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Best sampler app (to build a virtual instrument)

Hi there!

I sampled an instrument (3 octaves, 6 different attacks each note) and I want to put each note in a sampler, to play it later with a midi keyboard, I don't really know what is the best way to do this, and which is the best app to this task. I have tried putting sample by sample in Beatmaker 2 sampler, but I wonder if there are a better workflow and a better app for this specific thing.

Thanks!!!

Comments

  • edited April 2016

    You could try making a Soundfont in your computer (there are different apps for Windows, Mac , Linux ) .Check polyphone , is universal
    http://www.polyphone.fr
    and then import the Soundfont to an app that supports it ,like bs-16i or Caustic . I haven't tested any of these apps on Soundfont support so someone else will help you.
    Keep in mind that BM2 is the only app currently that supports disk streaming ,meaning if you have lot of space in your iPad you could import a 2 gig a sample library without loading it into RAM.

  • I think you can do this in the Cubasis MiniSampler:

    Also sir sampleton.

  • With that many samples, I'd definitely do it on the computer first and go the sound font route.

  • Also, I think you will be hard-pressed to find a solution for layering.

  • Also, awesome.

  • JohnFromeBerkley:: Which stand alone app most resembles Cubasis's "mini-sampler" in your opinion?

  • @ecce_cello said:
    Hi there!

    I sampled an instrument (3 octaves, 6 different attacks each note) and I want to put each note in a sampler, to play it later with a midi keyboard, I don't really know what is the best way to do this, and which is the best app to this task. I have tried putting sample by sample in Beatmaker 2 sampler, but I wonder if there are a better workflow and a better app for this specific thing.

    Thanks!!!

    Well, it can be done in ThumbJam, but the workflow right now is not very conducive. Until it is, my secret weapon for building TJ instruments is the defunct Redmatica KeyMap Pro (on Mac). I can whip something up quickly for you if you want to send me the samples...

    Contact me directly via email (jesse at sonosaurus.com)...

  • But depending on sample lengths you may need an app that does disk streaming vs loading it all up into RAM, like others mentioned. TJ doesn't do streaming (yet), but Auria's Lyra does.

    Alternatively you don't always need to use every chromatic note sampled, so your set could be carefully culled to get you something that will work in most things.

  • Wow! thanks a lot guys for all your replies. Specially for your offer @sonosaurus. I need time to process them and see what option is better. Definitively I will work on computer first, then put into ipad. I want almost every semitone truly sampled, as I don't enjoy very much pitch stretching of real world sounds.

    So Auria would have the best sampler for this? Or BM2 would also do the job using first my mac to make a Sound font of every note (I don't know this workflow yet)?
    My samples are more or less 6 sec. long. I don't have Auria, so if I buy it just for this, it must be the best option.

    I'll keep on studying options.

    Thanks again.

  • @ecce_cello Auria can play sfz and sf2, 'polyphone' is free, and not too difficult to compile your instrument into a soundfont file.

  • Cool @crzycrs, polyphone seems nice and clean option to a good workflow. BM2 wouldn't allow sfz or sf2 files? There's no way to put inside BM2 these kind of files? I'm totally new to this real-sample workflow.

  • edited April 2016

    Do you have Mainstage on your Mac?
    If so I believe you can make exs instruments with that which Auria can also play (I think)

    http://createdigitalmusic.com/2015/02/apples-mainstage-auto-sampler-turns-hardware-software/

    Musk MIDI Keyboard by Dr. Garbers Softwareentwicklung
    https://appsto.re/gb/TV-KU.i

    Will also play exs24 instruments

  • @BiancaNeve Wow, Musk MIDI Keyboard app looks really powerful! Just 1€, : O
    So making exs files would be easier?

  • @ecce_cello said:
    Cool @crzycrs, polyphone seems nice and clean option to a good workflow. BM2 wouldn't allow sfz or sf2 files? There's no way to put inside BM2 these kind of files? I'm totally new to this real-sample workflow.

    Unfortunately no. Someone tried in the past to make some scripts to convert Soundfont format to bm2 sound but the site is down

  • @ecce_cello said:
    @BiancaNeve Wow, Musk MIDI Keyboard app looks really powerful! Just 1€, : O
    So making exs files would be easier?

    If you have Mainstage (which I don't so I don't know for sure) then it should be possible to auto sample your instrument and have it build an exs24 instrument automatically, it has a plugin based on the same tech from Redmattica that @sonosaurus was talking about earlier.

  • Nanostudio 2 is the solution! It has a real multi sampler (Obsidian) where you
    can put a diffent sound under each key. Moreover does this sampler also
    kind of the same job as AudioLayer; which means up to 3 samples under one key.
    I still didn’t meet a limit for sample-length. They can even be several minutes long.
    This app made my day.

  • edited December 2018

    @Virsyn AudioLayer ($15) was made for this purpose. Currently it can only import raw samples and ESX24 instruments. I get my ESX24 instruments from my Apple Mac. The ESX Sampler in Apple's Mainstage ($30) and Logic Pro ($199) can also be used to accept raw samples and make an instrument with Layers and other features.

    Importing raw samples into AudioLayer can be made more efficient by using Automapping and putting volume and note information into the filenames. You put all your samples into a folder and use specific filename conventions. AudioLayer can import folders from the icloud AudioLayer/Import folder on the iPad/iPhone. You can also move your folder of files there using the Files App on IOS or the older iTunes "App Sharing" feature.

    (Text borrowed from another thread):

    Here a couple of examples to give the automap the needed info for three use cases:

    1) only note values

    basename_c1.wav
    basename_e1.wav
    basename_g1.wav
    ...

    Automap will will fill the gaps in between which you can see by the graphics animation during import.

    2) note and velocity:

    basename_c1_p.wav ( p for "piano" )
    basename_c1_f.wav ( f for "forte" )
    ....

    Automap looks for the following words for ascending velocities: ppp, pp, p, (mp), mf, f, ff, fff
    and then fill the gaps...

    pp pianissimo very soft
    p piano Soft
    mp mezzo piano medium soft
    mf mezzo forte medium loud
    f forte Loud
    ff fortissimo very loud

    3) note range ( and velocity )

    basename_c1_g1.wav lower key is c1 and upper key is g1

    can be of course combined with velocity above, but note that automap anyway always try to fill the gaps.

    And it's better to always start with a fresh new layer without zones already lying around.

    When you are done you'll have an AUv3 instrument ready to use in any DAW. AudioLayer includes the same 7 Effects as their AudioEffx app ($7 on sale now).

    Good luck.

  • @McDtracy Thanks man. Three years and a pandemic later I have decided to go for Audiolayer.

    Best!!

  • wow those samples must sound awesome now 😉

  • edited June 2020

    @sonosaurus Dear Jesse! I came back to this project of building my own sampler with original sounds. Before I turn 50 I have to accomplish it!

    I tried Thumbjam and somehow the workflow its amazing, really quick with the automatic recording mode... but there are some issues which mess the whole thing, and make it difficult (I am using Thumbjam V2.6.3)

    First, when trying to edit a given note (after I recorded 36 samples), for instance if I press C# and edit it... Thumbjam is actually editing note D. This issue was difficult to discover and is really disturbing when you have many notes to edit.

    Second weird thing, when I load my new created instrument (which btw, took me five attemps to name, since Thumjam insisted in keeping the automatically assigned name) Thumbjam will detune randomly one or two notes, when I go to edit this detuned note, I can notice the "fine tune" control went crazy up or down. This happens randomly on and on. In fact, I didn't touch "fine tune" at all, but many notes have 9-, +14, -11 ...it seems to move by itself!

    My question is... The last Thumjam version are solving these issues?? I am running iOS 12.1.3 in all my idevices, since I can't update because other of my apps won't work. Does the new version of Thumbjam work in iOS 12??

    Thanks a lot! It doesn't stop to amaze me the endless possibilities of Thumbjam, it's becoming part of my daily life!

  • @ecce_cello said:
    @sonosaurus Dear Jesse! I came back to this project of building my own sampler with original sounds. Before I turn 50 I have to accomplish it!

    I tried Thumbjam and somehow the workflow its amazing, really quick with the automatic recording mode... but there are some issues which mess the whole thing, and make it difficult (I am using Thumbjam V2.6.3)

    First, when trying to edit a given note (after I recorded 36 samples), for instance if I press C# and edit it... Thumbjam is actually editing note D. This issue was difficult to discover and is really disturbing when you have many notes to edit.

    Second weird thing, when I load my new created instrument (which btw, took me five attemps to name, since Thumjam insisted in keeping the automatically assigned name) Thumbjam will detune randomly one or two notes, when I go to edit this detuned note, I can notice the "fine tune" control went crazy up or down. This happens randomly on and on. In fact, I didn't touch "fine tune" at all, but many notes have 9-, +14, -11 ...it seems to move by itself!

    My question is... The last Thumjam version are solving these issues?? I am running iOS 12.1.3 in all my idevices, since I can't update because other of my apps won't work. Does the new version of Thumbjam work in iOS 12??

    Thanks a lot! It doesn't stop to amaze me the endless possibilities of Thumbjam, it's becoming part of my daily life!

    I'll have to see if those bugs are still there, thanks for reporting them! The latest TJ still runs on iOS 8, so no problems if you update.

  • edited June 2020

    @sonosaurus said:
    The latest TJ still runs on iOS 8, so no problems if you update.

    That alone would be a reason for me to buy it again 😊

  • Thanks !!
    Keep on digging into to the Thumbjam possibilities.

  • @ecce_cello said:
    Thanks !!
    Keep on digging into to the Thumbjam possibilities.

    Regarding the fine tune, if you are using the record feature to create the samples, it analyzes the pitch of the recordings to both identify the note and fine tuning offset. So it isn’t random, it’s the material! But it may not come up with the best single answer either, depending on the content.

  • I’m not familiar with exs format... How good is the exs24 sound compared to SoundFonts SF2 sound? Are they pretty equal or does one have a better sound?

  • edited June 2020

    @Poppadocrock said:
    I’m not familiar with exs format... How good is the exs24 sound compared to SoundFonts SF2 sound? Are they pretty equal or does one have a better sound?

    Nope. The sound is in the playback engine, not in the format.
    Decades ago, sound fonts were often created by inexperienced amateurs for use in their SoundBlaster PC sound cards, while EXS sample programs were more often built by experienced musicians, hence the wide-spread notion that the SF2 format would be generally worse.

  • Huh. That’s some great info @rs2000 Thanks.

  • @Poppadocrock said:
    Huh. That’s some great info @rs2000 Thanks.

    You're welcome! 😊

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