Sampling Virtual Instruments workflow?

[Copia]

I’ve been recording samples of about a second or so for every key on the keyboard

A second is very short, even for a plucked type of sound. Especially when the original sound has a long attcak or some evolving texture you will need much more than that. in just one second the sounds envelope has not been fully developed. You should record a few seconds more after it reaches to the sustain level, you will have some "body" to loop then. Instead of recording every key with short duration, It's better to sample fewer but with longer duration IMO, try every 3rd semitone.

[Copia]

I’ve been recording samples of about a second or so for every key on the keyboard

A second is very short, even for a plucked type of sound. Especially when the original sound has a long attcak or some evolving texture you will need much more than that. in just one second the sounds envelope has not been fully developed. You should record a few seconds more after it reaches to the sustain level, you will have some "body" to loop then. Instead of recording every key with short duration, It's better to sample fewer but with longer duration IMO, try every 3rd semitone.

Thanks, Alex78, that’s helpful. My recordings are probably a few seconds, actually. Still, what I’ve done hasn’t seemed enough to get a dependable sustain to loop, especially in the high register that has faster beats with the notes’ imperfections. I should try much longer recordings. I want my samples not to have an lfo effect from the loop but be as even as possible and also to have the same “beef” I hear in the Moog.

In the Stage 3, we can use oscillator control to blend samples with wave forms for additional variety of sounds, which the Wave 2 appears not to feature. Anyone have any thoughts on techniques to shape samples once they’re in the Wave 2 for creative sound design?

[Copia]

In the Stage 3, we can use oscillator control to blend samples with wave forms for additional variety of sounds, which the Wave 2 appears not to feature. Anyone have any thoughts on techniques to shape samples once they’re in the Wave 2 for creative sound design?

This can be done easily in the NW2 by morphing layer volume of the sample or oscillator-

-dj

[Copia]

Thanks DJ Keys, that’s a good idea! If you guys will humor me with a further question on the matter of sampling, I want my samples to sound more analog like the instruments they’re recorded from. What I’ve done now sounds more digital with a little less of the color and “beef” I referred to above when processed through the Sample Editor and Wave 2. Has anyone had success sampling analog synths with the Wave 2?

Your results would give me hope that I can stick with it and find a way to get an accurate sampling alongside the versatile internal engine of the instrument. I’d like to sample a bunch of analogs to basically turn the Wave 2 into a gigging version of all of them and leave all my analogs at home. I’m sure I would add Omnisphere to that eventually, but the goal is grabbing my best of the hardwares. Thanks for any insight you have, guys, even if just to say you’ve had good results with this.

[DJKeys]

There is no doubt that you will lose something in the original sound when sampling it.

What software are you using to sample the instruments?
What input level are you sampling at?
What is the hardware chain from the instrument to the computer?

All of these will have an effect on the quality of your recordings.

-dj

[Copia]

Thanks for your interest, DJ.

I am recording into GarageBand on a MacBook Pro. My hardware is going from a Moog Voyager out of the 1/4 inch stereo jacks into a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 2nd Gen. From here, I am going directly to GarageBand via USB with a USB C adaptor for the MacBook Pro. In GarageBand, I’m exporting one recording with dead space between notes as a wav file saved to my MacBook Pro. Then I’m transferring the wav file into the Nord Sample Editor.

I haven’t thought about the input level. The input knob was set to 3/4 volume on each channel to go into the 6i6 from the Voyager. I added a couple db to each sample once they were in the Sample Editor.

[DJKeys]

Why don't you just record directly into Logic and then export that recording as a .wav file? Why use Garage Band at all? I would eliminate Garage Band and the USB transfer, you are going through a lot of unnecessary conversions in my opinion. I think you would obtain better results if you:

Set up a stereo track in Logic
Select the Moog stereo pair in the Focusrite for the input.
press record, play every third semitone for a few seconds with a couple of seconds of space between it.
Stop record, trim the beginning and end of the file.
Export the track as a .wav file.
Drop that file into NSE3.

-dj

[Copia]

Why don't you just record directly into Logic and then export that recording as a .wav file? Why use Garage Band at all? I would eliminate Garage Band and the USB transfer, you are going through a lot of unnecessary conversions in my opinion. I think you would obtain better results if you:

Set up a stereo track in Logic
Select the Moog stereo feed for the input.
press record, play every third semitone for a few seconds with a couple of seconds of space between it.
Stop record, trim the beginning and end of the file.
Export the track as a .wav file.
Drop that file into NSE3.

-dj

Forgive the question, but, how? The Voyager doesn’t have a USB port. I need to switch to USB to get to my MacBook Pro from a 1/4 inch. That’s why I’m going through the 6i6. But I could use Logic instead of GarageBand. Oh, you may have seen how I miswrote Logic in between the GarageBands in the last post. I am not transferring from GarageBand to Logic. My mistake in writing that I’ve edited.

[Copia]

I think you helped me with one thing: I didn’t have a specifically stereo track set up. Maybe it has recorded mono and that is affecting width of the sample.

[Copia]

I think you helped me with one thing: I didn’t have a specifically stereo track set up. Maybe it has recorded mono and that is affecting width of the sample.

Great. Recording only half of the signal would definitely make a difference.

Also, I would go directly into Logic, no need to use Garage Band in my opinion-

-dj