Emax II operation manual
190
Session No. 3: SOUND EFFECTS
One of the most wonderful aspects of sampling is the ability to take real-world sounds,
stuff them in a sampler, and play them back as actual pitched notes. Animals, industrial
noises, acoustic environments, and much more can be used in all kinds of musical
contexts. Hitting a metal garbage bin with a crowbar and sampling that sound makes
quite a backbeat for your rhythm tracks.
Sampling these kinds of sounds, though, requires a different outlook from sampling
acoustic instruments. The basic idea is to go out on a sampling expedition armed with
some kind of quality recorder, and as always, have lots of patience.
Professional sound designers will often take something like a Nagra portable tape
recorder (known for its ability to record high-quality sound in the field) or a complete
PCM-F1/portable VCR combination out into the field. The PCM-F1 is a battery-
powered digital audio adapter that records digitized audio on the video tracks of a VCR.
Since it can be battery-powered, teaming it with a portable VCR frees the user from
power lines.
Since I don’t do sound design for a living, I saved some bucks and invested in a Sony
Walkman Pro recorder. This is about the size of a standard Walkman, but it records in
stereo, handles chrome or normal tape, has a pause control and index counter, includes
Dolby noise reduction and an LED peak VU meter so you can get a sense for whether a
signal is being recorded at a proper level, and comes with a reasonably high-quality
condenser mic. It also has a transport that is quite immune to vibration. One of my
favorite features, though, is size. I can stick the Walkman, headphones, extra set of
batteries, microphone, and a couple of cables in a small bag and carry it with me
wherever I go. Sometimes I just leave the thing strapped around my shoulder, ready to
record. In many ways, it’s like carrying around a camera.
The best way to learn what makes a good sample is to do as much sampling as possible.
Sample industrial sounds, people, TV, commercials, whatever. Listen back to the tapes
and keep a log that correlates the index counter setting to particular sounds. Then call
up sounds that seem well suited to sampling and stuff them into the Emax II. Just about
anything works for percussive effects, but some sound effects can also be tuned for
melodic and chordal uses.
For example, I recently had a chance to tour one of Yamaha’s piano factories. Sensing
that this might provide some good samples, I took my Walkman along. While many of
the machine sounds were spoiled by background noise, I did get a stunning sample of
a piano testing device that sequentially played all the keys at a very high rate of speed.
Some drill presses and other sounds were also pretty hip.
THE ART OF SAMPLING
Sound Effects
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