Phrase samplers for use in Cakewalk

[chris.r]

On 12/13/2020 at 7:26 PM, Starship Krupa said:

Hmm. Works a treat on my system, but then I have a registered Melodyne Essentials.

Do you? I found this functionality via a mouse slip. Imagine my astonishment.?

No, I mean dragging a MIDI clip from MIDI track [correction: from Instrument track] to audio track. You'll get a MIDI clip in an audio track. What's missing is that Cakewalk will bounce the MIDI clip to audio on-the-fly when dropping it onto an audio track. I have melodyne ess. installed.

Similar with dragging MIDI clips onto a sampler, I guess. Cubase has got it.

Edited December 15, 2020 by chris.r

[Starship Krupa]

Ohh, my bad, that’s what I get for watching the Grand Prix on the other monitor.

 I had it in the other direction. ?

Yes, that’s silly.

[abacab]

1 hour ago, chris.r said:

No, I mean dragging a MIDI clip from MIDI track to audio track. You'll get a MIDI clip in an audio track. What's missing is that Cakewalk will bounce the MIDI clip to audio on-the-fly when dropping it onto an audio track. I have melodyne ess. installed.

Similar with dragging MIDI clips onto a sampler, I guess. Cubase has got it.

Going from MIDI to audio track requires that an instrument be defined for the bounce process. Otherwise the bounce has nothing to process, as MIDI contains no audio information.

When dragging a MIDI clip into a sampler, you would need to have a default instrument assigned to the sampler track. Again, MIDI data itself contains no sound info.

[chris.r]

3 hours ago, abacab said:

Going from MIDI to audio track requires that an instrument be defined for the bounce process. Otherwise the bounce has nothing to process, as MIDI contains no audio information.

When dragging a MIDI clip into a sampler, you would need to have a default instrument assigned to the sampler track. Again, MIDI data itself contains no sound info.

Ah right, I was too quick with my response. I should have said an instrument track, or MIDI track already assigned to any instrument, basically same case where you freeze a MIDI track and Cakewalk is bouncing it to audio, all automatically.

[chris.r]

On 12/13/2020 at 9:08 PM, abacab said:

When dragging a MIDI clip into a sampler...

Are you saying that I can drag a midi clip from an instrument track onto sampler and get the audio out of it in Cakewalk, like this?

edit:

Apparently I can't succesfully drag any *MIDI* clip (from an Instrument track) from the clip pane onto Sitala, and I'm getting "unsupported file type" when dragging a MIDI clip from an instrument track onto Speedrum, which suggests that there is no conversion to audio going behind the scenes in Cakewalk.

Edited December 15, 2020 by chris.r

[abacab]

23 hours ago, chris.r said:

Are you saying that I can drag a midi clip from an instrument track onto sampler and get the audio out of it in Cakewalk, like this?

Apparently I can't drag any clip from the clip pane onto Sitala, and I'm getting "unsupported file type" when dragging a MIDI clip from an instrument track onto Speedrum, which suggests that there is no conversion to audio going behind the scenes.

Not saying that. You put the MIDI on the track with the instrument. Then bounce or freeze the track.

The files you drag onto a sampler would obviously be audio samples. The sampler plays back audio samples. MIDI triggers the sampler to play back those samples.

Bouncing the MIDI track processes the MIDI data through the sampler instrument telling it what notes to play and how to play them, resulting in an audio file with the resulting sound based on the samples that the sampler is holding. MIDI in, audio out.

[chris.r]

12 hours ago, abacab said:

Not saying that. You put the MIDI on the track with the instrument. Then bounce or freeze the track.

The files you drag onto a sampler would obviously be audio samples. The sampler plays back audio samples. MIDI triggers the sampler to play back those samples.

Bouncing the MIDI track processes the MIDI data through the sampler instrument telling it what notes to play and how to play them, resulting in an audio file with the resulting sound based on the samples that the sampler is holding. MIDI in, audio out.

Thanks mate, but I know all this already. I too come from pre VST and DAW times, was connecting my hardware instruments through MIDI to an 286 (or 386?) SX laptop with 2 MB ram and 40 MB hard drive  Cakewalk Professional 3.0, Windows 3.1 for workgroups  was sending SysEx dump and using instrument definitions like you (I've read your post on another thread). In my post above I just did a wrong explanation of the case, and I've corrected it now.?

I was saying about dragging a MIDI clip from an Instrument track (not just a plain MIDI track, my bad!) onto an audio track or a sampler and getting an audio output. That feature is missing in Cakewalk (hope you've watched the video at the time stamp I posted above, there you can see clearly what I'm talking about), I guess that makes it a feature request, then. Only hope someone from the BAKERY reads on those threads.

I've posted also on another thread that we miss a feature in Cakewalk where you'd want to drag a MIDI clip from an Instrument track onto an audio track and get an audio clip bounced on-the-fly, assumed it's a standard in most other DAWs.

Edited December 15, 2020 by chris.r

[abacab]

13 hours ago, chris.r said:

I was saying about dragging a MIDI clip from an Instrument track (not just a plain MIDI track, my bad!) onto an audio track or a sampler and getting an audio output. That feature is missing in Cakewalk (hope you've watched the video at the time stamp I posted above, there you can see clearly what I'm talking about), I guess that makes it a feature request, then. Only hope someone from the BAKERY reads on those threads.

If you listen carefully as the narrator describes dragging the MIDI, he states that the MIDI is already routed to an instrument, and that the target is the Cubase sampler track. Not just a track with a 3rd party sampler.

It appears to me that a series of events had to take place (more than one, like a macro) when he dragged the MIDI that had previously been routed to an instrument. That MIDI was bounced through its assigned instrument, and the audio output from that bounced clip was placed directly on the Cubase sampler track (in one step).

Cakewalk is still lacking this feature (as you have stated). Others have requested an integrated sampler track in Cakewalk. Suggest checking the feature requests for that, and give some feedback for the Bakers there.

https://steinberg.help/cubase_pro_artist/v9/en/cubase_nuendo/topics/sampler_track/sampler_track_creating_sampler_tracks_c.html

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by abacab

[chris.r]

7 hours ago, abacab said:

If you listen carefully as the narrator describes dragging the MIDI, he states that the MIDI is already routed to an instrument, and that the target is the Cubase sampler track. Not just a track with a 3rd party sampler.

That's exactly what I was trying to say, I only mistakenly said "MIDI track" instead of "instrument track".

There's no problem with dragging an audio clip from Cakewalk's clips pane onto a 3rd party sampler, I just did, actually I highlighted only a selection of a clip and that selection beautifully landed in both, Sitala and Speedrum, no issues whatsoever. Pretty sure Cubase does that already as well. So the only process missing in Cakewalk, that Cubase does, is bouncing a MIDI clip from an instrument track to audio on the fly when dropping it onto an audio track or a sampler's drop zone.

Regarding Cubase's sampler track, probably one thing that I find outstanding there amongst many, is how they nailed setting loop points visually. The way they've implemented it is just brilliant, haven't seen it anywhere before. "Check this out" : 

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by chris.r

[Starship Krupa]

2 hours ago, abacab said:

Others have requested an integrated sampler track in Cakewalk. Suggest checking the feature requests for that, and give some feedback for the Bakers there.

@chris.r has definitely weighed in on those threads, I believe he is the one who first brought up and posted the video about the sampler track.

[abacab]

The Cubase Sampler track was added in Cubase 9, but the example above was apparently using the updated version of Sampler Track in Cubase 11. Nice feature set, and a good example of what advantages an integrated sampler has for workflow efficiency!

https://www.gearnews.com/steinberg-cubase-pro-11-review/
 

Quote

 

Sampler Track

Probably my favourite innovation in Cubase for a while, the Sampler Track is deliciously simple and immediate and devastatingly useful. You just drop some audio in there and you can play it and mess with it in an old-school sampler sort of way. You’re not creating multi-sampled instruments or scripting articulations you are dropping a sample and playing it – job done. Also, it doesn’t have to be audio, it can be a MIDI part that Cubase automatically renders into audio when you drop it – genius!

Version 11 brings in some intelligence to push the fun even further by making it just not quite so basic. Now it will automatically slice your sample and map it across a keyboard for instant slice triggering. This is more applicable to drum loops and noises than instruments but it’s very fast, accurate and instantly playable.

They’ve added pair of LFOs with multiple waveforms and variable shapes that can be applied to the pitch, filter or amplifier. It turns it into a proper instrument making machine. There are some options for the Quality of the playback. Moving through Standard, High, Best and Extreme they all sound pretty similar to me but the Vintage option comes with some nice bit reduction and turntable emulation for a good bit of grit and gentle warp.

A Glide knob has appeared in the Pitch section which adds some monophonic glide to your playing. You can opt for it to happen on every note or only when playing legato. The Sampler Track goes from strength to strength.