Making Sound Samples

[Ann Rodela]

I plan to make my own sound samples.  What software, microphone, DAW or interface do you recommend?

[Michael T]

What are you going to sample?

[Ann Rodela]

I am thinking about purchasing a condenser mic to record my acoustic guitar and a midi interface to capture my midi keyboard notes into wav files. 

Michael Tauben said:

What are you going to sample?

[John Korchok]

Any of the popular DAWs will work for this. I am familiar with Logic Pro for Mac: it has the EXS-24 software sampler built-in so I can record samples and then play them back to check them. However, familiarity is probably worth more than any absolute technical difference when it comes to choosing DAWs.

For interfaces, I think it's worth getting a 96kHz/24 bit interface for maximum sound quality. There are many available, if you only need to record acoustic guitar, you could get one with just a couple of channels and economize. I have not found any brand to give a noticeable difference in sound quality, but there are others who would argue this point. If it exists, it is very subtle.

A condenser mike is a good choice, a ribbon mike is also good for lower-volume instruments like acoustic guitar. I think you would notice the difference between mikes more than any other factor other than your recording environment. I know there are people who would never record with anything less than a $1200 Neumann, but I've got very good results with Shure Beta 87As, which usually go for around $250.

One caveat: creating a complete library of sound samples is a laborious process, with creating recordings at different sound levels from different ranges of the instrument, editing the samples and creating a uniform sound among all of them. If this is what you want to get into, I would suggest first trying it with the equipment you have now to see if you actually have the patience for the process.

[Simon Godden]

It's a really hard job.  At university, I did some electro-acoustic work that involved getting my own music-concrete samples with a portable DAT player, and then working them into a project using Pro-Tools (this is Pro-Tools in 1997), but that was easy.  If you're thinking of creating musical samples from your acoustic instruments, the amount of work would be quite traumatic.  Your condenser mike would have to be in exactly the same position all the time, and so would you.  You would need a soundproof room, and for the sake of continuity, you would probably have to record every single sample in one day. But that's me just guessing.  It might actually be easier than that.  Good luck with it..

[Ann Rodela]

Thanks guys.  :)

[Ann Rodela]

Thanks for the expert tips Chris.