How to use Samples well

[syburn]

I have just organised my free samples from Computer music magazine and well there are so many that it seems too much to use without searching for ages for a sound.

How do you all use your libraries and what software to play the samples?

How much should one use these library samples as it seems a bit cheating and is it legal to use them in your tracks?

Cheers

[cerendir]

Originally Posted by syburn

How do you all use your libraries and what software to play the samples?

Try to keep things structured and it will save you a lot of grief later on. Keep all samples in the same folder (i.e. not in random places all over your drives/partitions) and create subfolders for different instruments or instrument families. One for basses, one for drums/percussion, one for strings etc. Or by developer, if you have a lot of stuff from different library developers.

Originally Posted by syburn

How much should one use these library samples as it seems a bit cheating

Not sure what you mean here. Cheating? The samples were after all created to be used for music making so cheating as opposed to what... playing all instruments you want in a tune yourself? Unless you happen to be Stevie Wonder that isn't always feasible. It depends on what you mean by "samples" though. Multisampled instruments or loops?

Loops can be used for "cheating", yes. And before any techno/electronica/hip hop guy bites my head off, let me add that I've heard people do incredibly creative things with loops, but there's no denying that a lot of clueless people are using loops to build music Lego-style. Look ma, I made a song! Try to use the loops in creative ways, mash 'em up and make them your own, and you won't have to worry about anyone considering it "cheating".

Originally Posted by syburn

and is it legal to use them in your tracks?

If they came on a CM disc it ought to be perfectly legal, but don't take my word for it. Surely there's some license information that came with the samples?

[syburn]

thanks for the tips.

them i see samples that are just one short sound at say note C with loads more notes on the same folder, what do i do with them. cos i thought you can pitch bend the note anyway.

and in a piano roll set up it will also let you play any note!

[G-Sun]

Originally Posted by syburn

thanks for the tips.

them i see samples that are just one short sound at say note C with loads more notes on the same folder, what do i do with them. cos i thought you can pitch bend the note anyway.

and in a piano roll set up it will also let you play any note!

You often put the samples together in an instrument in a sampler (Example: NI Kontakt).
Some instruments can use only one sample (some pads) while other instruments can use thousands (notes, velocity-layers and different variations over the sound).
So, you should aim to build some usable presets/instruments with your samples, otherwise.. throw them away.
(there are different types of samples though that can be handy having one-by-one)

Good luck!

[DarkStar]

No need for Kontakt. cm has done the hard work for you.

Those single-note samples that you are looking at are more commonly known as multisamples. On the cm DVD you should also find cmPlay, a Sample Player VSTi. And some .tcp files - these are instrumenbt patches that cmPlay can load and map all the multisamples to different keys (or key ranges)

Install it and add its path to the VST plugins path list in the Reaper Preferences.

Copy the Samples folder from the DVD to your hard disk.

Start Reaper, insert cmPlay on a track, then open its Options window, select [Add Path] and add the path to the Samples folder. Go back to [Patch/Mixer], click the little browser icon (just in front of "unassigned") and browse to one of the available patches. Then you can play it, from a MIDI keyboard or by adding notes to a MIDI Clip.

I think here is a cmPlay manual on the DVD.As is a note about use of the samples in your own songs.

That should get you started.

The cm DVD often also has construction kits - short loops / clips of different instruments that you can load directly into Reaper and arrange to create your own songs. Give those a try too.
.

[syburn]

Thanks for the help!!

So Virtual instruments use these type of files to work. (I actually got a free Kontact Player from the cm DVD but i did not realy get what it was for - i only wanted some devise to let me listen to the samples haha)

How do you arrange your cm samples. Want to make a system that does not have less folders because its annoying to open loads of folders in this NI Kontact Player....?

[DarkStar]

Kontakt Player will open its own patch files (with a .nki file extension) and some others. It will not open the cmPlay patches (with the .tcp) extension. conversely, cmPlay will open its own patch files but not the .nki files.

In Kontakt Player you can set up shortcuts to particular folders to make browsing quicker (Quick Jump? Quick Load?).

You do not have to arrange the cm Samples (by that, I think you mean put them into a particular arrangement of folders). cmPlay will analyse all the folders and arrange the patches itself (based on the folders in which it finds the .tcp files). You could rename those folders if you wish and get cmPlay to rebuild its database (remove the path and add it again).

[syburn]

thanks for the tips!