building a custom sample bank for the electribe sampler

[Idagani]

Hello,

I recently bought an electribe sampler and I want to create a custom sample bank.

I have 3 questions :

1.)
I used the great oe2ssle editor, created a sample bank with only 1 bass sound,
the sample is a D3 and when I play it in the electribe, I need to play C3 to get the pitch of D3,
a little confusing - do I need to use the sample tune option and put 2 there ?

2.)
Also, I thought about using ableton live's resample option to record some presets I made from a few vst's.
do you recommend to record everything in C so then its easier to match in the electribe ?

3.) for longer types of sounds like pads/strings etc -
can I create loop points so that the end point is not the actual end of the sample,
this way when I release the pad/key that is playing the sample playback will continue
after the loop end and the sound will have a normal decay ?

Thanks

[TheDoctor]

Hello,

I recently bought an electribe sampler and I want to create a custom sample bank.

I have 3 questions :

1.)
I used the great oe2ssle editor, created a sample bank with only 1 bass sound,
the sample is a D3 and when I play it in the electribe, I need to play C3 to get the pitch of D3,
a little confusing - do I need to use the sample tune option and put 2 there ?

2.)
Also, I thought about using ableton live's resample option to record some presets I made from a few vst's.
do you recommend to record everything in C so then its easier to match in the electribe ?

3.) for longer types of sounds like pads/strings etc -
can I create loop points so that the end point is not the actual end of the sample,
this way when I release the pad/key that is playing the sample playback will continue
after the loop end and the sound will have a normal decay ?

Thanks

a) I suggest to don't use Oes2ssle, I har few problems with it.
http://appification.de/ElectribeSampleManager/
I use this, it's much simple but it works smoothly.
You have to change in the Sample Edit. It will save it so you don't have to adjust with the Pitch knob everytime.

2)yeah it's easier if you sample C. I suggest to record at any octave you like instead of sample the same C. Of course it won't match the octave in the Electribe but in case of bass, it's hard to go down few octave with a sample without losing quality, I usually stay in the 2 octave range. I often sample different octave of C so I almost got the vst/hardware patch.

3) in the Sample Edit you can change the Loop Start Point. The End point is the same of the sample and the loop. You want a sound that doesn't decay and you have to work a bit to find a point where it loop without click, a bit of a shame the Electribe doesn't have fade option. The easiest way is to use a tuner and move the start point till you get a perfect loop giving you the same Pitch, you sort loop one cycle of the wave, sometimes it's fast sometimes almost impossible. If you use the AMP EG it works as the build in PCM sound, learn a bit from that one.

[Idagani]

TheDoctor - thanks for your comments
what was wrong with oe2ssle ? maybe you used an older version ?

I chose oe2ssle as it is more user friendly,
if i want to add an entire directory of samples I can do it in one shot vs have to double click each one in the other version.

My questions were about samples that are not in C,

1.)
how can I make the electribe treat them correctly ?
(for example if the sample is a D, do I need to tune it +2 semitones in the sample tune window ?

2.)
Also, how does the electribe know in which octave the sample is,
i.e., I have a sample in C3, will it sound the same if I play C3 in the electribe ?

Thanks

[TheDoctor]

TheDoctor - thanks for your comments
what was wrong with oe2ssle ? maybe you used an older version ?

I chose oe2ssle as it is more user friendly,
if i want to add an entire directory of samples I can do it in one shot vs have to double click each one in the other version.

My questions were about samples that are not in C,

1.)
how can I make the electribe treat them correctly ?
(for example if the sample is a D, do I need to tune it +2 semitones in the sample tune window ?

2.)
Also, how does the electribe know in which octave the sample is,
i.e., I have a sample in C3, will it sound the same if I play C3 in the electribe ?

Thanks

I had problem with single cycle waveform, it just uploaded with a different pitch.

You can tune in the software or in the Electribe, Sample Edit, Tune and you move in semitones. The Pitch knob in the front panel does also cent, but if you tune in the Sample Edit it will save the tuning all the time.

You should not care about the Octave. If a sample is at D2, adjust only to play in C but not the Octave. If you transpose to the middle C(which is C4 not C3 btw, I don't know why DAW use C3 as middle C) the sample will get pitched up 2 octave and result in high pitch sound.
You just play C4 on the Electribe to maintain its original pitch.

Of course you can experiment by going really low or high in octave with a sample, but usually it will change the sound completely and then you work from that sounds.

[Idagani]

I started resampling some sounds from the PG8X vst,
its a free emulation of Roland Jx-8P and it sound very good,
I resampled everything in C3 as you suggested.

The only difficulty is that some of the sounds have different character when the velocity is different,
you can hear the filter open up when the velocity is high,
so I sample most sounds with low and high velocity,
the problem is that it takes double the memory and the electribe is only 24MB.

I tried the lowpass filter of the electribe with some of the samples,
when I boost the cutoff frequency of the electribe sampler with samples I recorded with the low velocity
it doesn't sound so good as the samples with the high velocity,
and when I boost the cutoff frequency of the electribe with the sample recorded in high velocity
it doesn't add anything, shame that Korg did not implement the e2 filters in the e2s.

Thanks

[TheDoctor]

I started resampling some sounds from the PG8X vst,
its a free emulation of Roland Jx-8P and it sound very good,
I resampled everything in C3 as you suggested.

The only difficulty is that some of the sounds have different character when the velocity is different,
you can hear the filter open up when the velocity is high,
so I sample most sounds with low and high velocity,
the problem is that it takes double the memory and the electribe is only 24MB.

I tried the lowpass filter of the electribe with some of the samples,
when I boost the cutoff frequency of the electribe sampler with samples I recorded with the low velocity
it doesn't sound so good as the samples with the high velocity,
and when I boost the cutoff frequency of the electribe with the sample recorded in high velocity
it doesn't add anything, shame that Korg did not implement the e2 filters in the e2s.

Thanks

I don't found the Electribe Filter that bad, they sound better than certain analogue gear and surely better than a lot of vst, I like that. You can still add something to your sounds but I think they works better with drums. After all the Electribe 2S is a sampler and it works better with drum samples.
Surely it's not that crazy filter where you can pick up crazy harmonics but it sounds smooth. Also try use IFX Filter, I love use the high pass to boost low end or band plus/talk filter can add a lot.

Do you record the low velocity sample at the same volume?
What I mean is do you make sure you record close to 0db? Then you can lower the volume on the Electribe parts.

Memory talkin: I know it's not the biggest but I have a general kit I like it and when I reach the memory limits I duplicate the .all file and rename with the range of pattern I used and start over again.
Often happens that I make new sound and I add to my "standard kit".
To avoid lose everything I also make folder on my pc.
Old trick to save memory:for long sample resample at high pitch and then lower back, an octave it almost cut in half the second used. Also upload at 32khz helps about it and personally I found drums sounds better at 32khz, if you look at the factory Electribe library a lot of the drums have lower sample rates.

[Idagani]

after listening to the samples I made I think the electribe low pass filter works better on the downside than the upside,
i.e., if I sample in high cutoff and then turn the cutoff lower it will affect the sound more than if I sample in lower velocity (lower cutoff) and then turn the electribe cutoff higher.

So if I am right about that, its better to sample synth sounds with higher cutoff (and that means usually higher velocity when it controls the lp filter).

I also sampled in various length's, and think that its better to use/keep the longer samples as you can always use the envelope generator to shorten the sound
(you could also lengthen it, but with the limited EG on the elcetribe it might be better to sample longer and shorten than to sample shorter and make it longer)

I don't play with the volume of the sample, always record in same volume,
I can always use the +12db boost on the electribe, just trying to keep it simple.

You mentioned having sample kits you like, is there any web site / forum where people share sample banks ?
I haven't seen any and was thinking to share the banks I am making.

Thanks

[TheDoctor]

after listening to the samples I made I think the electribe low pass filter works better on the downside than the upside,
i.e., if I sample in high cutoff and then turn the cutoff lower it will affect the sound more than if I sample in lower velocity (lower cutoff) and then turn the electribe cutoff higher.

So if I am right about that, its better to sample synth sounds with higher cutoff (and that means usually higher velocity when it controls the lp filter).

I also sampled in various length's, and think that its better to use/keep the longer samples as you can always use the envelope generator to shorten the sound
(you could also lengthen it, but with the limited EG on the elcetribe it might be better to sample longer and shorten than to sample shorter and make it longer)

I don't play with the volume of the sample, always record in same volume,
I can always use the +12db boost on the electribe, just trying to keep it simple.

You mentioned having sample kits you like, is there any web site / forum where people share sample banks ?
I haven't seen any and was thinking to share the banks I am making.

Thanks

Mate but that's super normal, with a low cutoff point you cut a lot of harmonics there's much left to boost.
I suggest another approach, instead of sample long sample, sample one cycle of that waveform, loop it and it will act as a synth. In gate it constantly play and with EG you can still achieve long sound because it simply loop endlessly.
Explore single cycle waveform they're so small that 100 of them they take probably few seconds.
When I resample my synth I always try to find the right end point and the right loop point, with the help of a tuner you can easily make it smooth.
I suggest to don't use +12db if you record in a DAW and then transfer to the Electribe simply because sometimes your sample source is so low and you need that extra db but if your well recorded stuff has already +12db the rest it will be too quiet even if you boost +12db

By sample kits I like I mean sample kits I made it. Explore your sampler and make new sounds.
Usually even with nice sample pack I work so much on the sounds that they come completely different. Kick can become hats, hats can become kick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v_TeIoFz1w&t=2s here my youtube channel where I shared my first sample pack, it's small but you can have fun with it.
I'm plan to release more sample pack and if people like it have a Patreon with a bunch of them.
They're single waveform ready to transfer in the Electribe and you can also simply load the .all file
There's also a single cycle waveform I did, so you can have a look at it.
This pack it was done with royal free loops man but I completely changed the sound of it.

[Idagani]

thanks for the comments, and nice channel man !!!
your electribe looks very cool, and saw you have the newer Korg analog synth, twice cool.

The main reason that I got the electribe was to get away from the computer/daw setup,
sometimes you mess with the sound too much (too much plugins divert attention from making actual music),
so I am trying to keep it simple, just use sounds I like in a simpler environment (= electribe)

I will definitely try making samples from single cycles once I get the hang of the electribe and make some tracks.

I have an older VA synth and there is a great community for it with people sharing lots of presets, I thought there would be something similar for the electribe because it's so popular.

P.S. I read quite a lot about the electribe sampler and most folks seem to use it for drums, I'm trying to use it more like a synth.

Thanks

[TheDoctor]

thanks for the comments, and nice channel man !!!
your electribe looks very cool, and saw you have the newer Korg analog synth, twice cool.

The main reason that I got the electribe was to get away from the computer/daw setup,
sometimes you mess with the sound too much (too much plugins divert attention from making actual music),
so I am trying to keep it simple, just use sounds I like in a simpler environment (= electribe)

I will definitely try making samples from single cycles once I get the hang of the electribe and make some tracks.

I have an older VA synth and there is a great community for it with people sharing lots of presets, I thought there would be something similar for the electribe because it's so popular.

P.S. I read quite a lot about the electribe sampler and most folks seem to use it for drums, I'm trying to use it more like a synth.

Thanks

Thanks.

Not problem man.

I actually resample a lot with my Electribe so probably I end up with much more effects than a DAW but it's easier to have things set up. Also the "destructive" resample method let you work for what you got.

Electribe is a sampler so you do whatever you want with it. For my point too is better for drums because the filter sounds good with it. the EG is enought for drums and the effects work pretty well but still I do nice synth sounds with it. I think the Electribe Sampler is stronger than the blue one because it has oscillator build in, I always achieve nice "natural" sounds.

I don't mind if you pm me, i can help with the process if you want.