Quick n Dirty Samples in DP

[remainanon]

Hi Guys -

Here's a little creative procedure that one of my clients uses and I'd like to facilitate it for him.

Basically we have a bunch of short bits of music or audio, combinations and mixes of various bits and components of previous and current projects.

They live on a drive on his DP5 computer.

We like to audition and experiment with large numbers of sounds like this - also samples that are created on the fly while we're recording performances.

The thing is, the most intuitive way for us to work with them is to audition them as audio tracks, either in Performer or somewhere else. Seeing the waveform, as well as being able to start and stop anywhere in the sample on the fly, are essential.

Once we've picked something to use, we have a choice. If the pitch is right, or not particularly relevant we can just import the audio to our session.

But if we want to wrangle more with the sound, either by tuning or any number of things, it's more effective to have the sound mapped, however simply, in a sampler.

The obvious thing would be to use Nanosampler. Once a sound is imported to Nano we love working with it.

The problem is we haven't been able to drag SDII files into it. We get white noise - the sampler thinks they're WAV's and it's no good. This is true on all 3 of our systems - sounds that play on the timeline in DP will not load directly to Nanosampler. Very disappointing.

I mean, if there was a way to audition AIF's in DP we'd be fine. But no - all files on the timeline of DP have to be SDII. Dead end.

OK so my basic questions for the group are:

1. Is there a sampler plugin that allows a super-simple drag-and-drop of audio from the Finder so we can map a recording on a keyboard?

2. Should we consider auditioning the sounds in, say, Peak (which, amazingly, plays all kinds of formats)?

I'm very grateful for any suggestions you might have.

Thanks
JW

PS Despite my sig, I'm talking about my client's system which is Dual 3g G5, DP5.11. 5.12 will not work on his system for some reason...

[MIDI Life Crisis]

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/18935

[remainanon]

Cool - I'll look at it. Meanwhile laziness dictates I ask the following:

You can audition the sounds on a timeline with waveforms and easy cueing?

JW

[blue]

Yea, click the link above. AudioFinder is a great tool for this kind of thing. I use it all the time.

EDIT: Yea, you can see the waveform and start playback anywhere within.

[remainanon]

LOL you guys are too fast - no sooner had I posted... the page loaded and my answer was there.

In about 10 seconds. Which is too slow for you guys.

Thanks so much! Looks very promising.

Man. Rockin' forum.

JW

[MIDI Life Crisis]

You even get a keyboard to hear the pitches at different rates and processing. $70 is a little steep for a shareware program, but this one is well worth it if you search sounds from disks.

ps- Sorry for the delay in responding. Don't tell James please! He'll think we're working or something...

[remainanon]

NP Mike - your secret is safe with me...

So, about a sampler... I guess the thing is to keep all this library stuff in AIF form and use Nano. I really like the Akai-like interface and the sound of the filters. Very useful for the things we are doing. But it has to be AIF.

Do you know of any alternatives for plug-in samplers that can accept a dragged sound?

JW

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Do you know of any alternatives for plug-in samplers that can accept a dragged sound?

JW

http://www.motu.com/products/software/machfive/

Best I know of, but some will refer you to Kontact (however they spell it) and Plug Sound Pro, which I also have and like. But MachFive is my sampler of choice.

[remainanon]

Sorry if I seem obtuse, but can you really just drag, say, an AIF into MachFive? I thought it would only play its own format... I mean after conversion etc etc but we have sooooo much material as raw audio...

Thanks
JW

PS AudioFinder might be the ticket - it might work to convert everything we have to stereo AIF and use AF, then drag the selections to nano. Then, if we are using the audio in a track DP is forced to convert...

Still researching - many thanks guys

[carrythebanner]

Sorry if I seem obtuse, but can you really just drag, say, an AIF into MachFive? I thought it would only play its own format... I mean after conversion etc etc but we have sooooo much material as raw audio...

Yes, you can. You can drag an individual file or a group of Files from the Finder onto the keyboard in MachFive and play them back immediately -- no copying or conversion necessary.

[sdfalk]

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/18935

As a registered user of AF, may I recommend it whole heartedly.
It's also in beta in version 4.7 which adds pretty decent editing functionality
in the sample tool.
I'm using it now and it's very stable.
The developer always listens to suggestions, and often implements them.
It gets updated often.

[Dwetmaster]

+1 on Audiofinder.


Good Bang for the buck. Machfive is great also but it might be a bit overkill for what you want.

[remainanon]

Thanks guys - we have Mach Five, and Kontakt...

We'll try them and let you know... the main thing is not to have to futz with file formats too much. Or at all..

You've been a great help - I really appreciate it.

JW