I love sampling. I sample lots of things, but I particularly like to sample from songs using streaming services (eg Tidal). I can sample these using Loopback (Mac) into Ableton (recording audio into Arrangement view and then slicing, saving) but its not that fun for me.
(To be clear I know a million fun ways to edit/mangle/use samples in software - I am talking about getting the audio into the box).
Sampling into hardware is fun - push a few buttons and its in the device. Rotaries for start and end points, save, and boom you are done. I have owned many hardware samplers but at the moment only the Waldorf Iridium. Getting external audio into the device is functional but not FUN.
Can any one suggest a computer based sampling workflow or tool that is fun? Where i can sit for hours building libraries or snippets, hits, sections from songs, trimming them, saving them, naming them, and the whole process is a pleasure?
Edit: one of the things I dont like about Ableton for this is you cant just drag audio straight from arrangement into a folder. You need to “find” the underlying audio file, then drag that to a folder. Too many clicks. Also unless you press command J, dragging takes the whole sample (due to non destrictive editing). I want to freely grab and save edited bits of audio with a minimum of clicks.
Thanks!
Why don’t you try the free MPC beats software. I don’t use it on PC but it’s supposed to be pretty close to the same interface as the hardware. For my experience MPC hardware sampling is probably the simplest and most accurate.
Not sure I share your enthusiasm for it, but I do do a fair amount of sampling. Just saying not sure if I can comment on the fun aspect. I can agree that loopback into the DAW is not fun though.
If you want to use a tablet the Koala app, I guess. It’s what everyone uses.
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Not really…lol. I would say Audacity, but I can’t even get the inputs to work anymore. It shows all 64 ins and outs and no channel I choose shows audio. So I’d love to see what someone else suggests because I personally like turning on a sampler and just going through records while it runs for 20-25 minutes. And then chopping out the parts I like and also auditioning them in small loops, then naming and exporting them into a folder.
For now I do this in ableton, but it’s not the best experience. I really enjoy sampling into hardware. SP1200, the new Toneverk…etc. But typically I am sampling from my collection of samples I already prepped on the computer, which brings me back to trying to find an Audacity replacement.
I like Rolling Sampler, it’s like having the SP-404 skipback feature on your computer.
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I sample into audacity using loopback from (for example) youtube using the native audio device set to loopback under the recording device tab of audio setup. Your version of the software no longer includes that option?
Exactly my experience. This works on Ableton, but its not super fun.
Yes I have this great tool. I’ll try using it for this purpose. Not sure the experience will be that different to just recording straight into arrangement view?
I do not. I am using 3.3.2. I never updated because I remember the software got criticized for adding spyware or something like that. You think I should update it now?
When I look under recording device options I just see my laptop microphone and my sound interface. I picked my sound interface but It never shows any audio coming in from any of my input channels.
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No absolutely not, I’m still on the old software as well.
Whatever your laptop’s inbuilt soundcard is should be fine, just make sure the mic is muted from within the system sound settings for your operating system. If you don’t, sometimes you get the loopback plus the ambient mic audio and you don’t want that.
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I think I own this license. Can you quickly chop audio and rename it? I really love doing long sample sessions and just chopping the good stuff. A big plus would be the ability to loop small bits of audio so I can find phrases in the audio.
In audacity there are some options to set marker points using something like beat detection and you could generate a rhythm track and then set marker points based on the rhythm track and use ALT+arrow to scan through the markers with the rhythm track muted and just listening to the audio track along the way.
Use ctrl+i to slice the waveform at any marker points you want to easily return to. If you just want to set additional marker points rather than slice you can use ctrl+b. You can truncate with more precision after you establish regions you want to work with more closely.
It’s efficient but lacks the charm and ease of the MPC interface, which is like, workhorse functionality. Detect points by threshold and adjust from there.
I just highlight a chunk I want and drag it to a folder and then rename it. It’s pretty basic but I like not having to record anything. Just grab a piece when I hear something I like,
Yeah, you highlight a section of the waveform and when you drag it out it becomes a file.
I suppose the only risk is if the audio you want to sample comes up just as the rolling sample window “rolls” (ie resets to the beginning) so you miss part of it.
But I’m thinking rolling sampler may be the way!
I don’t know what your expectations are, but I found this recently. Looks “fun”.
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Koala and Loopy Pro on IOS.
On my computer, I just drag a file in UVI Falcon into the keyboard range I want.
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I bought this ages ago, played around with it for a weekend and then left it as I was looking more for a live looper at that time.
But I opened it up last weekend and ended up using it to write the basis of a track. I used it in rec arm all mode and then did a kind of lazy chop thing with it. It is huge fun, due to its immediacy, particularly when used with a midi controller like a Push.
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