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Multi velocity sample player app
So I have an electronic drum kit. Currently I connect to Logic Pro on my laptop to use external vsts and samples for sounds.
I’d like to just use my iPad. Is there an app that can handle multi velocity samples and map them to midi notes to be triggered by my edrum set?
Comments
There are many... with different attributes.
REALLY SIMPLE: "Koala Sampler" can play back samples from 16-64 pads... MIDI learn can associate the sample with a specific incoming note. The sample can be looped, one-shot, pitch shifted and modified with FX. Really basic use case. Whole sets of samples can be saved and recalled as projects. It can also be used to play additional music to play along with driven by a build in sequencer. You can record specific patterns too... any way. Easy learning curve, IMHO.
4 Pockets has a basic sampler app called Chameleon... limited to 15 samples max as a recall
but enough for a drum set mapping and $6.
@Virsyn AudioLayer has many. many layers and up to 88 notes possible... build in FX. If there are any SFZ or ESX-24 drum kits it can import them. Might need to move things about for your kit note mappings. Not cheap but it's capable of being a sample based keyboard workstation replacement.
Lot's of drum apps that lay back sample... FAC DrumKit... I'll let the forum propose more options.
Thanks. New to this sampling thing so I thought the multi velocity sample thing was not a common feature for basic samplers.
Ooops... Koala will enforce incoming velocity on a single sample. For multi-velocity which implies sample select based upon velocity "ranges" with potentially cross fading I'd look to AudioSampler for the most control. NanoStudio 2's Obsidian synth supports 3 layers and many have made "drum machine" like "intruments/layouts" for that DAW like app.
Still waiting for more drum focused types to weigh in.
If you are building your own instruments, AudioLayer, BeatMaker 3 and NanoStudio 2 and DrumPerfect Pro all have velocity layering. I believe that DigiStix 2 does also (though I don't have it and can't say for sure).
BeatHawk has velocity-layering, but you can't roll-your own velocity layered instruments.
AudioLayer and DigiStix 2 are AUv3. AudioLayer also has auto-sampling built-in.
This sounds promising. So to be more clear, I will probably download 3rd party multi velocity samples as wav files and want to import those. So for instance a hi hat sample may have 12 different files to map
I have bm3 and ns2. Are there any specific tutorials for those apps? Thanks.
I think you may find some searching here or on YouTube. I seem to recall that NS2 will automap things if you name them right.
Yeah. I will. Thanks
I think @TheAudioDabbler made the best NanoStudio 2 sample import video.
I recall he also made a good one for BeatMaker2's sampler. This one looks like it covers hi-hat velocity configs:
Thanks!!
BM3 (don't forget to enable disk streaming if the samples are large) , but
I just tried moving 5 samples from files app to a pad and it crashed , tried again and it worked , so make sure you save in every step
Also after assigning to layers and you want to edit each layer , even selecting the correct layer and see the waveform , the play button always triggers the first layer
@Antkn33 if you're using a sampler with limited amount of velocity layers (NS2: 3 layers, Drambo: 4 layers), you can always map more velocity layers to different keys and re-adjust levels to match the velocity response.
If you have a lot of velocity layers, I think Audiolayer could do the trick but I personally found it a real pain in the ... to create drum sets this way. But I guess there is sample auto detection, all you need to do is have a proper file naming and Audiolayer is supposed to automatically map everything (you could search the forum for this topic).
In my case, almost 2 years ago, I bought acoustic sample libraries from Drumdrops. These libraries sounds really good but are huge, for exemple, just for the kick, some can include up 30 velocities with up to 3 round robins which brings the total of sample to 90 samples for the kick only !
My initial plan was to use the provided ESX-24 files and import these into Audiolayer, but this didn't work as expected.
So I decided to go the hard way and learned how to write my own SFZ file. It might sound like an overkill, but I really don't regret my choice. I have total control on the mapping and it is a proper way to handle round robins as well. Once you get used to the language which doesn't take long, all you need is a good text editor.
Now I am running those SFZ files inside the sampler from Auria Pro and I can even blend different elements from different drum sets which gives me a lot of flexibility.
Have you tried your sfz with AudioLayer?
Not yet. My sample folders are sleeping inside the auria instrument folder. Is it possible to point Audiolayer towards these folder location or do I have to duplicate the folders? Each library being really big, duplicate is not really an option for me...
When you copy files in OS, the OS doesn't duplicate the data in most cases.
https://wiki.audiob.us/doku.php?id=file_storage
Thank you for the info. It is a bit confusing especially in the case is Audiolayer because when I copied files in it from other folders such as Audioshare folder and checked, it always seemed like there was an increased in disk storage in Audiolayer.
I might give it a try with smaller Drumdrops libraries I recent bought.
Are you interested in the SFZ files I created ? Is so, I could send those to you.
The thing you have to keep in mind is storage size for individual apps is misleading if you don't understand it. The only meaningful number is overall device storage. You can copy the same file to 10 apps. Each of the 10 will show an increase in storage, but device storage will be unchanged. This is because each app reports the storage even though all are pointing to the same physical file.
To understand whether more actual storage is being taken up only the overall device storage before and after tells you anything. In every test I've read and tried (and there have been several), even though reported storage for the individual app goes up, the overall storage doesn't.
@JanKun I didn't know it was that easy to make an SFZ file. I bought Drumdrops' Mapex Heavy Rock All Samples Kit recently, so I've been following this thread.
This link should be enough to teach me what I need to know for that.
https://sfzformat.com/tutorials/drum_basics
But if you happen to have the text file for a similar drum kit, I would be grateful if you could send that to me. Then maybe I could just find and replace (pack name) with Mapex.
Shreddage 1 is an SFZ, but I think it's too large for AudioLayer, or uses some articulation-switching feature that AudioLayer doesn't support. I tried to set it up, and I never figured it out. Didn't realize it was just a markup file. Maybe I'll try again.
Thank you for the clear explanation. It makes more sense now !
I used the same link to create my sfz files ! I'll PM you a link to my files. From there all you will have to do is the extensive use of the find and replace function in a text editor to adapt your sfz file according to the audio files names in your library.
It is not difficult but time consuming given that The Drumdrops libraries have many velocity layers and sometimes up to 3 round robin for each velocity.
Thanks for that sfz link, that was interesting. I’ve encountered this problem with lower sample volumes in many libraries… I find it confusing.
I have a Drumdrop drumkit and the lower velocity samples are lower in volume than the high ones. I mean, the actual amplitude in the sample, as in not normalized. This means that in Drambo, for example, you’d have to set the sampler to not follow key velocity for volume, or like the quote explains, the lower samples are “double quieter”. But with no velocity to volume tracking you’re stuck with say 3 volumes (as many as velocity layer samples). So to have more “expression” I believe I have to normalize all samples so that quiet and loud hits are the same volume and then enable volume key tracking in the sampler…. Any comments/tips on this?.
BTW no one mentioned Drambo!. Unbelievable 😜🤣. I prefer Drambo to Audiolayer. I can’t click with AudioLayer, don’t know why… Drambo Sampler “only” has 4 velocity layers. Another option is DigiStix 2 which has 5 velocity layers…
If you have some time to set it up I’d recommend Drambo using Flexi Sampler, not the standard sampler. That’d need you to make sample chains with all velocities for a piece chained in one file and trigger slices via velocity. You can make these sample chains with Sample Crate.
@tahiche see my post above 😉
Actually I do like the built-in Sampler somewhat, it's a bit fiddly but quite flexible and the sample import works if the file names are prepared for it. Just did a mini acoustic drum kit with different kits on different octaves so I can switch kits live by transposing the input MIDI.
I do the midi transposing too, except I have a sampler for snare, one for kicks and so on.
As you know, besides the 4 layers the Sampler can also take velocity slices. That means you could have a ton of velocity samples, take this example where im using a “HH soft” sample chain for lower vels, then a “HH mid”, etc… but there’s a silly, tiny issue that screws it all up. Velocity slice triggers are the wrong way around in the Sampler. Quiet slices on the right and louder on the left, makes no sense. I believe it’s a known issue. These slices would work well for round robin and different velocities, though, if set to random. But, man, it takes a long time to do all of this.
Thanks for the offer. If the drumdrop libs are copyrighted, I am not interested as I don't own them.
I was asking just in case you owned the libraries. SFZ files I mention are just text files that don't include any samples.
Cool. Appreciate the thought.
@tahiche Yeah, it does take time, no question. As for the slices it sure depends on your sample files, I have some with the loudest hits first so it would work without problems... Although I mostly have one sample per hit velocity anyway.
The sampler will get an overhaul sooner or later, it's just not high priority atm.
My mind would explode with sample chains with loudest hits first! 🤯
Besides, the FlexiSamper is the other way (correct) way around!. Drambo is impressive and enables you to do virtually anything, but it’s some “little things” that sort of complicate things. Things like an easier way do do choke groups, a basic audio editor (to change the gain of a portion, for example), or drag & drop samples. I understand these are MY issues, and given the mad amount of features they might not be a priority, but they’re big ones in using it as an advanced sampler.
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