Sampling and Looping

[Sittingsideways]

Does anyone have any history with using any hardware or software for that matter? Im very unfamiliar with MIDI and was interested in what kind of a process Drew has to go through to get recordings to be triggered live without using a computer on stage. Sounds like lauging and cats meowing. I understand he just presses a button on a sampler or drum machine of some kind. But do you need MIDI to get those sounds/loops onto a sampler?

Basically im in a three peice band and we're having a hard time finding another member, so were being forced to look towards looping keyboards and we've always been interested in using samples/sounds live... hopefully learning how to trigger them easily onstage.

[cribble]

Re: Sampling and Looping

There's a few ways of doing things.

1) Use a laptop, and some audio software like Ableton live, or your choice of sequencer. You'll need at least two outputs. One output will go to a headphone amp/mixer, which will feed a click track to the drummer (you can easily set this up within your sequencer to route the click track to an output). One output will feed to the live desk with all your sequence track on it.

If you want a more stereo set up, you're going to need to use a soundcard with a few more outputs, 4 should be enough for this sort of situation. 1 output to the drummer. 2, stereo outputs to the live desk.

Ableton Live/Fruity Loops can then TRIGGER samples and sequences, or you can use it to play back a whole track. All of which can have a click track playing.

Or, if you just want to hit of stabs, pads, long running sequences - basically, stuff that doesn't need to sync with a drummer, you can look down the route of a hardware sequencer - if you fancy the limitations and the cost.

Roland do a fairly cheap hardware sampler (SP-303), and I think Drew uses an Akai MPC 5000, which is a quite hefty on the wallet. I haven't had too much experience with these, but syncing with a drummer either depends on user programming, or a fucking awesome drummer - do really, these are just good to release off samples that don't require to loop or sync with the drummer.

Erm, this must read like scat porn. *shurgs
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THERE IS NO 2)

[darshun]

Re: Sampling and Looping

No 2, well there is no #2, THEREISHOWEVER!, #3, buy the sampling device that Drew uses, I forget what it's called!!! I'm no help, castrate me...

[Jukebox Fuckup]

Re: Sampling and Looping

we're going through the same thing at the moment... looking to buy a drum machine.

as far as loops and samples go, for playing live, i have a boss RC-20xl. it's great, really easy to use.

[Sittingsideways]

Re: Sampling and Looping

There's a few ways of doing things.

1) Use a laptop, and some audio software like Ableton live, or your choice of sequencer. You'll need at least two outputs. One output will go to a headphone amp/mixer, which will feed a click track to the drummer (you can easily set this up within your sequencer to route the click track to an output). One output will feed to the live desk with all your sequence track on it.

If you want a more stereo set up, you're going to need to use a soundcard with a few more outputs, 4 should be enough for this sort of situation. 1 output to the drummer. 2, stereo outputs to the live desk.

Ableton Live/Fruity Loops can then TRIGGER samples and sequences, or you can use it to play back a whole track. All of which can have a click track playing.

Or, if you just want to hit of stabs, pads, long running sequences - basically, stuff that doesn't need to sync with a drummer, you can look down the route of a hardware sequencer - if you fancy the limitations and the cost.

Roland do a fairly cheap hardware sampler (SP-303), and I think Drew uses an Akai MPC 5000, which is a quite hefty on the wallet. I haven't had too much experience with these, but syncing with a drummer either depends on user programming, or a fucking awesome drummer - do really, these are just good to release off samples that don't require to loop or sync with the drummer.

Erm, this must read like scat porn. *shurgs
---
THERE IS NO 2)

so basically what your saying is i need to download/buy a program that will load sounds/samples/loops onto a peice of hardware that i would purchase correct? then i would not need a labtop on stage, i would just have one of those machines that would have 9 square buttons and i could just trigger it correct?

[cribble]

Re: Sampling and Looping

http://www.ableton.com/touch

Ableton is the software you put on your laptop. You can use a hardware controller, such as the one on the Ableton website, but that's only if you want to add an element of performance to the sequenced track. Bare in mind this is a hardware midi controller - it doesn't have any sounds on it, nor can you put sounds onto it, all it does is send a signal to your software to make it more expressive to your performance. MIDI keyboards work in the same way, there's no sounds, but you use it to control sounds on your computer. ANyway, blah bllah blah.

Have a look on the ableton site, look at some videos, I'm sure you can draw some inspiration to how it'll suit your needs.

THE hardware sampler, the AKAI MPC, doesn't need software. It's its own individual instrument. It has sounds, and you can trigger it. But this isn't to say this will solve all your problems - the drummer will have a right ol' bitch of a time playing along to anything slightly sequenced.

[Sittingsideways]

Re: Sampling and Looping

okay cribble... im sure this will be something your gonna have to help me with.

I think me and the band have decided on a Roland 404, due to its ease of use as far as sampling goes. We'll also use it for looping.

The only problem is is exactly what you said in the above post... there will be times when our hands will be busy and we'd like to have a footswitch to trigger the samples off of the Roland 404. So... the roland 404 has a MIDI in, but no MIDI out. What i need to know is how simple is it if i were to take a Roland 404 and take a Rolls MP128 and hook them up via MIDI? Is it just a simple hookup or would it require programs to get and to have a labtop on stage?