What are the steps to Create Your own Sample Instruments?

H,

I am looking for other people that have the experience in creating their own samples to create a sample instrument

 

What I have at the moment for this Topic:

1.Daw Logic

2.Mic - USB Shure mv88

3.RX 7 -Cleaning audio

 

I just want to start very simple and get the process correct

 

What are the steps to Create Your own Sample Instruments?

 

Thank You In advance

That's like saying "what are the steps to create music?" - it wholly depends on many different factors, what you want to do, what you have available to to you etc.

 

Maybe if you could be more specific about what you want to achieve, then the advice would be more targetted.

Maybe the best advice is - start simple. I mean *really* simple. Don't even think of trying to sample the grand piano in your aunt's living room. Record 1 (one) sound. Map it to the keyboard. You will find out how much it works and when it starts sounding funny. Then expand, record an instrument of five different sounds. Then one of five sounds from the same instrument which should be playable across the keyboard without too obvious jumps in timbre (this one is pretty hard already). Then try stacking different velocities, again without making the transitions obvious (also quite hard). Before you know it, you're down the rabbit hole and wonder how you got there.

I agree with starting simple. Then when you're getting the hang of it maybe try your hand at Auto Sampler: https://support.apple.com/en-asia/guide/logicpro/lgcea3ff48ea/mac

Maybe I am stating the obvious here, but the next steps given the gear that you have are:

 

1. actually recording your instrument a bunch of times. If this is an analog, expressive instrument where timbre can vary enormously, try to be consistent as you record a bunch of pitches, evenly spaced across the scales.

 

2. clean up the recorded samples so that the files start at the beginning of the sounds, and capture whatever "tail" you want, but not much more.

 

3. optionally, insert loop points in the samples. Generally, the goal is that the sound can play from the beginning, then loop seamlessly for however long, then continue with the tail. There are tools that can help with this, e.g. using "crossfade looping".

 

4. load the samples in the sampler plugin, for example EXS24. Note that this is an "advanced" feature that you need to enable in the preferences.

 

5. spread out your samples across the keyboard so that they match the pitches that you recorded

 

Once you got going with this, revisit fuzzfilth's advice: pitching samples up and down only goes so far before it gets weird, but it's quite tricky to go smoothly from one sample (being pitched up) to its neighbour (pitched down) with it sounding smoothly, and the same for layers of samples at different velocity on the same key. It's a rabbit hole.

Thanks, everyone that is some great ideas and this helps me get into the right mind set to start

Yes I am going to start very easy because Rome was not built in a day : )

maybe something more percussion-like tapping on a wood table since I hopeful the audio transients will be easy to see than audio from a pitched sound

Easiest way to start

 

1. Insert Quick Sampler.

2. Click the RECORDER mode.

3. Click the Record button.

4. Sing a note (or make a sound, any sound).

5. Click the Stop button.

6. Play your MIDI keyboard.

Given the OP listed a mic as an essential component, this would imply he's trying to sample an acoustic source, rather than a synth or something connected to a line input.

 

Creating a successful sample instrument from real recordings really starts with the capture process - mic setup, how you play the instrument, how you make this repeatable, how you control intensity, what order you record things, how you extract the notes from those audio recordings in a meaningfull way to generate your velocity layers and articulation layers etc...

 

There's a whole lot to think about before you hit that record button (and yes, start simple!) but I didn't want to go into too many details because there's no point going into detail about looping if the OP just wants to sample his acoustic guitar and there's no point talking about pitch mapping if the OP is recording his snare drum etc etc.

 

That was why I was asking for a bit of an idea of what the OP is going for, to avoid writing a long general treatise on "everything to know about sampling"...

 

Edit:

 

maybe something more percussion-like tapping on a wood table since I hopeful the audio transients will be easy to see than audio from a pitched sound

 

Exactly my point - with some idea now of what you want to do, suggestions and workflows are a lot easier to discuss...

Thank You David I forgot the quick sampler has a recorder built-in that may be a great way to just test ideas out

Thank You des99 and no worries I understand before I even hit record the capture process and what You mention

 

capture process - mic setup

1. I have a boom mic stand I need to find a type of clamp for the iPhone,iPad to attach to the boom mic stand so I can position the mic where needed

 

I get back when I can Thank You All of You Guys rock and God Bless