Instrument Rack Key Zone Editor Question

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
thamantra
Posts: 43
Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2010 12:48 am

Instrument Rack Key Zone Editor Question

Post by thamantra » Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:02 am

Does the Instrument Rack Key Zone Editor conform your samples to the range you set. What if the beginning of your range does not correspond with the pitch of the sample, will it automatically pitch everything correctly?

yur2die4
Posts: 7333
Joined: Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:02 am
Location: Menasha, Wisconsin
Contact:

Re: Instrument Rack Key Zone Editor Question

Post by yur2die4 » Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:23 am

You must set the pitch settings in relation to everything. There is no way they'd try to guess what thousands of users intend to do. So on the bright side, you get plenty of customization.

thamantra
Posts: 43
Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2010 12:48 am

Re: Instrument Rack Key Zone Editor Question

Post by thamantra » Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:32 am

I have some 808 Kick Drum samples pitched from C3-C4 in an instance of Sampler. Can I use the Key Zone Editor in Sampler to make sure each sample is played in perfect pitch my midi keyboard?

yur2die4
Posts: 7333
Joined: Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:02 am
Location: Menasha, Wisconsin
Contact:

Re: Instrument Rack Key Zone Editor Question

Post by yur2die4 » Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:38 am

Well, first you'd want to make sure that you know the pitch of the original sample. From there, you'd just spread it across a range.

To figure out the pitch of the sample, you can use a spectral meter and visually watch the pitch (compared with a sine tone) as you fine time it, or you can do it by ear.

If you do it by ear, and it is difficult to 'hear' as opposed to 'feel' the tone, pitch it up one or two octaves (although that might shorten the sample..).

Aside from making your own tone from scratch, I don't know any other methods. Or if you already know the pitch, you can just let it do its thing.

Edit: uh. I think I replied without fully reading what you said......... sorry.

You can shorten the key range of each sample down to just one note and be all good? (Make sure the 'R' for Root is also with each sample note.

outsidesys
Posts: 400
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2009 2:26 am

Re: Instrument Rack Key Zone Editor Question

Post by outsidesys » Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:55 am

yur2die4 wrote:You can shorten the key range of each sample down to just one note and be all good? (Make sure the 'R' for Root is also with each sample note.
And you can move the 'R' to different notes on the keyboard by modifying the "Root Key" parameter in the Sample tab.

Also, if you have multiple samples loaded into Sampler from a drum kit, in the Key Zone editor select all of the samples, right-click on them, and choose Distribute Ranges Equally to spread them across your keyboard. After that, you can change the ranges and their positions to suite your needs.

yur2die4
Posts: 7333
Joined: Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:02 am
Location: Menasha, Wisconsin
Contact:

Re: Instrument Rack Key Zone Editor Question

Post by yur2die4 » Thu Apr 25, 2013 4:29 am

It helps before distributing equally, to highlight them all, and stretch their range to the number of samples. Then they'll each only take up one note.

outsidesys
Posts: 400
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2009 2:26 am

Re: Instrument Rack Key Zone Editor Question

Post by outsidesys » Thu Apr 25, 2013 4:40 am

Nice. :)

It never occurred to me to do that first. Thanks.

siliconarc
Posts: 2872
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:27 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Instrument Rack Key Zone Editor Question

Post by siliconarc » Thu Apr 25, 2013 9:23 am

Sampler tip: hold down the midi note you want the sample to be on, and dbl-click that sample's zone to set the key.
also works when holding down a low-to-high keyspan.

you can also set Sampler's 'scale' parameter to 0% so all samples play at their original pitch, no matter what the 'R' root is set to.

Post Reply