Sampling Secrets with Cyclick
As the creator of too many sample packs to mention, sound artisan Robbie Stamp is well-versed in creating unique sounds quickly. Here, he divulges some of his pro sound design secrets…
“One way to freshen up your sample library is to generate your own material – but that takes time, right? It does if you slave over each sample, trying to get the best kick drum, riser, orchestra stab, whatever; but that’s pointless, especially without context. An approach I regularly use for sample collections favours creating a large set of samples using a pseudo-randomised process, and then plucking out the best results. This may initially appear a long winded approach, but in practice it’s quite efficient across a range of sources. The key is parallel processing.
“Most DAWs allow one channel to send to a number of group channels via aux sends or direct routing paths. I use eight Direct Routing slots in Nuendo, naming the groups with adjectives or keywords to describe the sound process I’m after. Sometimes I’ll fill up a group channel’s plugin slots quickly to get broad brushstroke sounds and move on to others, refining in short bursts; while at other times I’ll concentrate on one, and use that as a template to copy to the next and tweak. The key principle is efficiency: work fast, and don’t get bogged down in small adjustments, particularly as the input material should have enough variance to produce a range of responses. This is where ‘pseudorandom’ comes into play – while setting up the groups, you can either loop one sound, or play back all the material in a long loop; both have their merits.
“Efficiency is related to how the input material is laid out. I prefer to dump the root samples into Kontakt, as this allows quick manipulation of the samples globally, but you can also just place everything on an audio channel. The key is to snap the MIDI note or audio to bars and leave a healthy gap between events to accommodate reverb/delay tails. Once you’ve bounced all the groups to audio tracks, you can group the tracks in whichever way your DAW allows and make a global cut to separate them into single events (Nuendo allows you to split an event at regular intervals along its length). Then it’s a case of sifting for the best events and bounce them as new audio files. The sifting is also a technique to perfect – I prefer a vertical approach where I loop one source hit and cycle the eight bounced tracks in solo mode, deleting anything I’m not grabbed by. You can also just play back a channel at a time armed with the eraser tool, deleting as you go.
“To make the most of your efforts, store the group channels (using the descriptors) for future use - more random, more efficient.”
“I prefer to dump the root samples into Kontakt, as this allows quick manipulation”