I'm a hack and I'm sorry - single cycle waveforms

I ask this question knowing that the majority of you are utterly sick to death of this topic but I have to ask - I’ve looked at every bloody tutorial I can find, scoured google.
I listen to the tracks from the old site and just SCW (I. Refer to single cycle waveforms as SCW - it’s to tiring to write!)
And I can get nowhere near what some of these guys are able to pull off.
I have tried since I got the OT to use SCW as the basis for most of the stuff I’ve tried as I’m just so impressed with it used that way and if I master that incorporating the other aspects of the OT I think will just fall into place.
So for me and others can you please have at it with your tips?

nicking this from another thread. sums it up quite nicely:

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Could anyone suggest a good collection of single cycle waveforms to download?

I haven’t tried them myself, but these seem to be quite complete:

http://www.adventurekid.se/akrt/waveforms/

Thanks

I have those loaded in my OT and they’re really good!

Search the forum for Akwf scw tuned in C!!
Makes everything a lot easier

Copied from the sandbox section:

Massive update in the Sample PAckage…

Perfect for MnM, OT, and many others… It took me actually quite a long time as many folders had different number of files, now the collection os Sample Chains is a serieous one… Some of the chains contain less slices than the original folders from AFWF but I think is enough…

4400 WF tuned in C, more than 100 chains, plus a Noise Sample Chain I added that is incredibly fun!!

http://www.inspektorgadjet.com/item/waveforms-library/

Looking forward to see some stuff coming from this swiss army knife!!
Cheers!!

Tarekith offered his OT samples on his homepage. The pack included SCWs. I’m not sure if he still does, but its worth checking.

For starters i also recommend switching timestretch to “off” in each SCWs sample setting. The OTs bpm detection never gets SCWs right so timestretch will alter them every time you change your master tempo. (Can also be a feature)

Thanks everyone so far - the adventure kid appears to be one of the best and only collections of its kind? I asked a really experienced synthesist and his reply was general - you take a sample of noise and then set the loop points closely together - we’re talking a number of bytes here - you get a pretty bright waveform that is reminiscent of FM. Thing is, the sampler you’re using should be capable of two things: playing a sample chromatically over the keyboard, and being able to deal with small looped regions. On older HW samplers you get something that is probably the sample count - i.e. 1 second in mono means 44100 samples. Snap to zero crossing is not even necessary - not ending at zero simply means your waveform gets a bit more HF content.

If the OT can do this - deal with small loops and allow for chromatic playing - then you can construct a track of a single sample of noise, since every track on the OT can use a different portion to loop.

The best demonstrations of this technique are encountered in old Amiga MOD files (usually called “chiptunes” even though they’re not real chiptunes). It does require you to put more energy in the arrangement and melody, since your timbral options are going to be more limited.I was making a short loop of a 909 cymbal, set the loop points like that, and what I heard sounded suspiciously like the lead sound in the intro of 808 State’s “Cubik”. To me it seemed a reasonable way of recycling resources - the drums were already loaded up and if you only have a few kilobytes of space left reusing that is a pretty great trick. Still would like to know how they did the Cubik sound in case I am completely wrong about it. Anyway, it can save you lots of time if you want to get FM-ish without actually bothering with FM synthesis

Daisuk was kind enough to put together this set of single cycles for the MnM (which he announced in [url=“http://www.elektronauts.com/t/free-custom-digipro-wave-pack/4076”]this thread). I haven’t tried them in the OT yet but I assume they’d work in both.

If you own Renoise, they have some descent single cycle waveforms. I’ve used the adventure kids SSW in my machinedrum, they work quite well:) Just keep in mind, they are tuned to D1 (not C3).
L8r,
M.

thanks so much for reposting this! tried this and it makes living without a bass station 2 a lot more tolerable!!
the trick for me was going into project > midi > channels and setting tracks 1 and 2 to receive on midi ch 1 and turning auto ch off. now i can play both tracks from an external synth or via OT’s chromatic mode. just like a 2-osc monosynth.
now i’ll just program my novation sl49 mk2 to send the proper cc’s to control all machines from the midi keyboard. will feel more like i’m playing/programming a synth as well as properly fooking up some samples! don’t know about anyone else but this is a total game-changer for me.
thanks again!

the trick for me was going into project > midi > channels and setting tracks 1 and 2 to receive on midi ch 1 and turning auto ch off. now i can play both tracks from an external synth or via OT’s chromatic mode. just like a 2-osc monosynth.

Nice find! You should also setup the filter track to receive MIDI notes, to retrig the filter enveloppes…

I’m busy till the end of this month with live gigs planned but I’d try to make a tutorial video for this sometimes in May… with project template and samples… so that anyone can load it in their OT, like a free synth upgrade :smiley:

Still experimenting with singlewaves and samplechains as well… I plan to concatenate several single cycle waves into a samplechain… but each slice of the chain is the same waveform playing at different octaves, so by moving the start point of the chain you can adjust the octave of your oscillator, from C0 to C7… That should keep me busy for a few evenings… and will make you worship the Octatrack even more :stuck_out_tongue:


Thanks for all the tips guys. I was actually thinking of switching to MPC as found the OT beyond my needs, but now I’ve tried these single cycles definitely hanging on to it. It’s given my OT new life.

Thanks guys - keep them coming,
I know experienced guys have this down and it’s one of their secret weapons so it’s something to really explore. Th e more I investigate the more I’m interested. So let’s keep this conversation going.

Just sneaking into the end of this thread to point out that you can easily crop out single cycle waves from any source in the OT editor… You can even live-preview and scroll through the source looking for the tastiest cycle. Pair this up with Chromatic Trig mode and the immediacy is… Elektron. :imp:

So could someone who uses this go through and document their exact settings so we can set up some templates?
It’s funny that even on the pro tips elektron did they talk about what a powerful and useful technique and follow it with a 1:30 YouTube clip with no examples or tutorial to show how to do it on the OT. Weird. Hence this thread.

Hi Dogma,

It´s true that there is no much info, I have at the momment some visit at home but if you give me some days, I will prepare a document on my site with a video and tutorial using single cycle waveforms, I could also share a basic OT template if necesary.

It´s being on my list for a while, aswell as a full in depth “Matrix Slice” technique tutorial… but I´m extremely busy with… stuff… :slight_smile:

All the best!

Okay, here is how it’s done. Set up a Flex machine and load your single cycle WAV. Change the loop mode of the track from Auto to On. That,s really all there is to it. From here it’s all taste. Set the Amp they way you want it. Use Chromatic Trig mode to play the waveform like a keyboard.