Nord User Forum

[twofarmers]

Greetings: I am moving some of my favorites from the Yamaha S90ES to my Nord Electro 6HP. When creating the wave file, have you found it best to leave the keyboard velocity of the donating keyboard at variable or have you tried a fixed velocity. My logic is that the fixed velocity would remove the possibility that I play a note louder than the others while sampling. I engage the dynamics on the sound manager and it may be that I am missing some dynamics in fixed velocity mode. I can't tell the difference but would like to know if others have suggestions. Sampling to the Nord is simple to perform, but there seems to be an art to replicating the exact sounds. Thanks...Tony

[FZiegler]

The Yamaha S90ES uses different samples at different velocities; the Nord can't do that (except within its piano library). So for the purposes of bringing the sounds into the Nord, you can only sample the Yamaha at one velocity. Yes, you'll lose some dynamic variation, but there's no way around that. You're right that fixed velocity will eliminate a human variable, though sampling can also be automated with various apps, which will send out the same MIDI velocities for each sample anyway, and for various reasons, that's probably the better way to go. You could check things like Sample Robot, Samplit, the autosampler in Mainstage (Mac), or Extreme Sample Converter (Windows). In most cases, sampling at max velocity (127) is probably best... Nord's dynamic controls can "tame" the sample somewhat when playing at lesser velocities, but can never increase things beyond the max they were sampled at. But in some cases, the sample at 127 is not the one that is most desirable... it may be harsher/brighter than anything you'd personally possibly want, or it may be an "effect" sample. For example, a brass sound may have a fall or shake at 127, which is great for impact, but not something that is useful in actually playing the horn sound normally. In that case, you'd want to sample the sound at some velocity below where the accent effect kicks in.

[twofarmers]

Great info, anotherscott. I haven't found many sounds from the S90ES that are lacking in the Nord libraries, so this is just playing around during the down time. Your info is greatly appreciated, I'll give it a whirl. Thanks for the help...Tony