This is EXACTLY what I have been looking for, and not daring to believe actually existed. Thank you for making this! Notes from watching, for future reference: *Step 1, Setup* : Move your ear around near the instrument until you find a spot where you like the sound, place the microphone there, then adjust mic location while listening through headphones until you like the sound. This may be further from the instrument than you think. *Step 2, Record* : Ask the musician to play a diatonic (major) scale, playing each note 3 times; first quiet, then louder, then loudest, using different fingers to make different tone qualities. Make sure there is a nice long pause after each note so the decay of the sound is also recorded. Play from the lowest note of the instrument to the highest. *Step 3, Denoise* : Record 30 seconds of silence in the room, then use it in your recording program to remove any hiss or background hum from all the recorded samples. This is especially important for quieter instruments, or recordings where the mic is placed further from the instrument. *Step 4, Gain and Export* : Adjust volume level of the recorded track so the instrument is at a nice sounding volume level without clipping, then export entire recorded session as a single WAV file. *Step 5, Import and Trim* : Import WAV file into new session, and cut the recorded audio into lots of little clips, each containing 1 recorded note, with exaclty 500 milliseconds of silence before each note attack, and a linear fade that begins during the decay of the note and fades to silence in a couple seconds, varying in length depending on the individual note played. There are shortcuts that vary depending on DAW to make this faster, such shortcuts that move play head by 500ms and jump to next transient (or note attack). *Step 6, Labels* : Name the track what you want the instrument to be called, so you have your prefix ready, then rename each clip, adding the pitch of the note and volume (p for quiet, mf for medium, f for loud) with _ (underscore) marks between words and letters (don't use spaces, it can make problems later). Continue to do this for every single note played in the recording. *Step 7, Export* : Save the clips in a file, then import them into your sample library editing software - there are a many options. *Step 8, Map* : In the sample editing software, we build the instrument. Start by assigning each clip to a note (or a couple notes if you want to add chromatic pitches) of the midi keyboard. Make 3 groups, one for each volume level: "p" for piano, "mf" for mezzo-forte, and "f" for forte). Put all the appropriate clips in the right groups. This is why clip labeling is very important - take your time in this process, an error here can make big problems later. *Step 9, Velocity* : Set the playing velocity for the "p" group to be from 0-99. Set the velocity for the "mf" group to be from 100-119. Set velocity for the "f" group to 120-127. This will work well for most midi keyboards, as they don't have good sensitivity in low velocities. *Step 10, Attack* : Because we left 500ms of silence before each attack, when a keyboard key is pressed, there is a delay before it sounds. 24,000 samples is equal to 500milliseconds, so set the note start for all samples to be at 24,000 samples. Now when key is pressed, a note should sound immediately. *Step 11, Tuning* : Go through and tune each note at each volume by ear with the built-in tuning feature of the sample editing software, using a sine wave note of the same pitch to compare it to. He usually spends an entire afternoon at this task, taking his time, going back and re-checking his work. He also adjusts volumes of individual notes so all notes in each group match in volume more or less. Wow this makes such a difference! Note: This is a how-to for instruments which have a strong sound then decay, such as guitar or marimba. Lagato Instruments such as a violin or horn may require additional parallel sample libraries, i.e. one for pizzicato, one for staccato, vibrato and tremolo, with each having 3 volume levels. In a large room there can also be variations for different mic placement locations if you want to capture variations in room reverb, vs. a very close sound. Thank you Christian, you are a legend my friend. Your impact on the world will be felt for generations. Thank you.
BRUH! this was badass. not just the library (which is very badass) but the video itself. i really enjoy the tone and demeanor, not this hyper aggressive "industry professional" rigid bullshit that everyone seems to be on these days. keep it up.
As a VST user, this was absolutely fascinating to watch! I have always wanted to see the 'behind the scenes' process that goes into making this absolutely stunning kind of technology. I was under the impression that you had to also be a programmer. I did not realise there were samplers with kinda stuff already happening under the hood that allow you to simply use an interface to do that. Now, the next thing I'd love to see is how to sample wind instruments and, especially, legato patches!
I think when the notes are loud it starts to resonate the body/other strings, so you’re missing out on that with a sample library which is probably why it sounds synthetic
Funny how every time I log on to TH-cam I come away with something that couldn't be further from what I was initially searching for ... yet highly interesting :) I'm going to give this a try !
@@ImmaFlyFly - No they don't, if you put a phone near a valve amp you can hear it chattering. For a phone to be listening it would be broadcasting so much compressed audio to a voice recognition server that the router would flag up myscreant behaivour and my valve amps don't chatter unless the phone is about to ring. Trust me, phones listening is an old wives tale!
HIs advice about editing the files and addressing file names is really important. He recommends 2 days of work on this task in order to be extra careful. Trust me. Don't rush through it. Drink tea and do it patiently.
This is a very affective way to sample strings. The tuning in post was a huge help. I've always been ok with tracking the source but it ended up sounding to mechanical or "perfect" in post. I guess it was just a lack of using the sampler to it's full potential. This is probably why I should just stick to recording rock music. Thanks again.
If I recall correctly you organise each RR into a group and one group triggers the next... Its kind of easy but requires much more group management so you'd need 1 x group per dyn layer x number of RRs.
Peter Scartabello you need to duplicate 3 or more groups, and each group differs from each other in the base key, like group1 the lowest note is A0 and the highest note is C7, while group 2 is A#0 and C#7, you know just move the whole zone, then you need to set those groups into "Round Robin". I use kontakt but I think there may be a similar way in other samplers :)
I'm nearly done now! Maybe! In order to get the EXS24 to work properly in Logic Pro X as shown (very quickly) in the video, it is necessary to enable the Advanced Editing in LPX Preferences. Without that the edit button on the EXS24 interface - mentioned around 11 minutes in - does not show up. Maybe at last I can get my alto recorder samples set up and mapped! I enjoyed the video anyway, despite having taken ages to find out how to get things done. Over a month, actually! There are several other videos about the EXS24. Anyone who wants to try this may have to watch a lot of those in order to figure out what to do, but hopefully it'll be worth it in the end. There is a very limited description of the EXS24 in the Dummies book on LPX - which may help some, though there's not enough detail. It'd be good also to know how to convert Virtual Instruments (VIs) for other systems. I don't think I'm going to provide any competition for your professional work - as it's quite time consuming to do this. I would actually have bought a recorder VI some while back - if it had been reasonably priced - but the Albion pack which contained those instruments is now not available. Thank you.
This was a realllllly informative and enlightening video, thank you!! The result sounds incredible and lifelike. Can you clarify...sounds like you feel the results are more realistic by focusing on velocity responsiveness over round robins?
Are there any tutorials on how to sample guitar or piano? I'd like to create my samples. It's pretty easy to sample percussion - just record hits at different velocity levels and round robins. But what are technics for sampling piano (with its sustain pedal) and guitar (with its chords, strums, fret and slide noises)? I'd like to know how those pro-libraries are created (NI strummer, for instance). Please, where I can find/watch/read a tutorial on that. If there aren't any available, could anyone give an in-depth look on how to do it?
For guitar I'd recommend you just strum for the song specifically, most composers and songwriters agree that sampling is just a means to an end for instruments like strings and orchestral music because you can't just have an orchestra at the ready to try out all manners of things, but guitars are always available to everyone so I don't think sampling is really necessary, at least not for strumming. For piano, I guess you could just make two seperate libraries - one with the sustain pedal and one without.
What I’m not certain about starting out is where I should be making my sample instruments because if I make them in a specific program, I wanna know I can take them as a pack to different programs. Is this possible and what should I use? Or is possible would be really useful. Thank you
This is cool! Will Spitfire ever come out with an Albion with East Asian instruments and ensembles? I'd love a playable gamelan, koto, erhu, or shakuhachi library from Spitfire, and the samples in the "ethnic" section of my keyboard just don't cut it.
Please could you post a video on noise reduction using RX? I tried to do exactly as you did...I can remove the noise from the 'silence' file, but for some reason it won't remove the noise from my actual notes.
im trying to sample an instrument a guitar in c but it loses its quality in a sampler if i go more than three notes im using fl studio i wish i could just add all the recorded notes into one piano roll
This is a great video, thanks. I am looking for a tutorial for exporting loops of sustained notes which have perfect loops marked and then go to the tail for note off. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Tim
I recorded samples of my drumskit because I wanted my signature sound and wanted to use them just like midi (placing everything perfectely on time)...the sound I achieved is great if I listen to each part of my kit separately but It doesn't work when I listen all together, especially with the other tracks of the songs (Guitar, bass, keyboard, voice)...why? It's just a matter of equalization? Pre-amp? Cymbals sound good, snare and tom/floor tom not so much, they have no punch and clarity... Sorry for my english and my no knowledge. Thank you.
can anyone help. I downloaded the library and opened up the .nki file via Kontakt (full) own file browser. It opens up fine but i just get a giant '!' in the centre of the library with no sound or even ability to click on any settings or options within the library. Any help?
Is it totally necessary to tune the samples? Aside from the chaos introduced with articulation with the dynamics isn't it beneficial, read: more authentic to keep the "fruity" idiosyncratic intonation?
This is EXACTLY what I have been looking for, and not daring to believe actually existed. Thank you for making this! Notes from watching, for future reference:
*Step 1, Setup* : Move your ear around near the instrument until you find a spot where you like the sound, place the microphone there, then adjust mic location while listening through headphones until you like the sound. This may be further from the instrument than you think.
*Step 2, Record* : Ask the musician to play a diatonic (major) scale, playing each note 3 times; first quiet, then louder, then loudest, using different fingers to make different tone qualities. Make sure there is a nice long pause after each note so the decay of the sound is also recorded. Play from the lowest note of the instrument to the highest.
*Step 3, Denoise* : Record 30 seconds of silence in the room, then use it in your recording program to remove any hiss or background hum from all the recorded samples. This is especially important for quieter instruments, or recordings where the mic is placed further from the instrument.
*Step 4, Gain and Export* : Adjust volume level of the recorded track so the instrument is at a nice sounding volume level without clipping, then export entire recorded session as a single WAV file.
*Step 5, Import and Trim* : Import WAV file into new session, and cut the recorded audio into lots of little clips, each containing 1 recorded note, with exaclty 500 milliseconds of silence before each note attack, and a linear fade that begins during the decay of the note and fades to silence in a couple seconds, varying in length depending on the individual note played. There are shortcuts that vary depending on DAW to make this faster, such shortcuts that move play head by 500ms and jump to next transient (or note attack).
*Step 6, Labels* : Name the track what you want the instrument to be called, so you have your prefix ready, then rename each clip, adding the pitch of the note and volume (p for quiet, mf for medium, f for loud) with _ (underscore) marks between words and letters (don't use spaces, it can make problems later). Continue to do this for every single note played in the recording.
*Step 7, Export* : Save the clips in a file, then import them into your sample library editing software - there are a many options.
*Step 8, Map* : In the sample editing software, we build the instrument. Start by assigning each clip to a note (or a couple notes if you want to add chromatic pitches) of the midi keyboard. Make 3 groups, one for each volume level: "p" for piano, "mf" for mezzo-forte, and "f" for forte). Put all the appropriate clips in the right groups. This is why clip labeling is very important - take your time in this process, an error here can make big problems later.
*Step 9, Velocity* : Set the playing velocity for the "p" group to be from 0-99. Set the velocity for the "mf" group to be from 100-119. Set velocity for the "f" group to 120-127. This will work well for most midi keyboards, as they don't have good sensitivity in low velocities.
*Step 10, Attack* : Because we left 500ms of silence before each attack, when a keyboard key is pressed, there is a delay before it sounds. 24,000 samples is equal to 500milliseconds, so set the note start for all samples to be at 24,000 samples. Now when key is pressed, a note should sound immediately.
*Step 11, Tuning* : Go through and tune each note at each volume by ear with the built-in tuning feature of the sample editing software, using a sine wave note of the same pitch to compare it to. He usually spends an entire afternoon at this task, taking his time, going back and re-checking his work. He also adjusts volumes of individual notes so all notes in each group match in volume more or less. Wow this makes such a difference!
Note: This is a how-to for instruments which have a strong sound then decay, such as guitar or marimba. Lagato Instruments such as a violin or horn may require additional parallel sample libraries, i.e. one for pizzicato, one for staccato, vibrato and tremolo, with each having 3 volume levels. In a large room there can also be variations for different mic placement locations if you want to capture variations in room reverb, vs. a very close sound.
Thank you Christian, you are a legend my friend. Your impact on the world will be felt for generations. Thank you.
why 500 milliseconds?
@ Shane Jewell Thank for the summary notes! nicely done.
@@😊1😊
BRUH! this was badass. not just the library (which is very badass) but the video itself. i really enjoy the tone and demeanor, not this hyper aggressive "industry professional" rigid bullshit that everyone seems to be on these days. keep it up.
I totally agree. No hype or ego. I learned much more as a result I think...
I think it’s because he’s an actual professional and doesn’t need to try hard like a lot of the others.
Wow, very generous of you guys! Not every sample library company would show their techniques.
It's amazing that feel when you can get some nice instrument to stay with you for ever.
That's a wonderful expression, I like that
Times like this is when I thank the internet inventor. People sharing their fantastic knowledge and experience. Thank you guys
As a VST user, this was absolutely fascinating to watch! I have always wanted to see the 'behind the scenes' process that goes into making this absolutely stunning kind of technology. I was under the impression that you had to also be a programmer. I did not realise there were samplers with kinda stuff already happening under the hood that allow you to simply use an interface to do that. Now, the next thing I'd love to see is how to sample wind instruments and, especially, legato patches!
I think when the notes are loud it starts to resonate the body/other strings, so you’re missing out on that with a sample library which is probably why it sounds synthetic
This is great stuff. I may or may not try to do my own sampling but the insight to making an excellent sampling library is just fantastic. Cheers 👍🏿
Funny how every time I log on to TH-cam I come away with something that couldn't be further from what I was initially searching for ... yet highly interesting :) I'm going to give this a try !
It's the algorithms the youtube uses to recommend videos to view.
@@ImmaFlyFly - No they don't, if you put a phone near a valve amp you can hear it chattering. For a phone to be listening it would be broadcasting so much compressed audio to a voice recognition server that the router would flag up myscreant behaivour and my valve amps don't chatter unless the phone is about to ring. Trust me, phones listening is an old wives tale!
@@PrinceWesterburg Go search up some Jacob Appelbaum lectures
You guys make some of the most inspirational content and tutorials on top of everything you have to do for your business. Couldn't be more thankful.
Thank you for sharing this, Christian.
I though my method was good enough but, after watching this, I can see there is a lot of room to improve.
been checking spitfire videos last few days...really amazing information...thank you so much!
HIs advice about editing the files and addressing file names is really important. He recommends 2 days of work on this task in order to be extra careful. Trust me. Don't rush through it. Drink tea and do it patiently.
You guys really are great. Clear to see your passion for what you do
Very impressive. England seems to be the world leader of samples libraries. This video is typical and marvellous.
"Look at it. That lovely interface. It just never ever ever change..." LOL
He said that and they changed it.
Hey Christian, I absolutely love your videos, seriously.
Keep up the awesome work, and never loose that sharp sense of humor! :D
Delighted to have discovered your channel. Thanks!
Amazing tips and insights! Wow really respect this especially as it's coming from such well respected sample library producers!
Thank you for this, it was simple to understand and fun to watch. God bless! 😊🙏🏻❤
Great capture tips, good organization and naming tips aswell. Thank you for sharing !
Thank you for walking me through the meat of the process!
Malcolm McDowell on the Uke for the Win. "I Was Cured All Right" ringing in my ears.
7:02 Christian looks on wistfully.
7:09 Seb feeling the gaze
Lol
Imagine if he was sitting there empty handed
Brilliant
Very interesting, liked seeing your process.
Sounds lovely. Thankyou for a wonderful presentation.
Thank you for this hands on tutorial and the free sample pack.
This was an amazing Masterclass, Thank You Lads!!!
awesome!
This is REALLY freaking cool
This info is gold. Thanks for posting.
wow this is what i wanted to know all my life
This is a very affective way to sample strings. The tuning in post was a huge help. I've always been ok with tracking the source but it ended up sounding to mechanical or "perfect" in post. I guess it was just a lack of using the sampler to it's full potential. This is probably why I should just stick to recording rock music. Thanks again.
Mindblowing!!
Awesome lesson man! Thank you for showing us your process.
This is great, the noise floor reduction tip is excellent. I'm curious how you would do round-Robbins in the ESX?
If I recall correctly you organise each RR into a group and one group triggers the next... Its kind of easy but requires much more group management so you'd need 1 x group per dyn layer x number of RRs.
I think you can even do this to some degree in Audacity.
Peter Scartabello you need to duplicate 3 or more groups, and each group differs from each other in the base key, like group1 the lowest note is A0 and the highest note is C7, while group 2 is A#0 and C#7, you know just move the whole zone, then you need to set those groups into "Round Robin". I use kontakt but I think there may be a similar way in other samplers :)
Hey Christian. I apologise for my unashamed cheek but that would make an awesome addition to your 'labs' products! Love the video by the way.
Brilliant stuff. I think I will spend today sitting with that weird thing I got from Bali. 👍🏻
Thanks for posting this, such an inspiration for audio development.
thanks so much for this video! I learnt a lot. In fact I will now grab my guitar and start sampling :)
Thank you very much for sharing so much with us !
The moon Guitar is available in spitfire LABS
What Izotope plug-in are you using to remove noise and decrease noise floor?
Superb tutorial!
This is GOLD.
Its amazing! I am very happy to learn with you Sir. Its a pleasure :-) :-) :-)
i love spitfire !!!! i think a flute plugin would be fire
Marvellous! Thanks for sharing.
Did you know that you're an amazing human being????
THAT is so AMAZING!!
This is such a good tutorial. Way to go, guys.
Awesome, Christian!
Fantastic tutorial! Loads of great tips! thank you
Thanks for this high quality video !
I had watch this video months ago... and only just realized what the EXS24 is... :0
how do you make 'stand alone' Librarys?
press the 'edit' function in the top right corner of the esx and drag youe audio files into it, map them,, and you're sorted
Man just stumbled across this video, some gems in here for real. Well worth the watch!
This was so fascinating! Thanks for sharing. I want to go sample something now. Hmm...
Amazing video! Thanks for sharing!
Very awesome!! :) Thank you!!
As a young composer, I will defiantly go in to this!
All the best
Please do!
That was yye best tutorial I've seen on exs. Thanks!
I'm nearly done now! Maybe! In order to get the EXS24 to work properly in Logic Pro X as shown (very quickly) in the video, it is necessary to enable the Advanced Editing in LPX Preferences. Without that the edit button on the EXS24 interface - mentioned around 11 minutes in - does not show up.
Maybe at last I can get my alto recorder samples set up and mapped!
I enjoyed the video anyway, despite having taken ages to find out how to get things done. Over a month, actually!
There are several other videos about the EXS24. Anyone who wants to try this may have to watch a lot of those in order to figure out what to do, but hopefully it'll be worth it in the end. There is a very limited description of the EXS24 in the Dummies book on LPX - which may help some, though there's not enough detail.
It'd be good also to know how to convert Virtual Instruments (VIs) for other systems. I don't think I'm going to provide any competition for your professional work - as it's quite time consuming to do this.
I would actually have bought a recorder VI some while back - if it had been reasonably priced - but the Albion pack which contained those instruments is now not available.
Thank you.
Fabulous! Thank you.
Brilliant and inspiring
so good...filled with all kinds of knowledge ll
This is so brilliant,
This was a realllllly informative and enlightening video, thank you!! The result sounds incredible and lifelike. Can you clarify...sounds like you feel the results are more realistic by focusing on velocity responsiveness over round robins?
Thanks a lot!!
Pretty good man! Not knowing this techniques!
Very helpful! Thanks for the insights!
Are there any tutorials on how to sample guitar or piano? I'd like to create my samples. It's pretty easy to sample percussion - just record hits at different velocity levels and round robins. But what are technics for sampling piano (with its sustain pedal) and guitar (with its chords, strums, fret and slide noises)? I'd like to know how those pro-libraries are created (NI strummer, for instance). Please, where I can find/watch/read a tutorial on that. If there aren't any available, could anyone give an in-depth look on how to do it?
For guitar I'd recommend you just strum for the song specifically, most composers and songwriters agree that sampling is just a means to an end for instruments like strings and orchestral music because you can't just have an orchestra at the ready to try out all manners of things, but guitars are always available to everyone so I don't think sampling is really necessary, at least not for strumming.
For piano, I guess you could just make two seperate libraries - one with the sustain pedal and one without.
so good - thanks so much !
Can you make the moon guitar donation ware (the 2GBP?)
You can get the moon guitar totally free here: www.spitfireaudio.com/editorial/in-depth/grow-your-own-samples/
Thanks! Much appreciated.
EPIC..thank u so much man...GOD BLESS U
Its amazing. thanks a lot!!
This video was awesome!!!
What I’m not certain about starting out is where I should be making my sample instruments because if I make them in a specific program, I wanna know I can take them as a pack to different programs.
Is this possible and what should I use? Or is possible would be really useful. Thank you
Damn I didn't realise you can retune samples in EXS24 - I have a ton of samples that are now of use, cheers! Great video :o)
You are a perfectionist. That's a hard life to live.
This is cool! Will Spitfire ever come out with an Albion with East Asian instruments and ensembles? I'd love a playable gamelan, koto, erhu, or shakuhachi library from Spitfire, and the samples in the "ethnic" section of my keyboard just don't cut it.
amazing. i always wondered how sampling is done.
So cool! How would you sample a saxophone with legato notes?
Please could you post a video on noise reduction using RX? I tried to do exactly as you did...I can remove the noise from the 'silence' file, but for some reason it won't remove the noise from my actual notes.
im trying to sample an instrument a guitar in c but it loses its quality in a sampler if i go more than three notes im using fl studio i wish i could just add all the recorded notes into one piano roll
that was fire
Amazing!
Great video thank you. Can I use multi-mike positions when using Kontakt?
Great tutorial
This is a great video, thanks. I am looking for a tutorial for exporting loops of sustained notes which have perfect loops marked and then go to the tail for note off. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Tim
Fascinating
Very nice
Excellent! Thanks!
Can you please tell me, can I make it in ableton? :)
Does anyone know if you can do this without Kontakt, or any alternative ways that work, in Maschine perhaps?
I recorded samples of my drumskit because I wanted my signature sound and wanted to use them just like midi (placing everything perfectely on time)...the sound I achieved is great if I listen to each part of my kit separately but It doesn't work when I listen all together, especially with the other tracks of the songs (Guitar, bass, keyboard, voice)...why? It's just a matter of equalization? Pre-amp? Cymbals sound good, snare and tom/floor tom not so much, they have no punch and clarity...
Sorry for my english and my no knowledge. Thank you.
Is sampling in Kontakt just as intuitive as the esx?
Sound are Great and I like it
Anyone recommend a sampler for Reaper i could use? Thx
can anyone help. I downloaded the library and opened up the .nki file via Kontakt (full) own file browser. It opens up fine but i just get a giant '!' in the centre of the library with no sound or even ability to click on any settings or options within the library. Any help?
Is it totally necessary to tune the samples? Aside from the chaos introduced with articulation with the dynamics isn't it beneficial, read: more authentic to keep the "fruity" idiosyncratic intonation?
If you don't mind it being out of tune I guess lol
Can you do that on reaper with a record of a strings sound on a keyboard?
Thanks!