Review: Redmatica Compendium 1.5 (Mac)

Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Len Sasso

           
 

MULTISAMPLERS NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD

Compendium is a bundle of Redmatica's three tools — ExsManager Pro, AutoSampler, and Keymap — for creating and managing multisampled instruments. Although all three work with sampler instruments in Apple Logic EXS24 mkII format, they are standalone products, and because most software samplers can import EXS-format instruments, they are powerful tools for working with any sampler.

ExsManager Pro manages EXS instrument libraries. It will be most valuable to those with large EXS libraries, but if you use AutoSampler and Keymap with other samplers, ExsManager will help you manage the sampler instruments they create. AutoSampler takes the drudgery out of resampling hardware and software virtual instruments, letting you get that aging synth or drum machine into your Mac before it expires. Keymap, the most versatile of the trio, simplifies and automates many of the tasks in converting a bunch of samples into a playable, multisampled instrument. That includes loop and riff libraries as well as sampled acoustic and synthesized instruments.

Management Crisis

After importing third-party sampler instruments and installing or upgrading content for multiple EXS-compatible hosts like GarageBand and Logic, you're bound to wind up with instruments and their samples spread all over your hard drives. ExsManager Pro helps you make sense of this mess by relinking instruments with their samples, reorganizing instruments and samples without breaking their links, and finding and optionally deleting duplicate samples. It also makes it easy to search through your library, back it up, and consolidate samples into monoliths, which are easier to transport and archive.

FIG. 1: ExsManager Pro scans your EXS instrument library and reports which samples are used by which instruments. Advanced settings let you fix errors.

ExsManager Pro does not maintain a database of your sampler library; it analyzes the library each time you launch it. Therefore it never gets out of sync. You point the program to the location of your instrument library and, optionally, other places to look for samples, and click on the Analyze button (see Fig. 1). This is not the time to go for coffee — the analysis will probably be finished before you get out of your chair. For my medium-size EXS library of 1,361 instruments, the analysis takes roughly 30 seconds.

As with most samplers, EXS instruments contain references to the samples they use. If you don't include other sample locations, ExsManager will simply report whether the internal references are correct. That's the fastest possible analysis (in my case it takes about 10 seconds), and if no errors are found, it's sufficient to let you know that your library is in working order. Adding other sample-search locations lets you find duplicates and missing samples, change sample references within instruments, and otherwise reorganize your library. That process is considerably more complex and must be used with care — for example, you don't want to delete or move samples used by other applications — but if your hard drive is clogged or your library is in complete disarray, ExsManager Pro offers the tools to fix it.

FIG. 2: You set the note and Velocity intervals along with MIDI layering conditions that AutoSampler uses to create a multisampled instrument.

One from Column A

AutoSampler automates the process of resampling hardware or software instruments (see Fig. 2). If you have a synth some of whose presets you'd like to convert to multisampled virtual instruments, AutoSampler will save you hours of tedious work.

To do the job manually, you'd have to launch your recording software, route the output of the synth for recording, then play and record many notes at many Velocity levels and, perhaps, with a variety of MIDI controller settings. You could create MIDI clips to partially automate the process, but it would still entail hours of laborious, hands-on work. After capturing the sounds, you'd need to split them into individual hits, trim them as needed, and then arrange them into multisample maps for your sampler.

Alternatively, fire up AutoSampler, point it to your synth's MIDI input and audio output, set up its multisample parameters (note range, notes per octave, Velocity increments, and so on), then let it rip. You have a variety of options beyond simply sampling across note and Velocity ranges. You can layer instruments using multiple audio and MIDI ports and channels. AutoSampler will automatically change synth patches, letting you specify in advance which patch numbers to sample. A process called MultiDimensional Sampling (MDS) will automate two synth parameters and crossfade between multisamples for different parameter settings.

AutoSampler creates multisampled EXS instruments, and some of its more exotic features may not translate to other samplers. I used MDS and layering with two virtual instruments running on my PC, then opened the resulting EXS instrument in EXS24 mkII, Native Instruments Kontakt 3, and Ableton Live Sampler. In EXS and Kontakt, the layering and crossfading worked perfectly, but in Live Sampler, the MDS crossfading was not implemented because Sampler doesn't support grouping. If your target sampler has similar limitations, you might use AutoSampler to create basic multisampled instruments and then set up their layering and crossfading within your sampler. Alternatively, just use Keymap to separate the MDS groups and save them as individual EXS instruments.