Slicing single WAV of drum hits to Multiple WAV files (making a sample pack from an acoustic drum set)

[subatomicglue]

I have a real acoustic drum set that I love.
I want to create my own sampler pack for my drum set.
I want it to be fairly generic, and not tied to any one particular sampler. (imagine a folder of WAV files, named and organized)
I want to record different velocity of hits per drum head
I want to record multiple hits at each velocity (to humanize the samples).
I'd love my samplepack to work with any sampler. So I think that I want raw WAV files, one per drum hit (per velocity level; per extra hit)
I have the following 9 drums (in true 808/909 notation, ha): BD, HT, MT, LT, SD, OH (open HH), CH (closed HH), CY1 (crash), CY2 (ride)
At least 5 velocities per drum
At least 2 hits per velocity
Doing the math: 9 * 5 * 2 == 90
I have a lot of drum hits, so I want to avoid manual editing.
I want a tool that detects most of the transients, allows me to dial in the sensitivity, and allows me to edit the slices: (like Simpler does). Then allows me to export individual WAVs at the slice points.

The Goal:
Source Material: One audio recording (WAV file, or ableton audio track), with recorded single drum hits, around 90-150 of them. Spaced apart in time.

Output: Slice the single WAV into multiple WAVs, one for each single drum hit, which I can then organize/rename and then share with friends or use in a variety of VST Sampler plugins, or other sampler equipment. I might even create some packs for SF2, SFZ, proprietary samplers as well.

Must Haves:
- Ability to auto slice, getting me >90% there, then hand edit the remaining slice points, add/delete, visually inspect start times, etc...
- Bulk export of the WAVs (dont want to right click 90 times)

What I've tried (Ableton Live 10.1.7)
Simpler
- I've dragged my Source Material (see above) into Simpler.
- Use slice mode, Adjust sensitivity to 98.22. Edited slices start time, and Manually created slices.
- Right click Simpler -> Sampler. In Sampler, Click on Zones. Problem: In Sampler there is only one zone (all slices are LOST)
- Right click Slice to Drum Rack. In DrumRack, Expand to see the Chains. Select all chains with Ctrl-A; Right Click "Export Chains"; Problem: Makes a new track that looks exactly the same. (I can't see a way to export WAVs for each slice)
- Right click Slice to MIDI Track. Problem: There is no way to auto-split the miditrack by note. If I could do that (or if I manually try some splits), I would then 1.) split midi track by note; 2.) on midi track, right click "Freeze Track" then "Flatten"; 3.) Right Click Browse to find them in Finder or inside Ableton's browser Problem: there is still only 1 wav file, not multiple!

Sampler
- I've dragged my Source Material (see above) into Sampler.
- Problem: No obvious Auto "Slice" function like Simpler has... Creating zones seems rather manual and tedious for 90 hits

As a Clip in an Audio Track
- Recorded the Source Material (see above) as a Clip onto an Audio Track
- Right Click Slice To New MIDI Track. Produces a Sampler loaded with Zones. Cool. Problem: The Transient sensitivity is not editable before slicing to the midi track, and I get 2-4 zones per drum hit!! Lots of manual editing of zones I was trying to avoid. (Not workable)

Any ideas how to get this solved? I know how to do it manually. I would use Audacity. Or manually split in ableton and generate wavs. But for 90-120 separate wavs, I dont want to do this manually! And in the future I want a workflow I can do this for other instruments (or if I tune my drumset, I can easily re-record my drumset). Happy to use external apps other than ableton if they do the job I'm looking for.

Thanks!

[subatomicglue]

I happen to own FLStudio from long ago, and
I found that the FLStudio SliceX plugin can do this for me, here's how:

1.) Create a new SliceX track (Drag a new SliceX onto a track - Plugin Presets / Generators / SliceX, or add a new SliceX track using the + in the channel rack)
2.) Drag your AIFF or WAV file onto the sliceX window to load it
3.) Autoslice using Regions (button) / Auto-slice / Dull auto-slicing
4.) Manually edit anything that looks off, you can also name your Markers here (will affect the .wav file names)
5.) Export wav under v / File / Export regions / For common use... (There is a hard to find 'v' in the lower left under your waveform)

It will output 1 wav per marker, and prefix all your wavs with the name you choose + the name of each marker.

I would still love to know an Ableton Live workflow, or to know of an alternative free tool

[pottering]

1- Create a new Slicing Preset based on a empty Sampler. Basically load an empty Sampler instance, then drag it into "Defaults\Slicing" folder in the User Library.

2- Right-click that single WAV, select Slice to New MIDI Track from the context menu, then in the Slicing Preset drop-down menu pick that new preset you saved. Slice per transient should work fine with drum hits.

3- Click the Zone tab in the Sampler in the resulting MIDI Track, select all Slices in the Sample Layer List, then right-click and select Crop Sample, it will save a new cropped WAV for each slice.


But do you really need the separate files? You can use the step 2 Sampler from above just fine, or just load the file in Simpler in Slice mode, and many plugin samplers have a similar slice mode too.

[subatomicglue]

I did try that, reported in my original post under “as a clip in an audio track”. Problem is that I can’t adjust the transient sensitivity. Otherwise, yeah, works great. (Except it doesn’t)

Maybe I can get it to work by adjusting my source wav somehow.
Because I was recording many velocity of hits, from almost inaudable all the way to almost clipping. So some hits are very slight and get missed, but also, the method you and I both describe here, as I said before results in 2-4 zones per drum hit, seen even on the medium to almost clipping hits.... which isn’t right, and is very tedious to edit...

So this method is not a workable solution. Maybe there is a way to process the original wav that would let sampler slice more reliably/accurately but I don’t know what would help.

Like I said, my goal is a generic set of wavs anyone can load into any sampler... trying to produce a set here that people don’t need to process or have trouble with. that’s why separate wavs... Also, one of my targets is an SFZ sample set, which is a text file that references the individual wavs, so again, I definitely need the wavs (https://sfzformat.com/tutorials/basics).

FLStudio's SliceX is working for me at least, so at least I'm not stuck. I can produce my product now.

Would still love to see an Ableton workflow! I think Ableton could support my goal in one of many ways, easily:
1.) add a right click export WAVS to the Simpler - even if it exported split clips to an Audio Track, that could work!
2.) add interactive auto slicing like Simpler has, into the Sampler! (since the Sampler, once zones are cropped, results in separate wavs in the browser/filesystem)
3.) on Simpler's rightclick "Simpler -> Sampler" needs to preserve the sliced zones on the conversion over to Sampler.
4.) adjustable transient sensitivity on the Audio Clip's rightclick "Slice To New MIDI Track" (which is non-interactive, and kind of sucks)

[pottering]

You can do the same thing (Slice To New MIDI Track, not Simpler>Sampler conversion) from a Simpler in Slice Mode (which has a transient sensitivity slider), or slicing by Warp Markers in a Audio Clip (or with audio files with saved Warp Markers in their .asd), since step 4 in your method is "Manually edit anything that looks off, you can also name your Markers here", which is the same as editing Warp Markers in a Audio Clip, and you can rename slices in Sampler, just like you do with the "Markers" in SliceX.

And your request are not really for Live users, it is for users of other DAWs, it should be low-priority for Ableton.

I sure don't need it.

In the remote case I ever need that, I would simply install Audacity, ocenaudio, Reaper, Cakewalk. etc for slicing, and Polyphone for creating SFZ. All free and better than SliceX, LOL @ paying good money for that.

(Actually, I use SoX and batch files for batch audio editing, but that's me, it is hard to recommend to others that workflow.)

[subatomicglue]

I love command line. Good to know about SOX.. of course, I want some interactivity of course, so batching this might not be enough... idk. maybe can play with values on the command line.

And overall - yep - I'm happy knowing any solution outside of ableton (especially with free tools), doesn't have to be ableton (just thought it'd be relevant to pinpoint where in ableton was getting stuck on the issue - should they want to add support - or should someone come along and know something i dont).

I also use Audacity... did not find beat slicing there that seemed quick. think it's doable with Audacity?

My request being for live users = yes I think so, anyone using VSTs in Ableton Live (like the SFZ one) could use my produced wavs, sure. Agreed that my request might not impact people using Sampler/Simpler/DrumRack of course But of course, my request is mainly for developers of sample packs - rather than just musicians. Using Ableton as a general audio tool (as opposed to for creating music tracks). maybe not that far fetched of a request for general audio manip... certainly not top priority for musicians, i'd agree.

thanks for the ideas - appreciate it

[subatomicglue]

>> You can do the same thing (Slice To New MIDI Track, not Simpler>Sampler conversion) from a Simpler in Slice Mode (which has a transient sensitivity slider)

Thanks for that idea, but, I'm not sure where to go from here. Since it does not go to a Sampler - but instead to a DrumRack that points at a OneShot Simpler.... How would I get at individual wavs then...? Right click Show in Browser for each OneShot - all seem to point at a subregion of the same AIFF. Is there a way to cause it to split the AIFF on the filesystem so I can get at the individuals?

>> or slicing by Warp Markers in a Audio Clip (or with audio files with saved Warp Markers in their .asd)

I dont see an automatic way to do that. Seems that I can add them in manually, and there is a little detected thing above each detected transient I can snap to, which isn't at the perfect beginning of each drum hit. Not seeing a transient sensativity slider. So it still seems pretty manual (gotta click for each one). Am I missing a better way?

[subatomicglue]

I found this page useful for splitting .wav files by silence (with adjustable noise threshold)
using the command line for sox and its silence effect:

https://madskjeldgaard.dk/posts/sox-tut ... y-silence/

Command line processing, automatic splitting for the win

[TerryMaple]

I happen to own FLStudio from long ago, and
I found that the FLStudio SliceX plugin can do this for me, here's how:

1.) Create a new SliceX track (Drag a new SliceX onto a track - Plugin Presets / Generators / SliceX, or add a new SliceX track using the + in the channel rack)
2.) Drag your AIFF or WAV file onto the sliceX window to load it
3.) Autoslice using Regions (button) / Auto-slice / Dull auto-slicing
4.) Manually edit anything that looks off, you can also name your Markers here (will affect the .wav file names)
5.) Export wav under v / File / Export regions / For common use... (There is a hard to find 'v' in the lower left under your waveform)

It will output 1 wav per marker, and prefix all your wavs with the name you choose + the name of each marker.

I would still love to know an Ableton Live workflow, or to know of an alternative free tool

Damn, thank you so so much for this thorough info. I'm in pretty much the exact same situation as you and have been struggling for an answer. I actually missed this comment of yours and jumped straight to SoX, I went down that rabbit hole but realized after editing all my samples that it does infact create a slight "pop" at the start cuz it's cutting off the sample midway thru a waveform. Of course, if I then applied "Fade" in SoX, then I don't have my transient. SliceX seems to be working perfectly.

Do you have any tips on how to rename the markers all at once? Renaming these files is my main wondering now. I'm total

[TerryMaple]

I guess renaming files is probably easiest with a bit of Python. I understand just barely enough about Python to copy and paste code from StackOverflow succesfully.

[subatomicglue]

I just manually renamed them. I dont use the slicex method anymore, though I appreciate it's workflow as being the only one I know for a non-tech creative person to use.

I too have dug into sox and have produced some scripts that chop up things:

https://github.com/subatomicglue/audio_toolchain

Let me know if you have questions (in the github issue tracker there)...

My goal was an automated pipeline to convert a recording of drum hits, and produce an .sfz samplebank, or .sf2 soundfont. Works well for my toy test case. I made one WAV per drum or cymbal, inside that WAV was 10-20 drum/cymbal hits. I hit them at various velocities, being sure to leave silence between. I name those WAVs by the drum/cymbal they represent, and my scripts auto chop and auto detect velocity, auto name them all by name/velocity, and produce a .sfz file that maps the samples to velocity ranges and a midi note.