Ableton Forum

I'm trying to wrap my head around the simpler instrument and sampling basics in general.

Can I take a recording of a single spoken word, or any sound for that matter, and use my
88 key controller to play the recording in the correct pitch.

For example, when I hit middle c, the recorded sample plays back in the pitch of middle c;
and so forth for each of my 88 keys.

I would like to be able to sample any sound and be able to play it back in the pitch that corresponds to the key
I hit.

I'm sure the question demonstrates my lack of knowledge of sampling.

Thanks ableton users!

The thing to remember with Simpler is that it pitches relative to the sample, which it thinks is C3. Therefore playing C3 will play the actual sample.

However, are you saying that you've put a sample into Simpler and playing different keys is not changing the pitch?

yes the pitch is changing. but what I want is to be able to play samples as if I were playing a piano;
with the intonation intact. so if i were to play the c major scale on the keyboard, starting with middle c,
the sample plays back the c major scale, starting with middle c.

like my own piano, but instead of the strings creating the note when hit by the hammer, my sample will be the note.

To make this even more confusing to myself and others, I would also like to preserve the length of the sample regardless
of what key i am hitting.

thanks for the input
brian

You can change the root note to get the sample to fit the actual note, yes.

You cannot preserve the length of the sample as you change pitch in Live, no.

UKRuss wrote:You can change the root note to get the sample to fit the actual note, yes.

Do you mean by using the transpose knob? Or have I overlooked in Simpler what believe you can only do in Sampler and just tell it which note you want the sample to represent?

I think the best approach to using Simpler is to try to get your original sample to be C3. And then all your other notes will be pitched in accordance with that and therefore be right, allowing you to play C major scale starting from middle C. The key (not pun intended) thing is to know the pitch of your original sample and if it's not C3, unless I'm wrong (which is wholly possible), you can adjust it with the transpose knob.


As for preserving the length, I was recently reminded that you can MIDI map keys to clips to play them chromatically. This would preserve the length of each note but would also lose the Simpler functionality.

Alternatively, which is a bit of a tenuous task, you could use multiple samples across the keyboard, limiting the impression of the length change, as putting a new sample on every so often along the keyboard will use that new sample as the original sample, which will be of the correct length. Hope that makes sense... Not sure if it does. I know what I mean though.

with simpler it's best to tune samples to c3=c3 on keyboard. this is achieved through the transpose parameter. it is possible to preserve sample length through time stretching on sampler - there are a few ways of doing this.

Yeah, I was just trying to focus on Simpler, as that's what you mentioned. But if you have Sampler too, all the better for you!

Time stretching samples in Sampler is not native though...explain the stretch methods please.

I Googled and found this...

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?p=695324#695324

I don't have Sampler myself so don't know that much about it though.

not native though...a much sought after feature that.

No, and I can see why it's so wanted. Shame. However, for me and what I do, Simpler is pretty capable beast. Especially when combining with the key and velocity zones in instrument racks to (though a little tenuously) make pseudo-multisampled instruments. From what I know about Sampler, I think it would be too much for me to handle anyway.

If you're making simpler into a multisampler using racks, then the only thing that's really missing from simpler is the fm oscillator... the rest of sampler is pretty fakable... eventually sampler's ability to read off disks might become handy tho'. Having said that, I use sampler way more than simpler because of the modulation and lfo matrix.

oddstep wrote:If you're making simpler into a multisampler using racks, then the only thing that's really missing from simpler is the fm oscillator... the rest of sampler is pretty fakable...

This is pretty much what I thought but didn't want to just come out with that in case I was very much mistaken. And for my purposes, this fake Sampler is plenty good enough. Though I've no doubt I'd use more LFO's.

In fact there is something about Simpler that I wish was in Sampler...been a while since i used either as samplers in the strictest sense but I think it was that the loop start point can't be automated or mapped in Sampler where as it can in Simpler. something like that?

Either way, I think they both have their strengths...and weaknesses.

UKRuss wrote:... the loop start point can't be automated or mapped in Sampler where as it can in Simpler. something like that?...

that's right...
Sampler could well do with the same sort of makeover that operator got in 8.... in fact its one of the few things that would make me consider upgrading to 9.