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Tips
& Tricks
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Loop
Synchronization Technique The
following excerpts are from a thread which appeared
on the ASR-X mailing list this past summer
(late-June to early-July.) There were so_many good
idea's in this thread that I'd solicited the
original authors to reproduce the thread on this
page. The individual authors and their contact
information has been provided. Enjoy!
Tim
Gross
wrote: "O.K.
from the FAQ's and stuff I take it there are 4
major ways to sync a loop on the ASR-X or any
sampler for that matter. Well I am still having
troubles. Here is what I try. METHOD
1: Sample 8 count beat into ASR-X. Adjust sample
start until I hear a nice attack of the first note
in the loop then go into sequencer Cubase create a
NOTE 8 beats long and loop the sequencer. Then I
adjust the tempo until I'm close. For fine tuning I
do 1 of 2 things... Fine
Tuning Method 2: Adjust sample pitch either hold
pitch wheel & record (old school METHOD
2-Pitch Bend) or Adjust the semitones in
cents...the fine tuning one that is 1/100 of a
semitone or whatever Even
after all this the loop sounds good and when I add
1/8 note HHats or something the beat sounds off. I
don't think there is swing in my beat. I am doing
mostly dance stuff so there isn't much
swing. METHOD
3- Time Compress - The only way for me to get rock
solid loops is to sample into computer (Sound
Forge) and then time compress/expand to say 135 BMP
would be 3.555 seconds derived from: BPM
/8 =n 60/n
= Sample length of a 8 Count Loop in
seconds then
save as wav/aiff and load into ASR-X.. Then the
loops go together great. I
have tried many extra things, i.e., parametric EQ
out low end of loops to see if they will fit better
together. METHOD
4 - Beat Slice/Munge/RECYCLE -- The only other
method that I know of is RECYCLE. Which I own but
is kinda a pain to use w/ ASR-X (no SCSI support)
only slow a$$ SMDI/MIDI transfer. But is not that
bad for a 3.5 second loop i.e. 400k stereo
maybe? I
know ASR-X has time compress/expand but it just
seems like a guessing game. You guess about what
percent length of the loop you need from the
original YIKES maybe I don't understand. It just
seems easier and more accurate to VISUALLY see the
ZERO cross points before the attack of the FIRST
note of the loop. Is
the ASR-X zero cross point function good? Maybe I
didn't have it turned on? I would really like to do
everything in ASR-X but am having
difficulty!"
To
which Unkhakook
replied... "The
first method you mention is my preferred one - but
you left out one *very* important
detail: Make
sure you sample ONE BEAT FURTHER than your loop
size. That is to say, if you're sampling an 8 beat
phrase, make sure you go to the next downbeat -
i.e. the 9th beat - when sampling/ programming.
Otherwise, you have no solid reference as to your
Loop End point; this could be your
problem. So,
try this: 1 -
program 8 beats on your X 2 -
Start the resampler 3 -
hit stop after the 9th beat 4 -
adjust your start/ end points To
adjust the end point, put it *just* before where
you can hear the bass drum/1st beat coming back
around again. To get a good start point, set your
resampling trigger to MIDI NOTE - that way, you
don't have to even touch the Start
point. Crunchy
in milk, Unk."
Shifty
then contributed the following... "While
we're talking about the finer points of the
techniques, it's good to be aware of the effects
from the downbeat on the beginning of a sample. If
you have delay on a loop, then you should consider
having two versions...one that begins initially
silent, and one that begins with the effects of the
delay. If you repeatedly trigger a loop that begins
with no effects,then they kick in, and die at the
end of the loop, it can sound weird...although
sometimes you *do* want that, I digress...Anyway,
on the X and most others, the triple loop points
help with this a lot..."
<<
However, I didn't quite understand the post...
Shifty, could you clarify? >> "Imagine
if you have a sample of a woman saying,
'yeeeeeaaaah.' if you apply some tempo-synced echo
to that and re-sample, then the 'aaaah' part will
probably be heard around the same time 'yeeeaa' is
triggered. So the thing to do is set the loop start
point way after the beginning, to a point where the
delay has already kicked in."
and
Shifty's response to... <<
How do you apply tempo-synched echo's on the
asrxpro? >> "Pick
an FX patch that includes DDL (digital delay). Edit
the parameters...iirc, you move all the way past
the times in milliseconds to Sys 1/1, sys 1/2, sys
1/3, sys 1/4, etc. Sys 1/4 would be quarter notes
on the current song tempo (which you adjust by
pressing/tapping the rightmost edit button).
BTW,
the echoes are shortish (e.g. max. 600 ms), so you
can't always sync properly using long echoes like
1/1. p.s. I'm not sure if that thing syncs up with
external midi clocks...n.e.1 know? (Note:
The answer is yes, the ASR-X does sync to MIDI
Clock: System > Edit MIDI Settings > Clock
Source = MIDI) BTW#2
that tip I mentioned about setting the loop point
also goes for loops that have long release times
and/or glide/portamento! e.g. if you have a 16-step
sequence, and the last note is still ringing when
the 1st is re-triggered, it helps to have two
complete loops sampled, and set the loop point to
the start of the second loop. (I figured this out
playing with my roommate's sp-808...a nifty
machine...terrific sequencer...but complex internal
signal routing...and mono synth- gah! it takes
patience) -N"
And
finally, David
Harris
reminded us of the Sample Calculators available at
Deepsound.net "I
gave this link before...but these calculators are
very helpful for getting loops to the tempo you
desire http://deepsound.net/calculation.html here
is the script that comes with it when you download
the zip file: 'Here
is 11 very cool JavaScript calculators to help us
to deal with samples, time-stretching,
pitch-shifting, tempi, delays, sampling rates,
sample lengths, modulations, notes. This
scripts may be distributed and used ( noncommercial
purpose only) by everybody as long as these credits
are included. If you wanna use those scripts in
your own pages, please inform me. Unzip
in a folder all the HTML files. Open
calculation.html. Open the calculator of your
choice. Tip:
make a shortcut of calculation.html and put it in
your taskbar so you can easily use the calculators
while your working with your sampler or
sequencer.' Everyone
should try them out...they are very good
calculators." |
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