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Re: SV: Samplers 101



At 0:12 +0200 4/28/98, Woehni wrote:
> Hi Doug , thanks for the insights!!

Thomas,

You're welcome.


> I`m getting closer now :-)  As always , when I learn something I`m filled
>with new questions..........here they are:
> >
> >- record audio from an analog or digital in, transfer samples over SCSI 
>or
> >MIDI to a computer, save/load the sounds on a SCSI drive (or CD-ROM).
> >
>   SCSI??  is that an interface??  I have a iomega zip drive , does that
>fall under the SCSI
> umbrella??

Well, if you're a Mac guy, most everything is SCSI, including your Zip
drive, so it sounds like you have a PC.  I have a feeling that PC Zip
drives are not SCSI.  The mass storage situation is a bit special for each
sampler..... with my Roland, there's a list of drives (including CD drives
and removables) they support.


> >- given a raw recording (sample), specify where to start playing, where 
>to
> >stop, where to begin and end looping (if at all, 
>forward/backwards/both).
>
> If the sample is 30 secs long , can I tell the sampler to loop from ,
>say, the  5th second to the
> 15th???

Yes.  On the samplers I've used, time is measured in samples (44100 per
second or whatever other sampling rate you use).


> >- truncate (like cropping in a graphics program, getting rid of the
> >portions of the sample that you're not using), normalize (make the 
>signal
> >as loud as it can be without clipping), compress, equalize, mix audio, 
>etc
> >etc etc.
> >
>  Can all this be done without a screen/monitor???  I`ve seen pictures of
>some Akai samplers
> and there didnt seem to be any monitor on that.......

The Roland's front panel is very tiny and yet I can do a few things on it
without a monitor, spoiled as I am.  I believe the Akai's have larger
displays, and yes, you can do everything from the front panels.


> >- combine multiple samples by layering them or spreading them across the
> >keyboard, dealing with how their pitches relate to the keys struck
> >
> >- VCF, VCA, LFO and performance control over them, just like a synth
> >
> I dont know these terms , if its not too much info I`d like to learn what
>they mean.

VCF = voltage controlled filter, VCA = voltage controlled amplifier, LFO =
low frequency oscillator.  "voltage controlled" is an antique term now, I
suppose, since most devices are digital.  The filter is usually a
lowpass/highpass/bandpass, with resonance, and an envelope -- a changing
cutoff frequency over time.  The "amplifier" is just an old-fashioned way
of talking about control over loudness over time and in response to how
hard a MIDI key is struck.


> I have seen a used Akai s 950 , s 900 and s 1000 samplers.  Are they any
>good??

The 900 is only 12 bit and might have some other funky limitations; a
former bandmate has one.  They're good though, just a bit old.  So's the
EPS I mentioned.  You'll need some way of controlling an Akai via MIDI;
they're all rack mount.  The EPS, K2000 and some E-mu's have keyboards.


> Im thinking of making some mainstream Trip hop techno  stuff.......kinda
>like Prodigy ,
> only with guitars in there too.......  Can I do something in that
>direction with one of these
> samplers  ???

Sure, all you gotta do is buy, make or otherwise acquire good samples and
trigger them nicely :-)

I'd be happy to type some more later, if you have more questions, but maybe
we should move this off list because it's not particularly loopy (until we
start talking about sampling loops and looping samples :-) ).

Doug


--
 Doug Wyatt                             doug@sonosphere.com
 Sonosphere (electric/improv music)     http://www.sonosphere.com/
 "Accidental Beauties" CD release:      http://www.sonosphere.com/wyatt/