Hi all! I'll start with the simpler question: does it make a difference whether I commpress a wav item as opposed to a midi item that is triggering samples from a given sound library? From what I can understand, it shouldn't be different, but I think I am getting very different results, at least when it comes to saturation.

Now, for the hard question: I think wavs sound different on their own as soon as I print them, as opposed to listening to the same part as MIDI-triggered samples. At 32 bit FP, how could that be? Maybe it's the sound of commitment! (I am dead serious, though!)

 

are you sure the levels are the same on the WAV/sample and the WAV within the sampler?

 

Do a null test

 

Yep! The second phenomenon is probably psychological... I am very sceptical about these things! But the first one... I swear, when I apply saturation effects to MIDI items it sounds very, very different!

 

Round Robin?

 

legit might be.

 

If it’s a sampler preset with multiple layers it will sound different depending on the velocity, it will use different versions of the same sound. Also most sampler programs will be playing slightly different all of the time dynamically not only because of layered samples but also fx

When “rendered” you will have flattened the sound to just one single version captured at a given time it will only play louder or lower. then the only way to make it sound different will be applying low pass filters etc

 

Last edited: Dec 9, 2023

That's probably it! Thanks, guys!

 

You could duplicate the track, phase invert one and hear what happens...