[FR] Sampler Layer tweaks (Modulation/Macros)

1 You can't assign the same modulator to parameters of different layers
Simple example....
Three layers of the same saw wave, one normal/one tuned +5/one tuned +7, step modulator on layer one gain for a trance gate, I need to create new step modulators to trance gate layers two/three, there is no point having layers with these restrictions, we may as well just use pad link.
Layers within a single pad should be linked from the ground up, so for instance, if i create a second layer, i should be able to disable its amp envelope, double click the gain control and add the envelope from layer ones gain, simple tweak that boosts the power of layers immensely.
Taking the simple trance lead synth example from above, i end up with 3xAHDSR for Amp, 3xAHDSR for filter, 3xStep Modulator for Trancegates.
There are two ways to cover most of this, personally i think both need implementing..
1:1 Allow modulators to be combined across layers, so in the above example i would create a step modulator for the trance gate, assign it to all three gains.
1:2 Allow modulators to be used on pad fx, add in a simple gain effect to the effects selection, now instead of 3xGains or 3xFilters modulated by one modulator, you can actually have only 1XGain or 1XFilter being modulated by one modulator, this will in turn save CPU/RAM Resources
So going back to the simple trance lead above, we would build it like this
Load three layers with the same saw wave.
Tune layer two to +5.
Tune layer three to +7.
Disable the amp envelopes on all layers.
Disable the filters on all layers.
Create a pad effect for Gain.
Create a pad effect for Filter.
Create an AHDSR for the pad Gain.
Create an AHDSR for the pad Filter.
Create a step modulator for pad Gain.
Combined with Macros, this will give some serious synthesizing power to the sample engine and has removed two extra filters to save on CPU.

2 The macro assigning actually already works across layers, so i can assign macro dial one to layer one and layer twos gain control, however the macros need some tweaks too...
The naming convention definitely needs to be better.....
Going back to my example of macro dial one being sent to layer one and layer twos gain, the two entries in the macro dial set up panel read
GAIN Pad1:Layer and GAIN Pad1:Layer
That is useless as is, any complicated macros will become a complete mess
GAIN Pad1:Layer1 and GAIN Pad1:Layer2 infinitely more readable/usable
It would also be nice to have unlimited macros, currently we have 16 macro controls per bank, Create a 303 preset on a sampler pad, use the macros to define the controls, all 16 are used just on that preset, still 127 pads left.
Personal preference on this is remove the 16 macros limit and give us macro sets and grouping, so for example....
Remove the two tabs 1-8/9-16 and have a dropdown list of available macro sets in the current session, and the option to create a macro set, loading a previously created macro set would be the same as now, just load a pad or bank via the browser.
A macro set would be a collection of macro dials (unlimited numbers) in groups, so you could just scroll down and you would have ADSR group and Filter group or whatever the user was using/named the groups (UI/UX is already in place for this, think of the Effects column scrolling up n down)
A long term goal of this would be to create a super simple UI script engine for the macro sets/grouping, so that a simple XML style document and some PNGs could be used together to create UIs for instruments created using the sampler layers/pads/banks and macro sets/grouping, with the updates above there are some serious possibilities for some heavy duty instruments/romplers to be made, not far off rivalling Kontakt.

Comments

  • During the beta I suggested making the modulators global within the pad.

    Other ideas where alternate 'layer routings' similar in concept to 'algorithms' on FM Synths.
    So for example layer effects could be applied before the sound was passed thru the filter, or to change the order of the process blocks. So we could for example apply bit-reduction before the sample gets interpolated/transposed or otherwise processed. Alternative interpolation methods have also been suggested.

    Pad Macros (to overcome the 16 macros per bank limit) were also mentioned.

    And what I would also love to see is 'Pad Presets'. There is no need to waste an entire bank to for one pad :)

  • edited July 2017

    Pad macros still isn't enough, i know that sounds ridiculous, but considering the power in the sampler, creating a synth that uses more than 16 macros, that is a no brainer ;)

  • @samu +1 on these. Fingers crossed ;)
Sign In or Register to comment.