Want to get started Amiga Jungle Tracks

[pan1k]

Ok, it's time to start messing around with my Amiga. I want to start laying out some jungle tracks, with I guess Octamed SS. I have a crapload of DSS8+ Samplers.. and i'm on the lookout for some Akai S3000's. Can someone point me in the right direction?

[Tension]

I got an S3000xl off eBay which works great with OctaMED Soundstudio.  Cost me around £200 with a SCSI Zip drive, which you will definitely want. There is also a SCSI header inside the sampler where you can put a hard drive, but getting power to the actual drive can be a problem.

This was 3 years ago.  Should be a lot cheaper than that now.

Also, make sure you get the S3000xl, rather than the S3000, it's a totally different beast.

Akai numbering systems were quite bizarre!

Need any help, get in touch.

All the best.

[ChaosLord]

Use any sampler you want.

Octamed SoundStudio allows the use of 16-bit samples so please, for the love of God, use 16-bit samples.  Thanx

P.S. I use Octamed SoundStudio for all the game music in Total Chaos.  But I have nothing against other good trackers if you want to use any other one.

[Karlos]

OctaMED has serious restrictions on the use of 16-bit samples that you need to be aware of, in particular the volume control is reduced to a simple power of 2 (no doubt implemented internally as an arithmetic shift).

Also, Paula's 8-bit sample playback can be used to great effect, depending on the genre of music you are making.

[spihunter]

Mixing 8-bit samples out of the paula with 16/24 bit samples from another source makes a great effect. having a real Amiga at hand is almost better then using a bitcrusher plugin!

[pan1k]

I *do* have a repulse. That should make for easy 16-bit samples.

[pan1k]

Ok.. sampler should be here tonight, i'm kind of confused as to how i'm going to use octamed as a MIDI sequencer. Any tip/hints to get me started?

[Karlos]

Ok.. sampler should be here tonight, i'm kind of confused as to how i'm going to use octamed as a MIDI sequencer. Any tip/hints to get me started?

See here

[trilobyte]

Ok.. sampler should be here tonight, i'm kind of confused as to how i'm going to use octamed as a MIDI sequencer. Any tip/hints to get me started?

Be sure to get Sample Wrench from Dissidents for doing sample editing and sending back/forth from your sampler.

Sampling is a whole art form in itself.  Have fun with it.  Read the Sample Wrench manuals, they have a lot of very useful information and great tutorials!

- t

[haywirepc]

Also remember, that Michael and Janet Jackson, Paula abdul, mc hammer and many many others all had gold records, selling millions and millions of records... All done with 8 bit sampling...
 
Just thought I'd remind everyone that you don't NEED 16 bit samples, sure its nicer especially for high end sounds, but 8 bit, you can do plenty, especially if your looking for that gritty jungle or industrial sound anyhow....
 
Steven

[Karlos]

Also remember, that Michael and Janet Jackson, Paula abdul, mc hammer and many many others all had gold records, selling millions and millions of records... All done with 8 bit sampling...

If you are referring to the then popular E-mu Systems Emulator-II sampler, it used an 8-bit companded format (similar to u-law) that produced a significantly better results than linear 8-bit sampling. Interestingly, however, it's top sample rate was only 27kHz. Not dissimilar from Paula in PAL mode.

[pan1k]

OK. Sampler is here, found a bunch of cool samples to import and mess around with. How do I tell Octamed to play a specific sample on the sampler? I have Midi Cable going from Midi out on my Triple Play to Midi In on the Sampler. Is this correct?

[Karlos]

OK. Sampler is here, found a bunch of cool samples to import and mess around with. How do I tell Octamed to play a specific sample on the sampler? I have Midi Cable going from Midi out on my Triple Play to Midi In on the Sampler. Is this correct?

That is correct. What you do next, depends on your sampler. Assign a sample to a MIDI channel (no idea how your hardware works but it should be straightforward enough).

In OctaMED, check that MIDI is enabled (see menu). Open the instrument properties window (from the main panel) and choose the same MIDI channel for your instrument (slider at the bottom left of the properties window). Leave the preset number as zero for now, as changing it will send a MIDI present change message on that channel, your sampler might interpret that as a "switch sample" message or something.

Next, crank up the volume in the instrument properties and try a few notes. If you don't hear anything from your sampler, try raising your instrument transpose to 12 or 24 or even 36. OctaMED's MIDI note range doesn't match up to well with it's sample replay note range (except in mix mode), usually the MIDI notes are 2-3 octaves lower than you'd expect using the default transpose.

[pan1k]

Thanks Karlos! I will experiment around with it.. just needed a general idea where to start.. It's a good sampler Yamaha A3000. Came with 128MB of RAM and a 4GB SCSI drive for sample storage, Optical input/ouputs as well.

[Karlos]

Thanks Karlos! I will experiment around with it.. just needed a general idea where to start.. It's a good sampler Yamaha A3000. Came with 128MB of RAM and a 4GB SCSI drive for sample storage, Optical input/ouputs as well.

Nice

I've often thought about getting a dedicated sampler. As nice as software is, you can't beat a box with physical buttons and control knobs.

I really liked the Roland Variphrase stuff when it came out. Wonder what that goes for second hand these days?