Ableton Forum

Hell all,

Does anyone know how to trigger samples using a gate? By that I mean for example if an audio signal goes above a certain level it will trigger the sample? So a gate could be set to -3dbfs and only a loud sound (a clap etc) would trigger it?

Thanks for any help

you'll need either:
1) an audio signal to midi converter
2) a sample that is looping at the correct rate - so that when the sidechained gate lets signal through you get the attack of percussive sound at the beginning.

or you could get the audio that you're using as a trigger - put it through a gate set to the right threshold, extract groove and use the resultant midi pattern as the midi trigger for the sample. won't work in a live setting of course.... you'll need either max or another plugin to do it properly.

or you could get the audio that you're using as a trigger - put it through a gate set to the right threshold, extract groove and use the resultant midi pattern as the midi trigger for the sample. won't work in a live setting of course.... you'll need either max or another plugin to do it properly.

erg double post sorry

I'm curious about this too, what about this?

Load up sampler with the sample, and sidechain a flipped gate to the drum rack with the clap? I guess the only problem would be if that worked, that the sample is looping endlessly so it'd have to be timed correctly.

But would this even work?

you don't use a flipped gate. when the volume of the 'key' track exceeds volume X then the gate opens, allowing the looped channel to be audible. std gate behaviour. the technique works with constant tones, generally people side chain sines playing 40 hz to a kick sample, for an easy sub... I guess you could do the same with white noise and maybe an auto filter with an envelope on it to give some shape to the sound. i think looping a snare would be difficult to get right.

Anyway with this tek you wont have any precise way of controlling timing, usually man wannna gate so that the sample restart when trigged. You need 3rd party. Usine can do this for free as a vst plugin if you want.

good call.