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The simplest way is to sample the sounds. Plug the keyboard into a sound interface, play each note over MIDI, and cut them into individual samples. The first few times you don\u2019t mind doing it manually, but you soon realise it\u2019ll become yet another task that\u2019ll keep you away from actually being creative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are tools that will automate this, the most prominent one being SampleRobot<\/em>. That\u2019s because it\u2019s been around for a long time, back from when a MOOG<\/a> was something you hired by the hour. Venerable it is, and venerable it looks, a little bit-mapped interface that would look right at home on a 90\u2019s beige CRT. (The authors are aware of this and released a new version soon after this was written). Actually it\u2019s not just the size of the interface that confounds people born after 199x, it\u2019s the metallic robot\/car\/can opener detailing. Little metal buttons on little metal remote controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am old and had an Amiga so I understand where this aesthetic comes from. I also understand that coders used to be free to develop their own interface rules. SampleRobot<\/em> will often send you back to the manual trying to figure out WTF is going on. For example, having bought the Pro version, I get a tool called WaveRobot<\/em>, which helps edit loops. I kept wondering how the hell to get the \u2018Open File\u2019 menu item to be available, eventually discovered that it\u2019s disabled, and you can only load by right clicking an on-screen keyboard in SampleRobot<\/em>. Of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A \u2018wizard\u2019 will set you up for your first sampling adventure. It\u2019ll ask you questions about what you\u2019re trying to achieve and set up the numerous parameters for capturing the sounds (is it a pad or a piano? How many keys did you want to capture?) If you try to do it yourself you\u2019ll find the parameters spread over a number of dialogue windows all over the screen. Chances are good that you\u2019ll miss one of them and so you\u2019ll be wizarding for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Assuming you\u2019ve got it set up properly, you then start the recording and the robot plays each key over MIDI, waiting a while between each, attempting to find loop points. It\u2019s not the best at looping (that would be Zero-X Seamless Looper<\/em> which sadly has left this world on the sky train) but if you take some time to practice with all the settings you can get close to a good loop straight off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More likely you\u2019ll want to load up each sample in WaveRobot<\/em>, which as I said took a lot of figuring out, as did the controls to make the waveform sit properly on a large screen. But, like the old hardware you\u2019re sampling, once you get the logic of how it works you can get quick at it. It leans a bit on the crossfade, and you will need to tune things. The overlapping visual waveforms at the loop point are very helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now hopefully you\u2019ve produced a set of samples that you can work with. Although it claims to save out Kontakt <\/em>files<\/a>, it actually saves out Reason\u2019s sampler<\/a> format which Kontakt<\/em> must then convert (as NI licenses Chicken System\u2019s Translator<\/em> software). If you aren\u2019t careful SR will save new truncated samples into its own folder, inside C:\\Program Files which is evil, and probably why they want you to launch the software on an admin account (double evil).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now you have a monolith file in Kontakt<\/em> \u2026 and no more frigging around with MIDI cables, patchbays or that kind of vibe-killing drudgery. Kontakt<\/em> of course has its own filters, envelopes and so on, so you might sample some of your sources as pure oscillator and enjoy tweaking the filters later, making up multiple versions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I started with the UltraProteus<\/a>, from which flows very long complex sounds. It was difficult to get the start point right, and SampleRobot<\/em> had little chance of finding a loop point by itself. Although it looked like my volume level was good, my first samples came out much too quiet. Turning up the inputs revealed that the UP makes a lot of hum, which of course pitches up and down as the samples are played. I made it not too noticeable with a bit of high pass. I really liked being able to attach effects to each sound in Kontakt,<\/em> which isn\u2019t really possible with the UP hardware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sampling the MR Rack<\/a> makes perfect sense as (a) it has no inbuilt resonant filter and (b) the battery is flat whenever you want to use it \u2013 but no sense because (c) transwaves don\u2019t play back the way they are supposed to and (d) neither do the wacky FX. SampleRobot <\/em>wasn\u2019t much help here, and the best thing to do is manually play each transwave, load in Alchemy<\/a><\/em> or Morphine<\/em>, translate that into an additive wave which will then pitch shift nicely over the whole keyboard without multi-samples. You then modulate the wave point and get perfect Fizmo like results. (Update – transwaves are really just wavetables – you can use any wavetable synth to do FIZMO!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Really the process is best for sounds that don\u2019t rely on your active or programmed modulation. It\u2019s fine for an MKS-80<\/a> bass, perhaps for Korg Radias<\/a> chime, but not much use for a modular sequence. Getting SR working is a complete pain in the ass up front, but I know it beats playing each note by hand and then editing it apart manually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n