Hey guys,

so as you may know, sample packs come with a mix of different sounds and loops and what is usefull comes down to the individual.

I know in fact that I dont want to use any MIDI files or instrument loops and I can imagine why these might be usefull for others.

But what about these synth, bass, any_instrument one shots?
How do you guys use them in order to create something unique, rather than a random sound thrown on a piano roll that sounds worse the more the sound gets pitch bend?

When I listen to these, I ask myself: "Why didnt they create a certain preset for a synthesizer that can be tweaked for personal preference instead" ?

So yeah, in which fields do these one shots come handy in your production? :P

 

There are many possibilities. You get use them like wave format directly in the tarck by putting the timing how you would like. Or use a sampler player like simpler in Ableton that is very handy I use and use midi notes to triger. Depends on the sounds that could be handy if there is no intruments that could make this sound.

 

Personnally I never use one shot synth samples.They sound too sterile and like you said it's hard to find a sample that fits your song.
I just use one shot drum or voice samples.And my synths for all the others sounds.

 

They are not called "one shots" for nothing…

One shots are just samples triggered by MIDI. But there's a clear line to draw between the useful and completely useless ones!

Percussive elements or sound effects like drones or risers, horn stabs or licks that sit at the beginning of a downbeat or are just short elements that spice up the rhythmof your groove are useful one shots. That's where they can really shine, imho.

Where they are NOT useful is when they are single notes of any instrument that locks you into a tempo or certain key and they transpose really badly - though this can be desireable, most of the times it isnt. Like basses, guitar riffs, chords, anyhing musical really. It's not only that they box you in – it's that it's not even your sound nor your musical idea. So I am not a fan of these kinds of oneshots at all.

So in my opnion, one shots are bad for mostly anything concerning composing meldodies etc. Use synths and sample libraries for that and splies that up with one shots. But the other way around is a bad idea from my experience.

 

Samplers, granular synths, wavetable synths, layering....

 

there are infinite legitimate responses to this question. maybe it does fit somebodys track, maybe they are using it as part of a combination of other sounds or layers of a sound, maybe they will edit the sample and manipulate it beyond recognition.
thats just a few examples.
personally i am usually like you though, i will try to use mostly synths etc so the sound can be changed later to fit my needs. the only time i really use audio clips is for drums.

 

Yeah, I thought these synth one shots can be rather used like single drum shots to add something rythmical to the groov like these synth stabs in trance that are rather used to add rythm rather than adding melodic content, that can be easiely thrown into a sequencer.

But I guess it is what it is: personal preference, some like it, some dont :D

 

It's sampler fodder and it's all down to how you like to use samplers.

Map it to a keyboard, play it as an instrument. Pitch it up/down an octave, loop and envelope to your hearts content. Sometimes a pad makes a nice really short stab filtered and pitched up, to punctuate the rhythm you've got going, mixed down low. Use gate envelopes and come up with fancy choppy rhythms a'la MPC/SP aficiandos.

Tools for this: Ableton's Simpler is brilliant and to the point, but I use Kontakt and Battery as well. In short: they're fun and surprising.

And oh, it's not like we don't tune the one-shot drums to our tracks, we do (and if you don't you should), so the same applies here: use it as a source and twist it to your liking.

 

Since im fooling around with that XLN XO, I actually pitch around one shot drums since it's so easy there to tweak and twist one shot drums around, DrumMachines like the Sugar Bytes DrumMachine feel way too complex and complicated to me :S I like to keep things simple and solid :D