I’m about to sell my nord electro (because I’m not really using it), and I want to make some samples from it to feed my digitakt/daw.
Do you have any good advice on sampling a keyboard?
For example:
All of the above and then more. You can’t go wrong with overdoing it. “Shoot for the edit”. Worst case scenario, you have extra samples that ended up being redundant.
Don’t look back. If you sell a gear, just don’t use the ghost of it. Go something new.
Do you sample other music in your process already? If so, sample the type of stuff you find yourself gravitating towards. Phrases, chords, one shots, textural stuff, whatever you like.
Multisampling a whole keyboard seems like quite an undertaking and there are probably libraries you could use for that purpose that aren’t terribly expensive, but would probably be an interesting project to learn from.
If you multi-sample a keyboard you are really going to need a sampler that can play multi-samples for it to be worthwhile. So bear in mind that the Digitakt can’t play multi-samples.
I thought the main reason was to avoid pitching samples up or down and therefore give you a more accurate representation of the instrument.
Yes multi-sampling an instrument is the way to go to get the most accurate representation of the instrument.
But then you will need a sampler or a sample player that can handle the multi-samples.
I’ve actually done this with a few synths, and I regularly steal sounds from my friends with different gear, here’s some thoughts…
My before statement of shooting for the edit is my main mantra, if I have too many variations of a synth patch it’s not a problem.
If the sound is somewhat stagnant or non bpm dependent I tend not to worry as much about octave range or grabbing exact notes/ note lengths, but these things are key if you want to accurately fake all your synth patches later in life via sampler or daw or whatever.
Usually dependent on the patch, trial and error finding the happy medium between sampling a single note v.s. sampling every note in every octave at several velocities/volumes per… the later can be a chore and is usually unnecessary IMO.
I find that most patches can be replicated pretty well later if I grab a c note in a few octaves, say C3-C7, then stretch those on a chromatic scale.
Sometimes you get something you’ll love from a single note though, pushing a a sampled synth patch too many octaves in either direction can yield fun results, especially in the low end, double especially if you sampled with a lower bitrate. That’s a different topic, I suppose.
If the patch is bpm dependent because of an lfo or delay or whatever, you’ll want to grab as many samples as possible and note the bpm in the file name.
(EDIT: I usually don’t worry about ADSR when sampling because I can fake it in my sampler or daw etc…)
If you just want to steal the sounds and soul of that synth… sample it a million times with a million variations.
If you’re using a Mac, Mainstage includes a fairly robust auto sampling plugin that I’ve used with decent success. Its only $30, too.
If you are sampling for the DT specifically a good thing to remember that when you load a sample chromatically the sample is plopped onto C3 and then pitches up and down from there. So if you aren’t trying to spend a lot of time multisampling just do the C key in a number of different octaves. This also allows you extend the octave range of what can be played chromatically using the DT.
Sample as one shots and then make a chain of them later to plock through on the DT.
I would sample every note for using in software samplers if the intent is to retain the sound of the instrument.
Depends what you want to do, I have Digitakt and sometimes use samples that contain multiple notes from the same synth, not sure why you think its incapable.
A “multi-sample”, as opposed to a “sample” is a zoned set (or key group) of samples. The zoning will be based on pitch and velocity and possibly even sample fading.
The actual individual sample, that will be played at any one time, is determined by the key/pad you press and how hard you press it.
Examples of hardware multi-samplers are Korg M3/Kronos and multi-sample players, which allow you to load your own multi-sample, Yamaha MOXF/MODX.
In software, Ableton Live’s Simpler does not do multi-samples but Live’s Sampler does allow you to create and play multi-samples.
Of course you can record many one shot samples of a synth and load them into the Digitakt but you will not be able to recreate a similar realism to actually playing the synth as you will always have to tell (program) the Digitakt which sample you want it to play.
If the idea is just to have some samples to feed the DT before u sell the Nord then no need for accurate multi sampling at different velocities etc… that’s a lot of work and you wont be able to use them in the DT anyway. Sample what u know u will use, if u wont use single notes then just sample some nice chords and pads, or whatever your needs might be. 
Thank you for all your advice…
Buuuut… the buyer is very interested and he’s picking up the keyboard before I expected. In fact, he’s driving to my house as I write this.
Sooo, I’m following the wise advice from @blaize: don’t look back.