Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
mutator
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Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by mutator » Wed Jun 18, 2014 2:23 am

I have a weird issue with the sampler in Ableton. When I throw a sample into it, it changes the sound of the sample. It doesn’t sound near as good anymore, almost like it’s pitched up or something. The root key is C3, which is what I have the MIDI notes laid out as… but the sample sounds completely different. If I throw the sample on an audio track, it sound as it should.

I’ve also upped the sustain and release all the way thinking it was choking off the sample length, but that’s not doing it either.

Do I have some weird setting checked in the MIDI preferences or something? Not really sure what’s going on, but it’s driving me crazy

infernal.machine
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by infernal.machine » Wed Jun 18, 2014 3:15 am

"It doesn't sound near as good" isn't really enough to diagnose your problem. My first impression is maybe the volume is just too low (Sampler defaults the volume to -12db).

You say it maybe sounds 'pitched up'... does it sound normal if you play a lower MIDI note? Try slapping on a Spectrum analyzer onto the Sampler track and the Audio track to see if there is any frequency difference.

mutator
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by mutator » Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:00 am

Its definitely not playing at the correct pitch. Its not a volume issue, i tried adjusting that and other sampler settings. I also tried playing it at C2, C1, and C5 instead of C3 root, and it still doesnt sound correct.

mutator
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by mutator » Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:44 am

I'm wondering if it could be some midi keyboard driver or settings issue. I have an old crappy keyboard I'm using (oxygen 8 v1) right now. I didnt punch any of the samples in with the keyboard, just wrote the notes with the mouse. I just installed the keyboard drivers again this past weekend and set the midi preferences to get it to work. I'm running ableton 8, and haven't used it in about a year or so due to some health and other issues... When i found all my old projects, samples, and plugged my keyboard in to get down; the keyboard wouldn't work. So i downloaded and installed the drivers and played with the midi preferences to get it going. Maybe i messed something up in that area.

chrk
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by chrk » Wed Jun 18, 2014 7:54 am

mutator wrote:The root key is C3, which is what I have the MIDI notes laid out as… but the sample sounds completely different.
mutator wrote:Its definitely not playing at the correct pitch. Its not a volume issue, i tried adjusting that and other sampler settings. I also tried playing it at C2, C1, and C5 instead of C3 root, and it still doesnt sound correct.
I wonder whether you got the wrong concept of the root note ...
When the root note is C3, you should hear the sample in it's original pitch and tempo when playing a C3 on the keyboard or the midi clip plays a C3.

Any changes to the Detune parameter in Sampler? Or is the P-Envelope (pitch envelope) active?

About the keyboard. You can easily check, if your keyboard and Live read the same note as C3. When you have a clip inside an armed midi track and play a key, the incoming note is highlighted in red on the keys representation of the piano roll.

Valiumdupeuple
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by Valiumdupeuple » Wed Jun 18, 2014 9:24 am

Also be sure to check your interpolation setting, it's on Sampler's "sample" page, on the bottom right side.

jimfowler
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by jimfowler » Wed Jun 18, 2014 12:04 pm

sample rate/system clock discrepancy? this can have an odd pitching effect, but i'm not sure it would pose a problem in ableton. i had this be an issue once with other gear in the past, but it's been so long i can't recall exactly what i was doing wrong...

at any rate (ha!), i can attest to sampler reproducing sampled audio perfectly (no quality degradation), so there's something amiss with your setup.

mutator
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by mutator » Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:45 pm

chrk wrote:
mutator wrote:The root key is C3, which is what I have the MIDI notes laid out as… but the sample sounds completely different.
mutator wrote:Its definitely not playing at the correct pitch. Its not a volume issue, i tried adjusting that and other sampler settings. I also tried playing it at C2, C1, and C5 instead of C3 root, and it still doesnt sound correct.
I wonder whether you got the wrong concept of the root note ...
When the root note is C3, you should hear the sample in it's original pitch and tempo when playing a C3 on the keyboard or the midi clip plays a C3.

Any changes to the Detune parameter in Sampler? Or is the P-Envelope (pitch envelope) active?

About the keyboard. You can easily check, if your keyboard and Live read the same note as C3. When you have a clip inside an armed midi track and play a key, the incoming note is highlighted in red on the keys representation of the piano roll.
I got the correct concept of the root note... I was just mentioning I also tried playing it a C above and bellow the root in an attempt to find the correct pitch and have the sample play at the original sound (but I still sounded off).

I'll have to check the detune and p-envelope when i get back home today. I didn't change any of this, but maybe my keyboard is jacked up and sending info i'm not aware of due to a stuck button\knob (or even bad setting or drivers).

I need a new keyboard anyway... maybe if i can't fix this i'll order one this weekend. I'm looking at the "Novation Launchkey 25key" or "Akai MPK MINI MKII 25key" if anyone has input on those models (good\bad).

mutator
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by mutator » Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:53 pm

Valiumdupeuple wrote:Also be sure to check your interpolation setting, it's on Sampler's "sample" page, on the bottom right side.
checking this as well as soon as i get home.

mutator
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by mutator » Wed Jun 18, 2014 7:18 pm

jimfowler wrote:sample rate/system clock discrepancy? this can have an odd pitching effect, but i'm not sure it would pose a problem in ableton. i had this be an issue once with other gear in the past, but it's been so long i can't recall exactly what i was doing wrong...

at any rate (ha!), i can attest to sampler reproducing sampled audio perfectly (no quality degradation), so there's something amiss with your setup.
I was reading something similar last night when looking around on the net for my issue... I believe it was even Ableton related somewhat, but I can't seem to find the link anymore.

mutator
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by mutator » Wed Jun 18, 2014 11:51 pm

Well, it looks like it might be my controller. I opened the file and checked all areas mentioned on this post for discrepancies\abnormal changes to the sampler settings... I found none.

I then opened up the project again, but this time unplugged my MIDI keyboard before opening it. I played the sample in the sampler, and the same sample in an audio track. I matched the volume and looked at it in a spectrum analyzer... both sounded the same and looked the same.

So I saved the project and closed it. I then opened it again with the MIDI keyboard plugged in. At first the file played fine. So I opened up a synth and started smashing buttons and looked to see if the keys I was pressing matched the piano roll keys on the screen, and they did. I went back to the drums I initially found the issue in; then all of the sudden I hear it happen right in front of me. The sample was playing fine, then all the sudden pitched up. It did this wile I was not pressing anything on the keyboard. It stayed like this until I pressed all kinds of buttons and messed with the pitch wheel on the keyboard.... then it would play normal for a wile, then pitch back up after a bit.

I tried to mess with the MIDI settings in Ableton, but the issue would still pop up. I think it's time to get a new MIDI controller. I have the controller plugged into my PC threw USB, not a MIDI cable plugged into my soundcard like some do. I've always done it this way and never seemed to have an issue... I’m not sure that it being plugged into USB makes a big difference for what I use it for.

Has anyone experienced something like this where it was not a bad keyboard, but settings issues instead? I need a new keyboard anyway, but just wondering.

siliconarc
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by siliconarc » Thu Jun 19, 2014 12:08 am

go to Sampler's MIDI tab and set the Pitch Bend range to 0 (defaults to +5st).
if the problem goes away, it's probably the keyboard's pb wheel/stick sending out unwanted data.

aioffermann
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by aioffermann » Thu Jun 19, 2014 2:02 am

Somewhat off-topic but I'd just like to note the interesting phenomenon of pitching down via increasing the original tempo of an audio clip with its warp mode set to repitch, and pitching down via sampler. Repitch preserves the fidelity much better.

tech44
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by tech44 » Thu Jun 19, 2014 2:38 am

garyboozy wrote:go to Sampler's MIDI tab and set the Pitch Bend range to 0 (defaults to +5st).
if the problem goes away, it's probably the keyboard's pb wheel/stick sending out unwanted data.
This. I've had two controllers in the last year that the pitch wheels started drifting on.
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mutator
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Re: Ableton's sampler altering sound of sample

Post by mutator » Thu Jun 19, 2014 1:55 pm

garyboozy wrote:go to Sampler's MIDI tab and set the Pitch Bend range to 0 (defaults to +5st).
if the problem goes away, it's probably the keyboard's pb wheel/stick sending out unwanted data.
Nice, I'll have to give this a shot when I get home today. If it works, it will hold me over until I get a new keyboard a little.

Thanks

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