Drum Sampler
Drum Sampler
Drum Sampler is a sample player for playing back one-shot samples by itself or as part of a Drum Rack.
It includes the standard sample playing features such as Sample Start and End controls, as well as an Attack, Hold, and Decay envelope, Transpose and Detune controls, and two envelope modes:Trigger and Gate
In the Filter section, you can choose from four filters that have been optimized for one-shot samples: a 12 or 24 dB low-pass filter, a 12 dB high-pass filter, or a simple one band half parametric EQ peak filter to boost or notch out a specific portion of the frequency spectrum.
Getting started..
Load Drum Sampler from the Instruments menu or ow swap Simpler for a Drum Sampler by ctrl clicking on the header of Simpler and choosing the command Simpler>DrumSampler
Vice versa you could also swap a Drum Sampler anytime into a Simpler if need be:
To use Drum Sampler as the instrument default when loading samples in Drum Racks in place of Simpler, you can load an instance of Drum Sampler onto a drum pad and then select the “Save as Default Pad” option from the Rack’s context menu.
When a drum pad is selected, it is possible to simply double-click on a sample in the browser to load it into the current pad. If the pad is empty, the default instrument for Drum Racks will be used, otherwise, the selected device (if different from the default) will be used instead.
FX Section
One of the advantages of Drum Sampler over Simpler are its built in creative effects. They make Drum Sampler a powerhouse for drum sound design by letting you transform the sound in very fundamental and interesting ways. Particularly exciting here are the FM and Ring Mod features that otherwise are only available in Sampler (where we have FM and AM) but not in Simpler.
Use the X/Y pad to adjust the playback effect’s parameters. Click and drag along the vertical axis to adjust the first parameter. Click and drag along the horizontal axis to adjust the second parameter. In addition you can also use Vel for midi control of the fx parameters.
The Playback Effect section lets you select and customize one of the following effects: Stretch, Loop, Pitch Env, Punch, 8-bit, FM, Ring Mod, Sub Osc, or Noise.
Stretch
Granular & Glitchy Effects: Great for buzzy, noisy, inharmonic and metallic timbres
This effect offers real time time stretching (compare to warping)
Stretch Factor: Sets the amount of time-stretching as a factor based on the original playback speed.
Grain Size :Sets the size of the grain used to time-stretch the sample in milliseconds.
Increase the factor and then experiment with the grain size!
The time-stretching will be adjusted based on the global pitch controls and the MIDI note played.
Loop
Granular sound design and echo effects.Make sustained sounds out of short samples.
You can loop the entire Sample
Offset:
Sets the loop start point in relation to the sample start point, up to one second.
The loop offset will be adjusted based on the global pitch controls and the MIDI note played.
Length:
Sets the Length of the loop, up to half a second. The loop length will be adjusted based on the global pitch controls and the MIDI note played.
Varying the loop length will also change the pitch (as we know from Granular Synthesis).
Adjust length and offset to find an interesting loop.Experiment with Transpose, Decay and Attack. With velocity control you can play melodies by changing the loop length!
Pitch Envelope
Pitch Envelope Modulation Effects, Emphasize Attack.
Speed up or slow down playback and pitch the sample up or down.
Amount:
Level of pitch modulation that is applied to the sample.
Positive or negative values can be used, resulting in a higher or lower pitch, respectively
Decay:
Sets the time required for the pitch to go back to the base value as determined by the global pitch controls.
Use this in connection with global Transpose and Decay!
Punch
Gating or Ducking Effects
Use this effect to add punch by emphasizing the attack and controlling the release time.
Amount:
The amount of ducking that is applied to the sample.
Release:
The time for the gain reduction to fall back to zero after the initial trigger.
8bit
Digital distortion and LoFi: Recreate the grungy sound of vintage Drum machines
Based on a reduction of the sample rate (compare to Redux audio effect)
Rate:
Sets the sample rate used to play back the sample.
Decay:
Sets the decay time for the internal low-pass filter.
FM
Great for grimey, hard or metallic sounds.
Change the harmonic spectrum using Frequency Modulation by adding harmonics or inharmonics.
(compare to Operator or FM in Sampler)
Amount:
FM Index, how much frequency modulation that is applied to the sample.
Frequency:
Sets the frequency used to modulate the sample’s pitch.
The frequency will also be adjusted based on the global pitch controls and the MIDI note played.
Ring Mod
Inharmonic and clangorous sounds
Ringmodulation uses AM modulation here.
Amount:
The level of the ring modulation that is applied to the sample.
Frequency:
Defines the frequency used to modulate the sample’s amplitude. Low values create a tremolo effect,
while high values add typical ring modulation artifacts.
The frequency will be adjusted based on the global pitch controls and the MIDl note played.
Sub
Adds sub frequencies, great for kicks and bass sounds that lack a deep sub dimension
Amount:
Sets the level for the sub oscillator. Note that the oscillator’s envelope uses the global
Attack and Decay settings.
Frequency:
Use this to tune the sub oscillator.
The frequency will also be adjusted based on the global pitch controls and the MIDI note played.
Noise
Add noisy textures and ambiences
Amount:
The level of the Noise oscillator. The oscillator’s envelope uses the global Attack and Decay settings.
Color:
Defines the frequency used to filter the Noise oscillator.
The frequency will be adjusted based on the global pitch controls and the MIDI note played.
Create a drum rack kit with Drum Samplers:
Drum Sampler’s effects are very powerful sound design tools.
They will allow you to change the loaded samples in drastic and often unexpected ways. Great for experimentation!
Use the x/y to find a sonically sweet spot and then enable velocity control for either FX1 or 2.
Adjust the velocity amount and the FX parameters to find a good range.
Effect’s settings will be retained:
Once you like the results roll the dice and swap some sounds using the sound similarity feature. You can even swap the entire kit in this way for some happy accidents.
Filter
Select one of the available filter types:
In the Filter section, we can choose from four filters that have been optimized for one-shot samples: a 12 or 24 dBow-pass filter, a 12 dB high-pass filter, or a simple one band half parametric EQ peak filter to boost or notch out a specific portion of the frequency spectrum.
Velocity Modulation Destinations
Use Velocity to control the effects as well. In Loop mode this can also change the pitch if velocity is used to control the Length parameter (FX2)