Posts Tagged ‘sampler’
Lets face it my instrument of choice is the guitar.
I know what it does, I know how to make it do what I want.
Bass – well I think like a bassist when I play.
Drums – apart from my aversion to cymbals I’ve got to grips with programming those.
Strings?
Well I’ve bluffed them before now. And I think got away with it.
Just.
But I want to know them better.
But it’s not like drums, bass or piano/keyboards.
I’ve known and played with people who play those instruments.
I’ve watched, listened and noted.
The good and the bad.
Strings, are a little more complicated.
Cello, Viola and violins – we’ve all heard them.
I grew up with music involving heavy use of strings yet I still know nothing.
This article is hopefully going to follow my attempts at getting to grips with them.
———————————————-
So ok, in the past I’ve used software based strings.
Synful, Garritan and Edirol’s orchestral VST’s
All perfectly workable but all expensive and processor hungry.
The expense is justified, I believe.
The work that goes into these packages is unbeleivable.
They sound great but it comes at a cost.
—————————————-
The route I’ve taken is this,
Two Emu ESI32′s fully loaded with 32mb each.
I know, 32mb’s not a lot.
But.
Combined with the Proteus Orchestral synth I have, I reckon that I can bluff it.
Because it’s the articulation you need.
Marcato: a bowing technique for playing a stringed instrument. Using the bow, one begins each note with a new attack, rather than slurring, which is a continuous motion of the bow from one note to the next. Marcato is similar to staccato, with each note played in a disconnected fashion, but is different because each note is played for its entire duration.
Legato: legato often refers to notes played with a full bow, that are played with minimal silence between notes. This may be achieved through controlled wrist movements of the bowing hand, often masked or enhanced with vibrato.
Pizzicato: Violinists and violists hold the instrument in the “banjo position” (resting horizontally on the lap), and pluck the strings with the thumb of the right hand. This technique is rarely used, and usually only in movements which are pizzicato throughout.
Spiccato: a bowing technique for stringed instruments in which the bow bounces lightly upon the string. The bow is held a short distance above the string and allowed to bounce, resulting in a series of short, distinct notes.
Staccato: Notes played abruptly and short. Notes are separated in a detached and distinctly separate manner, with silence making up the latter part of the time allocated to each note.
————————————————–
Useful Articles:
Sample The Orchestra @ Sound On Sound
Orchestral Manouvres @ Sound On Sound
Related Reading:
So you got an Emuesi32 without Os 3.
How do you get samples to the machine without using floppy?
The way I’ve done it means lots of software and a bit of fiddling.
Got patience?
You’ll need
1. Chicken Systems Translator – there’s a free vesion.
2. Cut.Rate.Keymapper – it’s free.
3. scsi cdrom for the ESI32 and a scsi cdwriter in you computer.
4. DOS burning software from Goldenhawk-
4.0G  |
MS-DOS (32-bit console) | March 3, 2008 |
5. Up to date ASPI Drivers – found here
——————-Part 1——————–
Convert samples to mono 16bit 41000hz – for some reason stereo samples get split in two.
Open cut.rate.keymapper.
Add all samples using file icon.
Name the file and save in the same folder as the samples.
Don’t bother mapping the samples – this will be done using the ESI.
——————-Part 2——————–
Open Translator -
Using - Tools - create 2 virtual files – first 1 you want an akai-S1000, second drive emu.
Now expand the akai file so you can see the partitions in the left hand file viewer.
Find your saved akp file that you created.
Drag the file over to the first partition.
Now expand the akai partition so you can see the newly converted file.
Drag that over to the Emu drive – make sure you have the conversion options set to Esi 2.1 in format options.
——————-Part 3——————–
Now drop to dos, navigate to where you installed the DOS utilities.
Use FILE2CD to burn your Emu image to disc.
——————-Finally——————–
Once disc has burnt you can now try and load samples from the disc into your Emu Esi.
Map them to keys and save the bank if you have a zip or similar.
——————-Please Note——————–
This work around works for me.
It’s messy and a little time consuming.
It also needs all the equipment and software explained above.
I hope it works for you.
Related Reading:
Great little sampler, I have 2 at the moment and intend to invest in a couple of ESI2000′s or ESI4000′s.
Upgradable to 32meg this sampler sounds great, but if your intending to have thousands of real orchestral sounds be warned.
32meg these days ain’t a lot. Hence the reason I have two and intend to get more.
Also bear in mind, sampler discs for these samplers seem rare or very expensive.
If you intend creating your own samples then you’ll need scsi and operating system 3.0 upwards.
I got my sampler’s off ebay for about £60 each – one came with scsi Cdrom and one with scsi Zip drive.
Both have Os 2.1.
If you’re thinking of getting one then do a check list.
Memory:
It’s hard to find for these machines and can cost about £40 so if you can get a machine already upgraded to 32meg.
Os:
The operating systems start at 1.4
Seriously it’s worth looking at getting a machine with Os 3 as these are nearly impossible to find unless you get lucky on ebay.
If you’re thinking of using it with your PC then you’dll need Os 3.
Not sure about usage with a mac.
SCSI
See if the machine comes with some kind of storage. You’ll need it. And it could save you money.
Once powered down these machines do not store anything.
Also if you intend to use with PC or Mac you’ll need a scsi card.
These are quite cheap now but the cables can be quite costly and you have to get the correct cable or it’s foobar.
Samples:
There are some software programs that work with the ESI32 but from experience they are a lot of hassle and a lot of fiddling is needed to get samples to the machine without a Os upgrade.
—————
So why bother?
Well I’ve been messing around with it for a month now and finally found a Turbo Card with Os 3 on ebay.
So hopefully that will make sample transfer somewhat easier.
During my tinkering I managed to find a few ways to get the samples over to the sampler to create banks.
And it sounds great.
Useful Links:
How to Connect your E-mu Sampler to a PC
EMU ESI-32 Sample Module – Specifications
How to Burn an Emu Sample CD Rom
Software:
Chicken Systems – Translator – Works? Well kind of in a round about way – try the free version first – I’ve had it working occasionly – I bought the Emu special edition. Works with akai files and I’ve been able to get samples onto a zip drive – but now the software doesn’t see the zip drive. Debatable wether it’s worth it.
CDXtract CDXtract converts all your sampler CDs (Akai, Roland, EMU, Kurzweil…) and files (Giga, Soundfont, Kontakt, Halion, EXS24…) so that you can use them in your Sampler software.
Awave is a multi-purpose audio tool that reads a veritable host of audio carrying file formats from different platforms.
***update***
Seems that you definitely need Os 3 or above to communicate between pc and sampler.
Installed turbo card and updated os rom yesterday and bingo the sampler is finally seen in xp and win98.
Transfer as of yet seems to work. Although am experiencing some hitches.
Will update as I go.