By Avene
Tue Sep 03, 2013 7:18 am
I just thought I'd share this with you all. These are formulas I calculated 10 or more years ago for looping samples to create delay effects or pitched sounds. You'll need a calculator here.
And they're for 16 bit, 44.1khz samples only, mono or stereo.
The first set below are for looping delays in time with the music. So for example, instead of using a delay from the fx processor, you could loop the sample with a decay (fade out) adjustment instead. Or even fade in if wanted to be creative? I don't know if this would help with polyphony, but would definitely free up the 2nd fx processor so you could use a chorus, phaser or other mod effect instead.
When I calculated these, I only did them for normal 1/16 notes etc. For a dotted delay, just multiply the result by 1.5. And for triplets, multiplying the result by 0.3333 or 0.6666 should do the trick.
1 bar = 10584000 ·/· tempo
1 beat = 2646000 ·/· tempo
1/8 = 132300 ·/· tempo
1/16 = 661500 ·/· tempo
1/32 = 330750 ·/· tempo
1/64 = 165375 ·/· tempo
1/128 = 82687.5 ·/· tempo
Now these below I don't know of anyone else ever doing before, and even had one sound engineer call me a genius for discovering this method. I calculated these by looping tiny sections of samples and tuning them with guitar tuner based on the length of the loop. So for example, if you set the loop length of a sample to 674, regardless of what the sound it is, it will play back in the pitch of C1. I've used these calculations in the past to create strings, pads, bass and other synth like sounds from hi hats, snare drums, or any other sound.
Once you've looped a sample to any of these lengths, you can easily create a basic pad sound by setting a long attack time (fade in), a long decay time (fade out), and possibly a bit of filter cut off too. It's basically the same as working with oscillators in analog synthesizers, and all possible on the MPC500 (minus filter envelopes and LFOs). And then if you add the sound to layers 2 and 3 also, with one pitched down very slightly, and the other pitched up very slightly, you can create sweeping or phasing style synth pad sounds.
C0 note = 1349 samples
C1 note = 674 samples
C2 note = 337 samples
C3 note = 169 samples
C4 note = 84 samples (This is not accurate, because the loop length is too short to provide accurate pitch. I normally avoid this loop length. Better to loop at a C3 169 sample length, and then pitch it up one octave, which would be a pitch setting of 120 on the 500)
Anyway, I hope a few of you find this useful. I keep these settings stored in my Evernote account as a note that I can easily access from my phone or a computer. And of course they'll work with 16bit 44.1khz samples in any system.
And they're for 16 bit, 44.1khz samples only, mono or stereo.
The first set below are for looping delays in time with the music. So for example, instead of using a delay from the fx processor, you could loop the sample with a decay (fade out) adjustment instead. Or even fade in if wanted to be creative? I don't know if this would help with polyphony, but would definitely free up the 2nd fx processor so you could use a chorus, phaser or other mod effect instead.
When I calculated these, I only did them for normal 1/16 notes etc. For a dotted delay, just multiply the result by 1.5. And for triplets, multiplying the result by 0.3333 or 0.6666 should do the trick.
1 bar = 10584000 ·/· tempo
1 beat = 2646000 ·/· tempo
1/8 = 132300 ·/· tempo
1/16 = 661500 ·/· tempo
1/32 = 330750 ·/· tempo
1/64 = 165375 ·/· tempo
1/128 = 82687.5 ·/· tempo
Now these below I don't know of anyone else ever doing before, and even had one sound engineer call me a genius for discovering this method. I calculated these by looping tiny sections of samples and tuning them with guitar tuner based on the length of the loop. So for example, if you set the loop length of a sample to 674, regardless of what the sound it is, it will play back in the pitch of C1. I've used these calculations in the past to create strings, pads, bass and other synth like sounds from hi hats, snare drums, or any other sound.
Once you've looped a sample to any of these lengths, you can easily create a basic pad sound by setting a long attack time (fade in), a long decay time (fade out), and possibly a bit of filter cut off too. It's basically the same as working with oscillators in analog synthesizers, and all possible on the MPC500 (minus filter envelopes and LFOs). And then if you add the sound to layers 2 and 3 also, with one pitched down very slightly, and the other pitched up very slightly, you can create sweeping or phasing style synth pad sounds.
C0 note = 1349 samples
C1 note = 674 samples
C2 note = 337 samples
C3 note = 169 samples
C4 note = 84 samples (This is not accurate, because the loop length is too short to provide accurate pitch. I normally avoid this loop length. Better to loop at a C3 169 sample length, and then pitch it up one octave, which would be a pitch setting of 120 on the 500)
Anyway, I hope a few of you find this useful. I keep these settings stored in my Evernote account as a note that I can easily access from my phone or a computer. And of course they'll work with 16bit 44.1khz samples in any system.
Vistit my site - http://avene.org
Last edited by Avene on Tue Sep 03, 2013 4:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
i'd love to hear a beat you have made with these!
