Hi,
I've uncovered a bunch of old but good Akai cds for which I had no use but would like to now use in Kontakt.
So I used Kontakt's import function to make a Kontakt instrument but noticed that in some CDs they had the stupid idea of making the loop length end on the '1' of measure two!? So beatwise it would be: 1-2-3-4-1!!
In effect making it them all inaccurate 5/4 loops!?

I've found more than one CD with that problem so I'm guessing this was probably done on purpose and maybe the AKAI sampler had a way of dealing with this that it could still loop them properly but I'm just wondering before I click the delete button on all of them, is there a 'trick' to batch correct this problem so I get normal 4/4 loops out of them?
Thanks!

 

Welcome to sampling in the '90s. I'm going to guess there is not a way to batch correct. That would take an incredible amount of precise detection.
How many loops are you going to use at one sitting anyway? If they are 'old but good' why not just edit it?

 

Yes, of course, that's what I'll do. I was just speaking out of anger and frustration....so that's the way it was done in the 90s huh? Strange...

 

In Cubase you can import all the loops in the DAW, select all of them, then reduce the audio from 5 beats to 4 beats.
Then you can batch export each file. This can be done while retaining the original file name. Unfortunately, you would have to first the convert the file format Akai format to Wav file... which sucks... but there are work around to speed up the process.

 

Unfortunately...I'd have to first own Cubase!
What is that function called in Cubase? I'd just like to look into it before I start taking my CDs to a friend's house to test on his Cubase.
The .wav files is not a problem because Kontakt convert's the AKAI to .wav files with the Kontakt instrument file (.nki) to use with those .wav.

 

My first sampler the Casio FZ-1 came with 1 MB of memory upgradable to a whopping 2 MB.
Most Akai S1000 in the 90's were 16MB max, maybe 32. So every sample was carefully edited and cataloged and cherished on floppies.

 

In the past, samplers didnt have a waveform display. In glorious machines like Casio FZ1, Roland S50 Ensoniq ASR, Akai S etc all the editing routine was done by ears. So, there is no mistake in your vintage loops: That first beat in the second bar was an important audio reference for the sound engineer: The purpose is sync the end point with the loop point.

In the 90’s sampling was a form of art

http://www.oldschooldaw.com/forums/index.php?board=149.0

 

also the idea for having the extra beat is that if the loop started on one and that was the first beat played
when you looped it back round it would sound more like a loop as the decay from any reverb ect.. would not be present on that first beat
so there would be more of an abrupt change
so people would set it to play on the beginning and set loop points on everything else in the loop apart from the first beat.
we would also transpose the midi note and use pitch-bend for fine control to get the loop into time with our arrangement.

also putting the work in to sorting you sample sources will benefit you as you become more analytical to which samples your just cant be bothered with
so you end up only sorting out the ones you think are really worth it rather that just amassing every thing
then sifting through a lot of crap when making music

 

Last edited: Oct 29, 2017

just cut the last bar off?