Hardware samplers

[Jay Vaughan]

> So on the synth side (and keep in mind, I'm new as in 1 week new) I seem to be missing the ability to create basic PCM synthesis with ranges across the keyboard.  I'm rusty so I don't remember the term for sample mapping like that.  For a one-man show, I have nothing negative to say.  The forums have been responsive too. 
> 
I might be misunderstanding your needs, but maybe you are trying to, say, sample a piano  at each octave and 3rd/5th notes, and get a more ‘realistic’ sound rather than relying on onboard pitch-shifting to do the job, creating multiple samples of the same instrument for mapping across the keyboard range .. from page 31 of the 1.7c Blackbox manual, Multi-Sample Pads:

"Multi-Sample Pads

When you pitch shift a single sample across the entire range of the keyboard you may get less than stellar results. A better approach is to record multiple samples across the range of the keyboard and let the sampler interpolate the sounds between the available notes. The more samples you use, the less stretching the sampler has to do, and the better the resulting sound. Multi-sample pads are mapped to multiple WAV files. If the WAV files contain root notes embedded in them, blackbox will play the corresponding WAV file when that note is played, and use pitch shifting to create the notes in between. If there are no root notes defined, blackbox will load the files in alphabetical order and map one file to each successive note, starting at C2. You can also use this approach to map a list of different sounds across the keys of the keyboard, for example if you want to map different drum sounds to different notes. "


You can also do this by RECORD’ing samples, in a session with the Blackbox, playing instruments into it .. and it will map the samples as you play them.  I don’t do much of that with mine, so ymmv...

> I forgot Jay that you were a software engineer.  Do you have any suggestions to break into audio programming? 
> 
There are so many great ways to get into audio programming, from CHUCK to Pd, to Max and beyond, or even just raw C++ with things like the VCV Rack Developer kit, or  JUCE and so on.  I’m always  exploring these different things, its an interest of mine that spans decades, as well as a professional need as a systems software developer working in the audio industry - but I still don’t have an ultimate answer to this.. 

It really depends on how much you personally can invest in the subject, and how much fuss you’re willing to make to dive in.  I tend to err on the ‘out of box experience’ angle for new audio programming systems/frameworks - I have a *lot* of these tools on my lab workbench, so the ease of use of the development environment is key.  I would encourage you to find something easy to start with - even just if its an Arduino with a PCM shield, and coding things function by function.

But in the ‘flavour of the month’ type of thinking, I’d be very happy to hear you get yourself a MONOME NORNS (https://monome.org/docs/norns/shield/ <https://monome.org/docs/norns/shield/>), read the docs at (https://monome.org/docs/norns/ <https://monome.org/docs/norns/>)  and have hacked/tweaked/bashed a new audio program into existence at [?] .. if that is your thing, that is.  (I just got a NORNS to hack with, and an hour with it so far over the last week, in total, has been quite intriguing.)

I mean from the perspective of a new hacker getting into audio for the fun and intellectual pursuit of it, this is, frankly, a paradise: https://norns.community <https://norns.community/>  — I expect you would learn a heck of a lot, if you got into it, too.

Or if you don’t want to go the ‘cute hardware with its own dev environment onboard’ route, get VCVRack.  Get VCVRack Plugins.  Get VCVRack Developer kit.  Get VCVRack Plugin SOURCES.  Read the source.  So many great things have happened because of that particular workflow, it is a vibrant and extraordinary scene, and some of the code is BONKERS.

And then, there’s JUCE.  One of my favourite apps ever is made out of JUCE:  http://endlesss.fm/ <http://endlesss.fm/> 

> I have 12yrs experience but all mostly web and exploit development.  Not exactly a 1:1 transfer.  
> 
> 


.. there are some pretty decent web-style (.JS) frameworks out there, one that comes to mind is Tone.js:  https://tonejs.github.io <https://tonejs.github.io/>

You don’t have to go straight to hardcore code although - as an exploit dev - you more than likely are not afraid to do so.  In which case, some of the special-purpose languages like Chuck (https://chuck.cs.princeton.edu <https://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/>)   and Sonic Pi might be of interest:  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Pi <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Pi>)

Or, just get a copy of BasicSynth, buy the book, and keep it in the loo for some great and easy reading:  http://basicsynth.com <http://basicsynth.com/> 

Either way be sure to keep us updated on music-bar when you’ve got something to test.  ;)

(BTW, there are really great audio devs on music-bar .. speak up people, you know who you are ..)


j.
—
Jay Vaughan
ibisum at gmail.com



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