Emax II operation manual
189
Record Natural Playing
Record a musician playing naturally: runs, scales, solos, etc. It seems logical that when
sampling, a musician would play just one note, and you would sample that note.
However, it’s very hard to play the same note over and over again naturally. It’s often
a good idea to play several notes, and use truncation to zero in on the best of the bunch.
Some of my better samples have come from pulling parts off one track of a multi-track
recorder, with the musician’s knowledge, of course.
The problem then becomes how to capture the performance, since the Emax II only
allows a couple of minutes of sampling even with maximum memory. As you might
expect, the best sound does indeed come from playing a sound directly into the Emax
II, but that is only practical for certain types of samples. Recording a musician on quality
tape represents only a small compromise in sonic quality, and gives you much more
material to work with. More affluent musicians do their sampling with PCM adapters
connected to VCRs, RDATs, or on the audio tracks of Beta or VHS Hi-Fi recorders (whose
performance often exceeds that of analog tape), or quality reel-to-reel recorders with
noise reduction.
Music School Resources
Don’t overlook students as possible sources of acoustic instrument sounds. Many music
school students will be happy to work in a high-tech environment so that they, as well
as you, can learn about sampling. Remember, though, that this kind of work is very
difficult. It takes a particular breed of musician to play parts and notes over and over
again while you adjust levels and try to get a good sound. It helps if the musician knows
a bit about sampling, and while playing a note tries to give you a few seconds of highly
consistent tonal quality to make looping easier.
Sampling Sources
Sampling from records, tapes, and CDs is good for practicing. However, I have a strong
philosophical bias against actually using these sounds. The purpose of the sampler is to
create new and exciting effects, not just imitate what already exists. You can take Phil
Collins' drum sound off a CD...but so can everybody else. Still, for learning what makes
a good sample, sampling from existing source material works very well.
Multi-sampling Frequencies
When multi-sampling, choose the frequencies at which you sample carefully. For
example, with a guitar, the same note can be played at several places on the neck. Since
most parts are played with fretted strings, it’s often best to sample fretted, rather than
open strings. Fretted strings also have a shorter decay, and tend to be somewhat easier
to loop since the act of fretting dampens some of the harmonics.
THE ART OF SAMPLING
Acoustic Instruments
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