sampling central

 

going
for a spin

GETTING THE MOST FROM
YOUR SAMPLE CDS & CD-ROMS

 

Get those sample CDs rotating, and hold on to your hi-hats: PAUL FARRER is talking about a revolution...

 

There can't be many sampler owners who haven't got at least a couple of sample CDs in their collection, and with new and exciting releases coming out all the time, the runaway success of the sample CD market looks set to continue for quite a few years. Of course, cost is a major factor in deciding the number of CDs and CD-ROMs the average musician or studio can buy; with this in mind I've put together a few hints and tips that could help you to pick the disc and format that's best for you, and -- perhaps more importantly -- explain how to maximise the use of the hot batch of brand new sounds that have just arrived in the post and you are aching to get into your sampler, if you could only rip open the shrink-wrap packaging with your teeth fast enough...

WRITE OR ROM?

Sample CDs come in a number of different formats and it's important to know which format type will be best suited to your budget and your studio setup before you buy. The first and most obvious way of presenting sample material is, of course, as standard audio recorded directly onto a conventional compact disc, which can be played in any CD player. This is the most basic (and therefore the cheapest) way of presenting sounds on a sample CD and nearly all releases support this format. It allows quick access to all the tracks, and it's an excellent way to audition sounds before you fire them into your sampler. On the downside, you do have to do all the sampling, editing, looping and programming of the sounds yourself. If you're sampling complex choir or string multisamples, this can be a real pig to get right and often requires an in-depth knowledge of your chosen sampler platform and the patience of a particularly patient saint. Some sample CDs consist of longer drum loops or instrument grooves (sample blocks that rarely need crossfading or multisampling, but you get fewer of them), and these are often easier to deal with in audio format than, say, a CD's worth of complex orchestral or piano samples.

But by far the most efficient and popular way of presenting sampled sounds is the CD-ROM. Just like a computer CD-ROM, this stores all the sounds -- as well as programmed data, loop points, crossfades, and preset names -- as digital information which can be fed directly to your sampler via SCSI. Once your CD-ROM is in your sampler's SCSI chain, it can be thought of as another independent (read-only) hard drive. Loading up a preset or group of presets from a CD-ROM is an extremely quick and easy procedure and, of course, gives you all the sounds you need edited, named, assigned to the appropriate keys and ready to play straight away. My guess is that, with the huge improvements already made in the field of sampling large amounts of data, the future of sound sources will be via the CD-ROM, and prices will fall accordingly. This brings us neatly to CD-ROMs' biggest drawback, which is their relatively high price; many ROMs retail at around the £150 mark, as opposed to their audio equivalents at around £60. Of course this has to be weighed against the huge advantage that sample CD-ROMs bring you. Where else could you get a full symphony orchestra to perform on your track for less than half the price of a basic effects unit?

 

"One of the most enlightening experiences is to watch someone else work with the same sounds and approach things from a completely different point of view."

 

But just as audio CDs have their strengths and weaknesses, so do CD-ROMs. For instance, a CD release stuffed full of hundreds of different drum loops could be seen as a waste of CD-ROM space, as you'll discard most of the loops as you audition them, selecting only your favourite few -- and, let's face it, sampling and editing a one-bar drum loop is not the most difficult thing in the world. In contrast, it would be hard to match the level of programming that has gone into products such as East West's Ultimate Piano Collection or some of the vastly complex multisampled orchestral CDs, so it's a good idea to find out a little bit about the kind of sounds you are likely to get on a sample CD release before choosing the format and making your investment.

The other main format, which is becoming increasingly popular particularly in the budget section of the market, is the Mixed Mode CD-ROM. As its name suggests, this format contains both conventional audio recordings and sample data stored so it can be accessed via SCSI. These days a common mixture of the two can be found, for instance, in the 'Creative Essentials' library from Time & Space, where, as well as audio files that can be auditioned and sampled from any CD player, the raw sample blocks are presented as WAV and AIFF files so they can be accessed directly by a PC or Mac. (See the 'Circular Argument' box for more information.)

MAXIMISING YOUR SAMPLES

For many of us, relationships with our sample CDs may not extend further than a daily uphill battle to try and get our samplers to sound at least something like the demo on track 1 of the CD did. But it doesn't have to be like this. Just as with any really good synthesizer with a duff set of factory presets (Emu Morpheus, anyone...?), the real trick is to inject your own style into the sounds; use sample CDs less as a preset-bashing exercise and more as a platform for experimentation. The most interesting, and sometimes awe-inspiring, CDs are generally the ones that have a distinct air of pushing the limits of their technology into new and unknown territories. Take Spectrasonics' Distorted Reality, or Cuckooland from Zero-G -- similar in approach, they each possess a real spirit of taking established sound sources such as analogue synthesizers or ambient effects and using these as a starting point for serious sonic mutilation, time-stretching, and clever effects ideas. This 'open-minded' approach works for any sample CD sound source. Don't instantly assume that the sounds you'll end up using in your track will be anything like the CDs you sample from -- keep in mind the vast number of effects options available with even the humblest sampler. Here are a few examples...

• Instead of loading up an entire program of string or choir multisamples, why not just look at a single sample? What might it sound like an octave higher, or lower, and what happens when you play around with its ADSR envelopes? Could that single cello sound with the sharp attack work nicely as a grindy techno bass noise? Or could you drop it by a few octaves, add a long release time and use it as an underscore for the next series of The X-Files?

 

"Use sample CDs less as a preset-bashing exercise and more as a platform for experimentation."

 

• If your sampler allows you to play with any resonant filters, what effect might these have on the overall sound? This is a particularly common effect used on dance drum loops, for instance, where the same sample is assigned to a number of different keys, each with a slightly more open filter setting than the last, restricting the top end of the sound. The effect is of a drum loop starting as a sort of distant low-fi grinding noise; each time it cycles round it becomes louder and more defined, until the sample is playing back at full bandwidth in all its glory. A great trick and a doddle to program.

• Everyone gets stuck in creative ruts, and one of the most enlightening experiences is to watch someone else work with the same sounds and approach things from a completely different point of view. Although sequencers and samplers don't normally allow more than one person to work on them at a time, musical collaboration is perhaps more relevant now than it ever was. So invite a like-minded individual over for an afternoon of playing with your sample CDs and see which sounds they find most interesting.

• With experimentation in mind, don't be afraid to really go to town with external effects processing -- maybe even re-sampling the same sounds with additional effects. You'll need an additional hard drive to store your new versions of sounds, but you'll be surprised at just how much life you can breathe into even the dullest drum loop or bass groove if you beef up the EQ, add some compression, chorus, and even perhaps a touch of distortion, mix it to DAT and re-record it as a new sample.

• Why not try re-grooving old samples? Software packages such as Steinberg's ReCycle can be a big help, but fairly simple cut-and-paste editing within your sampler can give you the constituent beats of a loop, which you can then re-program with a completely new feel, tempo or groove. Once you're happy with the loops, drop them down to DAT (or similar), with a suitable effect if need be, and resample them as single one- or two-bar loops.

• Don't be afraid to mix and match your samples. Releases that offer you groove tracks complete with drums, bass and keyboards are often more flexible than you might think. Don't assume that the sax solo from track 2, for instance, won't sound great over the drum and bass line from track 24!

There's no doubt that as sampling becomes a bigger and more influential part of our musical lives we will see more and more sounds released in the sample CD format. Some manufacturers even provide downloadable sounds from their pages on the Internet -- when the first Akai S900 came out (not so long ago), this was still well within the boundaries of science fiction. No-one knows what the sound market will be like in 10 or even five years' time, but it's a fair bet that at least two things will remain consistent: firstly, there will undoubtedly still be a strong demand for good-quality, user-friendly, inspiring sounds; and secondly, whatever form these sounds take, you can be sure they'll come your way wrapped up so tightly in shrink-wrapped plastic covers that you'll need to don your best set of Microsoft Platinum-Coated Cyber Dentures just to get into them...

 

LEGAL STUFF

If you've read the small print on the back of any sample CD you've purchased, you'll notice that you have (in legal terms) bought the CD on which the sounds are stored, and purchased a licence to use the sounds in a commercial release, but do not officially own any of the sounds on the disc. This allows you to use the samples in conjunction with other sound sources on singles, albums, soundtracks, adverts and whatever, but does not allow you to re-release the sounds on their own or as part of another sample CD. It's fairly straightforward and common-sense really, but as always there are a couple of flies in the ointment. Among the plethora of sample CDs released each year, there can just occasionally be differences in the CD producers' requirements. For example, I once reviewed a sample CD that asked you to send two cassette copies of your completed music for them to listen to before you released a product using their sounds. Other CDs simply ask (and sometimes insist) that you credit samples when they're used in a commercial release. Many users might feel that having to post additional copies of your music around the place is a bit much when you've already forked out the readies for the sounds, but the question of sample creditation is, some people might feel, still something of a grey area. I'm sure nobody really minds crediting the use of a certain set of samples, particularly if they feature heavily in your recording, and you might feel (quite rightly) that it's the proper thing to do to nod your head in the direction of a creative team who have helped your music in some way, but it's worth reading the small print on the back of the CD to check whether this is an absolute condition of the licence or not. In any event your sample CD supplier will, I'm sure, be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about this.

 

CIRCULAR ARGUMENTAUDIO CD

pros
• Cheap.
• Large number of available releases.
• Quick and easy auditioning of sounds.
• Compatible with every possible sampling format!

cons
• Can be very time-consuming and fiddly to sample and store large numbers of sounds.
• Requires a good knowledge of your sampler's workings to get the most from an audio sample CD.

 

CD-ROM

pros
• Quick and easy access to all sounds.
• Less time spent sampling (therefore more time spent playing).
• Can give your songs an instantly 'professional' touch.
• Often contain more sounds than audio CDs.

cons
• More expensive.
• No chance to audition sounds without loading them.
• Don't always encourage the end user to experiment as much as they could.

 

MIXED-MODE CD

pros
• Often the same price as audio CDs (sometimes even cheaper!).
• Can be the best of both worlds, offering both audio and ROM data.
• Good for auditioning sounds on a regular CD player before you load up the samples.

cons
• Having to fit both file types on a singledisc can mean less samples.
• Although nearly all popular sampler formats can be catered for on a mixed mode release, WAV and AIFF are the most common these days, which is not to everyone's taste.

 

CD-ROM COMPATIBILITY

CD-ROMs come in a number of different platform formats depending on your sampler, the main ones being Akai, Roland and Emu. Although recently manufacturers have started seeing sense and are making their samplers cross-compatible (so they can read CD-ROMs made for other manufacturers' machines), in practice you may well encounter some slight niggling difficulties when importing, say, an Akai sample CD into an Emu machine. Mostly this can take the form of silly little things such as the pitch-bend ranges being different for certain sounds, or the attack times being slightly slower or faster than you remember. Considering the vast differences in sampling architectures involved this is perhaps understandable, but it's worth remembering that even if your sampler claims to be XYZ-compatible you may need to do a spot of fine-tuning of the imported programs or presets before you feel completely happy with them.

 

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