Making one's own samples

[SOD213]

First, an apology to Worra. He and I traded many emails when I first got Gigastudio about making your own samples. I copied and pasted everything into a neat text file, and for the life of me, can\'t find it. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Well, this talk about sampling and libraries not being good enough finally got me interested. No, I\'m not going to make the next brass, strings, winds, vocals, etc library. I don\'t have access to them. In fact, I\'m probably not going to make the DVD\'s available to everyone. (Burner on the way, no need to limit my sample library to 600 megs! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif )

I do want to make a guitar library for myself. I\'ve got a pretty good heavy tone using my Rocktron Chameleon and POD, and I want to see if I can sample the sounds for ease of arrangement. (Maybe even make .gig files to replace some of the GM500 sounds, as good as some of them are in certain instances.. the guitars still sound midi-ish http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif ) Maybe I\'ll make some loops for Acid, or maybe I\'ll sample a lot of frets. Dunno yet. This is just up in the air right now.

Anyways, I just want this topic to be an advice column. For me, and a lot of the beginners out there. Maybe you don\'t have the hundreds or thousands of dollars to buy libraries, but you have a couple of patches on your synth that you\'d like to make .gigs out of? That\'d be another step I want to take, as I\'ve got 3 keyboards, and I can only keep one of them at my friend\'s house. I\'d like to have the sounds available from the one I keep at his house here through GS, and when I take the computer to his house, the sounds from the other 2 keyboards. Not to mention the ability to save on space and midi cabling when I\'ve got the samples done, I can just keep one keyboard out as a controller, and the others packed away.

Again, Worra, I apologize for losing your notes, but believe me, what you said made sense. Now if you could repeat the advice for a bigger crowd.. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

[SOD213]

Hmm, could my post have been buried in all the mudslinging in the GOS post that\'s been so popular the last few days? http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif If anyone has some time to give me (and anyone else that\'s interested) some tips, it\'d be greatly appreciated. Not micing techniques, or anything like that, because I\'d be going straight from the POD into the computer. Just \"here\'s the best way to make the WAV file for GIG preparation.\"

Thanks!

[KingIdiot]

SOD,

Sorry, I did get a little lost in that other post.

About preparing for creating a Gig Instrument.

It Really depends on what you are out to accomplish. Multisamples? Different velocities? Loops?

With each one I have my own approach. I\'ve been planning a guitar library for a little bit so I\'ve toyed with ideas for a while. I\'ve also developed some pretty cool Auto Splitting techniques in Wavelab for my own way of working.

I\'m assuming you \"know\" your way around the Giga editor. If not take a look at libraries you like and see how they are programmed. Also take a look at ones you dont like and find out what they did \"wrong\". Also take a look at libraries that have nothing to do with the type you want to create. It might stir up more ideas.

If you are doing Multisamples....first off

DO A PRACTICE RUN. Find out what works. Just play multiple notes/chords with different variations on the attacks and sustains. Then edit them in a wave editor and create a \"Basic\" gig file to see what works.

After you figure out what you want to sample and HOW to go about it, I suggest doing multiple takes of each note. Right off the bat. Say 4 of each. You can create your own lable technique, but its pretty good to design a label set for your gig file waves, and a set for your \"takes\". This way it doesn\'t get confusing when you actually build the gig. A simple Number scheme on top of NOte name and then an abbreviation of the dynamic level works out really well for the Gig Waves.

As for takes its usually best to create note names and take numbers. a simple Number schemes help here too but one needs to remember the scheme relates differently to Takes\" and to \"gig waves\".

Pick the best take for each. Heavy guitars are VERY tedious to record multisamples for. You have a lot more decay to deal with with the distortion,as well as noise.

If you\'re up for it. At every note/interval that you plan on sampling, take a listen to the takes you did of the previous notes, then punch in new notes. This helps you retain the same dynamic \"feel\". This gives more options for good takes....but also makes the choice of better takes much more difficult if you get alot of good ones... http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif better than not having a good one I guess

Loops?


I liek to do these over different \"grooves\" So I usually play over pre created loops. PLaying a riff multiple times and editing a \"loop\" out of it. Trying to find the best one that is in tempo. Time stretching small distances is actually more problematic than \"medium\" distances wince you get alot of phasing....and since you are going to be looping an instrument with distinct tonal characteristics \"bending\" it like a drum loop wont work since it will throw the guitar out of tune. (unless you\'re not doing chords, you can get away with a bit of pitch shift there)

Doing a heavy guitar multisample is more difficult than a lot of people think. Its easy to get alot of chugs, and probably REALLY easy to give variations on up and down to get a realistic Chug feel. but if you want a truely dynamic already distorted guitar, its going to take some non \"traditional\" techniques. I\'m working on a few http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif Hopefully I get something that works http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif If not. Then...if I want to sell it...its off to make a \"tool box\" library...if not. then a couple of good Chugsfor share...because I can play the guitar when I need something dynamic http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif




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Really...I am an Idiot