Sequential circuits samplers

(in reply to posting on sequential list)
jon-
(can I call you jon?)
head over to the 2000/2002 list elsewhere on yahoo, & have a look in
the files section. here you will find the entire manual for these
wonderful samplers, & also the quickie executive summary guide.

I reckon you're right, but the problem will be easier to diagnose if
you study the manual- but if you can't wait, try this: adjust the
start point of the sample by clicking the inc/dec buttons with "sample
start" selected. it may help if you select a sample first & press
"execute" so that a dot comes on next to the sample number- this
disables any keyboard mapping so that the sample plays at it's natural
pitch & is the only sample playable from the keyboard.

(this is also a useful way to determine how far a sample can be
transposed & therefore how many sample locations/how much memory you
need to commit to each instrument in a particular set of samples. I
have an expanded 2002 & tend to use it in bi-timbral mode, midi mode
3B. my 2000, which is now dead because of a keyboard controller IC,
was unexpanded, & so required even more careful juggling. don't forget
that aswell as having all the filter/VCA parameters adjustable for
each individual sample, you also have a "global" set accessed by using
the "execute" button.... so you can trim an individual sample's sound
within a global patch & filter off some of the aliassing noise at the
low end of a sample's range without it being too dull at it's high
end, using the keyboard track controls.)

depending on the software version, there are a number of other options
to do with xfade looping & so forth, but all of the 2000/2002 versions
will do the zero-crossing seeking at both ends of the sample; use the
inc/dec buttons & the knob to locate these points, then hit "execute".
IIRC, the display will blank for a couple of beats, & you have your
zero-crossing point. don't forget to "recover memory" for each sample
after this.

I've had the occasional problem where a dirty or damaged disc has
loaded with glitches- the machine will do it's best to load a bad
disc, but it will pause & announce "Er" when it hits a bad block of
data. "execute" forces it to continue regardless. sometimes you hear
these glitches as tiny clicks while playing otherwise healthy samples.
it's possible, with some fiddling, to cut the glitches out & splice
the remains of the sample back together almost seamlessly. 

I do this by loading the bad sample into an empty machine, copying it
to another location, & then trimming back the end & start times of the
two copies so I have two good almost-halves. then I join them back
together into the original sample's location ("append", I think), save
it onto a blank disc, load the original bad disc, delete the bad
sample &, lastly, do a "load one sample" into the empty location &
resave the whole lot. simple, eh? practise, as stanley suggests, with
spoken word samples.

so... if it /is/ a voice problem, you'll hear the clicks when the
sampler is empty & playing waveforms from rom; if you want to try
this, select "load" & dial around to "int".... this turns the
2000/2002 into a polysynth, comparable with the p5 or p600 (similar
curtis chips inside).

hth-

duncan/r.m.i.