Sampling other drum machines sounds flat

Hey gang, I’ve been sampling some other drum machines and modules, such as the ER-1, Drum Brute Impact, and SSF Entity, and all of the samples seem to sound very flat. I’ve tried bringing the levels down to where I see them peak around the middle, and I’ve tried turning the level up so I see it peak near the far right, and the samples continue to sound a bit lifeless. I had similar issues on my Digitakt back in the day. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to work around this?

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Have you tried employing the HP filter with resonance? Or modulate sample tuning or volume envelope with the one precious LFO? It’s always a revelation when I remember that I can also use velocity modulation to multiple destination parameters that bring out interesting timbres. I honestly hate the idea of needing to layer the analog engine with an already perfectly good sample, but I hear it’s a common practice.

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Isn’t it the mono sampling of the Rytm which let it sound flat compared to the original signal? (the Digitakt samples also mono only)

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I’ve tried the resonate high pass thing and it’s certainly good for beefing up the bottom end, but what I’m hearing isn’t a frequency response issue, it’s a dynamics issue. I’ve heard good samples that I’ve imported into Rytm, but when I sample into it directly things sound flat. The weird thing is that when I monitor the audio I’m sampling, it sounds great.

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Interesting observation. Are you using TS (unbalanced) or TRS (balanced) cables? Also, are you using EXT In or Audio In for your analog signal you’re recording? If you can, try to get the audio signal balanced and record in from the Audio In input of the AR.

notnmyhouse530, Thanks for the help. I’m using the Audio In and an unbalanced cable. I don’t believe the line out on my device is balanced. Out of curiosity, why would the unbalanced vs balanced make a difference if the monitored audio on the AR sounds great, but the recorded sample does not? If I can hear the monitored audio and it sounds good, the signal is making it there, no?

Have you tried sampling the Ext In on the AR to compare to the results you’re getting from the Audio In, using your unbalanced connection? I tend to duplicate both the left and right inputs into the AR for recording samples, using a mono-to-stereo splitter even if the feeding signal is mono. Hopefully you can keep experimenting and comparing results with your initial observation.

Before making too many conclusions I would try to measure each just to see what’s going on. I would take an EQ snapshot of both the original and sample at equal gain and see if there’s any difference. Even better also record both at equal gain and do an A/B test.

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I just started sampling right now and now I am using balanced cables coming out of my drum machines stereo out into the Audio L and R in of the AR MK2. The result is a mono waveform, which is what I want (my drums are all mono sounds from my machine as well, which is pretty standard)

One thing I had to do was make sure and route all my drums in the AR2 away from the main FX channel under settings. No idea if that will help you but, since I use the external outs, the recorded sample was going through both those and the master and I got a little phasing which made me think I was sampling in wrong.

Now the sample is sounding right, but the volume and punch is a little lower than the sound of my drum machine. Nothing too bad though, but I’m interested if you have any updates on your side.