Serato Sample/Studio kind of does this.
It won’t do it from a folder of sample, but it will from 1 piece of audio
I had an experiment, and I did manage to make digichain load all the samples in a folder hierarchy (a mere 654 in my case) but you’re right in that it’s then hard to make a chain from a subset of those.
However, so far the developer of digichain has been very open to suggestions … can’t hurt to ask ?
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Close your eyes, select samples randomly…
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Generating files names in random order is dead easy if you’re on a system that has access to the standard Unix command line tools (MacOS, WSL for Windows, Linux):
ls -1 | sort -R > randomized_file_names.txt
However, I don’t make sample chains so I have no idea if your downstream tools can take a text file as input…
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With all samples selected, you can then click Shift+‘Reset sort order’ button, this randomly sorts the selected samples.
Then Shift+click on one of the numbered buttons to set a chain length (the Shift-click changes the chain length but keeps all samples selected).
Create the chains and they will be randomly ordered.
If this is for the DT, you may want to use the Truncate all selected samples action to crop them all to a set max length (3seconds is the default, but shift+click on that button gives the prompt to set your own max-length).
I could probably add a way to import x number of random files from a folder too actually, as the lift is on processing the files to render to the list, I can filter them prior to importing as audio.
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So, I really liked this idea - and decided to implement it this morning.
Take a look at DigiChain Latest to give it a go.
Make sure you have selected a chain size before importing, then, hold down the Shift key while dropping the samples in.
Here’s a quick demo of it loading 64 randomly selected samples from a drop of 28,424 audio files.
And if you are exporting for use on the OT, make sure to set the audio context to 44.1/24 (or 16) before importing any files, and have .ot metafile creation turned on in the Settings, then you would use the regular ‘Chain’ download button instead of the ‘Spaced Chain’ button.
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Thank you. I am indeed using an OT and I’m probably just dreaming of a perfect world, but, with digichain, can the slice start points I created in the OT remain with the slice as a start point? In other words, I pray to not have to peruse through the whole newly created chain and set new start points for each slice. Thank you all for your advice and looking into this topic. You’re saving me much time.
Do you mean to load in existing sample chains?
If so, that’s fine, but they will be appear in the list as a single file, provided you also load in the .ot file for that chain, then you can click the slice icon and slice those chains out.
I guess from there, to randomize them you’d either save the slices out to individual files, or use the ‘shift+reset sort order’ button to randomize the selected items in the list (after first removing the chained file you took the slices from).
Hope that makes sense!
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I know XLN Audio XO does something like this, might be what your looking for.
I use XO a lot for making 8-hit drum kits, I dont think it’s capable of gathering 64 random samples and joining them into a sample chain though?
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Tbh I’m not sure if it can either, haven’t used it in a while myself but I used to make random melodic kits with it and would slice the audio after. I know the random sample selection is on point.
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XO doesn’t do this. Atlas does though
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Yes, Brian3kb, over several monthsI really focused on one-shot samples and zeroed-in on their start times for perfect slices. I hope to take at least 50 sliced-up samples en masse, each containing up to 64 slices of one-shots, and extract new random 64-slice samples.
Do the slices need to be extracted first from the sample or can I just submit the 50 or more samples into digichain? Again, this is for the octatrack.
When you load existing sample chains in, those will appear as a single file initially. You would then need to slice each one with the slice tool (which adds the slices as their own item it the list) - as you are coming from OT, if you also drop in the .ot file that contains the slice information, that will be used to extract them with the accurate start/end points.
In the slice tool you will see the OT slices option to click to extract them.
Thank you. Sometimes I need a good reiteration. Perhaps one last question: Will the total slice count dwindle down as I extract a random 64 slices from it at each go? Or will it remain at the same quantity? Thank you
The total slice count is everything in the list that is selected, if you have more selected than the chain length chosen, you will get multiple files generated.
E.g. if you have 256 files in the list selected and you are making chains of 64 samples, you will get a zip file out containing 4 sample chain files (plus a .ot file for each if in 44.1/16 or 44.1/24 stereo and the .ot metafile creation setting set to on in the settings panel).
Wow and wow, and now I’ve got some work to do on the laptop. Hey, wait, did you say I inspired you to implement this feature? I must know. That would really make my day. Either way, I love this forum and the people here. Thanks again
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The ‘randomly select x files from the dropped files feature’ is the one you inspired me to add 
- I’ve just pushed out v1.4.2 that includes this to the main url - look to the DigiChain text in the bottom right to confirm the version reads 1.4.2 (or latest).
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You are cool.
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Ok, I finally got around to using digichain to randomize my existing OT chains. After successfully slicing them, I ended up with 3200 slices and successfully randomized their order. When attempting to make chains of these slices, my laptop (or file-scanning software) claims there is a potential virus with the files and won’t make the chain for me. I’ve tried several varied iterations to get it to work with different settings. Any advice out there. My samples files never had any virus before.