How do I make samples?

[pdlstl]

I realize this is an extremely "noob" question but when it comes to MIDI and sampling, I am the ultimate "noob"!

I have SONAR 3 and 4 PE and a M-Audio 61es midi keyboard. And my audio studio of course. Do I need more?

*On edit - I also have Steinberg Studio Case. It contains:

Cubase SE

Groove Agent SE

HALion SE

The Grand SE

D'cota SE

Virtual Guitarist Electric Edition SE

I'm assuming these are "light"versions.

Can someone please direct me to net resources or previous threads that will enlighten me as how to go about making samples of acoustic instruments? I did a search but "how to sample" is too broad a search term.

Please help...

Thanks!

[Stealthtech]

how to use them ?
or how to make them ?

[pdlstl]

Well, both actually.

I played around (or I should say, attempted) with the HALion. It included some samples (from Wizoo...?) and discovered they are merely .wav files.

Are all samples just .wav files?

The reason I say I attempted, When I tried to load either a single sample or a bank in HALion, I kept getting a message saying "...some audio files are missing...". When I tried to rectify this by restoring them (per the instructions in the error message), I would open the sample folder and nothing showed up. However, I could see these files in Explorer, click on them and play them in Media Player.

The documentation indicates this program has a drag and drop function whereby you click on a file in a folder and drag it to the keyboard in HALion. I'll try this tomorrow instead of attempting to load them like I was doing this evening.

Regarding this drag/drop feature, can I take a single audio note recorded in SONAR, export it as a .wav and then drag it into HALion? Surely it can't be that simple.

Man, am I corn-fused...HELP!

[ssscientist]

Originally Posted by pdlstl

Are all samples just .wav files?

The most common format for samples is .wav.

It's the PC standard and has grown to be a de facto industry standard with many audio sequencers using it as their default export option.

Halion may add some additional parameters to aid quick loading and may change the file extention -- that's why you can see and play the .wav files outside but not inside Halion.

Look under the utility or preferences menu in Halion and see if there is an entry for importing files. That will be your key to using any supported sample format in Halion.

[AlChuck]

Sampler files are not WAV files, though the actual PCM digital audio data in them is likely in WAV format. Sampler sound sets usually have a bunch of separate samples at different pitches and often different velocities, too, plus all the metadata that tells the sampler what MIDI note value is assigned to what pitch, how to loop the sample until the Note Off message comes (or not, for stacatto sounds), the attack-decay-systain-release envelope, etc., etc.