Transcript Digital Samplers - St Peters Music Department

Thursday 27th September. Periods 3 + 4.
Music Technology A2
A2 exam written question revision
‘The development of music technology’
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Must answer 1 question (choice of 2)
16 marks available (8% of A2)
Include 16 different points
Organise ideas in date order.
After planning, answer can be bullet points or
prose
A2 exam written question revision
‘The development of music technology’
Topics:
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Synthesisers
Drum machines
Samplers
Audio effects and audio processing - EQ
MIDI
Recording media (tape / digital etc). Consumer media (Vinyl & MP3 etc)
Multi-track recording (Digital and Analogue)
Computer based recording – Cubase / Logic etc
Electric Guitars and Amplification Internet
Mixers
Digital Synthesis / FM / Additive / Wavetable / Sample based
Samplers & Sampling…
What do you know?
Samplers & Sampling.
• Sampling is basically recording a sound. This
recorded sound is called a sample and it is
stored (RAM / disk etc).
• Samplers makes sounds by playing back
samples. The pitch of the sample is determined
by the speed it is played back – to play a sample
1 octave higher you would double the playback
speed.
• Samplers are played via a keyboard or
sequencer.
Mellotron
• The first sampler. 1963.
• Each note played a 12 second tape strip
of a pre-recorded sound. Like a violin.
• Very complicated - have to change tape
strips to change sounds.
• Unique sounding (sometimes unreliable)
– Analogue – pitch fluctuates (not unlike
a human playing an instrument).
Mellotron
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=c_VGa5TInBc
http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=ypAKsbvKr2s
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=eR6D1ZH2CMk&feature
=related
Digital samplers
• After the Mellotron – Samplers were
digital.
• Digital samplers recorded sounds and
saved them digitally (onto floppy disk
/ internal memory).
• The quality of the sound was
dependent on…….(its going to get a bit
technical!)
Digital sampling – Sample Rate.
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1 The ‘sample rate’. This is basically how often a ‘sample’
or an audio snapshot / recording is taken of the sound that
is to be sampled.
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‘CD quality’ has a sample rate of 44.1 Khz which means a
sample is taken of the original music 44100 times a second.
Human ears in very good condition can hear roughly 20Hz
to 20Khz. Cubase can record with a sample rate of up to
192Khz.
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Rule of thumb (or Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem!) is
that you need to sample at twice the highest frequency of
the sound. Ie if you wanted to accurately sample a violin
which has a frequency response of about 200Hz (lowest
note) to 3Khz (highest note) you would sample at 6Khz –
twice 3Khz.
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Sampling at a too low a sample rate causes ‘aliasing’. This
means you will hear errors (harmonics / overtones).
Digital Sampling – Bit Depth.
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2 The audio ‘bit depth’. This is basically the quality of the
‘sample’ or audio snapshot / recording.
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‘CD quality’ has a bit depth of 16 bits which means every
time a sample is taken (44100 times a second) it is
recorded at 16 bits. Early digital samplers were 8 bit.
Today studio digital recordings (as on Cubase) are usually
done at 24 or 32 bit depth.
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The higher the bit depth (and sample rate) the higher the
data size of the sample sound. Like a ‘high quality’ 320
Kbits/s MP3 takes more space on your ipod than a lower
128 Kbits/s MP3 (this is the sample rate).
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Play around with the Bit Crusher FX in Cubase which
allows you to change the bit depth on a sound.
Digital Sampling.
Sample Rate.
Digital Samplers
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1977 8 bit Synclavier 1 followed by the more
widely used Synclavier 2 in 1979.
Synclaivier 2 cost about $75,000 in 1979.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWipCvQOry
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Digital Samplers
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1979 8 bit Fairlight CMI sampler (from Australia).
£18,000.
Mark 2 model in 1982 featured a graphical sequencer
called Page R (the origins of sequencers like Cubase).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt_iZLgo2f8&feat
ure=player_embedded#!
Digital Samplers Development
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1988 Akai S1000 16bit
Stereo sampler. First to use
‘time stretch’.
£2000
Developments of samplers
since early 80’s:
• Technology has become a lot cheaper. Original samplers were at least
$8,000 for the cheapest model (1982 E-mu Emulator as used by ABC in
early 80’s). Samplers used to be out of reach of the average musician.
• More and less expensive memory. Original samplers had 64/129K RAM –
less than 1 second of CD quality sound!).
• Better sound quality because of:
Greater Bit depth (form 8 to 16 bits) And greater sample rates (from
22/32Khz to 44.1Khz CD quality up to 96Khz and beyond)
Software Samplers
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As synths became VST’s
(Virtual Studio Technology)
in late 90’s – so did
samplers.
All the features of hardware
samplers but as PCs and
Macs became more
powerful so did VST’s
making hardware samplers
obsolete.
Steinberg Halion.
Using a Sampler
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Start and End Points
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The start and end of the audio WAV when played back on the sampler.
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Keyboard range (Zones / span)
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The range of notes a sample can be played on. Different samples can
span a keyboard.
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Looping
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While playing back a sample – when the loop end point is reached the
playback jumps to the loop start point. Ie you could loop a string sample
so when it gets to the end it jumps back to the start to make a
continuous sound.
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Changing the sounds (Filters / Envelopes).
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Just like a synthesiser – the sample can be treated like a wave (VCO) and
flitered and also an envelope (ADSR) can shape the sound.
Practical
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Create a multi sample
of a ‘real’ instrument
like guitar / violin etc.
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Record 1 note per
octave for at least 5
octaves.
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Import the samples
into the Cubase Short
Circuit VST sampler.
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Create a short musical
riff / piece.
Homework
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You are advised to keep your answer to a maximum of 200
words. You may write in continuous prose, bullet points or
use a table to communicate your answer.
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Try to make 20 valid points. There is 16 marks for this
question.
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The digital sampler has transformed the sonic palette
available to musicians and producers by allowing any sound
to be incorporated into a recording with accurate control.
Describe what a sampler is and how sampling technology
has developed from the 1980s to the present day. You
should refer to technical specifications of sampling
equipment in your answer.
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Further study – sampling ‘ethics’
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Is it right to use someone else's music in
your music?
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Should you need permission before using a
sample?
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Should the artist you sample be
compensated and if so for how much?
http://youtu.be/Uz5cUTmuWjY (from 2
mins in)
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