Sample Buyers Guide
I decided to write this little ‘tips’ text because of the amount of emails I receive, and the amount of forum posts that I respond to, whereby people complain about the quality of samples they buy off the internet.
Let me first, and briefly, explain the requirements of a sound designer, when it comes to designing sounds for a manufacturer, software or hardware.
The samples must be:
Cleanly recorded, looped perfectly to +- 1cent
have no ‘air’ before of after the sample
must have dynamic movement that does not peak beyond 0dB
must not distort or exhibit any noise or anomalies that are not in keeping with the sample’s attributes
must maintain the sample’s integrity during the loop length
must be DC offset prior to any mastering or submission
must contain the minimum cycle count for the system that it is being designed for
must be in mono unless the sample has a varying definition on one channel
I could go on, but I think you get my drift.
To explain that in language that makes sense, I am going to revise the above to explain the basic requirements that you should be offered when purchasing samples off the internet - for this article, I am going to concentrate on Drums.
DRUMS
This is the one area of sound design that is easy compared to any other area. The reason is very simple. You are dealing with either single shots, as in a drum kick or snare etc, or drum loops. With single shots, there are a number of criteria that must be met, and if they are not, then don’t bother spending your money on the samples. Let me list them for you:
1. Space and ‘air’.
Any drum sound must have no ‘air’ before or after the sample sound. Let me explain what I mean by ‘air’. In most cases, air means silence, but in some case, it is the sound of the effect or dynamic being used just before you start to hear the sound. This happens because of poor sample recording techniques. The person recording the sample has not truncated (trimmed) the sample properly and space is left before and/or after the sample. But even more importantly, the person sampling has not taken into account the silent character of the dynamic or effect being used. You are probably wondering what the hell I am on about. Well, let me explain.
Most sound designers will run a drum sound through a compressor or some valve outboard. When they hook up all the gear and set up the signal path, the sampler will record everything from the moment the record button is pressed. So, what you get is the sample being recorded through the dynamic signal path, for example, a compressor. The sampler will pick up the compressor’s start, pr active, time and the whole thing is recorded. That is fine because that is what we want. BUT, you must remember to truncate the start of the sample so the attack of the sample is heard and not the start of the compressor.
With some samplers, the MPC 2000 being the most notable, a certain amount of time must be left before the sample start so that the sampler can locate the sample’s start point. But we are talking about cycles here, and milliseconds. In other words, the amount of space we give the sample, depending on the sampler it will be used in, will be very small, so small that you would need to zoom in on the sample waveform to see the space.
Dead air also accounts for sample time wastage. Basically, you end up with sample files that are bigger than they need to be. A waste.
Truncating the end of a sample is also important. Lots of samples are offered with no consideration for the end of the sample. Too much space is wasted by not truncating the end of the sample. If there is dead space at the end of the sample then it must be removed. It’s that simple. All this dead space adds to the sample size and is useless. It is also a problem when it comes to creating beats. If your sampler is set to play the note to the end, then it will play the dead space as well, so when it comes to triggering the next sound, you find that it takes longer for the sound to end and the next one to start.
2. Distortion and clipping.
NO drum sound should distort, unless the distortion is intended. I cannot believe the amount of samples on the net that are badly recorded. In the digital domain, anything above 0dB means distortion or clipping.
The problem arises from poor recording techniques. Recording too ‘hot’ (loud) a signal will result in the signal peaking beyond 0dB and that is bad news. What you, as the purchaser wants, is a sample that is clean and strong but not distorted or clipping in your software or hardware editors or samplers. This is a simple mistake that can be corrected with sensible settings on the sampler when recording. The sound being sampled must not exceed 0dB. It must be recorded hot enough so it is not too low so as to cause noise or hiss when the sample is raised in gain (volume). Please read my Sampling tutorial for a detailed explanation, and guide, to good sampling techniques and how to set your signal path correctly.
3. Stereo versus Mono, the big debate and myth.
Let me put this myth to bed right now. Sampling drums is almost always performed in mono and the only exception is when there is something happening on one channel that is different to the other channel.
Sound designers never record in stereo unless they need to meet the criteria above. It is a waste of space. With any sound, we, as sound designers, can create a copy of the sample and assign it as a voice and pan the two samples left and right respectively. This not only saves space, but gives us the scope for manipulating either channel.
It is also crucial to have the drum sound balanced on both channels. I get fed up of hearing, and seeing, samples that have been sampled off vinyl, or cd, that have the sound slightly off centre and with an additional sound or effect on the other side of the stereo field. When it comes to writing a beat, there is very little you can do with a sample like this. How many times have you downloaded a snare sample that is slightly off centre and has part of a hi hat on the other channel? You will have to end up removing the hi hat, then converting the snare sample to mono, just to be able to use it centrally.
Drum sounds must always be dead on in the middle of the stereo field. That way, you can then place the sounds anywhere you want in the stereo field.
I am about to release some new packs called ‘Super Sets’ that have drum sounds in stereo. These sounds have effects and dynamics applied to them, and keeping them in stereo is crucial so as to maintain the characteristics of the effects and dynamics used.
4. Too much effects and no fade out.
This I see almost all the time.
A sound designer or person sampling, will add reverb to their drum sounds to make them more spacious and appealing. Normally, I would accept this, as the adding of reverb to create space is clever and useful, however, it is a procedure that is both technical and creative, both come with experience, but in most cases, it is poorly done and the result is a ‘wet’ and ‘mushy’ sound. There is no real point to adding effects to a drum sound unless it is crucial for the genre, for example, adding distortion to a kick drum for the Techno genre.
If you must add effects then it is crucial to fade the sample, with the effect, out, otherwise the effect becomes very noticeable as it does not die away naturally but comes to an abrupt end.
Using fade outs is also important when dealing with dry drum sounds, as it adds the impression of the sound dying away naturally. If the sample is recorded off vinyl or cd, then it will invariably carry the start of another sample at the end of the sound being sampled. The trick is to cut the sound you don’t want out and fade out the sound you want to keep.
5. Repetition
Again, too many companies on the net cheat a little, when providing sample content. I often see the same sounds being repeated in the product’s content and, in most cases, with only a little variation on the original sound. A lot of companies feel that the minute the same sound has been slightly altered then it is a new sound. To a certain degree this is true, but only if the sound that has been altered forms a totally new sound. The amount of alteration is important here. If the sound is continually repeated with variations on EQ, then it is a waste. It is only valid if the EQ manipulation creates a totally new sound.
Whenever I repeat a sound, I make sure it has new parameters and sounds different. There are many ways to do this, but this is not the topic for this text.
6. Drum loops
This is an area that I often see abused.
A company will provide a beat with either the wrong bpm or the loop will not be looped. Not all loops are exactly on the full integer bpm, meaning that a 90 bpm loop is not always exactly 90 bpm. Instead of providing the exact tempo, most companies will approximate. This can lead to all sorts of problems. The longer the track, the more the loop will deviate from the tempo.
The other problem with loops is that some companies just don’t bother looping the loop. They loop in their sequencer at a certain tempo and assume it will be the same for everyone, so they don’t even bother to loop the loop. They just provide the tempo and the drum sequence. This does not help, and the reason is quite simple. A drum loop that has an effect or dynamic on it will play well in the sequencer it is created in, as the effects and dynamics are being used to create the loop. The minute the loop is saved, or exported, as an audio file, so are the effects and dynamics. When you then load the loop into your sequencer, you find that the loop is not seamless. Let me offer an example. The sound designer creates a loop and treats it with reverb. In the sequencer it sounds perfect, but once it is saved, the reverb cuts out right at the end of the loop. When you load the loop into your sequencer, you get a gap or ‘cut’ where the reverb was cut.
When using effects, it is essential to edit the loop in an editor with fade outs for the effects, and to retime it and allocate the new revised tempo to it via docementation, or simply to tag the sample with a BPM.
7. False advertising.
To tie up the drum’s section: always make sure that what is promised is what is delivered. Avoid titles that are aimed purely at impressing you by referring to famous artiste/s in this industry. If the famous, or known, artiste/s endorses the product, then that is fine, but if not, then you are investing in a product because you believe that the artiste/s has had an influence on the content. This is false advertising. The way companies get around this is to include the artiste/s name/s in some form on their own title for the product. Remember that a title is meant to invite you to check the content, that’s all. It is the product's description that is important.
I decided to write this little ‘tips’ text because of the amount of emails I receive, and the amount of forum posts that I respond to, whereby people complain about the quality of samples they buy off the internet.
Let me first, and briefly, explain the requirements of a sound designer, when it comes to designing sounds for a manufacturer, software or hardware.
The samples must be:
Cleanly recorded, looped perfectly to +- 1cent
have no ‘air’ before of after the sample
must have dynamic movement that does not peak beyond 0dB
must not distort or exhibit any noise or anomalies that are not in keeping with the sample’s attributes
must maintain the sample’s integrity during the loop length
must be DC offset prior to any mastering or submission
must contain the minimum cycle count for the system that it is being designed for
must be in mono unless the sample has a varying definition on one channel
I could go on, but I think you get my drift.
To explain that in language that makes sense, I am going to revise the above to explain the basic requirements that you should be offered when purchasing samples off the internet - for this article, I am going to concentrate on Drums.
DRUMS
This is the one area of sound design that is easy compared to any other area. The reason is very simple. You are dealing with either single shots, as in a drum kick or snare etc, or drum loops. With single shots, there are a number of criteria that must be met, and if they are not, then don’t bother spending your money on the samples. Let me list them for you:
1. Space and ‘air’.
Any drum sound must have no ‘air’ before or after the sample sound. Let me explain what I mean by ‘air’. In most cases, air means silence, but in some case, it is the sound of the effect or dynamic being used just before you start to hear the sound. This happens because of poor sample recording techniques. The person recording the sample has not truncated (trimmed) the sample properly and space is left before and/or after the sample. But even more importantly, the person sampling has not taken into account the silent character of the dynamic or effect being used. You are probably wondering what the hell I am on about. Well, let me explain.
Most sound designers will run a drum sound through a compressor or some valve outboard. When they hook up all the gear and set up the signal path, the sampler will record everything from the moment the record button is pressed. So, what you get is the sample being recorded through the dynamic signal path, for example, a compressor. The sampler will pick up the compressor’s start, pr active, time and the whole thing is recorded. That is fine because that is what we want. BUT, you must remember to truncate the start of the sample so the attack of the sample is heard and not the start of the compressor.
With some samplers, the MPC 2000 being the most notable, a certain amount of time must be left before the sample start so that the sampler can locate the sample’s start point. But we are talking about cycles here, and milliseconds. In other words, the amount of space we give the sample, depending on the sampler it will be used in, will be very small, so small that you would need to zoom in on the sample waveform to see the space.
Dead air also accounts for sample time wastage. Basically, you end up with sample files that are bigger than they need to be. A waste.
Truncating the end of a sample is also important. Lots of samples are offered with no consideration for the end of the sample. Too much space is wasted by not truncating the end of the sample. If there is dead space at the end of the sample then it must be removed. It’s that simple. All this dead space adds to the sample size and is useless. It is also a problem when it comes to creating beats. If your sampler is set to play the note to the end, then it will play the dead space as well, so when it comes to triggering the next sound, you find that it takes longer for the sound to end and the next one to start.
2. Distortion and clipping.
NO drum sound should distort, unless the distortion is intended. I cannot believe the amount of samples on the net that are badly recorded. In the digital domain, anything above 0dB means distortion or clipping.
The problem arises from poor recording techniques. Recording too ‘hot’ (loud) a signal will result in the signal peaking beyond 0dB and that is bad news. What you, as the purchaser wants, is a sample that is clean and strong but not distorted or clipping in your software or hardware editors or samplers. This is a simple mistake that can be corrected with sensible settings on the sampler when recording. The sound being sampled must not exceed 0dB. It must be recorded hot enough so it is not too low so as to cause noise or hiss when the sample is raised in gain (volume). Please read my Sampling tutorial for a detailed explanation, and guide, to good sampling techniques and how to set your signal path correctly.
3. Stereo versus Mono, the big debate and myth.
Let me put this myth to bed right now. Sampling drums is almost always performed in mono and the only exception is when there is something happening on one channel that is different to the other channel.
Sound designers never record in stereo unless they need to meet the criteria above. It is a waste of space. With any sound, we, as sound designers, can create a copy of the sample and assign it as a voice and pan the two samples left and right respectively. This not only saves space, but gives us the scope for manipulating either channel.
It is also crucial to have the drum sound balanced on both channels. I get fed up of hearing, and seeing, samples that have been sampled off vinyl, or cd, that have the sound slightly off centre and with an additional sound or effect on the other side of the stereo field. When it comes to writing a beat, there is very little you can do with a sample like this. How many times have you downloaded a snare sample that is slightly off centre and has part of a hi hat on the other channel? You will have to end up removing the hi hat, then converting the snare sample to mono, just to be able to use it centrally.
Drum sounds must always be dead on in the middle of the stereo field. That way, you can then place the sounds anywhere you want in the stereo field.
I am about to release some new packs called ‘Super Sets’ that have drum sounds in stereo. These sounds have effects and dynamics applied to them, and keeping them in stereo is crucial so as to maintain the characteristics of the effects and dynamics used.
4. Too much effects and no fade out.
This I see almost all the time.
A sound designer or person sampling, will add reverb to their drum sounds to make them more spacious and appealing. Normally, I would accept this, as the adding of reverb to create space is clever and useful, however, it is a procedure that is both technical and creative, both come with experience, but in most cases, it is poorly done and the result is a ‘wet’ and ‘mushy’ sound. There is no real point to adding effects to a drum sound unless it is crucial for the genre, for example, adding distortion to a kick drum for the Techno genre.
If you must add effects then it is crucial to fade the sample, with the effect, out, otherwise the effect becomes very noticeable as it does not die away naturally but comes to an abrupt end.
Using fade outs is also important when dealing with dry drum sounds, as it adds the impression of the sound dying away naturally. If the sample is recorded off vinyl or cd, then it will invariably carry the start of another sample at the end of the sound being sampled. The trick is to cut the sound you don’t want out and fade out the sound you want to keep.
5. Repetition
Again, too many companies on the net cheat a little, when providing sample content. I often see the same sounds being repeated in the product’s content and, in most cases, with only a little variation on the original sound. A lot of companies feel that the minute the same sound has been slightly altered then it is a new sound. To a certain degree this is true, but only if the sound that has been altered forms a totally new sound. The amount of alteration is important here. If the sound is continually repeated with variations on EQ, then it is a waste. It is only valid if the EQ manipulation creates a totally new sound.
Whenever I repeat a sound, I make sure it has new parameters and sounds different. There are many ways to do this, but this is not the topic for this text.
6. Drum loops
This is an area that I often see abused.
A company will provide a beat with either the wrong bpm or the loop will not be looped. Not all loops are exactly on the full integer bpm, meaning that a 90 bpm loop is not always exactly 90 bpm. Instead of providing the exact tempo, most companies will approximate. This can lead to all sorts of problems. The longer the track, the more the loop will deviate from the tempo.
The other problem with loops is that some companies just don’t bother looping the loop. They loop in their sequencer at a certain tempo and assume it will be the same for everyone, so they don’t even bother to loop the loop. They just provide the tempo and the drum sequence. This does not help, and the reason is quite simple. A drum loop that has an effect or dynamic on it will play well in the sequencer it is created in, as the effects and dynamics are being used to create the loop. The minute the loop is saved, or exported, as an audio file, so are the effects and dynamics. When you then load the loop into your sequencer, you find that the loop is not seamless. Let me offer an example. The sound designer creates a loop and treats it with reverb. In the sequencer it sounds perfect, but once it is saved, the reverb cuts out right at the end of the loop. When you load the loop into your sequencer, you get a gap or ‘cut’ where the reverb was cut.
When using effects, it is essential to edit the loop in an editor with fade outs for the effects, and to retime it and allocate the new revised tempo to it via docementation, or simply to tag the sample with a BPM.
7. False advertising.
To tie up the drum’s section: always make sure that what is promised is what is delivered. Avoid titles that are aimed purely at impressing you by referring to famous artiste/s in this industry. If the famous, or known, artiste/s endorses the product, then that is fine, but if not, then you are investing in a product because you believe that the artiste/s has had an influence on the content. This is false advertising. The way companies get around this is to include the artiste/s name/s in some form on their own title for the product. Remember that a title is meant to invite you to check the content, that’s all. It is the product's description that is important.
