Can I play my own samples as an instrument?
You can. Add a sampler track in Loop by Zaweba, drop any audio file on it, and play it from a keyboard with root key, looping, attack and release.
You can play your own samples as an instrument in Loop by Zaweba. Add a sampler track with Track > Add sampler track, drop any audio file onto it, and the sound becomes playable across the keyboard: low notes play it lower, high notes higher. The sampler's settings include the root key, looping, and attack and release, so you can shape how the sound starts, holds and fades.
A single recorded note from a glass, a guitar, a voice or a toy keyboard can become a whole melody this way. Here is how it works and how to get the best from it.
What a sampler does
A sampler takes a recording and plays it back at different speeds to make different notes. Play the note the sample was recorded at and you hear it as it was. Play higher and it is sped up and raised in pitch; lower and it slows down and drops. That is why a sampled sound gets brighter and shorter as you climb and darker and longer as you go down, which is part of its charm.
Setting one up
Open Studio mode with F3 so you can see the instrument settings. Choose Track > Add sampler track, then drag your audio file onto the track. Select the track and play a few notes from your computer keys (A W S E D F T G Y H U J K, with Z and X to change octave), the on-screen keyboard or a USB MIDI keyboard.
Root key, looping, attack and release
The root key tells the sampler which note your recording already is. If you recorded someone singing a C, set the root key to C and every other note will be in tune relative to it. If the sound has no clear pitch, like a door slam, the root key simply decides where the original sound sits on the keyboard.
A short sample stops when it runs out, however long you hold the key. Looping lets the sampler repeat part of the sound while the note is held, which turns a short recording into something that can sustain, like a pad or an organ.
Attack is how quickly the sound reaches full volume when a note starts; release is how long it takes to fade after you let go. A short attack keeps a plucked sound sharp. A slow attack and a long release turn almost anything into a soft pad.
Making music with it
Once the sampler is set, it behaves like any other instrument track. Record a part with the metronome and a count-in, then edit the notes in the piano roll, where you can draw, move and resize them, set velocity and snap to the song's scale. Or tap out a pattern in the riff editor and save it to My loops.
The sampler goes through the mixer like every track, so you can add EQ, chorus, delay or reverb, send it to bus A or bus B, and automate any knob.
Choosing good samples
Clean recordings with little background noise work best, because every note you play repeats the noise too. Trim silence off the start of the file so notes begin as soon as you press a key. A sample recorded at a steady volume, without a fade, is easier to loop.
Short percussive sounds make great sampled drums or plucks. Longer tones suit melodies and pads.
Sampler or audio loop?
If you want your recording to play back as a phrase in time with the song, rather than as notes, add it as an audio loop with File > Add an audio loop. It goes into My loops and is time-stretched to the song's tempo. Use the sampler when you want to play the sound; use an audio loop when you want to place it.
