Save all samples as sounds?

[Zwolf]

As much as I love my AR and have zero complaints about its sound, I’ve struggled in the 3/4 of a year that I’ve owned it in terms of establishing a quick work flow setting up a kit. Idea being: the best way to quickly browse through drums, get a kit up and get going on making music.

I have tons of great samples loaded, many of which are chains. But the process of previewing samples, getting them loaded to the appropriate pads and saved into a kit has been cumbersome to me - especially with sample chains. In their case I need to preview the chain; listen to the sounds while counting; determine the number (position w/in chain) of the sample I want; cross reference the (most excellent) AR slice calculator for the right start and end points; turn the sample on, volume up; etc.

Up until now, I haven’t used “sounds” at all, hadn’t saved a single one. I thought their primary use was for sound locks and this isn’t a functionality I’ve needed. 8 voices/12 pads has always been plenty for me. But after OB was released, I started drooling over the sound browser and the potential for access to the +drive sound library with tags and all that. I always wished the samples could be accessed the same way.

But it’s just dawned on me (and I know I can be a bit slow)…I can save all my samples as sounds, and then I’ll have the instant access I want! Admittedly, this process of turning samples into sounds will be time consuming, but I think it’s going to be worth it. It’s pretty easy with chains: load one up for example to the BD machine. Figure out what your chain start/end increments are. Set up the sample parameter the way you want them (a bit of OD for volume, sample level, track level, amp level where they need to be for punch), synth volume down for me as I can add this in later as needed…and then name the sound in the OB sound settings, assign the tags you want, hit enter, tab to OB sound browser, and drag the newly set up sound into whatever bank you wish for your +drive. Go back and repeat, only changing the name (for chains I keep the same name but increment up the number at the end) and advancing the start/end points to the next sample in the chain.

What I think I’m going to get out of the enormous amount of work this will take to do right: the ability to quickly make great kits independent of what project I’m in. Sounds saved in the +drive are available across all projects regardless of what samples are currently loaded. So I can create a quick basic pattern in a brand new init project, just hearing the default AR sounds. And then within the OB sound browser, select a track and just start clicking through various sounds as they instantly populate to the pads. And I can filter with tags to hone in on what I’m looking for.

It would be great if you could make your own tags…feature request.

So…duh, I already knew this and so does everyone else? too much work and hassle? maybe a good idea?

[avantronica]

It would be great if you could make your own tags…feature request.

So…duh, I already knew this and so does everyone else? too much work and hassle? maybe a good idea?

Custom tags are extremely unlikely. The current system is extremely lean and uses a couple of bit masks to flag on and off the current ones. There’s no saving of text as it were, for that you have the name.
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Whilst i infrequently use samples and projects, i’m pretty sure there is an issue with your plan. Sounds save pointers to a sample slot, they don’t save pointers to a sample, nor the drive. So when you start a new project, the sound will contain a reference to sample (0-127) ie samples loaded into the pool. You would need to keep the pool the same between projects to make any use of your preplanning
I’d like to be wrong, but i think that’s something to be mindful of

[Zwolf]

[quote=“Zwolf”]It would be great if you could make your own tags…feature request.

So…duh, I already knew this and so does everyone else? too much work and hassle? maybe a good idea?

Custom tags are extremely unlikely. The current system is extremely lean and uses a couple of bit masks to flag on and off the current ones. There’s no saving of text as it were, for that you have the name.
.
Whilst i infrequently use samples and projects, i’m pretty sure there is an issue with your plan. Sounds save pointers to a sample slot, they don’t save pointers to a sample, nor the drive. So when you start a new project, the sound will contain a reference to sample (0-127) ie samples loaded into the pool. You would need to keep the pool the same between projects to make any use of your preplanning
I’d like to be wrong, but i think that’s something to be mindful of[/quote]
What happens is that when you assign a sound to a pad it ports the associated sample along with it to the next available slot in the sample pool. It pulls the sample from the +drive automatically.

And you have all sounds available to you in any project. I just tried it with an init project - it’s great!

[tsutek]

that’s how you’d use em. but what I think is that sounds are maybe not efficient enough for pulling complete kits together quickly (only 128 sounds per project IIRC). I always just think of sounds as quick go-to sound presets (Valer’s AR808) or fave signature sounds, as making dozens of kits from sounds sound tedious (hadn’t thought of using OB for sound management, might make life easier)

How’s the new OB beta? Haven’t installed it yet, waiting for the “gold master” build

[avantronica]

What happens is that when you assign a sound to a pad it ports the associated sample along with it to the next available slot in the sample pool. It pulls the sample from the +drive automatically.

And you have all sounds available to you in any project. I just tried it with an init project - it’s great!

Colour me amazed, i wouldn’t have thought that possible, must try, this would be handy

[Zwolf]

that’s how you’d use em. but what I think is that sounds are maybe not efficient enough for pulling complete kits together quickly (only 128 sounds per project IIRC). I always just think of sounds as quick go-to sound presets (Valer’s AR808) or fave signature sounds, as making dozens of kits from sounds sound tedious (hadn’t thought of using OB for sound management, might make life easier)

How’s the new OB beta? Haven’t installed it yet, waiting for the “gold master” build

So the sounds, when dragged to different pads from the +drive sound browser in OB, don’t actually populate the sound pool. You have to drag them from the pads to the pool if you want them for sound locks. But they do populate the sample pool, of which you only have 128 per project; perhaps that’s what you were referring to.

But in the case of samples within a sample chain (and 95% of my samples are in chains), they only get populated one time in the sample pool regardless of how many sounds associated with that sample chain are involved in your kits/project. In other words: I can make a sample chain with 40 kick hits on it into 40 individual saved kick sounds. I can then created as many kits as I like within the project with those 40 sounds and the only sample that is pulled over to the sample pool in the process is that one chain with the 40 hits. Pretty economic and I can make a ton of kits with the 128 sample slots in this manner.

I do agree that the process of making all my samples into sounds will be tedious! But at this point, I’m willing to do whatever work it takes to set my rytm up for faster work. Like I said in the beginning of this thread, my main goal is get kits built quickly. I hate losing the creative flow getting bogged down in kit building.

OB 1.10 beta is pretty great so far. A lot of nice changes from 1.0 and it’s working quite well on my system with just a few exceptions. One notable unwanted change from 1.0 to 1.10 is that my AK periodically gives out an unpleasant burst of white noise. The fix is easy and instant: unplug and replug the USB cable. But it sucks nonetheless.

Overall, I’m very impressed.

[Zwolf]

So here’s where I see the end game, the upside to making all my samples into sounds that are stored on the +drive:

I’ll create an ableton/OB project with as many kits (up to 128) as I can build, including scene and performance macros. I’ll make sure to set this project up with tracks I need for recording audio and midi for both AK and AR, get my keyboard shortcuts/midi assignments, etc…an ableton/elektron template basically.

Then…anytime I want to create anything with either or both elektrons, I simply open this “ableton/elektron template project”, do a different “save as” in ableton, open a new project on the elektron(s), engage total recall, and I’m off. All my kits available to me and ready to go. Save the new project to the +drive.

This is kind of what I’ve been searching for the whole time…anyone else see a use in this?

[JOB]

[quote=“Zwolf”]What happens is that when you assign a sound to a pad it ports the associated sample along with it to the next available slot in the sample pool. It pulls the sample from the +drive automatically.

And you have all sounds available to you in any project. I just tried it with an init project - it’s great!

Colour me amazed, i wouldn’t have thought that possible, must try, this would be handy[/quote]
me neither…
but i just did it and its true!!!
thanx !!!

[huwfeesey]

Are people still using this method? Had a Rytm mk2 before which I sold mainly because of frustrations with sample management. If it’s possible to use the sample pool RAM with loadsa sample chains to have plentiful kit options within a single project then I think I’ll give it another go!