Limited +Drive Space Workflow?

IronCobra · 2023-01-31T06:15:41.877Z

Hey everyone!

I’ve been slamming a bunch of ~7 second melodic .wav loops into my Rytm MKii, and realized it’s tearing through my +Drive storage space. Ideally, I’d love to have a wealth of different loops and one-shots to write as much of a complete song in the AR as possible.

However, with how much space these .wavs are taking up, I dont think I’ll even get close to that. Do y’all have a method or strategy to cram in samples while conserving space? Should I use .mp3’s instead of .wavs? I dont think I would feel comfortable using low quality samples, since I want to get as close to a complete production as possible in the box.

This is my first foray out of a DAW, so I feel like I may be missing something here.

Any thoughts on how to navigate this scenario would be amazing! Thanks a ton!

Zijnvolt · 2023-02-01T09:02:37.318Z

You can try converting them to mono. That saves space in both the ram and +drive.

I currently only have about 99mb left on my +drive, but I have 2K samples in there

IronCobra · 2023-02-03T03:47:11.306Z

Wow you’re right, for some reason I didn’t think of that! Thanks so much for the help!

scarfypedia · 2023-02-03T05:39:27.705Z

pitch them up an octave (or two if the sample doesn’t need much high end information) either before you import the samples or resampling internally, then pitch them back down on the RYTM.

the more you pitch it up the more you’ll experience some loss in high end, but it can also give the samples a rolled-off grit which I personally really enjoy

IronCobra · 2023-02-04T19:43:34.002Z

Good lookin out, man!

I will try that. I know that’s an old school way of doing things, but for some reason didnt think it would have much impact on the sound/space when thrown into a modern machine like the AR.

Zijnvolt · 2023-02-04T20:50:00.826Z

It’s a great way for saving space. I pitch up all my breaks in audacity before throwing them into Rytm. Tiny files, lots of fun

IronCobra · 2023-02-04T21:05:18.647Z

That’s so dope! Thanks for letting me know.

Do you personally think the samples sound better/worse/different in any way when you do that? Very curious.

Zijnvolt · 2023-02-04T21:12:49.988Z

Not really, I use it for jungle so it’s playing fast anyway and layered too

theobserver · 2023-02-04T21:18:13.730Z

a quick way to see what you are losing is a quick phase inversion test between the original and the sample thats been repitched. for example in ableton you would start with a sample you want to check, then duplicate it and pitch it up (make sure its not warping so it stretches the sample), then freeze/flatten that, then pitch back down to where it was originally and invert the phase, when you play that new one at the same time as the original you will hear the difference in the phase which will represent the “difference” or what sound you are losing.

in short you lose quite a lot of high mid and most of the high spectrum, though as discussed you can probably compensate with a little processing or layering and whatnot

IronCobra · 2023-02-04T21:30:57.477Z

Alright perfect, I use Ableton so I’ll test this out. Very helpful and detailed response! Really appreciate it!

theobserver · 2023-02-04T21:37:06.137Z

the rytm will likely sound/behave a bit differently than ableton but the principle remains the same

scarfypedia · 2023-02-05T06:12:58.992Z

because of the higher sampling rates on Elektron samplers it will have less effect, but not no effect. The filter is much higher but it’s still there, and the more you pitch samples up the more you push them into the anti-aliasing filter at 24khz (for 48k sampling rate)

I tend to like double octave pitched up for most things as it adds a bit of that filtering but doesn’t completely crunch the samples

if you plan on sequencing your samples chromatically keep in mind doing this will limit how pitched down samples can be, although this might just be because I do this with the Model Samples primarily, the Digitakt and Rytm might be able to deal with 2+ octave ranges easy