Powerhouse Samplers

Jun 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Geary Yelton

Yellow Tools Independence 1.5 (Mac/Win)

Although Independence ($499) first shipped at the end of 2005, it is still relatively unfamiliar to many audio professionals, despite its respectable sampling power. It features a multiple-page user interface, extensive customization features, and a sizable collection of effects. Independence runs standalone and as a plug-in for AU, DXi, RTAS, and VST hosts. It supports surround formats up to 7.1 and features a built-in multitrack mixer.

Independence divides its GUI into two main sections, basics on the left and working areas on the right (see Fig. 11). Basics include sections for loading instruments, adding and removing layers, and changing project, layer, and MIDI parameters. Clicking to load an instrument into a layer lets you select from a menu divided into categories. Each layer is assigned to a MIDI channel, and you can assign an unlimited number of layers to the same channel.

The parameters that appear in the working area depend on which button is selected across the top; each button selects a different editor. Quick Edit lets you access parameters such as volume, panning, tuning, filter, and effects. The filter section lets you select from ten lowpass, highpass, and bandpass presets or create your own. Remarkably, slopes vary from 12 to 72 dB per octave.

Another view, the Modules Editor, affords access to modulators and other modifiers. That's where you'll find an insert filter and effects, mod wheel and other controller routings, tempo-synced LFOs, graphic EGs, and a menu for specifying keyswitches. You can freely route mod sources to destinations and specify curves for the EG's time segments. Envelopes can be assigned to modulate volume, pitch, pan, filter frequency or resonance, and even the depth of other EGs. EGs come in AHDSR and unipolar or bipolar free varieties, and you can add as many breakpoints as desired to free envelopes.

The Performance view lets you access Independence's flexible humanization features. You can set up as many as 32 variations for each sample, each of which will play whatever alternate sample you specify, either randomly or in order. Variations are useful for playing alternate hits on the same drum, for example, thus avoiding tedious repetition. The same page lets you set up Advanced Legato mode for assigning numerous parameters to individual samples to simulate legato playing techniques.

The Mapping Editor allows you to graphically create custom note and Velocity zones in a zoomable display. Clicking on a zone opens a waveform-editing window in which you can define start and end points, loop points, fades, and crossfades. It also displays various parameter values for the selected zone. Right-clicking in the window plays the selected sample. Additionally, the Mapping Editor features automatic groove recognition, and you can switch to Slice-Edit mode in the waveform display and adjust sensitivity for auto groove recognition. It can also import MIDI files and allows you to edit them as if they were keymaps. Independence can even play several MIDI files at the same time.

Yet another working-area view is the Mixer, which provides individual channel strips for each instrument and unlimited buses. In addition to the usual mixer parameters, each channel has inserts with an unlimited number of effects. Dozens of effects range from chorus, bit reduction, and additional multimode filters to a 6-band parametric EQ, mic and preamp modelers, and a convolution processor called Origami.

Independence is bundled with an 18 GB sound library that includes orchestral instruments from Kirk Hunter Studios, pipe organs from Notre Dame de Budapest, and many original sounds from Yellow Tools, a company that first made its mark as a soundware developer. Percussion, saxophone, and bass samples from Culture, Candy, and Majestic, respectively, are in abundant supply. You also get lots of guitars, pianos, and synthesizers, and Independence can open content from any current or future virtual instruments from Yellow Tools. For copy protection, Independence relies on a proprietary USB key ($40), which comes with software for managing authorizations.

Superior Software

As you can see, your choices are legion if you're shopping for a sampler. Which one you choose, of course, will depend on your needs and your budget. If you already own a substantial sample library, compatibility will no doubt be a deciding factor. You should carefully consider how much sound design you might want to do on your own, both now and in the future. The majority of samplers surveyed here will likely be around for a while, and you'd probably prefer software that will evolve as your need for a sampler grows.

If most of your work is in a sequencing environment, then a multitimbral sampler is usually easier to use than one that requires you to open numerous plug-ins whenever you want to play several instruments at the same time. A single instance of Emulator X2 can open 64 different instruments on as many channels, but you would have to open 64 different instances of, say, EXS24 mkII to achieve similar performance. Granted, the computer you own now may not handle 64 parts simultaneously, but nonetheless, multitimbral operation is very desirable.

For anyone who cut their teeth on hardware samplers, the advantages of being able to actually make recordings within samplers may be apparent. Emulator X2 and GigaStudio 3 have that ability, but programs such as Structure and Ableton Sampler provide the same functionality because they're so tightly linked to their hosts' recording engines. As soon as you record audio into a track, you can open it in your sampler and begin turning it into a playable instrument.

What does the future have in store? A few samplers already work a lot like multitrack recorders; sequencing programs will probably gain new features that offer and extend sampling functionality. It's possible that audio tracks and clips will eventually let you define note and Velocity ranges so you can trigger them with a MIDI keyboard. Expansive sample libraries are already becoming the norm, and several sampler makers have told me that their next update will include much larger libraries. Obviously, more powerful computers and larger, faster storage will eliminate concerns over resource conservation. In the future, samplers will offer deeper functionality, more and better effects, and truly unlimited polyphony. Software samplers already offer capabilities that make hardware samplers obsolete, and fortunately for us, that trend is bound to continue.

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Geary Yelton has been experimenting with audio recording since the age of ten and working with computer audio since 1984.

FORWARD INTO THE PAST

Six years ago, Associate Editor Dennis Miller and I wrote an EM cover story detailing the state of the art by exploring 11 software-based samplers (see “Soft Sampling” in the October 2001 issue, available online at www.emusician .com). Obviously, a lot has changed. Only two of the samplers covered here even existed then. Popular programs such as Bitheadz Unity and Digidesign SampleCell have vanished completely. Hardware samplers have all but fallen off the map. Computers have grown far more powerful, enabling software to do things that hardware never dreamed of, like playing massive multisamples from RAM or streaming 2 GB pianos direct from high-speed 500 GB hard disks. Back then, we were concerned that desktop computers didn't have enough zip to offer reliable polyphony, and that audio file formats were all over the proverbial map. Control surfaces were still uncommon in 2001, giving hardware the edge for tactile control.

Of all our concerns, the one that remains today is obsolescence. When new operating systems replace old ones, or when new processors send old hardware to the scrap heap, there's a risk that software won't run on updated computers unless the software developer updates the sampler too. On more than one occasion, I've avoided retiring an old computer simply because I wasn't willing to stop using perfectly good software that was no longer current (Antares Infinity, Korg OASYS PCI, and Opcode Galaxy come to mind). Still, if you stick with a developer you trust to be around in a few years, and your software is popular enough to have a wide user base, you should feel almost as confident that your software will work in ten years as you are that your hardware sampler won't break and parts will continue to be available.

Lest you think that hardware samplers have become obsolete, they still serve a crucial function: playing samples onstage. Many modern synthesizers have the ability to import user samples, but you'll need a file translation utility to export mapped sampler instruments from software (see Fig. A).

MANUFACTURER CONTACTS

Ableton www.ableton.com

Apple www.apple.com

Cakewalk www.cakewalk.com

Digidesign www.digidesign.com

E-mu www.emu.com

MOTU www.motu.com

Native Instruments www.native-instruments.com

Propellerhead www.propellerheads.se

Steinberg www.steinberg.net

Tascam www.tascam.com

Yellow Tools www.yellowtools.com