Samplers. Hard/Soft? Which brand???

[pisces7378]

Ok.... I have been into rock and everything else under the guitar sun. So of course I have resisted the topic long enough. But I work with a guy that is into Hip Hop so of course he uses samplers all the time and he says that a sampler would be invaluable for not just Hip Hop. Can anyone give me a few examples of how a sampler would make my rock n roll life easier and my music better? I am into making music with electronic sounding drums mixed behind organic acoustic souding drums, sort of like having a drum machine playing a really scaled down back beat, just to support a good ol` acoustic drum track over top. Then have some cool bass type sounds backing up a normal bass guitar sound. And then using my electric guitar through my Line 6 POD to record some smooth guitar tracks over top of it all that sometimes get a bit louder and intense with distortied driving parts here and there.

Where would the sampler fit into this type of recording? Up until now I have been triggering my Roland JV 1010 sound module via a midi keyboard controller into Logic Audio Platinum through a Midisport 2x2 interface.
I lay down the drum tracks piece by piece (for example: Midi-drum-track 1: only high hat. Midi-drum-track 2: only kick drum. Midi-drum-track 3: only snare. Track 4: Toms and fills. Track 5: Cymbal crashes and aux. percussion.
I go through and do the whole song this way. Sometimes copy and pasting through a reptative part such as during a verse. Other times banging out measure by measure when there are a lot of fills and extras.
Then I back up and do the bass guitar the same exact way.

Now to pull off the drum situation described earlier in this thread, I have been using drum set patches that are obviously electronic such as some "Rave" set or "House, Techno Set" to generate the drum part #1 (aka techno sounds). Then recording the Midi into Logic as a .wav file via my OMNI studio/ Delta 66 sound card. Then going back and changing the drum set sound on the Roland midi module back to a convinsing clasic acoustic drum set and then doing the whole process over again playing a different, more traditional, full drum part.

My problem is, that this takes a fucking hundred years to do, and then it still comes out sounding a bit patched together. And the sounds in the Roland JV 1010 are not at all top notch techno, nor are they top notch acoustic drums. The Roland JV 1010 is a wonderful piece of gear, but it isn't really GREAT an any one task, but pretty damn good at a lot of tasks. And now I am narrowing my focus down and I just wondered if a sampler would help me better with drums and bass.

What do you guys think?

What can a Sampler do for me and would you recommend that I use the e-magic exs-24 soft ware sampler?


Mike

 

[AlChuck]

Well, very simply put, a sampler would be like a Roland JV1010 that you could load up with whatever sounds you want. You can either buy professionally-produced sound sets, or record your own and manipulate them with the sampler. So the sampler can be your drum machine, your bass module, an orchestral module, play industrial noises, or literally anything you can get into it.

 

[pisces7378]

That sounds good to me

Well that sounds great to me.

How do you tell the sampler where to stick the sounds. I have seen "Sample CDs" in music stores before. And I get Future Music magazine that has a free CD every month loaded with free copyright free samples. And they sound like just a snare drum, then just a bass. So I guess somehow you record the sample onto your hard drive and then the software addresses it to a key on my keyboard. Then I can in real time trigger the sample. But that sounds quite CPU hungry. I have a Pent III 933 MHz with 128 MB RAM but only a normal HDD.

Could you explain to me a bit more detailed just how the software can act like a sound module. How for example can the sample take a CD with just "random" snare sounds and Bass drumm sounds and high hat sounds etc... and feed it into the sampler? Then in real time, feed it all back and be played. And most importantly. Will I still be able to quantisize, copy and paste, and do all the other things that Midi affords? Or will the samples be recorded as .wav files? I am just trying to imagine how the sampler will intergrate with my Logic Audio Platinum. Because if the EXS24 from e-Magic will allow me to generate some better drum parts but still have all the flexibility of midi, then I will go out NOW and buy it. WIll I still have velocity sensitivity. I mean, if I hit the C# on my midi keyboard that I have assigned the snare to, will it matter if I hit it hard or soft. Will it adjust the samples volume to make for a more realistic sound?

Also can I grab a sample of a whole phrase, like 2 or 3 measures of a copyright free drum loop and copy and paste or loop it to generate a whole drum part from just a few seconds of pre-done drums?

If this is the case then I am going out tomorrow and getting this guy.

Is the EXS24 really great... or would you recomend another company. I have heard that Gigasampler is great but it is difficult to learn. I am nooking for easy to use but still powerful as hell. Is the EX24 a good choice, being as I already have e-Magics Logic Audio software?

Thanks a ton man, you might just be saving my life.

Mike