emusonacid! legacy

From DOA, I read alot about people taking their drums, but more so with their bass and actually going so far as to create multiple tracks for each band of frequencies.

One dog said that he gets better results taking his drums and coping them three times and lp one, bp the next, and hp the last at whatever frequencies that he uses. I just recently played around with this idea and found that you can use the FIR for this. Also since you should process each sample with the same Q you should have no issues with phrases being out of sync since this filter lines them up anyway.

So if you are into doing this kind of thing, you may want to do it at the start with your emu instead of using Cubase's eq's or something. Unless you have some really hi zoot software like pro tools. I find when I do this kind of thing in Cubase, I always run it to phrase problems. I always have to invert something to make it sound... okay... agian I guess. What makes the FIR filter really nice is that when you do this to your sound, drums, bass, or whatever it still sounds like they are one sound instead of three seperate sounds. I did this with a break and was able to play with each voice (since now I have three for each hit) and found that I could really tweak the sound. It was really interesting. Almost like having a 3 band eq in real time in your emu. You want to notch your drums. Just take the bp voices and turn them off or a compelet notch, or just turn them down in the preset edit screen.

The only problem I have seen from this is that missed zeros become a bit more appearant after doing this. I guess those frequencies that are generated appear to boost since each voice is losing a major secion of it's harmonic content. But some adsr tweaking or recutting probably would fix this.

Just something to consider.

snh

does layering the 3 bands of drums make the drums sound fuller in anyway? i wonder how it compares to the standard drums w/ out the 3 bands....

gotta try it out myself

It does seem to make them louder. Give it a try. You will have to remember to set all the q's at the same so they are in sync.

Let me know what you think about it. Might be something worth doing.

snh

I think I remember Calyx talking about doing this in a recent interview. He was doing something like taking a break and sending it lowpassed to one channel and highpassed to another channel to get more eq control.

A bit more about drums... how do you guys get your samples at the right level (without compressing) ?

You can use the normalise or gain function for this, but this causes a lot of noise. At the moment I layer them or use the gain function of my compressor / limiter. But are there any other ways ?

I was also wondering how the keyboard mapping of the EMU works ? f.e. if I put 1 C3 note on C3 and play another note does it analyses the dominant frequency (and harmonics ?) of that note and translates it to the other note ?

If so, does this mean that I can take any noise, assign it to a note and play another note or chords which are accurate to the first note ?
Which would mean that you can create harmonies of unpitched noise (or something like it...)

A bit more about drums... how do you guys get your samples at the right level (without compressing) ?

In regards to what exactly? I use the mixer in cubase to adjust the amplitude of the sample when I record to audio, and I use the mixer inside the emu when I am running midi before audio.

You can use the normalise or gain function for this, but this causes a lot of noise. At the moment I layer them or use the gain function of my compressor / limiter. But are there any other ways ?

When you normalize, you reduce the bit rate. So if you sample in 16 bit and say normalize it with a boost of 16 dB, in the end, you will end up with a sample that is 10 bit or something like that. Try the bit reduction on your emu with a sample. Back it up first of course, but select a bit rate of like 2 and see what it sounds like. Pretty noisey. I also don't layer as that can eat up space in the mix. I would only layer after FIRing my samples and setting them up kind of like a puzzle. Each sample would have it's one range with very little over lap. I don't use make up gain on a compressor. I only use my compressor for recording music from one cd to another. I am still not exactly sure what you are trying to do. Are you going from source to compressor to emu?

I was also wondering how the keyboard mapping of the EMU works ?

Works really well. Love it.

f.e. if I put 1 C3 note on C3 and play another note does it analyses the dominant frequency (and harmonics ?) of that note and translates it to the other note ?

I don't think it analyses anything. It changes the pitch, I would assume, by increase or decreasing the sample rate. Sort of like how cd played at the wrong sample rate will sound slower or faster. Then it does a bunch of other stuff, like anit-aliasing and such. I might be a bit off on this. But what you are refering to is interpolation. It does pretty good. You still get errors. every once and awhile I will play a note that sounds lower then the note below it. That is just how these things are. The sampler doesn't know what pitch you set to what key. So if you set A at 220 hz and you set it on the keyboard at C, well your C on the keyboard is going to be your A. Nice little trick to play different modes using this, but you don't learn your theory.

If so, does this mean that I can take any noise, assign it to a note and play another note or chords which are accurate to the first note ?

Emu stands for Emulator. The sampler is designed to emulate anything. Drum machines and synths. So yes, you can take a noise and assign it to a note on the keyboard and play a progression with it and it will sound like a progression. Yes you can make chords with your sampled noise. The sampler also allows you to loop, and something I have been messing around with is the cross fade feature in the loop. I have even developed other techniques to combat some issues that become apparent with the looping in the sampler. But that is for another discussion.

What I do, since I do not own a synth. I sample test tones and loop one cycle of them and interpolate them across the keyboard. Sometimes sampling every octave. The most accurate way I have heard to sample something is to sample every other tone. But that takes alot of time.

So with these test tones that I sample, I can treat each voice as an oscillator in a conventinal synth and detune and pan and filter and just go crazy. Then resample and do it some more. And yes, when I play C it plays C and when I play a major chord it sounds like a major chord. I sample test tones at A4. At that pictch your loop size will be 100 samples. It is easiest to sample A's as they are the rounded best. A3 for example is 220hz, A4 is 440 and so on. Makes it alot easier to loop. So in short, yes you can turn your emulator into a synth.

Which would mean that you can create harmonies of unpitched noise (or something like it...)

Yes you can create harmonies... But of unpitched noises... That is white noise, I guess, or would unpitched noises be the absent of noise... and really there is no reason to play with that. You play white noise at A2 and A4, it all pretty much sounds the same. You will hear some sound difference, but it really doesn't do anything. Now if you are refering to drums, like a snare. They all of pitch so you could take a snare and figure out it's pitch with a spectrum analayzer and set accordingly on the keyboard. Renegade Snares comes to mind when we refer to melody played with a snare drum.

If you need any help with anything. Give a shout and I am sure one of us here will get you going the right direction. I am not ready to move on to a synth, I think I could get alot more out of my sampler when it comes to sound design. Experiment and have fun. I spend at least two hours a week just playing around with different ideas. I have actualy compiled alot of different sounds. But it's fun either way.

snh

Thanks sampleandhold ! Lots of info !

With my compressor, I'm just trying to get all the bits of the loop that I've cut up to the right level (0 dB) so they are ready to be used (for mixdown, processing, etc...)

Thanks

Thanks for the info!

Great stuff to try!

big up!