Logic alternative to Battery next/prev sample in folder?

[futurevibe05]

Hi guys.

I’ve just moved to an M1 MacBook Pro and the latest version of Logic. I’ve been using Logic for almost 20 years but on my last computer, I hadn’t updated Logic or 3rd party plugins since 2019. Since I started using the new Mac there’s been a lot of issues loading projects with old plugins not working or needing to be upgraded in order to work. Reaktor and Kontakt to name a few. I’d really like to cut down on the amount of 3rd party plugins I use so that the next time I change my computer, it's not such a hassle. One plugin i’ve always wanted to replace with something built into Logic is NI Battery. It’s a great plugin but I only use it for one simple reason and that’s being able to load a sample into a cell and skip to the next or previous sample in that folder. This is essential for me so I can quickly try out different drum sounds while the track is playing. There seems to have been a lot added to Logic since 2019, like Drum Kit Designer, Quick Sampler, etc. Can anyone tell me if this is now possible in any of Logics plugins? I can't see it but it seems like something they would surely have added by now.

Thanks.

[futurevibe05]

Anyone?

[oscwilde]

On an Instrument channel, insert a new instance of Drum Machine Designer.
Click the Gear icon at the upper left (mouseover to see this icon).
Choose Clear pads from the menu (see pic).
Click the top left Pad...and choose individual drum hits from the Library (or File Browser or Loops Browser).
In the Library, you can use your Arrow keys to step thru/audition the sound (various Kicks, in the lower image).

[futurevibe05]

52 minutes ago, oscwilde said:

On an Instrument channel, insert a new instance of Drum Machine Designer.
Click the Gear icon at the upper left (mouseover to see this icon).
Choose Clear pads from the menu (see pic).
Click the top left Pad...and choose individual drum hits from the Library (or File Browser or Loops Browser).
In the Library, you can use your Arrow keys to step thru/audition the sound (various Kicks, in the lower image).

Thanks a lot for the reply. This works great with the library samples but unfortunately, I don't use these samples. I want to be able to use my 3rd party sample packs and I can't audition samples from the loops browser in DMD like I can in the library. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

[ozinga]

There is no feature like the one in Battery, that is why I still use it a lot but it feels almost EOLed so I do not know how long it will work with new systems so the closest I found is TAL Drum which I like a lot.

[oscwilde]

6 hours ago, futurevibe05 said:

I want to be able to use my 3rd party sample packs and I can't audition samples from the loops browser in DMD like I can in the library.

Yes, you can.
All of my Maschine (and Battery) libraries, for example, were added to Untagged Loops.
This includes looped material and One Shots.

DMD isn't actually required for the auditioning, TBH - you need to drag/drop across to each pad if you do want to use it to trigger them with MIDI pads/keyboard....but this definitely works.

[futurevibe05]

2 hours ago, oscwilde said:

Yes, you can.
All of my Maschine (and Battery) libraries, for example, were added to Untagged Loops.
This includes looped material and One Shots.

DMD isn't actually required for the auditioning, TBH - you need to drag/drop across to each pad if you do want to use it to trigger them with MIDI pads/keyboard....but this definitely works.

Yes, I know I can audition audio files in the untagged loops section but that's not what I'm trying to do. I want have a midi file trigger say a kick drum and as it plays, try out the other samples in the folder. Battery has buttons to go to the next/prev sample. Very simple but very useful feature.

[futurevibe05]

6 hours ago, ozinga said:

There is no feature like the one in Battery, that is why I still use it a lot but it feels almost EOLed so I do not know how long it will work with new systems so the closest I found is TAL Drum which I like a lot.

Sad to hear that. It's such a simple feature and should be easy to add to Quick Sampler or EXS24.

Edited January 16 by futurevibe05

[Alex Fraser]

23 hours ago, futurevibe05 said:

Yes, I know I can audition audio files in the untagged loops section but that's not what I'm trying to do. I want have a midi file trigger say a kick drum and as it plays, try out the other samples in the folder. Battery has buttons to go to the next/prev sample. Very simple but very useful feature.

Have you tried this? 

Click on the pad you want to edit and select "Load Audio File"
You'll then be able to audition audio files using the standard MacOS finder that pops up.  Highlighting a new audio file will cause that selection to be previewed via any active midi, either from playback or hitting your controller. Use arrow keys to move through the finder, RETURN loads the file into the cell, ESC cancels.

Best of all, with this feature, the popup menu (see above) keeps a history of the previews.

[futurevibe05]

13 hours ago, Alex Fraser said:

Have you tried this? 

Click on the pad you want to edit and select "Load Audio File"
You'll then be able to audition audio files using the standard MacOS finder that pops up.  Highlighting a new audio file will cause that selection to be previewed via any active midi, either from playback or hitting your controller. Use arrow keys to move through the finder, RETURN loads the file into the cell, ESC cancels.

Best of all, with this feature, the popup menu (see above) keeps a history of the previews.

Alex, I think you've just replaced Battery for me. It's missing some features of Battery but there's also some features Battery doesn't have. You don't need to use DMD either. Just loading in Quick Sampler is easier.

I'll start with the bad:

1) The waveform display doesn't update to show the samples you're previewing in the finder window. I like to see the shape of kick drums when previewing so I can see how long it is.

2) You mentioned the history of the samples you load in. All these samples are stored in the project file until you clear the history and clean up the project. This can add up to a lot of space if you preview a lot of samples and forget to take these steps. It's not a big deal but a few extra steps you don't need to do with Battery.

3) Once you load a sample and you want to continue previewing more samples, it doesn't pick up from the loaded sample. The finder opens at the folder level with no sample selected, so you need to find the last loaded sample before you can continue previewing the following samples.

The good:

1) I mentioned about the loaded samples in the history being a bad thing. It's also a good thing. Once you find samples you want to use, they're stored in the project file. I always have issues with Battery not finding samples when loading projects. When replacing my external HD with a new one or maybe i've renamed a sample pack, there's usually a few samples I need to find manually.

2) Once you do load in a sample, the waveform display is much bigger and more detailed than Battery.

3) This is probably the best thing about it. You can also preview loops at the project tempo. I hate Logic's loop browser. I've tried to use the 'untagged loops' section to preview loops from my sample packs while the project is playing but it's so bad. Just to select a loop sometimes takes a few clicks, then it takes a few bars to kick in, then it might not even play at the project tempo. It's just terrible. I've also tried ADSR Sample Manager but that takes too much time to set up each time I want to use it, so it's not much better than the loop browser. With QS, you just click the Flex button, click load sample and in the finder window choose the 'Optimized' option. This isn't perfect as it has all the same issues I mentioned above (no waveform display while previewing, etc) but in my short time testing it, I think it might be more useful than the loops browser or sample manager. I would obviously load the loop onto an audio track once I settle on it and chop it up but for previewing loops, I think it's great.

There's probably more good and bad things I'll discover while using QS but I've only spent an hour or two testing it out. I have to say though, I think I'll be using it from now on. Huge thanks to you for sharing this Alex. Amazing tip!

[futurevibe05]

Just discovered another good thing about using Quick Sampler. When I find a sample I like that I might use in the future, I'll tag it red in the Finder. This is of no use when using Battery because the colours don't show in it's file browser. As QS uses the Finder, the colour tags will show and I can easily see samples i've marked for use. I find it very handy.

[Alex Fraser]

20 hours ago, futurevibe05 said:

There's probably more good and bad things I'll discover while using QS but I've only spent an hour or two testing it out. I have to say though, I think I'll be using it from now on. Huge thanks to you for sharing this Alex. Amazing tip!

You're most welcome, and the gratitude goes both ways as I never knew that flex would apply to previews. Weirdly, like you say, it's a lot more efficient than using the loops/files browser.

So thanks!

Another great feature of Quick Sampler (via the cog menu) is the ability to "upgrade" to the full fat Sampler or Drum Machine Designer if you need more control over the sample. For example, once you've chopped a loop up you can render it out as a full DMD kit.

It will be interesting to see if Logic gets the library upgrade found in the iPad version and how that will change previewing.

[futurevibe05]

1 hour ago, Alex Fraser said:

You're most welcome, and the gratitude goes both ways as I never knew that flex would apply to previews. Weirdly, like you say, it's a lot more efficient than using the loops/files browser.

So thanks!

Another great feature of Quick Sampler (via the cog menu) is the ability to "upgrade" to the full fat Sampler or Drum Machine Designer if you need more control over the sample. For example, once you've chopped a loop up you can render it out as a full DMD kit.

It will be interesting to see if Logic gets the library upgrade found in the iPad version and how that will change previewing.

You're welcome! 🙂

Thanks for the 'upgrade' tip. I'll have to experiment with that later. I wasn't aware the iPad version of the library was different. I have an old iPad from 2017 so i'll try it out but I wouldn't be surprises if that feature was only available on newer models or iPad pro's. I was really hoping they would give some attention to the loops browser in 10.8 but I actually think it's worse than previous versions.

One more thing I've found with using loops in QS. The "Original" and "Optimized" options is a bit of a weird one. As i already mentioned, "Optimized" plays the loops at the project tempo but sometimes can change the pitch. The odd loop could play +1 oct and if it's a drum loop, not going to give you a good idea of how it would sound in the track. I've also found that sometimes when you choose "Original" it will actually play loops at the project tempo. Not really sure what's going on here.