EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

Hi Group,

Anyone else know about skippys,

Teddy
Infospy.Com

> I picked up Translator mainly for converting my Emu library to 
EXS24 format. Now here I am 
> with the cellophane just off of Skippy's Noizbox and Stark 
Raving Beats and I'm thinking:  
> should I use Translator to convert these Akai CD-ROMS  to 
EXS format?  Or is the EXS's 
> internal conversion just fine.
> 
> Thanks,
> Andy

Hello to you all - 

My name is John "Skippy" Lehmkuhl. I am the creator of both 
Skippy's Big Bad Beats and Skippy's Noizbox. I wanted to reply to 
this question and point you guys to further information on these 
libraries as well as information on Stark Raving Beats (this 
library was created by a close friend of mine, Chris O'Brian and 
follows similar layout features with Skippy's Noizbox).

If you play the Akai version of the above libraries on an Akai 
sampler, the program has the filter cutoff wide open with the 
Modulation wheel making it darker as you increase the 
Modulation wheel's values. This ability is not currently possible 
with the EXS sampler's parameters. You can make a sound
start out sounding dark (low FC setting as default) and use 
Modulation wheel to make it bright, but not the other way around.

Every Akai CD that Ilio sells and/or produces is thoroughly tested 
with the EXS conversion to make sure that the conversion is 
flawless. Furthermore, since Noizbox is 4 CD ROMS of data 
(plus that fact that I made the library in Logic), I have included 
bonus material on the DATA CDROM that comes with Noizbox for 
Logic users (similar bonus material is on Stark Raving beats,
but not Big Bad Beats). When you convert all 4 CDROMS into 
EXS format, you will end up with 4 separate folders in your EXS 
pull down patch menu list - I combined all 4 folders into 1 master 
folder, renamed and organized ALL of the loops/drum 
hits/groove menus so that using the library is much easier
and included this folder on the DATA CD of Noizbox.

A few people have asked if Noizbox is good.  =)  Keyboard 
magazine gave it a Key Buy, people are telling me they really dig 
it. I'm very proud of it. It took over 18 months to create. Why ? 
Because not only do you get cool loops, but you get EVERY 
element as a separate audio loop/Groove Control file for
even more control than if it was just one loop. Many of the 32 
"Grooves" have well over 10 separate elements that make up the 
loop(2 kicks, 2 snares, hihats, real tambourine, real shaker, 
mutated DDL synth shaker and 3 mutated/processed/vocoded 
loops is common for a single groove). So if you just want the 
mangled Filtered/LFO/DDL Synth Shaker sound for your song,
it's available! Very few libraries are like this, they'll give you 700 
drum loops but none of the elements that were used to make the 
loops. Both Stark Raving beats and Noizbox give you every 
element as a separate loop and as a separate groove control 
file.

So, lets say you want to use the 12 elements in Groove Control™ 
format for one of the grooves in a song you want to write - that 
means you have to call up 12 EXS instruments, assign each one 
to the correct groove control EXS file and load the correct MIDI file 
into the arrange window so that it will play all of the EXS 
instruments correctly. This takes a lot of work (trust me!). So I did 
all this work for you and you can download Logic songs for all 32 
grooves from the Ilio web site right now:

http://www.ilio.com/ilio/noizbox/update.html

I'm not sure if libraries that were converted with Translator will be
compatible with these Logic song files - the reason is that EXS 
looks for files with a specific name and I have not had a chance 
to test the Translator for Mac conversion to see if the names are 
the same as the EXS converted names. In fact, I recommend 
highly using the DATA CDROM "Sampler Instruments" folder I 
mentioned earlier if you want to use the Logic/EXS songs.

I you want to know more about the styles found in Noizbox, I've 
written a number of demo sequences in MP3 format you can 
listen to here:

http://www.ilio.com/ilio/noizbox/index.html

Start Raving Beats is a library with more separated elements of 
a real drum kit for all of the grooves (Noizbox doesn't do this with 
drum loops, they would only be a stereo loop) with real 
percussion and Wavedrum elements added. Like Noizbox all 
elements are separated out for maximum flexibility (even the 
room ambience of the drum kits is a separate element) !! I wrote 
a number of demos you can listen to in MP3 format here:

http://www.ilio.com/ilio/srbeats/index.html

I don't mean to SPAM the list - I just want to clear up the good 
questions that were asked and make sure that anybody who 
wants info on my libraries knows where to go to get the 
information. If anybody has any other Noizbox
related questions, please send them to me personally at
realkuhl@... - I'm happy to try to answer any 
questions. I don't work for Ilio as an employee, Ilio simply 
distributes the noizes I make.

Thanks for your time and sorry for the long post.

Best,
John Lehmkuhl

PS - I don't own Translator, but in my opinion, it's strengths are in 
it's ability to convert library formats that EXS can't covert (Roland 
and Emu are at the top of this list). Ilio used Translator PC for 
some of the work on Noizbox (from Roland to Akai) - Thanks 
Garth !!

on 28/7/02 7:00 AM, realkukhl at realkuhl@... wrote:

>> I picked up Translator mainly for converting my Emu library to
> EXS24 format. Now here I am
>> with the cellophane just off of Skippy's Noizbox and Stark
> Raving Beats and I'm thinking:
>> should I use Translator to convert these Akai CD-ROMS  to
> EXS format?  Or is the EXS's
>> internal conversion just fine.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Andy
> 
> Hello to you all -
> 
> My name is John "Skippy" Lehmkuhl. I am the creator of both
> Skippy's Big Bad Beats and Skippy's Noizbox. I wanted to reply to
> this question and point you guys to further information on these
> libraries as well as information on Stark Raving Beats (this
> library was created by a close friend of mine, Chris O'Brian and
> follows similar layout features with Skippy's Noizbox).

Well I'll throw in my 2 cents worth seeing as I have bought all three discs
you mention.
1. Noizbox. I find this very useful. Naturally it depends on what styles you
are working on but there is enough material here to cover many styles. I've
even used grooves from Noizbox as sub loops in rock tracks......Linkin Park
type of thing.

But John mentions this in his post.....

>>format for one of the grooves in a song you want to write - that
>means you have to call up 12 EXS instruments, assign each one
>to the correct groove control EXS file and load the correct MIDI file
>into the arrange window so that it will play all of the EXS
>instruments correctly. This takes a lot of work (trust me!). So I did
>all this work for you and you can download Logic songs for all 32
>grooves from the Ilio web site right now:....................


Well it may have taken you a lot of work John but it was in vain for some of
us.
The problem depends on what system you are running. For eg I use TDM and
when I load your Logic song pre sets they load in to the instrument channels
and not the auxiliary channels. Of course you cant change the channel strip
without losing the instrument.
Can't please everyone I suppose...........but why include Korg 12/12 support
and not TDM?
2. Stark Raving Beats. I love this collection. It does not however lend
itself to that many styles. It's great for rock and experimental stuff. The
snares are all tuned high......he seems to like that. The kiks  are very
useful.  I use the individual sound menus a lot for replacing instruments.
Nicely recorded but very "same" sounding. He is very busy with the kik drum
and likes to fill in a lot of space so if your looking for more feel type
grooves then this is not for you..........it isn't called Stark Raving Beats
for nothing.
One failing I believe is the lack of any fills. Being a live drum loop
collection I find myself spending many hours building fills from his
existing material. A few fills per groove would have been great to have.
We have all been spoiled by Eric Persing and his Backbeats and RetroFunk
collections. Not only alternative grooves to the main one but plenty of live
fills and bar endings. I find this omission from Stark Raving Beats
disappointing.........after all it's the same price as Eric Persing's
offerings.
3. Big Bad Beats. Bought it and never used it. Can't seem to find a place
for any of these older sounding white R n B ........"kind a sort
of".........don't know where it fits really. This style is dead in this
country at the moment. I could probably take all my RnB grooves and erase
them from my drives and I wouldn't miss them. The radio took a turn here and
I have no call for this stuff. Sounds dated now....it's a couple of years
old I guess.......although I did use a kik the other day.....great bottom.
Doesn't mean that it's not good though. Just that I don't have a use for it.
Strangely enough I still get loads of use from
Metamorphosis..............Eric again.


Well it's very presumptuous of me to give a review in a public forum but
there you go. Just one users opinion. I figure that if manufacturers can
tell us about there stuff  here then it's ok for the actual end user to
chime in.
One thing I find with all these groove libraries...especially the three
mentioned, is the small number of actual grooves made available. Ok there is
a lot of work put into all the percussive noises and stuff that surround
every groove and therefore an enormous amount of time cataloguing and
"Groove Controlling" all of these but really there are only a hand full of
actual "ideas" on the discs.
The other thing to note is that when you audition these grooves they sound
wonderful because they are taking up ALL the available space in the mix.
There's stuff going on all over the place.
Most of which doesn't work in a song mix......cos there's no room for
anything else.
As a foot note I have to say that these libraries have made it possible for
me to complete many jobs over the years and I really could not operate with
out them.  Being able to combine a perc loop from NoizBox with a room track
from SRB underneath a groove from BackBeats creates a very different and
useful backdrop.
Phil Buckle.