul,soldier}
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 1703 posts since 11 Nov, 2004 from Kansas City, MO
Ended up using Energy XT 3.0, here's the results I got:
"The Law speaks too softly to be heard amid the din of arms." -- Gaius Marius {Roman consul,soldier}
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- KVRer
- 18 posts since 2 Nov, 2022
I've no idea at all what you are trying to achieve as you don't explain what you are trying to do. However..............
Trying to slice a loop and export the individual slices for use in my Volca Sample. Any info or links appreciated.
You may or may not be able to do this, depending on what you want to do. So it may be possible, it may not. Volca Sample is quite limited in a lot of ways, but it's still possible to do a lot with it. There are differences between Sample 1 and the newer Sample 2. Also there is the unofficial firmware from Pajen that works on Sample 1 (but not 2 I don't think). The way the Sample uses midi is a bit weird and differs depending on which one you have.
Having said that, if all you want to do is load an Amen break to slice up and play back in the Volca Sample then this should work with both units. First of all you don't need to import all the slices of the .wav file (I'm not even sure if this would work anyway). Just keep it simple and load the Amen break in as you would any other sample. You will have to experiment with tempo and length of bars. For example I have my tempo on my Sample at 85bpm (half the speed of the Amen break which is around 170bpm) so I can have a longer loop. I can't remember now or explain it better, sorry, but you will figure it out!
When you have your loop loaded you need to go in to the menu on the Sample and change each and every start and end point for the individual "slices" in the loop that you have. Yes it's tedious, but once you get your head around what is going on it opens up a new world. From here you will be able to use step jump to trigger from any part in the bar and repeat any part of the loop, live, by playing back which ever of the 16 steps you put your finger on.
You need to watch this video
The Volca Sample is not really designed to work with loops so you need to mess about a bit to make it work. Chris lody explains how to do the hack and why you need to do it. You will need a program to transfer to the Volca. I think I have 2 different ones that actually work. Can't remember. Vosyr is one I think.
Chris gives you the numbers for the start and end points. Or maybe it's just the start points, I don't remember, anyway it's explained in the video. It'll take you a couple of hours to do this so set away a whole morning or afternoon and be prepared for a bit of head scratching.
I got it to work pretty good. What you will learn is not all loops are equal. That is to say that you can't just divide the grid in to 16 parts and expect any loop to play back perfectly. Some loops you will want to move the starting point a little ahead or behind, depending on the "groove" and quantisation of the loop. In fact you can actually alter the groove by moving these points. Thing is, some will work and may sound better, while moving to other points it just sounds plain wrong.
Of course once you have a preset with a predefined cut up grid you can load a totally different sample in to it. It may work it may not. You will probably have to fiddle with those points to fit that specific new loop. But at least you have a ball park set of divisions that you know roughly work on that type of loop. I also chopped up the Amen as Chris did, so we are all trying to do the same thing here. I think.
What I ended up doing was creating 16 presets (one for each of the "buttons/leds") in the allocated 16 presets as that is all you get anyway on the Volca. I loaded a normal Amen in to one, then a couple of edited ones in to others, then a few different drum and bass loops in to the remaining slots. Each one had slightly different start points and hence a different kind of groove. So I can now preload my Volca Sample with loads of loops at 170bpm (even though it is actually 85bpm) and then select whichever preset slot to select them from to see which works best. Some work in some preset slots, some don't. Some need to be tweaked and the start points changed again for them to sound in time.
Remember if you wander at all from the tempo of the original loops, then things will start to sound messed up if you diverge from that. For whatever reason though you can go faster on some loops and it still sounds in time. Slower seems to sound more "off". There's probably a reason for that but I'll let some other clever person explain it.
it's a lot of messing about and expect to spend a whole day or more to get things working how you like them. I advise you to stick to one tempo to start with across all of the preset slots that way you won't get confused. For example I have one backup of the Volca Sample at 170bpm for drum and bass stuff, then I have another backup of more slower hip hop beats at 90bpm. You get the idea. Nothing to stop you having a different loop at different tempos on each and every slot, but good luck with remembering what is what when you come back to it in a couple of weeks.
I don't know if this helps you but it is a neat trick anyway and good to know. I even bought another Volca Sample to keep pre-loaded just as a breakbeat box. Now I can fire it up anytime and can step jump live through any part of the loops for instant jungle mayhem, and all in perfect time and sync with whatever I have it hooked up to. Of course you could use this method to create many other tricks in whatever genre you choose.
I find that it works well in Ableton Live as well. I know that others say the Volcas do not sync well with Live, but I've not had any problems. I can actually record the audio in from the Sample while I'm step jumping freestyle, all to the backing track in Ableton. The sync is solid and on the beat with as tight a timing as you need. Which has to be pretty spot on or it sounds terrible.
I've set all this up by the way on the newer Volca Sample with the USB socket, not the original one. I keep the Volca Sample 1 for messing with Pajen's firmware, which is another whole world again...
I should get another one really as I think the Sample is probably the best of all the Volcas. It's certainly the most versatile.
Good luck!
Trying to slice a loop and export the individual slices for use in my Volca Sample. Any info or links appreciated.
You may or may not be able to do this, depending on what you want to do. So it may be possible, it may not. Volca Sample is quite limited in a lot of ways, but it's still possible to do a lot with it. There are differences between Sample 1 and the newer Sample 2. Also there is the unofficial firmware from Pajen that works on Sample 1 (but not 2 I don't think). The way the Sample uses midi is a bit weird and differs depending on which one you have.
Having said that, if all you want to do is load an Amen break to slice up and play back in the Volca Sample then this should work with both units. First of all you don't need to import all the slices of the .wav file (I'm not even sure if this would work anyway). Just keep it simple and load the Amen break in as you would any other sample. You will have to experiment with tempo and length of bars. For example I have my tempo on my Sample at 85bpm (half the speed of the Amen break which is around 170bpm) so I can have a longer loop. I can't remember now or explain it better, sorry, but you will figure it out!
When you have your loop loaded you need to go in to the menu on the Sample and change each and every start and end point for the individual "slices" in the loop that you have. Yes it's tedious, but once you get your head around what is going on it opens up a new world. From here you will be able to use step jump to trigger from any part in the bar and repeat any part of the loop, live, by playing back which ever of the 16 steps you put your finger on.
You need to watch this video
The Volca Sample is not really designed to work with loops so you need to mess about a bit to make it work. Chris lody explains how to do the hack and why you need to do it. You will need a program to transfer to the Volca. I think I have 2 different ones that actually work. Can't remember. Vosyr is one I think.
Chris gives you the numbers for the start and end points. Or maybe it's just the start points, I don't remember, anyway it's explained in the video. It'll take you a couple of hours to do this so set away a whole morning or afternoon and be prepared for a bit of head scratching.
I got it to work pretty good. What you will learn is not all loops are equal. That is to say that you can't just divide the grid in to 16 parts and expect any loop to play back perfectly. Some loops you will want to move the starting point a little ahead or behind, depending on the "groove" and quantisation of the loop. In fact you can actually alter the groove by moving these points. Thing is, some will work and may sound better, while moving to other points it just sounds plain wrong.
Of course once you have a preset with a predefined cut up grid you can load a totally different sample in to it. It may work it may not. You will probably have to fiddle with those points to fit that specific new loop. But at least you have a ball park set of divisions that you know roughly work on that type of loop. I also chopped up the Amen as Chris did, so we are all trying to do the same thing here. I think.
What I ended up doing was creating 16 presets (one for each of the "buttons/leds") in the allocated 16 presets as that is all you get anyway on the Volca. I loaded a normal Amen in to one, then a couple of edited ones in to others, then a few different drum and bass loops in to the remaining slots. Each one had slightly different start points and hence a different kind of groove. So I can now preload my Volca Sample with loads of loops at 170bpm (even though it is actually 85bpm) and then select whichever preset slot to select them from to see which works best. Some work in some preset slots, some don't. Some need to be tweaked and the start points changed again for them to sound in time.
Remember if you wander at all from the tempo of the original loops, then things will start to sound messed up if you diverge from that. For whatever reason though you can go faster on some loops and it still sounds in time. Slower seems to sound more "off". There's probably a reason for that but I'll let some other clever person explain it.
it's a lot of messing about and expect to spend a whole day or more to get things working how you like them. I advise you to stick to one tempo to start with across all of the preset slots that way you won't get confused. For example I have one backup of the Volca Sample at 170bpm for drum and bass stuff, then I have another backup of more slower hip hop beats at 90bpm. You get the idea. Nothing to stop you having a different loop at different tempos on each and every slot, but good luck with remembering what is what when you come back to it in a couple of weeks.
I don't know if this helps you but it is a neat trick anyway and good to know. I even bought another Volca Sample to keep pre-loaded just as a breakbeat box. Now I can fire it up anytime and can step jump live through any part of the loops for instant jungle mayhem, and all in perfect time and sync with whatever I have it hooked up to. Of course you could use this method to create many other tricks in whatever genre you choose.
I find that it works well in Ableton Live as well. I know that others say the Volcas do not sync well with Live, but I've not had any problems. I can actually record the audio in from the Sample while I'm step jumping freestyle, all to the backing track in Ableton. The sync is solid and on the beat with as tight a timing as you need. Which has to be pretty spot on or it sounds terrible.
I've set all this up by the way on the newer Volca Sample with the USB socket, not the original one. I keep the Volca Sample 1 for messing with Pajen's firmware, which is another whole world again...
I should get another one really as I think the Sample is probably the best of all the Volcas. It's certainly the most versatile.
Good luck!
