sampler software

Well, i use Logic over Cubase so i'd have to say the emagic sampler cos it really is a cool piece of kit. Dunno about cubase though. Have you checked all the VST type sites? you never know what you can find on them...

frankly i'm still baffled by cubase, i only got handed a copy recently and can do borederline nothing with it, but i'll check those things out.. and i can seek out an emagic, i' always up for new technology.

There's Halion to work with Cubase, the equivalent of Logics sampler. Also if you are on a PC Gigasampler which is very clever in that it streams off the Gard disc rather than from RAM so the size of Sample or bank is only limited by the size of you HD, hence the name. Aparrently both Cubase and Logic's sampler will do this in future versions.

God dunno about Cubase - it is the singularly *worst* piece of software I have ever laid my hands on. God I would be so sick if I'd paid £400 for that and not got hold of a (ahem) "borrowed" copy. They deserve to sell exextly 0 copies of that shit.

Anyway, sampling software - well, free (shareware actually) and really quite good is Goldwave. I use Soundforge which isn't free, but it doesn't cost much. I am very pleased with it indeed.

As an addition, every one I know uses Logic appart from significantly Nick who uses cubase because it allows each sound in the soft sampler to be routed into the mixer on its own channel rather than as a stereo pair. He writes techno so this is very important to him when he writes the drum parts up from samples. I'll find out which soft sampler he uses for you.

Apparently the next version of logic will do this and as soon as it does he will switch. He works selling high tech gear and software so he knows his onions, I think

well thanking you all.. i did, thankfully, borrow a copy of cubase. and made a protecitive backup copy.. these are my first forays into music software, glad of all the help.i shall ask my pal Morpheus if he can tracka ny of them down.

Well, although I havn't used Logic for extended periods, I prefer Cubase.

It really is a kind of Mac Vs PC argument these days with both pieces of software offering comparable features and performance with either package edging it in certain respects.

As for sampling software, Battery seems a pretty good piece of kit for drums and hits. But for the wider issue of sampling, for at least another year or two, I would urge you rethink about investing in a hardware sampler for the best, and most pain-free, performance. New and Second-hand kit is at all time time low price.

As with all these music production arguments, I recommend you take a look at www.dancetech.com and their excellent forums.

i'd love some hardware, machinery excites me more than computers. but, you know, right now i've got whatever i can download until i get abit of cash together. then it's to this little shop int he south end of leeds which is packed full of old oscillators, samplers, 4-tracks, mixing desks for, as far as i can tell, pretty good prices.

Don't know exactly what you mean by sampling software - do you want something which is as much like a proper hardware sampler as possible, interface-wise? If so, I don't know that I'm thinking of the right kind of thing, but as far as sample editing software goes Goldwave is probably the nicest shareware thing, and you can get a free trial version from www.goldwave.com. It's not got a whooshy sampler-like appearance, but you've got a whole load of basic tools, effects, filters and EQing (including parametric EQ) and you can create and save your own presets for pretty much all the effects and filters. No support for Soundforge-style plugin effects, though, and you have to know a bit about what you're actually doing to get useful results out of some of the effects, but I guess that's more or less true of anything.

CoolEdit Pro is meant to be ok (not tried it, but it's what a lot of people on the dsp/music IRC channel I'm on use), but it isn't free, and the trial version (CE95) is old and clunky. Soundforge is supposed to be good but it used to be quite expensive, don't know what it costs now. On the other hand, I was assuming that your reluctance to spend money in the first post applied to software as well as hardware, but the Morpheus reference makes me think that software price is no object. I've heard nice things about Wavelab but have never tried it. I reckon Recycle (automates chopping breakbeats into individual drum sounds or rearranging which sound goes where, some fx) is a bit of a one-trick pony and I can do everything it does in Goldwave with a bit of effort, but if you do a lot of breakcutting it might save you enough time to be worth it. Then again, doesn't FruityLoops do a lot of that kind of thing itself? Not sure, not used it.

That's all I can think of, but two good places to look for information about music software are http://www.maz-sound.com/ (follow links to "sample editors" in this case, although there's lots of good recommendations, links and reviews in every section) and http://www.harmony-central.com/.

Whew. Hope some of that was some use. I must admit I don't really know much about the midi end of sequencing, as I've never had a midi synth. For me it's all software, plus one guitar, amp and crappy multi-fx unit and one Juno 6 (pre-midi). I'm looking to pick up the cheapest midi controller keyboard I can find at some point, but until then I have no clue about midi.

Ah, but the reason (feeble pun noticed but not intended) hardware is getting so much cheaper so suddenly is because the software DSP thing is really catching on and so many people out there are now using software almost exclusively (Autechre, kid606, Cex, etc... admittedly most of the artists I can name who are mostly using software are really heavily into granular synthesis, which there's a lot of software to do and I haven't even heard of any hardware which does it), which is more diverse, more customisable, and a lot cheaper. Downside: It doesn't feel as immediate, and getting your softsynth sounds which are being piped out of a soundcard to sound as warm and exciting as a real synth will do as soon as you switch it on seems to be quite difficult, makes it even less obvious how to do a live electronic music show without standing still in front of a boring- looking box and just pushing a button once every 30 seconds and occasionally tweaking some filters. Maybe that's just me not knowing what I'm doing.

Is this a good time to plug Jeskola Buzz? It's not really relevant in this case, since you seem happy with Fruity Loops and keen to learn to use Cubase, but it's a modular tracker and there are loads of people writing plugins for it (there are some great plugins out there), plus there are loaders for VST plugins and Soundfonts available for it, and (now this is the best bit) it's free. Unfortunately the midi support is a bit patchy and the developer had a nasty HD crash and lost all his source code so we're still not entirely sure if Buzz 2 will ever happen (he's still hoping to find an identical HD for parts to get the old one running again for long enough to get everything off it). Still, I love it dearly, and have heard some really awesome stuff done with it.

already using goldwave, the clunky sounds i seemed to be achieving drove me here to ask. though this is really the start of me using anyting o i should perhaps have more patience with these things, not try to make things sound like anything other. a quick look at a Cd i had demonstrates i already have half the programs people have mentioned complete with cracks, i just need patience re: manuals. i just find it so much more fun to experiment and learn rather than laboriously learning the correct use of. i think by basic questionw as a bit unspecific - i want something that not only takes moments but can edit out certain frequencies so if i'm trying to sample some brass or whatever i don't get bass and beats. also having trouble with a kind of clicking sound that comes with goldwave cut and paste. it hink i suffer a little from eno syndrome. i want the machines to do it all for me. i forgot my uncle's korg Triton is here, £2000 of very expensive synthesiser. you can just press few buttons and music's going for hours, it's astonishing, and perfect. my equipment right now stands at more software than i can mentione (i've downloade dmost things people have mentioned here), some broken leads, a crap amp, a crap guitar, one echo pedal and an old trumpet. i have no idea what i'm doing, it's thoroughly exciting.

I have to admit that until two years ago all my sampling and sequencing needs were met by using Protracker on the Amiga, running everything through various FX into a 4 track, and bouncing everything down before laying guitar, vocals and other "live" stuff over the top.

I thought that by moving up to Cubase and having the ability to change anything at any point would increase my creativity. However, I just find that my muic sounds a bit clearer, and that's the only difference. Even then most people can't tell my stuff apart.

I would really love to have a tracker-style interface in Cubase, possibly as a plug-in. I have played around with Buzz a bit and I like it a lot, but if It had the ability to work as a mulittrack recorder too, I might even use it instead of Cubase for songwriting - although I would probably then import everything into cubase for mixing.

Matthew: I wrote a response to your Goldwave/sound editing queries (separating different instruments out, pops and clicks when you copy and paste), but it was rather long, technical, dreary, and basically only really intended for you, so I thought it best not to clutter this page up with it. I was going to send it via private email but then I wasn't sure if your mail client, which looks from the address as if it might be webmail, might chew up my ascii art (yes, I'm afraid so, I did say ascii art). So I put it on the web here: http://www.10mbfree.com/silentkid/ile-waves.html.

There's a popup ad, I'm afraid. Not my fault. Formatting isn't very nice, either, it's just kept exactly how it would've been if I had put it up here. If you can't see the webpage for whatever reason then let me know and I will email it (well, if you want me to, but then if you don't you won't mention it...).

Everyone else is also welcome to look and correct me (on here or wherever) if I'm wrong, which is very possible. It's not very interesting, it's appallingly badly written, but I tried...