How many of you purchase samples CDs to load in a sampler?

[chrisellington]

I've been "preset" man for such a long time. Now with using Cakewalk's Dimension Pro, I have been able to load samples and such to use, edit and play back.

 

So I purchased EastWest's Pro Samples Rare Ethnic Instruments CD.

 

The Erhu set for instance has a separate sample for various notes by octave (so you're not just playing the same sample for 5 octaves, etc). However I have not figured out a way to map each sample to a specific note/octave with Dimension pro.

 

What do you guys use to do this?

[pizzamon]

I never use prefab samples, I make my own. In fact, if I have the choice of getting software with or without samples (ableton specifically), I always get without. It saves me time and hard-disk space. I have no interest in some one else's samples.

[Umbra]

Never, for me it kinda defeats the point of having synths.

[MuzikB]

I use samples all the time and have no qualms about it. If it helps to get creative juices flowing than it's all good. Stock or mangled.

 

That said I have Native Instruments Kontakt 2. Purchased Sample libraries........

 

Garritan Jazz and Big Band

Hollow Sun's FS1R collection

Hollow Sun's Newtron Bomb

 

A lot of free libraries from Music Tech Magazine.

 

I plan to get some more for use with the MPC-1000.

[Meatball Fulton]

 

Originally posted by chrisellington What do you guys use to do this?

 

 

Some sample sets come preformatted with patches for specific hardware or software....commonly Akai, Acid, Apple Loops, REX, GigaSampler. I've even bought some samples that came with patches for my Motif ES.

 

If Dimension Pro can't directly import one of those formats then you do in fact have to go into the bowels of the program and map the samples to key ranges one by one. On most samplers this is relatively easy but if your library has hundreds (or thousands) of multisampled instruments this can take a lot of time!!!

 

As for your other question: outside of the Mellotron samples I have never bought a smaple disk though I have quite a few free libraries that came with UK music magazines like Future Music, Musictech, Computer Music, etc. I also download the Acid "8 packs" every week from acidplanet.com.

[Darkstorm]

Has purchased several of bigfish audios sample cds for use with my Zoom sampler.

[The Audacity Works]

Two full binders of sample CD-ROMs here, purchased mostly on employee accomodation back in the day. Probably have a total of 250 or so CD-ROMs in Akai and Gigastudio format.

 

The Akai disks were once for an S5000; they've now since been imported into EXS24.

 

One question remains, however:

 

Is every single commercial hip hop sample library created by 40-year-old white dudes? They must hire the same guys who compose hip hop music libraries for basic cable.

[stikygum]

Audacity, do you use any librarian to sort out samples you like? I have a couple cd cases full of 'em and often times it's fun to go through them because it's almost like being suprised when finding cool new samples to use. But to manage them is another story.

[triton76]

I have some rock drum loop discs. Mostly cheap stuff. Fun to load a drum loop in Live, run the headphone out of my laptop to the aux in on my Korg amp modeler and jam guitar thru headphones at night. Sounds huge.

I bought some on Ebay that were cheap and have synth sounds etc. I hear where you're coming from when you say it sorta defeats the purpose of having synths. For me it's just a way to quell GAS attacks without acquiring more synths. Audiophox on Ebay has great deals on S1000 format bundles. I load sounds into the Triton and make some new patches.

[The Audacity Works]

 

Originally posted by stikygum Audacity, do you use any librarian to sort out samples you like? I have a couple cd cases full of 'em and often times it's fun to go through them because it's almost like being suprised when finding cool new samples to use. But to manage them is another story.

That's why they're all in EXS24 (Logic Pro) now. When you import an Akai CD-ROM into EXS24, it creates two folders: One for all the raw samples themselves (which it converts to .WAVs I think), and one for the actual instruments. While you can't touch the sample files/folders, the instruments can be renamed, organized into folders and subfolders, color-coded, and so forth, all in Apple's finder. I have folders for drum kits, custom kits, favorites, orchestral stuff, percussion, loops, weird ambient stuff, Ilio libraries, etc. The same hierarchy shows up in EXS24.

 

There's also a search function built into EXS24, so if I need a vibes sound, I just type in "vibes", and all the instruments show up.

 

Other softsamplers can do this as well, but EXS24 is extremely DSP-efficient. I can run 30+ instances on my 667MHz G4 Powerbook.

 

Some people utilize Redmatica's EXS Manager, but I've never needed it.

[DavidFisher]

I got the library from Keith Hildebrant just to hear what was so good, that Trent Reznor wanted to hire him from hearing it (or as the story goes). Use it in EXS24 of course.

 

That's the only one I ever bought. I'd get his other ones too, as they are damn cool, but I never find myself using them really. Cool, really cool, but it's just never the first thing I think of when composing.

[chrisellington]

The sample CD I just bought by EastWest lists compatablity with "all samplers"

AUDIO, AIFF, AKAI, EXS24, HALION, WAV