Sequencer and sampler??

[ESPplayer7]

hey guys i was just wondering what the difference between a sequencer and a sampler is? From what i think a sampler can only record and playback "samples" of stuff that is played and recorded and a sequencer can actually process sounds as you play them via keyboard controller or some other external midi source, is this right? thanks help always appreciated just started diving into the world of digital mixing

 

[ESPplayer7]

sorry i meant to say synthesizer instead of sequencer, another one of my questions was can you trigger that actual sound or sound effect of a sample from a synthesizer so that you can play the piano with the effects that were used on the sample you are triggering? In lamen terms say i have a cool sound "harmonica" sound that was used in a sample, can i plug in a sythesizer keyboard and reproduce the "harmonica" sound on the keyboard per say

 

[mikeh]

A basic answer is, a sequencer is any program that can record and/or playback either MIDI performance and/or analog/digital recordings.

Traditionally, a sequncer would record MIDI notes (a performance - not a sound) and then send that performance to one or more MIDI sound modules, to trigger sounds.

A smapler, is a device (hardware or software) which can sample sounds (or a preformance of sounds) and play back those sound - either as a preformance "loop" or simply sounds triggered by some type of controller (ie: a MIDI keyboard).

A synth, creates sound using electronic wave forms, filters, etc. to create sounds.

If you have a harmonica sample in a sampler, and want to use the keyboard of a synth to "trigger" that sample you would take a MIDI cable out of the synth (the controller) into the sampler (the slave).

Keep in mind, if you have a sample in a given format (say Kurzweil) you may not be able to import that sample into say a Roland sampler. You devices support various formats and some do not.

Some synths have various sample record or playback abilities, and some don't. Some samplers allow you to change sampled sound significantly, and some don't. Some may disagree, but I've always felt, if you are looking for realistic accoustic instrument sounds (piano, sax, etc) you would likely do better with samples and if you like to create original sounds, unique to your creative impulse, a synth would likely be better.

 

[ESPplayer7]

thanks for the help, one thing im still a little confused about is do do samplers only play back whatever they recorder opposed to the actual sound? Let me explain another way, if i have an awesome sound Distortion sound for guitar on my sampler can i get that sound plugging the sampler into a synthesizer and using the synthesizer to play whatever i want with that sound setting or is a synthesizer hooked up to the sampler used only to "trigger" the sample and play it back. I hope im clear im trying to find out if a sampler only plays snippets from other material or whether they can actually PRODUCE the sound, thanks a bunch guys

 

[ESPplayer7]

can anyone please answer my last post i wanted to know this before i go out and buy a sampler

 

[fraserhutch]

thanks for the help, one thing im still a little confused about is do do samplers only play back whatever they recorder opposed to the actual sound? Let me explain another way, if i have an awesome sound Distortion sound for guitar on my sampler can i get that sound plugging the sampler into a synthesizer and using the synthesizer to play whatever i want with that sound setting or is a synthesizer hooked up to the sampler used only to "trigger" the sample and play it back. I hope im clear im trying to find out if a sampler only plays snippets from other material or whether they can actually PRODUCE the sound, thanks a bunch guys

A proper sampler will, in effect, record the sound you input to it and allow for it to be played back (this is an over-simplification, of course). These recorded bits are called, oddly enough, samples.

A sampler differs from an audio sequencer in that the sequencer can only (in general) play back *exactly* what was recorded into it. A sampler allows you to map the samples to some playback mechanism or trigger, often cases a keyboard mapping to a midi note number. You then trigger these samples via the appropriate midi message.

Of course, samples are most often looped so that you may play longer instances than the sample you created.

This is, of course, not nearly all there is to say, but I hope that this gives you a little flavour of the differences.

 

[ESPplayer7]

thanks that helped a little but the core of my concern is do samples make sounds of themselves for you to trigger or is only "the sample" that gets triggered. to try to make sense think of it like a synth, can the sample "sound or effect" be reproduced. Ex. assigning c1 to a flute sample, can a sampler make it so i can route the flute sound to all my keys and have a full keyboard of flute sounds? i know you can do this with a snyth but im wondering if a sampler does this too, thanks

 

[fraserhutch]

thanks that helped a little but the core of my concern is do samples make sounds of themselves for you to trigger or is only "the sample" that gets triggered. to try to make sense think of it like a synth, can the sample "sound or effect" be reproduced. Ex. assigning c1 to a flute sample, can a sampler make it so i can route the flute sound to all my keys and have a full keyboard of flute sounds? i know you can do this with a snyth but im wondering if a sampler does this too, thanks

If I understand your question properly, the answer is yes, with a caveat.

A sampler should be able to take the input sample and modulate it to a degree so that it can be "assigned to a different key".

However, that said, it will rarely happen that a single sample could be used for more than a few notes; the quality of the sound suffers when modulated far away from the original pitch, which is what a sample map typically consists of many samples at different notes (pitches). In fact, most truly excellent sample maps will have several samples per note (pitch) that get swapped based on velocity.

So, the answer to your question is, yes, but that is rarely desireable.

Does that make more sense?

 

[mikeh]

As fraserhutch indicates a single sample is only good within a limited range.

To over simplify, a sample may be a 1 second part of a sound. A sound has many parts - the original attack (say guitar pick on string), the basic tone, the decay, additional harmonics, distortion, etc. These components may take 3 (or more) seconds to develop - and only capturing 1 second won't capture the full tone. And playing a low note has different tones factors than a high note.

As an example, if you sample a distorted guitar sound, playing a G and then trigger that sampled sound with a keyboard - the G would sound fine, and perhaps you could go up to A or down to F and it would be OK, but going beyond that you would get sounds that are less and less "realistic" The solution is to sample the guitar at G and again at A and again at F, etc.

When you hear a sample of a Grand piano, it is likely the result of numerous samples up and the the keyboard to capture the subtle tonal differences from one octive to the next.

The more complex the sound (more harmonics, etc) the more samples are required to capture the sound. Whereas something like a drum hit (fast attack, fast decay, etc) may only require one sample.