Ableton Forum

Hi Guys

I have a problem important multi samples into Sampler. Once the samples have been copied in Sampler(all the samples are named correctly with their note and number). I then go to the 'Zone' tab in order to span them correctly. I right click on the green notes and select 'Distribute ranges correctly around root key' then Live puts all the samples in decending order running from left to right and basically puts the notes onto the regions. The small 'r' is set to middle C3, is this governing how the samples are arranged once i press 'distribute ranges correctly around root key?'

Help would be greatly appreciated.

best

Jules

The root key is the 'natural' pitch of the sample. So, if the root pitch is C3 and you play the sample back at C3, then you will hear C3. The pitch you hear is determined by the difference between the pitch you play and the root pitch of the sample. If you have one sample per pitch and the root key is set correctly for all of them, then the R should be on top of the green bar, and the latter should be one note wide for all but the lowest and highest samples.

hth,

-Luddy

Hi Luddy

thank you very much for your reply.

This all makes good sense, I manually adjusted the 'r' so it sat on the right notes etc and everything played as it should. However I saw a tutorial on you tube where the dude just dropped his bank of samples into Sampler, went to the zone area and right clicked on the 'green' samples and clicked 'distribute ranges evenly around root key' and all the hard work was done for him. I have tried this myself on several banks of synth samples, but they never jump to the right zone or play back at the right pitch. I just can't see what i'm doing wrong?

best

Vern

For that to work (what you saw in the video), I think the root key has to be set correctly in each sample file. An audio editor like Peak can do this, and so can resampling software that is specifically for creating multisample sets by automated sampling. But if your samples are created by plain old recording of audio and then subsequently chopping it up, the root key will never be set (will likely be the same for all the samples).

-Luddy

That makes perfect sense! Would Peak do this in batches, as in a whole set of samples of one sound of different pitches?

That makes perfect sense! Would Peak do this in batches, as in a whole set of samples of one sound of different pitches?

Hmm, I don't *think* that the batch processor in Peak can do what you describe (cut up a single long sample of multiple pitches and get the root key right). The Redmatika tools can do this. I don't necessarily recommend them however, for other reasons. It's not at all necessary though. I've made dozens of multisampled instruments in Live using samples that have root key set to C3.

The simplest way to do this by far is to sample the instruments/sound at all 128 pitches, cut the sample up into one sample per pitch, drag all 128 samples into an empty sampler, select all zones, and use Distribute Ranges Evenly. done. To sample the instrument, just create a MIDI track with one note per par, set the tempo so that the release of each note goes all the way to silence. The with the grid set to bar in the arrangement view, select each bar and use CMD-E to create a slice. Select all slices, right click and use Crop Clips. Done.

It's really very easy. Remember that the root pitch is really a "bookkeeping" thing, it is not at all necessary. To get a sample at E4 to play back at E4 on the key E4, set both the root and the keyrange to E4, that's all. Distribute ranges evenly does this.

I used to make lots of multisamples in EXS24, which is also very good, but honestly I find Sampler to be even faster and better, and much easier to visualize what's going on.

hth,

-Luddy