Sampling Flashcards
What is a sampler?
A sampler is a musical instrument that digitally stores audio samples in RAM.
What is RAM?
Random Access Memory.
How are samples normally triggered?
With a keyboard, MIDI
How is pitch and time linked?
If sample is played slower it will sound lower, if played faster it will sound higher.
It becomes more noticeable when transposed over a couple of tones.
What is pitch mapping?
Laying a sample across multiple keys and changing the playback speed and pitch to match 12 notes of the scale.
What is multisampling?
Assigning each sample to one or multiple keys.
What is velocity layering?
Different samples are assigned to different velocity ranges triggered by MIDI velocity.
What is one shot sampling?
Short audio samples that aren’t looped or have tempo markings.
E.g: drum sounds
What is looping? How can glitches and clicks be avoided?
Creating a sustained sound or a groove.
Beginning and end of loop is placed on zero crossings
What does reversing do?
Reverses audio
What kind of processing controls does a sampler have?
Same controls as a synthesiser.
What filters are used on a sampler?
Low pass
High pass
Band pass
Band reject
What is a band reject filter?
Removes frequencies from between the high and low and only allows frequencies either side of this through.
What processing controls does a sampler have?
Filter, envelope (ADSR), Modulation and LFO, Effects.
Give an example of a precursor of the sampler and its date.
1963: Mellotron, uses an electro-mechanical polyphonic tape replay keyboard.
What sampler was released in 1969?
EMS Musys - first digital sampler that uses standard QWERTY keyboard and velocity- sensitive piano style keyboard.
What was released in 1979?
Fairlight CMI, first polyphonic digital sampling synthesiser.
What samplers were released in 1987?
E-mu SP-1200: percussion sampler, favoured by hip hop artists.
Roland D50: first affordable synth to use sample playback in combination with sound synthesis.
What sampler was released in 1988?
Akai S100: first professional quality 16-bit stereo sampler.
What did Akai pioneer in?
Processing techniques such as crossfade looping and time stretch.
What kind of synthesisers were available in the 1980s?
Hybrid digital synthesisers with short samples to create more realistic imitation of instruments as RAM increased.
