Old 10-22-2018, 12:37 PM   #1
jimmyjazz
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Default Simple sample question

Hi . . . occasional (no longer) semipro Reaper user here. I need a good tip on how to find VERY simple recordings of a few different acoustic instruments. mp3 is fine.

I need each instrument sample to be a whole note or longer of a single pitch. A440 would be great. A piano would be a good start, and maybe a guitar, or a trumpet or a flute.

My daughter is taking pre-calculus and is doing a project where she illustrates sine waves in "the real world". We figured it would be cool to compare the frequency spectrum of different instruments. So, I need a few different instruments playing the same fundamental pitch. I can run a Fourier Transform in Audacity to get the spectrum.

Any thoughts? Google is failing me. I'm seeing all kinds of sample packs, which would require me to trigger specific notes, and I no longer have a keyboard handy. I really just need simple recordings of a given pitch.

Any help would be greatly appreciated . . .
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Old 10-22-2018, 12:51 PM   #2
martifingers
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You can always use the Virtual keyboard in Reaper for a simple task like this. But other wise I am happy to send you a sample of my guitar, a ukulele and maybe a tin whistle if I can find one in tune. Oh yes also a violin (I don't play but I reckon I could scrape an A for a couple of seconds.) I think that are the only melodic instruments I have to hand. Perhaps PM me and I can do it tomorrow.
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Old 10-22-2018, 01:02 PM   #3
jimmyjazz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by martifingers View Post
You can always use the Virtual keyboard in Reaper for a simple task like this. But other wise I am happy to send you a sample of my guitar, a ukulele and maybe a tin whistle if I can find one in tune
Oh, that would be awesome, but before I ask you to go to the trouble, can you just point me in the direction of how I could get a few samples accessible to Reaper? Is there a basic sample pack onboard or would I have to download something?

I honestly didn't realize that there was an internal keyboard.
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Old 10-23-2018, 02:08 AM   #4
martifingers
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1. No trouble at all!
2. No real samples on board Reaper as standard although I guess you will get something out of REASYNTH the onboard synth.
3. The Virtual Keyboard is accessed by View/Virtual Midi Keyboard or ALT B as shortcut. You can click on it or use the QWERTY keys. Not much good for real time playing but fine for your purposes.
4. I am no expert in this sampling malarkey but it seems that while drum samples typically come a "one shot" samples naturally enough, melodic instruments tend to come in collections or libraries which is fine but a bit overkill for your needs.
However there are some one shot piano , brass and strings samples here:

http://theremin.music.uiowa.edu/MIS.html

(Just hover over "musical instruments samples" and you get a choice of pre and post 2012!)
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Old 10-23-2018, 02:43 AM   #5
Goldreap
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Google 'free sfz instruments'. SFZ format comes as an sfz file accompanied by the samples. For your purposes you don't need an sfz player. Just audition the samples (they usually have the pitch in the name) then drag what you want into REAPER or Audacity
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Old 10-23-2018, 04:56 AM   #6
preferred.nomenclature
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You can also try freesound.org
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Old 10-23-2018, 04:58 AM   #7
tonybeepbeep
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Quote:
Originally Posted by preferred.nomenclature View Post
You can also try freesound.org
+1 from me. It's worth the donation fee if you ask me.
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Old 10-23-2018, 08:05 AM   #8
jimmyjazz
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Thanks, everyone. I'll look into those sources.
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Old 10-24-2018, 07:01 AM   #9
jimmyjazz
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A quick followup . . . I followed the "SFZ" trail and found a library of free (donation requested) AIFF samples at University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios. It was exactly what I needed. I used a violin, a flute and a trumpet all playing A4 (~ 440 Hz). I downloaded a copy of Audacity which has an "analyze" function that plots the spectrum, and it worked like a champ.

Many thanks!
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Old 10-24-2018, 08:19 AM   #10
Goldreap
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Excellent, yes I guess the SFZ trail got you there because a lot of free SFZ instruments use (and mention) those samples...handy that you can just download single notes too.
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