Impossibly High Rhodes Sample

I took the idea from the last post a little further and tried a different sample; an already high pitched phrase of Rhodes electric piano. I played the sample in the software sampler, Simpler, higher and higher until it faded from an audible range. I kept going until finally, around eight octaves up, I started hearing strange artifacts from the sample. At this stage I created a MIDI clip with a scale of these sounds, then ran it through compression to bring out some of the more subtle effects, equalization to eliminate any canine-hearing-damaging-frequencies, and some processing to randomize the scale. Here’s what I ended up with.

Impossibly High Rhodes Sample

Casiotone Samba Setting

I’ve been sampling my Casiotone 403 recently. I have recorded and sampled this instrument in the past, but this time I wanted to gather some of the beats at a slow tempo so that I could play them at many different tempos without hearing artifacts created when time expanding or compressing. This is a loop of the familiar Samba setting. I recorded it at 85 bpm, then cranked the tempo up to 195 bpm and looped it four times before rendering this example.

If you turn it up loud enough you’ll hear an unfortunate buzz. I attempted to get rid of the buzz using a noise gate, but I couldn’t get it to sound the way I wanted it to. I also thought about (and will probably do this eventually) sampling each sound at a very slow tempo and creating an instrument out of the individual samples. But for now I was interested in maintaining the charm of the original programs.

Casiotone Samba Setting

ACB September 2008 Sample Pack

Today, freesound.org approved my second sample pack, ACB September 2008. This sample pack is comprised of sounds found on AudioCookbook.org that were posted during the month of September, 2008 in the Share Remix Adapt category. I am packaging these sample packs on a monthly basis so that ACB readers have access to higher quality versions of the ACB sounds.

Each sound is uncompressed and available through freesound.org under the user keston in it’s original .wav format for free download and use in non-commercial works (I will most often grant permission for commercial use if you contact me in advance). If you make use of these samples please consider donating to AudioCookbook.org using the paypal link in the sidebar.

ACB August 2008 Sample Pack

Today, freesound.org approved the ACB August 2008 sample pack. This sample pack is comprised of sounds found on AudioCookbook.org that were posted during the month of August, 2008 in the Share Remix Adapt category. My goal is to package these sample packs on freesound.org once a month so you have access to high quality versions of the sounds on ACB.

Each sound is uncompressed and available through freesound.org in it’s original .wav format for free download and use in non-commercial works (I will most often grant permission for commercial use if you contact me in advance). If you make use of these samples please consider donating to ACB using the paypal link in the sidebar.

Guitar Chord

A rarely tapped resource for me are clips found in the sound file folders of Ableton Live sets I use for performances. My group Keston and Westdal use two laptops running Live synchronized using a MIDI network. We usually play instruments during our performances and use the laptops for live looping and triggering loops and “scenes” as we construct the arrangements during the show. Our drummer gets a click so we can we can leave out or bring in sound from the laptops as we like. This way we can have purely live instrumentation intermingled with sequenced and live looped audio. It’s a bit of a learning curve to perform this way, but very liberating once you get it down.

This short sample of a guitar chord was played by my good friend Jason Cameron based in Seattle. While jamming together last June, 2008 I captured a few of his phrases in one of my Live sets, and came across it today while browsing through the sound file folders, looking for something to post. I dumped it back in Live, resisted the urge to reverse it, and added distortion, delay and reverb for a little texture.

Guitar Chord