creating my own simplified samplechains. Four samples per chain. Set starts from 0, 9’o’clock, midday, or 3pm to access each sound. Adjust Hold/Dec to taste. Best used on sounds where there isn’t a requirement for much fiddling with start position.fab_bass_chain4_1m v2 22050.aif (170.0 KB)
fab_clap_chain4_1mon_22050hz yo.aif (125.6 KB)
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the files are 24 bit and will halve in filesize when the Machinedrum auto-compresses the resolution to 12 bits.
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Cool! lets use it Thanks.
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here’s a simplechain of 4 bassdrums in 4 formats …
44100hz stereo and mono, same for 22050hz…
if the MD allows the 22050hz to remain at that rate, then quite an impressive memory saving is achieved.
4bd1_22050_mono.aif (124.6 KB)
4bd1_22050_stereo.aif (249.1 KB)
4bd1_44100_mono.aif (249.1 KB)
4bd1_44100_stereo.aif (498.2 KB)
all files are 24bit, to allow the 12bit conversion to take place within the MD.
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and out of interest, 4 formats of a snare drum sample chain … just to compare after importing, does it sound different if the Machinedrum does the converting from stereo to monaural?
pretty sure the machinedrum will allow the 22050hz version to maintain that samplerate … there is a noticeable drop in quality for some sounds. other samples really seem to fare quite well in the 22050hz version.
4sd 22050 mono.aif (93.9 KB)
4sd 22050 stereo.aif (187.7 KB)
4sd 44100 mono.aif (187.7 KB)
4sd 44100 stereo.aif (375.3 KB)
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thanks, you’re generous 
how long is each chain? 1 bar, i assume? and at what tempo did you sample?
between 200-400bpm is used in the project file.
what comes out is a loop, yes, but not prepared for use as a loop,
but rather a sample chain.
essentially what the output is, is one file of four notes starting at
1: start of bar
2: 1/4 of the way through
3: 1/2 of the way through the bar
4: starts 3/4 of the way through the bar
as the Machinedrum rom slots from 32-48 are prepared for a ‘loop’, and will divide geometrically it doesn’t matter so much what tempo the loop is.
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using ableton to achieve this enjoyable task of sample chain crafting.
very easy. i didn’t think it would be.
just choose four one-shot samples, have them all selected at the same time on the computer, then drag and drop them onto the timeline of a blank audio track in Arrangement View in Ableton.
Ableton will detect they are one-shot samples, and auto-arrange them in a fairly logical manner.
adjust the arrangement so that each start of a bar, one of the sounds is there.
Ableton will automatically set each one-shot sample’s Warp setting to off.
just above, drag the arrangement view’s Loop Braces to encompass those resulting four bars.
now increase the tempo to about 245bpm, and the placement of each sample will remain the same, and yet take up ‘more’ of each bar that it plays at the start of.
with only four samples and four bars, this part shouldn’t be too complicated. just increase the tempo until the longest sounding sample is filling nearly or all of its bar.
as the samples are not warped, cannot automate their volume parameter, although it is possible to automate the Main Volume parameter if desired.
then export the audio file, don’t render as loop, don’t normalise. if the resulting file is stereo or mono, doesn’t matter, it will be a mono file after import to the Machinedrum’s file system.
I export twice - once at 22050hz, and once at 44100hz, adjusting the hz in the audio settings of the export panel.
(just to have the option, sometimes 22050 sounds fantastic and brilliant).
then use Elektron’s utility sysex app C6 to turbo the file over to a Sample Slot on the machinedrum yay.
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Bro when I wake up from all this drinking I will be trying this out
i just realised why the filesize doesn’t halve when it goes to the MD… bit rate is only half the equation … the bit rate is halved from 24 bits to 12 bits, but the sample rate remains the same.
hence, not a 50 percent reduction in size when inspected in the Machinedrum’s Sample Manager. Only something like a 25% or 33% reduction.
the problem with sample chains is they always preview as this bizarre not-in-time sequence of four note when previewing new sounds to load to a rom machine.
they are fun … although not for me
so, um…why is that bizarre? the md doesn’t timestretch, so unless you preview or play back samples at the same tempo you originally created them, they’ll sound off … both when you audition the entire sample (different tempo) and when you sequence them (pitch variation).
i often work with brief loops (half a bar to a full bar in length) sampled into the uw engine and i find that they work OK as long as my track tempo is within maybe 4-5 bpm of my sample’s tempo. but if there’s a difference of even 1-2 bpm, i generally need to place trigs with plocked start points every beat, sometimes every half beat, to compensate. a couple ticks of pitch adjustment also helps sometimes.
…not the same as sample chains, but the same principles apply.
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lol the reason is that i am bizarre lol.
easily distracted…
just when previewing a sound, if it plays 4 beats out of time with what is playing (pressing Function and Yes to preview, or the other way, depends on whether files are accessed via Rom load, or Sample Manager browsing) that distracts me, auditorily speaking
i guess the solution is to not have a wide variety of sample chains to start with.
just did a quick refresh search on the manual, and the Rom Slots 25-48 are all optimised for loop-based samples. I thought it was 33-48 but no, in fact half of all the slots are that way.
a cool piece of advice from a decade ago, someone at EU mentioned how if preparing vocal samples, try making it not separated, and do an edit in the DAW to have several vocal samples each fading into the other… as regards tails and start times. This gives more option for creativity when modulating the start or dec parameters.