What do I need to know about "samplers"?

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One aspect of home recording I've not really educated myself about is "samplers". There are numerous posts here that indicate it's an essential component of a DAW setup, but I'm unclear on whether this primarily refers to sample playback instruments (e.g., Kontact, Decent Sampler) or something more oriented to capturing and manipulating samples. I play guitar and keys, am comfortable with basic recording & mixing, know how to work with VST/VSTi plugins. I mostly work in instrumental classic rock / progressive rock styles. My attempts to search for "sampler 101" sorts of posts / articles /videos have mostly led me to posts about "how to sample from another track", which isn't something I see myself doing.

Bottom line: am I missing out on a tool that would prove really valuable to me? Thanks.
You can twist perceptions, reality won't budge.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampler_( ... nstrument)
Don't confuse Samplers with Romplers.
Samplers are used in cases when you have a sample and you want to manipulate it, then playback.
* For instrument: You have recorded a sample of a dog barking, and you want to turn it into an instrument. In a sampler you can crop the relevant section, apply an envelope, a filter, and turn it into a chromatically playable instrument. Basically it is like a synth, but instead of an oscillator it is your sample.
* For drums: there are plugins that designed to play drum kits and are based on a bunch of editable samples, it is kind of a sampler if you can edit each drum sample.
* For beats: You are into beats, and you want to capture a section of an old vinyl and turn it to a beat. Akai samplers are known for this type of workflow. You will be able to slice and dice this section and create an arrangement of slices, which turn to be a new piece of music.

Romplers are similar to sampler instruments, but do not allow a direct editing of the samples, they are meant for a direct use by a musician.

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What DAW do you use? (if it has a built-in sampler, then you're not "missing out")

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Sampling is playing back something which was recorded. Samples can be manipulated in many Many MANY ways.
DaveL60 wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2024 1:01 pm One aspect of home recording I've not really educated myself about is "samplers".
[...]
My attempts to search for "sampler 101" sorts of posts / articles /videos have mostly led me to posts about "how to sample from another track", which isn't something I see myself doing.
Try that, and you have educated yourself ;-)
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You only know if it's valuable to you by trying it out. Bottom line is that they're not essential for anything - you can make your music quite happily without a sampler. For others they're essential because sampling is just what they do.

I was around when samplers first came out, and they were incredibly useful those days, mostly because gear was very expensive. So it was a way of getting different drums without having to buy drum machines, you could sample vocals without hiring a singer, you could make chords out of mono synths by sampling different notes, you could record audio when DAWs didn't exist and sequencers were midi only or you were limited by heinously expensive reel to reel that only gave you 8 tracks and had to be physically tape-spliced. Nowadays it's both cheaper and easier to do so many of those things, technology has moved on. Samplers can be useful but tbh I can't remember the last time I used one. I can manipulate audio in my DAW, my DAW drums have every variety of drum and pattern I could want, VST plugins have unlimited polyphony, and even the hw I want to toy with is a fraction of the price. And if I want a proper sampler my DAW now has one.

If you've got the time and inclination, it might be worthwhile trying sampling. But tbh you're not missing anything. If you can make your music happily without one so far...carry on. But it might also open up new possibilities for you. :shrug:

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DaveL60 wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2024 1:01 pm Bottom line: am I missing out on a tool that would prove really valuable to me? Thanks.
there are few different ways to answer that question. A musical sample is one of the most common building blocks of modern production. Without samples the entire movement of bedroom production would be near impossible. It is not an exception that people make their tracks or entire albums using only samples. I fact, most of the musicians use now sampling one way or another: as simple drum breaks, entire sample libraries or big VST orchestras. However, I think it's absolutely fine if you don't feel the need for using samples or wan't to make samples yourself.

I personally like samples because sample manipulation can transform or "flip" an ordinary sound (simple guitar riff for example) to something unexpected. Not sure if it makes my music somehow better but it makes the process more interesting and enjoyable for me.

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DaveL60 wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2024 1:01 pm
... about is "samplers". There are numerous posts here that indicate it's an essential component of a DAW setup, but I'm unclear on whether this primarily refers to sample playback instruments (e.g., Kontact, Decent Sampler) or something more oriented to capturing and manipulating samples.
There are two kinds of samplers:

1. sampler which imitate real acoustic and non-acoustic
instruments.

2. sampler which process wav-files on a key-input.

=============================================
Type 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the original meaning of a "sampler".

In the sixties musicians tried to imitate strings with the
well known mellotron. The mellotron was the tape-based
predecessor of the sampler.

In the late eighties there was the very expensive fairchild-
sampler CMI. It was one of the first samplers used for
strings and other acoustic instruments.

In the production process of a song it became more and
more evident that you are more flexible if you can play
acoustic instruments - guitars, pianos, etc. - as a multi-
sample on a keyboard. But at first many of these
keyboard-instruments didn't sound good enough. Instead
you needed the original guitarplay or pianoplay. With the
time advancing the multisamples became more sophisticated,
and a conving guitarplay on a keyboard was possible.

The first affordable sampler was the 8-bit Mirage-sampler.
Several other samplers followed by Roland, Kurzweil,
Ensonique and Akai.

In the nineties the standard-sampler was the Akai-line,
namely Akai S900, Akai S1000, Akai S2000, 3000,
5000i, ...

These were "the standard", and many libraries on CD
emerged for the Akai-format.

Already in the late nineties in the amateur scenery the
soundfont-format (sf2) emerged with the appearance of
the first PC-soundcards from Terratec and others. Still
today there are many many sf2-files in the internet, which
are mostly free for everyone. And: Some of these small
sf2-files are still incredibly good.

After 2000 the software-sampler "Gigasampler" took over
the role of the standard. Now big sample-libraries were
released in the GIGA-format.

Several other software sampler entered the stage:
V-sampler, Halion (Steinberg), EXS (Emagic, Apple),
Kontakt (Native Instruments).

Today the paid-market-standard is Kontakt (NI). This
software-sampler is very versatile, can do scripting
and is delivered with a very big library. And there are
many many great libraries made for the Kontakt-format.

The "free" sample-format standard is "sfz" with several free
samplers, which are Sforzando, SF-player, Linuxsampler,
Zampler, BassMIDI, TX16w and Sfizz. The advantage of
sfz is: It is open and non-proprietary, and so everybody
can edit sfz-files by using a normal text-editor. And there
are also many libraries in the sfz-format.

=============================================
Type 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

In the nineties DJs and Remix-artist discovered the
sampler for the pure processing of audio files:
They should be sliced, stretched, modulated, filtered,
granulized, morphed etc.

Here the original name "sampler" is misused for mutilating
sounds, creating weirdness and soundscapes.

This kind of changing sound files can be done with
the standard sampler Halion, EXS or Kontakt, but it can also
be achieved with specialized software like Izotope Iris or
Xfer-records Serum.

=============================================

So that is the general overview. You must decide for yourself
what you need and what you can neglect. :)
free mp3s + info: andy-enroe.de songs + weird stuff: enroe.de

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enroe wrote: Thu Sep 05, 2024 7:36 am There are two kinds of samplers:

1. sampler which imitate real acoustic and non-acoustic
instruments.

2. sampler which process wav-files on a key-input.
...
So that is the general overview. You must decide for yourself
what you need and what you can neglect. :)
Thank you for taking the time to provide this excellent explanation and history. I can readily see where both types can be useful tools. Right now the first type could prove useful to me. At some point (post-retirement, I'm guessing) I might have enough time to play with the second type and see what kind of mischief I can get up to.

DaveL
You can twist perceptions, reality won't budge.
-- Rush Show Don't Tell

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some would say that FL studio *IS* a playback sampler ("WAV" sequencer), etc
I tend to agree. Even REAPER is kind of a sampler ("WAV" sequencer); check the internal properties of WAV items, for example.
Nevertheless, a good "groove box" might be a sampler too, and those might have decent auto quantization features, for example.
others explained the other parts.

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mjolnir wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2024 3:20 am some would say that FL studio *IS* a playback sampler ("WAV" sequencer), etc
I tend to agree. Even REAPER is kind of a sampler ...
Of course, you can also call your chair "a sampler" - in your own bubble, so to speak. :hihi:
Last edited by enroe on Mon Oct 14, 2024 7:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
free mp3s + info: andy-enroe.de songs + weird stuff: enroe.de

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seriously though, all jokes aside, if you study the mechanics of those DAWs I mentioned and how their sequencers work with WAV files, THEY ARE SAMPLERS even if you don't like how they look. FL Studio's step sequencer. Reaper has more than just ReaSamplomatic.

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Everyone has done a great job of explaining what samplers are. I’d like to explain a bit about the process.

I am one of those that finds samplers essential. If I could choose only one instrument type, I’d take a powerful sampler over a powerful synthesizer any day of the week. Samplers are the most flexible, and can sound like anything. They are especially useful for acoustic or real instruments. These days, samplers have been combined with subtractive synthesis, granular synthesis, etc, to essentially be synthesizers with multisamples as oscillators. They are so awesome!!

In the most simple sense, a sample is a recorded segment of sound. This sample can be anything—even a synthesizer. For the sake of this discussion, let’s say that we want to sample a trumpet. To record a trumpet accurately, you are going to want to record the trumpet playing each note. Each sample is part of a set. These sets are called multisamples. A multisampled set is an instrument, or instrument library.

A trumpet player with a good set of lungs can play and hold a note for a really long time. You can make a sample extend itself for a really long time as well through a process known as looping.

To embed loop points in a sample, you use an audio editor that supports setting loop points. You find the segment of the sampled sound that would contain the sustain part of the sound (think of the ADSR envelope’s sustain part). You then set the sample loop points for the segment of audio that you want to loop. You can also set a crossfade to smooth out the sample to reduce clicks and pops in the loop to make it sound seamless.

Once this is done for all of the samples in your multisample, you import the samples into a sampler and map them. Mapping essentially assigns the sample to a key, or a range of keys on your keyboard. This way, you can play the sample up and down the keyboard chromatically.

There are many capabilities of a good sampler that ease your instrument preparation. For example, you don’t gave to have a sample for every key on the keyboard—you could, for example, sample every minor third, and let the sampler’s algorithms pitch and stretch the sample to fit the missing blanks in a key mapping.

To better increase your samples instrument’s accuracy, you can sample the instrument played at different velocities. You can sample the same note multiple times for a single key—this is called round robins. Round robins are useful in making rapidly repeating notes not sound robotic—for example, avoiding a drum from sounding like a machine gun. You can also sample the various articulations of an instrument. These can be mutes, slides, hammer-ons, hammer-offs, etc, depending on what articulations an instrument uses. Each of these things add to the realism of a sampled instrument. Deeply sampled instrument libraries can have many of these elements and take up gigs and gigs of space.

I’ve left a lot out, but these are the core ideas behind the basics of instrument sampling. Hopefully this will help with understanding how all of it works together.

Best wishes! :)
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These days, I see it as more of a feature/function within other plugins or DAWs with only a few plugins being a "sampler" first and foremost.
Technically, since most process imported samples over doing it themselves, I'd say a "sampler" is whatever you use as your field recorder to export to those environments for processing.

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One thing I'm trying to develop is an ear for samples and how they can be chopped, I feel I cheat by messing around with auto-chopped samples too much

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Stanklydankly wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2024 2:03 pm One thing I'm trying to develop is an ear for samples and how they can be chopped, I feel I cheat by messing around with auto-chopped samples too much
Well, there's chopping and then there's truncating. Which may basically seem the same thing, except for their initial purpose and the result you're trying to achieve.
Also, there's a particular company that 'pre-compresses' the source as they sample, which improves the quality of the input going in, but also adds a "canned" and over processed color to it. Especially when truncating also. Most don't notice it as a "bad" thing, but once you hear it, you can't unhear it.

Like the difference between ham and spam...

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