Cubase question

[Goodfellow]

I have a midi keyboard controller..

Is there anyway to set the keys as audio blocks?

so you import a couple samples as audio blocks.. then set them on diff keys to control em?

[ill-esha]

yes

that is commonly known as "REXing" an audio file, after Reason's rex files...

you can chop it up in Propellerheads Recycle which is a common choice by people, or my personal choice - Native Instruments Intakt

basically it involves importing the audio, setting the start and end point of your loop, then chopping it into "slices" which can then be exported as a midi file and you can use each key on your keyboard to play one slice.

I got into Intakt because I was already using Kontakt (and it's Kontakt's little hotshot brother).. but now I really like it. Yum.

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Intakt features three sample playback algorithms to ensure maximum sound quality for a variety of source material. Using an advanced peak-detection algorithm, the Beat Machine divides the imported audio into individual hits. Each hit can have individual settings for pitch, playback direction, pitch envelope, amp envelope, distortion, delay, and more. A MIDI file can be easily exported so that groove, accent, and feel can be manipulated in any host sequencer. The Beat Machine can directly open REX files which already contain marker information. The Time Machine time-stretches or compresses the sound in realtime. By first analyzing the source sound, Time Machine can dynamically adapt itself to a wide variety of source sounds, from sustained vocals to polyphonic percussion. The Sampler mode plays back the source sound like a standard sampler, by linking pitch with time. Intakt uses a sophisticated interpolation to ensure the highest sound quality, even with extreme pitch shifts.

Not only does Intakt sync, stretch, and pitch, but it filters, effects and modulates as well. A powerful sound-shaping filter, flexible envelopes, syncable LFOs, and distortion, delay, and lo-fi effects inject energy and life into any loop. Since Intakt is based on the Kontakt engine, working with Intakt is fast, easy, and sounds great.

[ill-esha]

uhh, wait. I just realized you said a "couple of samples" not chopping up one sample.

I'm an idiot, but I'm going to leave the info I just posted up in case anyone else might find it useful.

For that, I like Battery. It's touted as a drum sampler, but you can import any sample into it. The face of it looks much like a drum machine, with little "pads" that you can click on and play with your mouse - or use your midi keyboard. Each pad has the name of a key on your MIDI keyboard written on it "C1" "D2" etc. (in case you're not sure - C1 would be the lowest C on a keyboard, D2 would be the second lowest D, etc). Say you want to assign a cymbal sample to the third C on your keyboard. So you highlight the pad that says "C3" go to the right side and click on the button that says "LOAD" as you can see in the screenshot. A menu will come up and you select "Replace Sample" - and then you will be taken to your harddrive folders and can select the cymbal sample you want. (I know in the screenshot the pads have numbers on them instead of key names, I don't know why.. I think that's a selectable option that I've never used, but it should default to the key names).

Once you have assigned your samples to keys you can just hook up a channel. Select your MIDI keyboard for the input and Battery for the output, and you can play your samples!

The link I posted above to a review on Battery also has a nice little tutorial on sample manipulation using it.

[Wood]

^you can drop multiple samples in Kontakt as well, which i think has a few more options for effects / filtering than Battery does. Also you can chop the samples & lay them out on the keyboard like in Intakt, only you have to do it manually which is quite time consuming.

[ill-esha]

well, that's what i'm saying. battery is, to me anyways, much easier to use for quick drag-and-drop style.

but you are right.. i just think the learning curve for battery is a little smaller than for kontakt.

[Goodfellow]

sweeeeet

thanks illesha you rule :D

ill have lots of fun with that