Some Things You Need to Know About Sampling
How a Sound Becomes a Sample
Here’s how a sound winds up on your MV-8800 as a sample:
The MV-8800 receives the sound, or “audio,” you want to sample from one
or more of its analog input jacks
—Use the PHONO inputs for connecting
a turntable. Use the MIC/LINE inputs for connecting microphones
(“mics”) and instruments.
The MV-8800 converts the audio into a digital “sample”
—It stashes the
sample in an area of memory called “sample RAM,” so you can play it
and work on it.
A new sample stays in sample RAM until you shut off the MV-8800 or
load a different project. If you do either of these things before saving
the current project, your sample is lost, so, um, don’t.
You save the current project
—The samples in sample RAM
are stored in the project’s SAMPLE folder on the MV-8800’s
hard drive. Once you’ve done this, you can turn off the
MV-8800 or load a different project, and you can always get back your
samples by re-loading their projects.
You can also sample a CD player’s outputs using the methods we’ll discuss
in this booklet, but you’ll get even better results importing audio from a
CD using the MV-8800’s built-in CD player. To learn how to do this, see the
MV-8800 Workshop booklet called
Importing a Sample from CD
.
For most of the examples in this booklet, we’re working in a new,
empty project. You can add samples to an existing project, or start out
fresh with a new one. To learn how to create a new project, see the
MV-8800
Creating a New Project
Workshop booklet.
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Two Ways You Can Use Samples
There are basically two ways to use samples on the MV-8800. You can use
them:
as audio phrases.
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in a patch.
You can play audio phrases and patches from the pads or an attached
MIDI keyboard, but they’re not the same thing—each one is designed for a
different musical use.
Anything
you play from the MV-8800 pads can also be played from a
connected MIDI keyboard. We’ll talk only about the pads to make things
easier to read—but remember you can always use either option.
You can also simply record on the MV-8800 just as you would with any
digital multitrack recorder. This is sampling, too, in a way. To learn
more, see the MV-8800
Direct Recording
Workshop booklet.
What’s an Audio Phrase?
An audio phrase is a recording you trigger by striking a pad—to stop it, you
hit its pad again. An audio phrase can be a:
sampled beat loop.
a sampled vocal.
an instrumental performance.
What makes audio phrases interesting is that you record them on audio
tracks that can keep them locked in time to the tempo of your pattern or
song. If the audio phrase’s original tempo is different than the pattern’s or
song’s, the MV-8800 adjusts it to fit. If the tempo changes, the audio phrase
automatically stretches or shrinks to match it. This makes audio phrases
great for beat loops.
You can put an audio phrase on every pad in a project if you like. With 16
pads, and 32 banks of pads, that’s 512 audio phrases in a project, provided
you have enough sample RAM.
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