Robo sampler

Automating the sampling process

Way back in pre-history, the ability to take real instruments and re-create them digitally was one of the most exciting things about electronic music production. Nowadays (let’s be honest) the thrill of processing sound after sound has kind of worn off. Enter the SampleRobot from SkyLife, a kind of Swiss Army knife for sampling.

ability to take real instruments

The SampleRobot automates the sampling process, so a real instrument can be re-created in digital format with the minimum of fuss. And, when you’re working with MIDI, SampleRobot works on its own – just connect your instrument to your computer and let SampleRobot do the rest. The SampleRobot 4 Sampling Suite is optimised for Windows 7 but will run on XP and Vista, as well as Intel Macs. It costs £219. Contact contact@samplerobot.com Web www.samplerobot.com

SOUNDBYTES Bright Spark Essentially, you could go out and buy (or stay in and make) some new samples – or you could do something special with the ones you already have… Arturia has launched two Spark DIY kits for Joy of Spark users. These 24-instrument kits are designed to enable you to import your own samples and tweak them beyond recognition, if that’s what you want to do. www.arturia.com

All aboard Sound Guy’s multi-effects plug-in RIDE THESPECTRALMACHINE

Sound Guy’s Spectral Machine is a new frequency-domain audio effects plug-in that will enable you to create a variety of interesting and unusual effects, such as freezing a sound (and releasing it again, if you want to), applying separate delays to different frequencies and creating multi-band tremolo effects.

It will even enable you to boost or attenuate an arbitrarily narrow

It will even enable you to boost or attenuate an arbitrarily narrow frequency band around a specified frequency and create a peak/notch effect with an oscillating centre frequency. It further provides extra effects for monophonic sources, including pitch quantization and sine/ noise decomposition, though the manufacturers are eager to point out that this facility should be applied to mono sounds only as its functionality relies on pitch extraction.

Spectral Machine is available in VST and Audio Unit formats for Macintosh OSX (10.4 or later) and in VST format for Windows XP/Vista/7 PCs at a price equivalent to $75. Contact support@sfxmachine.com Web www.sfxmachine.com

Incoming MTM

magazine October 2011 | 13