Sampler Pack Resources

Now that a bunch of you are using the sampler pack, I’m going to post resources and tips here.

Here is a quick video on how to add samples to the sample map in Loupe 2:

Sample Map Wrangling

First off – how to add new samples! Because I’m lazy, I discovered that the easiest way to add and map new samples is to put the first sample at the bottom of the map – position zero – and set its root key to zero. Here’s how it should look:

Make sure you’ve clicked on the thin grey bar above the waveform display on the instrument panel in order to “focus” the sample editor on that sampler module.

There’s also a way to do this graphically through drag and drop using the keyboard view. I’ve explained it here – the graphics are from Reaktor 5.15 but the technique is essentially the same.

You can also try this Reaktor map builder tool… it’s perfect for building maps for the sample pack because it places one sample per note with the root set to zero. I tested it on Mac and it works great – it’s Java based so it should work on Windows too.

It doesn’t embed the samples in the map, so the map file is small, but the sampler modules in my sampler pack are set to save the samples with the ensemble – so be careful about running it against a directory with a gigabyte of samples!

Another map builder – this one created in the Ruby scripting language – is here.

Sample Sources

One of my favorite sample sources is old vinyl. Some of the best raw material comes from old exotica, OST, easy listening and space age pop music, and also “library” or production music. The production on these old records can be astonishing. Some names to watch for are Egisto Macchi, Piero Piccioni, Esquivel, Arthur Lyman and Janko Nilovic. I suppose sampling this stuff is a legal grey area but in many cases the musicians are dead, the records out of print and the record companies long gone. Besides, if you’re using the likes of Mirage you’ll be transforming the samples beyond recognition anyways. (disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, proceed at your own risk)

For those of you who can’t afford to jump on eBay and buy vinyl rarities unheard, you can get a taste from music blogs that post rare and out of print exotica, space age pop, production music, fusion, and OST type things: