SAMPLE SYNTHESIS

>While wavetable and granular synthesis present a more creative take on sample-based synthesis, straightforward sampling remains a powerful tool for sound creation. In both hardware and software, there are countless instruments that make good use of sample engines, from Sequential’s Prophet X to Spectrasonics’ Omnisphere. Sampling, in a synth context, needn’t be a case of simply playing back a static recorded oscillator. By looping, stretching and modulating a source sample it’s possible to generate all sorts of tones. Many ‘power synths’ make use of extensive multisample libraries too, where variations of a sound are used for different notes, velocity levels or in a ‘round robin’ arrangement to add inherent variety and make the sampled instrument sound more authentic.