non-drum multisamples in a drum rack

animalfamiliar · Post by **animalfamiliar** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 2:00 am

i'm an ableton newbie, so this may be a really dumb question.

i'm broke and can't buy sampler right now, but i've got a collection of violin samples that i'd like to use. it's a multisample collection, so there's a sample for each note (ie c3, c#3, d3, d#3, etc.) (i THINK that's what "multisample" means, please correct me if i'm wrong).

anyway, since i don't have sampler (which seems to be the ableton product that can load and play multisamples) i was wondering: is there any reason why i shouldn't just load all the samples into a drum rack and play THAT?

i'm sure there are amazing things sampler can do to samples that a drum rack can't, but for a person on a pretty tight budget, is this a reasonable thing to do? is there anything hugely important i'm missing out on by using a drum rack instead of sampler or some other multisample player?

thanks!

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 4:45 am

multisample in this case has more to do with multiple samples for each note. generally at different velocities (volumes)

so in your case the best would just be to rack up some simplers

sinnatagg · Post by **sinnatagg** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:42 am

animalfamiliar wrote: anyway, since i don't have sampler (which seems to be the ableton product that can load and play multisamples) i was wondering: is there any reason why i shouldn't just load all the samples into a drum rack and play THAT?

It's probably easier and more flexible to stick to an instrument rack if you want to do this. I think the drum rack only does one-to-one note mappings instead of proper key zones. Instrument racks also has velocity zones so you might be able to build quite a bit of a "proper" sampler with properly arranged simplers.

-a

animalfamiliar · Post by **animalfamiliar** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:36 am

ah, okay well that makes sense.

thanks for the help!

dootdoot · Post by **dootdoot** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 2:56 pm

If you only have one sample per note, then you don't have "multisamples", you just have samples. You would be fine just mapping them to the corresponding MIDI note in a drum rack, or in Impulse even, and then playing them. You will only be controlling velocity and cutoff, but it will let you play the samples.

animalfamiliar · Post by **animalfamiliar** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:51 pm

yeah, i ended up using simpler. i just made a rack with a boatload of simplers (one for each sampled note on a violin) and changed the zone for each one to its proper key (ie the c#4 sample is played by only the c#4 midi note).

it seems to work fine! thanks again, everyone.

one last question: there isn't any significant cpu strain caused by all those simplers in one rack, is there? i assume since i'll only be triggering one or two notes at a time (it's a violin, after all) it won't be too demanding. but it was a little intimidating seeing 40 or 50 simplers lined up in a single rack...

animalfamiliar · Post by **animalfamiliar** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 10:02 pm

oh no wait it's not working!

i've got a rack of simplers, and each simpler is loaded with an individual violin sample (each note of the violin is sampled, a3 to g5). i changed the key zone for each simpler in the chain to it's note, which seemed like a great idea BUT: when i play note d3, for example, it's playing the note at the wrong pitch!

i think this is cuz the simpler with the d3 sample is told via the key zone to only play when midi note d3 is received. which is what i wanted. but it's not playing the sample in it's normal pitch! it's playing the sample at one whole step above c3, because simpler pitch shifts everything from c3!

i thought i could fix this by changing the midi not in-out, like a drum rack. which i guess means i can tell the simpler with the d3 sample to play note c3 (ie the raw sample without any pitch shifting) whenever it receives note d3 (ie the note it is assigned to via the key zone). but simpler doesn't seem to have the midi in/out option that drum racks do!

is there any way to either turn of simpler's pitch shifting or to change the midi notes in a rack? as in: i play d3, which is the only note that cues the simpler containing the d3 violin sample, so simpler receives the d3 note and plays what it thinks is c3 (the original sample without any pitch shifting)?

i'm sure there is a much simpler (haha) way to explain this, but i hope you understand what i'm trying to say.

i guess really i just need to understand how someone WITHOUT sampler can play a collection of samples of an individual instrument.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:18 pm

animalfamiliar wrote:oh no wait it's not working!

i've got a rack of simplers, and each simpler is loaded with an individual violin sample (each note of the violin is sampled, a3 to g5). i changed the key zone for each simpler in the chain to it's note, which seemed like a great idea BUT: when i play note d3, for example, it's playing the note at the wrong pitch!

If I understand correctly: Check the I-O button for that section in the drum rack. There you can set up the "interpretation" of the Simpler pitch.

p 226 in the manual.

animalfamiliar · Post by **animalfamiliar** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:34 am

the problem is that i'm not using a drum rack! it's just a rack of simplers. the drum rack has the midi I-O (which is pretty cool, btw), but the other kinds of rack don't. as far as i can tell.

i have a bad feeling i'm gonna have to buy sampler. which i'm sure i'll love, but i was hoping to do this on the cheap!

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:57 am

you'll need to set the transposition of each simpler

dang, it almost seems like a drum rack would be easier

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:01 am

it's way easier

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:21 am

animalfamiliar wrote:the problem is that i'm not using a drum rack! it's just a rack of simplers. the drum rack has the midi I-O (which is pretty cool, btw), but the other kinds of rack don't. as far as i can tell.

i have a bad feeling i'm gonna have to buy sampler. which i'm sure i'll love, but i was hoping to do this on the cheap!

Then what's wrong with a drum rack? As long as each sample is only on one note anyway, then it's all the same.

Sinnatagg, you can easily do velocity zones in a drum rack, too.

animalfamiliar · Post by **animalfamiliar** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:48 pm

yeah i think i'll just fill up a drum rack with the samples and see how that goes.

dootdoot · Post by **dootdoot** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 3:35 pm

animalfamiliar wrote:yeah i think i'll just fill up a drum rack with the samples and see how that goes.

now you're on the trolley!

animalfamiliar · Post by **animalfamiliar** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 6:41 pm

dootdoot wrote:
animalfamiliar wrote:yeah i think i'll just fill up a drum rack with the samples and see how that goes.
now you're on the trolley!

haha what a great expression!

non-drum multisamples in a drum rack

non-drum multisamples in a drum rack

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