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Sampling drums from different apps - Best practices, tips and tricks, and questions
Are there best practices for getting good samples from apps as the sound source? For example, if I had an app with a Drumkit I like that’s not in wav format and no way to extract the sound from files I would think to run the sounds through Koala and get snippets that I want. I sample a few of the classic drum machines from Cubasis this way - I set up a MIDI track to play each MIDI note, recorded the audio into Koala, and chopped it to get a sample of each sound.
Is there any quality loss using this method? Are there better ways to go about?
For context, I want to start utilizing OneShot and FAC Drumkit with samples more.
Comments
Punching them direct into a sampler like koala is a classic and simple way to get the job done. Shouldn’t degrade quality at all as far as I know?
I am pretty hands-on with this kind of stuff and hate organizing files to import them into my samplers… I usually find that playing the drum sample direct into the sampler for each one takes just as long and isn’t quite as frustrating to me. I do this a lot when building kits on my hardware Roland sp404 and TE by playing drums from korg gadget or other music apps on my iPad or iPhone. Any volume leveling or processing to finesse the sounds to get the kit sounding just right can usually all be done on the sampler itself after you’ve put together the kit you wanna work with
I’m no expert by any means but it’s a workflow that gets the job done for my purposes🙂 cheers
Oh yeah one more thing, if you are in fact sampling a bar of beats to one pad instead of each drum sound separately, the only other advice is to make sure the tempo is set to match before you hit record. You would need to have it sync’d via midi to make sure the timing of the bar is accurate. That can be a little tricky to get the right timing synced up depending on the apps you’re using, but it’s usually not too hard to trim or nudge the sample if it’s a little off
The auto sampler in Chameleon works great for the drum tracks in say the audio kit apps.
Like the SNES drums- the auto sample will serve those up nicely and you can then simply export and then import into your drum sampler.
What drum sampler are you using?
As far as I know, Chameleon can't export samples, unless that's changed?
I’m using Koala for collecting samples. You load it as an auv3 to get any host sounds or instrument plugins. Then export the chopped and clipped audio as individual samples.
I’m new to OneShot and FAC Drumkit but that’s the goal to load them into. I’m sure it’s not too hard to build kits in those, right?
I have a few other samplers. Here’s what I have according to Aube 2.
And here’s my drum samplers:
Koala is king for this. I love just getting a pad on record, whanging away on some drum sounds, and then using the auto chop to cut it up. Plus you’ve got a super quick eq per sample, and the export is great. No downside.
What do you expect to do with those samples in OneShot that you can’t do in Koala?
OneShot is actually a bit annoying for building kits. I love it and the included kits are amazing. But it’s finicky and it also isn’t designed for iOS at all. See the OneShot thread on the forums here for details.
If you don’t need OneShot’s features, keeping the kits in Koala is a great option. I do really like the modulation in OS, the fx are good, the choking is more capable than Koala, and of course you have round robin. But yeah, making kits is a bit of a hassle IMO.
I don’t know what it is but the feel of the kits and the playability in OS clocks better than Koala. Could have to do with the features mentioned by @timfromtheborder particularly choke groups. I’m not sold on it though, but looking into how much I actually get out of it.
Well, the thing is, if you're not using layered samples, practically the only other thing OneShot brings to the table is its per-hit FX. Koala has choke groups. They're not as nuanced as with OneShot but they do the basic job. OneShot's FX can be real CPU heavy. In Koala you have performance pads and a sequencer. You don't have that with OneShot.
Just sayin'.
FAC Drumkit can be great at enhancing samples in lots of ways, but again, if you're just going to be playing back the samples as-is, it brings little to the table that you can't do with Koala.
Layering sounds is a big reason I’m looking into both.
How you gonna sample layered sounds in Koala? It's only one sample per pad. It's not a very good tool for getting multi-sampled drums (each sound sampled at various velocities).
Well, that is not quite right. I would say the Trigger/Slot separation in OS is a notable feature. One sample can be set up with multiple triggers, with variations in parameters, humanization strength, etc.
Tbh I’m pretty new to a lot of the terminology and concepts being discussed. I’ve wanted to look into how layering, choke groups, triggers, etc. tie together and work in concept and implementation. Seems Koala can do a lot in terms of raw capture and edits, but I’m trying to dig more into the sound design behind drum samples.
Velocity Layering: For instruments that sound different when played at different velocities as opposed to just having lower or higher volume, it's more realistic to record samples at different velocities, then select which sample to play based on the velocity of the note. So, you'd record a drum hit softly and harder and harder to collect a set of samples. These are then assembled in the playback app to play at various MIDI note velocities. Since it's unlikely you'd ever want to sample 128 different velocities available from a MIDI note, the samples are picked from a range of velocities (Example: 1-32, 33-64, 65-96, 97-127). These are often called "zones" or "velocity layers" and there is usually a little bit of cross-fade between them.
Velocity layering is irrelevant if what you're sampling doesn't vary in sound character at different velocities. If the only difference is volume then there's no need for more than one sample.
Pitch Stretching: This isn't usually relevant for drums, but is important regarding sampling. If you record something like a piano, you may not want to record each and every note at several velocities. So often notes are skipped and the sampler pitch shifts the notes to fill in the gaps.
Sorry if that's TMI. 😬
The reason I've brought up all those questions earlier is if all you're doing is sampling a simple drum kit that only has one velocity layer, you don't need a sampler that can play back multiple velocity layers. Koala can handle it. If you want to sample a deep drum kit that has samples at multiple velocities, Koala isn't going to be a great sampler for that. You could do it, but it would be kind of complicated. You'd be better off sampling from Digistix 2, Chameleon or AudioLayer, which have auto-samplers to make the work easier.
@FizzyLizzy27
You got some great apps man. I love Bilboa... can I offer you another IPad drum sampler in beta form? It's Tahiti and is kinda like a stripped down version of Playbeat 3 (imo) without the samples. It's not gonna do anything your others can't, but it's a great lil drum sampler.
https://testflight.apple.com/join/XjMpwXWh
I like using Koala, but prefer OCTACHRON and drum samplers so I can layer, layer, layer which Koala cannot do.
I still like Koala, I rarely use it for drum samples though.
Not TMI at all - you saved me a lot of initial googling. Think you could explain round robin sampling? What exactly would an auto-sampler do? Sample at multiple velocities for a single note?
Something I notice and really like from the OneShot Cajon kit is how one note seems to carry two tones. If I hit the same bass note it alternates between two different thuds.
I’ll take a look at Tahiti - I’m pretty open to beta testing. Agreed on Octachron being great - it seems so obvious and straightforward of a sequencer but nothing else does it as elegantly. I’m starting to get into Patterning 3 as my second favorite.
Round robin relates to sample playback, not sampling. Let's say you have multiple hits of a drum that each sound a little bit (or a lot) different. Each would get played back in order until the last one, then the order would start over again.
Random robin is similar except that the samples are selected at random.
Auto samplers vary a little in how they work but generally they deal with more than one note at a time. If you were sampling something like a piano, they'd run through several notes up a scale range at multiple velocities. For drums that's not always what you'd want to do since the notes don't necessarily follow a scale. I haven't tried DigiStix 2's auto sampler. It may go one note at a time.
That sounds like round robin with two samples.
Anyone know one way or the other on this? Seems silly to have a sampler that can’t export samples.
I asked ChatGPT about any concepts related to sampling we haven’t touched on and it gave me this list:
Got it — here’s a condensed list of the extra concepts the thread didn’t fully cover, written in the same quick-definition style:
• Normalization / Gain staging – adjusting sample volume so all hits sit at a consistent level.
• Noise floor – background hiss or unwanted sound picked up during resampling; minimized with clean routing.
• Phase alignment – ensuring layered sounds line up so they add punch instead of canceling each other out.
• Transient integrity – keeping the sharp attack of a hit intact when trimming or layering.
• Tuning – adjusting pitch so drums fit the key or sit better in the mix.
• Humanization – adding small random variations in timing, pitch, or start point for a natural feel.
• File organization – naming/tagging samples so kits are easier to build and manage.
• Loop sampling – capturing whole bars or grooves, which may need tempo syncing or stretching.
• Creative resampling – re-recording sounds through effects, distortion, or re-amping for unique texture.
Here’s a few concepts discussed boiled down:
Sound design concepts explained
• Velocity layers – multiple samples per note at different strengths for realism.
• Round robin – alternating between samples to avoid the “machine gun” effect.
• Choke groups – controlling overlapping sounds (e.g. hi-hats).
• Triggers – mapping one or more notes to specific sounds for flexibility.
Which is why I stopped using it. Using Sitala for triggering percussion samples now. Which CAN export samples.
Anyone please enlighten me if I'm mistaken, if Chameleon has been updated to allow exporting.
Anyone still using SynthJacker?
I prefer Drambo's sampler. It samples just as long as I hold the key, maps samples automatically and after sampling, I have a bunch of wave files to be used anywhere outside Drambo as well. Great for sampling drums etc.
When I need multiple velocities, I have one Sampler module for every velocity layer but I might also sample different velocities into the same patch so I can play it from a cheap MIDI pad controller without pad velocity.
All
My apologies, I straight up lied about chameleon exporting that SNES drum preset. I'm not sure what I used to extract the oneshots, but Chamelon was definitely not it. My bad.
🤦
Like I said, ya don’t know what ya don’t know. I thought it spit out a decently condensed summary of definitions and a few relevant topics compared to googling “drum sampling topics not covered in niche thread”.
In fact, a Google search these days is essentially an AI prompt - the results at the top of a “drum sampling techniques” google search gives a very similar AI summary at the top.
I’ve collected a good bit of samples I like from sources like Cubasis Classic Drum Machines, a few songs, sample packs, etc. I’m thinking of putting a kit together in AudioLayer, OneShot and/or DrumPerfect Pro. Any advice going into it?
So far I’ve collected my favorite samples into a catch all kit directory with sub directories for kick, snare, toms, and hats. Now I figure I’ll go into AudioLayer, zone out keys for each part of the kit, and later the sounds I want accordingly.
Are you going to be using multi-velocity layered samples? Do you want to be able to do a bunch of advanced tweaking of envelopes, etc? If not, AudioLayer is a poor tool for this if you ask me. The interface for setting up zones sucks. It's clumsy and very awkward for selecting things, moving them around, etc.
Seriously, unless you're using multiple velocity samples, you are so much better off with something simple like Koala.