Comments on: 5 – Create a Grain Sampler

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:54:36 +0000

Thanks for your reply Rob! I figured experimentation was the key. You pretty much answered my question. I’ll play around with samples that have more variations to them and see how that goes. Thanks for the help and keep on writing great articles!

If you have any creative uses for using ReGroove write an article on that!

By: Rob - Admin

Rob - Admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:37:13 +0000

Adam,
Thanks for the comment. It’s a hard question to answer. And I think the only way to answer this is by A) Experimenting with various samples and B) Understanding the routing of what’s going on. There’s a few different Grain samplers in here that do various things, but if you’re looking at the basic grain sampler, you’ll see that Rotary 1 controls the speed at which the sample is played back, and Rotary 2 controls from which start point the sample is played. Rotary 3 is attack, and 4 is release. And then there’s the envelope controlled by the pitch wheel and the key button which will track the sample along the keyboard. If both the dive bell and the siren are sounding similar, it could be that you are playing them both very fast (speed rotary is set very high), or the start location of the sample is set very high so that only a short duration of each sample is played, OR it could be a combination of both. Hard to say, but that’s my thinking.

I think it all depends what you want to get out of the combinator. If you want a lot of variation from a single sample, then you’re going to need a sample with a lot of varying content. Try a glitchy sample with lots of fluctuation in pitch/tone/attack, etc. and you might be able to get a little more out of it. Using it on a long slow bell-like sound may not give you a lot of variation, but it doesn’t mean you can’t get something useful out of it. Try it on a lot of different samples and experiment, and I’m sure you’ll find some sounds that you like. From my own standpoint, the quirkier the sample, the better it is. But I’ve had some very interesting sounds when using some of the horn samples in the factory soundbank. So you can still use traditional samples in this combinator. The combinator is just the template to house the sounds. What sounds you put in there and finding some interesting ways to mess around with those sounds is really up to you as the artist.

I hope that helps. I know it’s a little general, but it’s also a hard question to answer because it’s a matter of personal taste.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:24:44 +0000

What kind of samples work best for this? Do shorter samples work better or longer ones? I tried a couple different samples (a submarine dive bell and a fire truck siren) but they both sounded really similar. Great blog!

By: Granular Synthesis and Timestretching « Re-Wiki

Granular Synthesis and Timestretching « Re-Wiki — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:59:28 +0000

[...] Create a Grain Sampler If you’ve ever used the Malstrom in your projects, you’ll undoubtedly see the benefit of grain synthesis. It’s like sound design under a microscope, as you can take a very short piece of sound and chop it up into little bits and start/stop the playback where you like. The fact that you can’t add your own grains into the Malstrom is somewhat disconcerting, but there’s a simple way you can create your own grain sampler, where you can add any sound and use that sound as a grain. This can be very effective in adding some new creative spark to your musical projects. And it opens you up to adding any sound you like and deconstructing it as you see fit. So let’s see how we can do this. [...]

By: Phi Sequence

Phi Sequence — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 05:11:58 +0000

Douglas,
By all means help me get the word out please. Glad you like that one. The deeper I delve into CV, the more I learn, and the more I realize just how powerful Reason can be. Thanks for the vote of confidence.

By: Douglas

Douglas — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:47:13 +0000

Really love that Thor Triple! I know this has already been Tweeted once, but this deserves another shout around the world.

By: Phi Sequence

Phi Sequence — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:30:06 +0000

Thanks Benedict.
Indeed it does sound broken. I love these glitchy type of effects. That’s basically what it is: an effects processor for a sound source. Load up any sound you like, and damage and morph it to your heart’s content. All inside a sweet little combi. Now if I can package up my christmas gifts as neatly as this, I’d be all set.

All my best!

By: Tweets that mention 5 – Create a Grain Sampler -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention 5 – Create a Grain Sampler -- Topsy.com — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:57:17 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Propellerhead, Tiago Oliveira. Tiago Oliveira said: RT @PropellerheadSW: nice tutorial to creating a "grain sampler" in Reason – http://bit.ly/4utj3H [...]

By: Benedict

Benedict — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:22:01 +0000

Sounds broken

What a clever idea. Thanks

By: Phi Sequence

Phi Sequence — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:23:01 +0000

Sterio,
You’re absolutely right! I fixed it in the text. This is what happens when you write these things at 1am on a Saturday Morning. Wait a minute… I just realized how sad that is to write a software tutorial on friday night/saturday morning. I really need to get out more.

Thanks for pointing out the error!