Cheap way to multi-sample other synths onto the iPad

rjh29

I'm selling my hardware synths but there a few patches I really love. What's the best way to sample them (either on iPad ideally or PC) and play them back? Ideally I want a sampler that will take notes at multiple octaves, with multiple velocity layers, and mix between them intelligently.

Also interested if anyone has made soundfonts instead, since those are in theory more portable and play on any device.

BiancaNeve

You could try

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/synthjacker/id1445018791

Or there’s an auto sampler in MainStage on Mac

Tones4Christ

Audiolayer is my main workhorse for this. I haven’t purchased Chameleon Sampler but i hear good things about it too.

I sampled my Korg Trinity V3 because it has so many beautiful pads!

wim

AudioLayer is the most powerful if you want to do it on iOS/iPadOS. Its auto sampler is very configurable and it does a pretty good job of organizing the samples into sampler zones.

Making good sampled instruments is a bit of a tricky art though. There are several threads on the topic if you can find them with the limited search ability of the forum.

I've created a good number of sfz instruments. It can be tedious to assemble them. It's easier with a good text editor on a Mac or PC. The samples that AudioLayer produces could be used in an sfz instrument though once you write the sfz text file.

wim

There's also 4pockets Chameleon. I think it has a 4 layer per note limit though.

Drrabbitfoot

C notes into Koala

EdZAB

Just providing information based on my experience with this general scenario of importing from sources for a couple of apps:

Synthjacker worked great in the past and has an auto sample feature, but hasn’t worked reliably for me for a long time.

Chameleon has an auto sampling feature and it works great but the samples cannot be exported.

Audiolayer is the best tool that I know of currently. Autosampling works well, but it took me a while to understand it.

If you can get your samples into files, I’m a fan of Soundbox and using it to create my own kits. It costs a bit and does not have autosampling, but I use it for lots of other things.

Slightly afield, there is DigiStix 2 which can do autosampling for drums and can multilayer per pad, up to 5.

Squishy

@Drrabbitfoot said:
C notes into Koala

Ok, I sampled into Koala at C. Now what do? Playing it melodically changes the speed and timestretch only works for editing the pad.

jwmmakerofmusic

When sampling anything, I just usually use AUM. You can get input from any source, and you can record directly into AudioShare in a dedicated project folder. Audioshare also lets you easily normalise your recorded oneshots. And if there's a noise floor when recording from hardware, you can also use Brusfri to sample the noise floor and eliminate it before recording your oneshot.

And as @Drrabbitfoot said, sample using C. I recommend recording C in multiple octaves. After doing that, you can import your oneshots into any app you choose such as AudioLayer. It's a lot more work/steps than simply recording directly into AudioLayer, but you'll have clean samples which can then be normalised and named in AudioLayer. Hope this helps you @rjh29 and @Squishy . 🤞Fingers crossed.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, use a limiter just in case the volume decides to spike above 0dB. Although it's better to avoid running the signal in too hot.

Squishy

@jwmmakerofmusic said:
When sampling anything, I just usually use AUM. You can get input from any source, and you can record directly into AudioShare in a dedicated project folder. Audioshare also lets you easily normalise your recorded oneshots. And if there's a noise floor when recording from hardware, you can also use Brusfri to sample the noise floor and eliminate it before recording your oneshot.

And as @Drrabbitfoot said, sample using C. I recommend recording C in multiple octaves. After doing that, you can import your oneshots into any app you choose such as AudioLayer. It's a lot more work/steps than simply recording directly into AudioLayer, but you'll have clean samples which can then be normalised and named in AudioLayer. Hope this helps you @rjh29 and @Squishy . 🤞Fingers crossed.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, use a limiter just in case the volume decides to spike above 0dB. Although it's better to avoid running the signal in too hot.

Ahhhhh, so koala is for sampling and then transfer the sample to another app for playing? Gotcha! I don’t have Audiolayer but I’ll dig through my “box of apps” and see what would work. Thanks duder! 🤙

Squishy

@jwmmakerofmusic specifically cause he seems to be the fruity loops aficionado round here:
I remember watching a tips video from Doug that showed how to make your own instruments within FLSM. Pretty sure he sampled a single note from a Soundfont or something into the Built in sampler (jw? Fw?) which basically created an entire new playable instrument. So my question: do the higher and lower pitched notes of the instrument get sped up and slowed down like in Koala? If not, might be another reason for me to hop on the Fruity Loop train with ya haha

jwmmakerofmusic

@Squishy said:
@jwmmakerofmusic specifically cause he seems to be the fruity loops aficionado round here:
I remember watching a tips video from Doug that showed how to make your own instruments within FLSM. Pretty sure he sampled a single note from a Soundfont or something into the Built in sampler (jw? Fw?) which basically created an entire new playable instrument. So my question: do the higher and lower pitched notes of the instrument get sped up and slowed down like in Koala? If not, might be another reason for me to hop on the Fruity Loop train with ya haha

Yeah, in DW Sampler and in Koala, the sample is sped up/slowed down depending on notes played. But, then again I've made full tracks in both with no issues to sound quality. ❤️ When you create your own oneshots, make sure you record them long enough. 😎 If not, I wonder if Beatmaker 3 will still work. If I recall, its sampler has the time-stretching of samples in its extremely deep sampler.

Squishy

@jwmmakerofmusic said:

@Squishy said:
@jwmmakerofmusic specifically cause he seems to be the fruity loops aficionado round here:
I remember watching a tips video from Doug that showed how to make your own instruments within FLSM. Pretty sure he sampled a single note from a Soundfont or something into the Built in sampler (jw? Fw?) which basically created an entire new playable instrument. So my question: do the higher and lower pitched notes of the instrument get sped up and slowed down like in Koala? If not, might be another reason for me to hop on the Fruity Loop train with ya haha

Yeah, in DW Sampler and in Koala, the sample is sped up/slowed down depending on notes played. But, then again I've made full tracks in both with no issues to sound quality. ❤️ When you create your own oneshots, make sure you record them long enough. 😎 If not, I wonder if Beatmaker 3 will still work. If I recall, its sampler has the time-stretching of samples in its extremely deep sampler.

Ah bummer… thank ya kindly for the info tho!

pedro

I think OP wants to sample multiple velocity layers, so sample in C isn’t gonna cut it. At the very least sample C and F# so you have 2 notes splitting the octave. But an automated tool is the best, you’ll never make it as precise manually if you want a playable soundfont that sounds remotely like the the original.
This is actually a job that a specialized AI tool could excel at. The boring part of creating the sample bank, not the joyful part of playing with it

jwmmakerofmusic

@Squishy said:

@jwmmakerofmusic said:

@Squishy said:
@jwmmakerofmusic specifically cause he seems to be the fruity loops aficionado round here:
I remember watching a tips video from Doug that showed how to make your own instruments within FLSM. Pretty sure he sampled a single note from a Soundfont or something into the Built in sampler (jw? Fw?) which basically created an entire new playable instrument. So my question: do the higher and lower pitched notes of the instrument get sped up and slowed down like in Koala? If not, might be another reason for me to hop on the Fruity Loop train with ya haha

Yeah, in DW Sampler and in Koala, the sample is sped up/slowed down depending on notes played. But, then again I've made full tracks in both with no issues to sound quality. ❤️ When you create your own oneshots, make sure you record them long enough. 😎 If not, I wonder if Beatmaker 3 will still work. If I recall, its sampler has the time-stretching of samples in its extremely deep sampler.

Ah bummer… thank ya kindly for the info tho!

Of course, mate.

cyberheater

@BiancaNeve said:
You could try

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/synthjacker/id1445018791

I forgot I owned it.

cccampy

@Squishy said:

@Drrabbitfoot said:
C notes into Koala

Ok, I sampled into Koala at C. Now what do? Playing it melodically changes the speed and timestretch only works for editing the pad.

FYI If you click the red bar above the sample in timestretch mode (to select the length of the stretch), you can choose RETRO, BEATS, or CYCLIC and those will work melodically without changing the speed. There are artifacts, so it’s not a perfect solution, but depending on your sounds it could work and does retain the sample speed (relative to the length of the stretch).

Also cyclic is very fun to mess with, so if you didn’t know about the other time stretch options, enjoy!

Squishy

@cccampy said:

@Squishy said:

@Drrabbitfoot said:
C notes into Koala

Ok, I sampled into Koala at C. Now what do? Playing it melodically changes the speed and timestretch only works for editing the pad.

FYI If you click the red bar above the sample in timestretch mode (to select the length of the stretch), you can choose RETRO, BEATS, or CYCLIC and those will work melodically without changing the speed. There are artifacts, so it’s not a perfect solution, but depending on your sounds it could work and does retain the sample speed.

Also cyclic is very fun to mess with, so if you didn’t know about the other time stretch options, enjoy!

Dude, thank you! I’ll give that a whirl for sure

Edit: this is a gamechanger, works great (sometimes artifacts can be a good thing) @cccampy thanks again! 🤙

jjap

If chameleon by 4pockets had sf2 export it would be the straightforward choice, no? Maybe Paul can be convinced. Who's got him on speed dial?