EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

On 22/08/2005, at 8:52 AM, Hollow Sun wrote:

>> when it comes to drums, I can only recommend getting a dedicated drum 
>> sampler.
> Agreed... it would appear that as I venture tentatively into the world 
> of
> s/w samplers (such as EXS, Kontakt... whatever), they don't seem well 
> suited
> to drums and percussion.... or at least, solutions to simple 
> requirements
> seem very convoluted and long-winded (witness the recent thread on 
> hi-hat
> muting!).
>
> Ironically, hardware samplers such as the Akais retained many of their
> facilities purely to retain the ability to obtain strict control over 
> drums
> and percussion - individual envelopes per sample, separate filtering 
> per
> sample, assigning individual sample to different audio outputs, 
> panning, FX
> send, tuning and so on of individual samples, the 'mute-group' function
> discussed recently, etc..
>
> It would have made these lumps of hardware far more appealing and 
> easier to
> use if envelope, filtering and so forth had been made 'global' so that
> edits/changes affected all keygroups/zones/layers (call them what you 
> will)
> equally as on a s/w sampler but this would have been a dead lost and 
> totally
> useless for drums.

Some hardware samplers offered both individual edits and per instrument 
or layer. The Ensoniq OS. Still the best sampler OS I've ever seen.

> However, it would appear that this is the paradigm adopted by s/w 
> sampler
> manufacturers - one change fits all. Of course, roll your sleeves up 
> and
> it's possible to fudge certain drum-related facilities but it seems 
> you hve
> to leap through several complicated hoops to achieve what would take 
> just
> seconds on a 1990 Akai sampler (there's 'progress' for you!)!

Once again, why not offer both? Software designers are not always 
musicians or people who fully understand the real world demands of 
these devices. Even back in the hardware sampler days the Ensoinq OS 
was by far the most flexible but was often considered the poor cousin 
to the Akai's & Emu's because of it's smaller ram and number of voices. 
Back then the average user did not pick up on how much more advanced 
the OS was and how that could be an advantage and I feel the same is 
true of the current crop of devices and users now. Only a small 
percentage appreciate the subtle benefits of such intricacies.

> This 'global' approach to editing is ideal for *instrumental* sounds 
> where
> all the samples are essentially the same but it is lacking for drums 
> and
> percussion etc.. Software  drum samplers such as BATTERY, on the other 
> hand,
> seem to handle things much better in this respect as Sascha describes.
>
> Or buy a hardware sampler that can handle both equally ;-)

If you look at my previous post in this thread you'll see I offer as a 
tip a different approach to drum programming and EXS use that simply 
gets around all the limitations you describe between hardware and 
current software samplers.

Kind regards

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Paul Najar
Jaminajar Music Production
www.jaminajar.com