Hi folks. I’m new to the Rytm and I must admit I’m struggling to get my head around the way samples are loaded and handled by the OS. Not the actual transferring via C6 — I’ve got that covered — but the way samples are stored on the +Drive and in projects, loaded into RAM, etc.
I’ve read the manual, of course — including the documentation that comes with all SoundPack purchases — but I’m looking for a plain-speaking guide that might do a better job of describing the act of managing and samples. If such a thing exists (other than Cuckoo’s excellent ‘mega tutorial’), can anyone point me towards it, please?
well, you have up to 64 MB of sample RAM that you can allocate to up to 128 sample slots. These samples are chosen from the plus drive. Each project has its own 128 sample slots, so they will not carry over nor affect the slots of other projects.
The easiest way to reuse sample-based sounds in different projects is to make sounds out of the samples. This will not only save the various parameters of a sample (envelopes, filter, pitch, lfo etc) but will also load up the sample data to the next free sample slot in any given project.
sample slot is also a p-lockable and lfo modulatable parameter, so you can achieve pseudo-round robin style sample playback.
sorry its late, tltt in more detail. feel free to ask any specific details regarding this!
Thanks very much, Tsutek! I’ve started to get my head around it a bit more. I think some of it was even lack of familiarity with the UI (how to go back a directory, what pressing left / right does, etc.). I’m interested to know more about creating sounds, as yeah, locking parameters for a particular song would be super-useful if I re-use the same sample elsewhere.
Sample management isn’t the RYTM’s strongest feature, but saving sounds is a good way of managing them.
Think of the +drive as a hard drive of audio files. To do anything with them you will need to load them into the Pool. From there you can make a (sample) drum Sound by picking a drum track (eg: SD) and assigning the sample into it.
Essentially a Sound is a bunch of tweaks to all the parameters that you like and ultimately is the drum hit that is played by the sequencer. You can save sounds to the Sound Library and tag them to make it easier to find later. Sounds can be used across projects so ultimately this is your actual library.
As mentioned above, you will need an open sample RAM slot if your Sound uses a sample otherwise it won’t load and you’re limited to 128 / 64mb per project.
Finally there is also the Sound Pool which is a temporary pool of favourite Sounds per Project. These allow you you place many sounds on a single track by parameter locking the Sound. Eg: a 16 step sequence could have 16 unique sounds locked from the Sound Pool. This makes the RYTM feel like it has more sounds than the 12 pads actually allow.
That’s all correct, and it took me the better part of a year to realize that “sounds” were the solution to the difficulty I was having in finding a decent work flow for setting up kits quickly, and managing this process across projects and different samples. Up until recently I had not saved a single sound - I was setting up all my kits via the sample browser.
What I’ve come to realize is that, although it is a LOT of work, there is a merit to saving all my samples as sounds. Overbridge really brought this to light for me. I was staring at this giant screen of taggable sounds, easily browsable by banks A-P…and nothing was there. I really wished this was where my samples were. So I decided to save them there.
And then…with thousands of sounds to browse and choose from, you don’t really have to think about the management issues anymore. There seems to be a lot of confusion about how this all works and what you need to do with samples in RAM, what slot they’re in on what project and all that…but once a sample is saved as a sound (with or without analog synthesis added - another choice up to you, per sound) it’s all automatic.
What I can now do via OB is this: open a new project and start making a beat with the default INT kit. Select a track, go into the OB sound browser and just start clicking through my banks of sounds. they instantly populate to the selected track so you can hear them. Nothing to worry about with the associated sample - that’s automatically populated to the next available RAM slot. I can then start saving and changing kits and do this until I’ve used up all my RAM slots. And the best part is that this is available across all projects.
To be totally honest I haven’t used the Rytm that much since writing this post. However, the replies I got were really helpful to me — perhaps they might help you out, too?
So…now that a huge handful of us snapped up the irresistible deal of all the Mars samples for $39 and have thousands of new samples to sift through, how about a discussion methodology for organizing, sifting through and using huge sample libraries?
I’m fairly new to the sample library collection game, but I have a few other packs in addition this one and I always have the sense that I’m not getting the most of them. I’m sort of stuck between the concept of doing the work upfront and going through a whole batch and extracting the ones I think I’d get the most usage out of into separate folders so that I have easy access to the “good ones”, and the idea of just organizing EVERYTHING into a logical folder hierarchy. The problem with the favorites folder concept is that it’s pretty hard to make a determination of a given sample’s worth in a vacuum while just auditioning for the sake of checking out all your samples; what sounds shitty in this context could fit perfectly within the context of a specific production. The problem with the massive, well organized folder system is that…it gets overwhelmingly big.
And then there’s the case of the RYTM and sounds. Samples saved to sounds makes for samples you can bring into any project which is GREAT, but it’s a hell of job to go through thousands of samples and make them into sounds.
Anyone else struggle with these issues? Any workflow insight to share would be welcomed!
As SFM packs are multisample libraries (and some of the very best, at that!), I would do a finder or folder search for the C2 notes, and copy (not move) those out of the library, into a new folder for auditioning. Find the ones you want and then grab the C0, and C2 and go on from there. Use Rytm to play these chromatically.
As for the other larger issue of sample management on Rytm,
I think it really depends on if you work across multiple projects are not.
If you do, then I would be very careful to preserve file hierarchy, and ignore making sample chains
But if you do try to keep things isolated to just one or two projects that you fill to the brim (typically for taking your studio productions onto the stage), then sample chains will help get the most out of a project, and avoid having to stop the sequencer to switch projects.
Combining the two issues, isolating your favorite samples from a huge library, and making them Rytm ready for chains, I recommend sorting them by type first (drum, or synth) and then by size and making chains from there. Having all your shorter synth sounds in one chain, and your longer synth sounds in another chain, even if they are from a variety of different multi-sampled synth packs, will keep your chains more concise and allow you push that 64MB farther.
Adam you seem to me very learned on the subject, you only take C0 and C2 or even C4? I know it’s a personal thing based on your needs, but how do you do it? C0 and C2 for bass, C2 and C4 for leads? I would not take too many samples as the collection is huge
More or less, and it depends on the sound.
The point is, save your RAM by taking the C notes, and pitching them chromatically, when you’re pulling from a large multi-sampled library.
And only take C notes from the sounds that really evoke something in you. Most of these multi-sampled libraries have very long decay sounds. They add up to MB quick.
You have to be conservative with that 64MB RAM / 1GB +Drive.
Thanks Adam! I’m fighting for days now, it’s not easy to understand what to take and what not, also because, often, a nice sound that sounds good in C0 sucks played chromatically one octaves above and vice versa
Thanks for the tips Adam! I’m factory restoring my AR and OT tonight. I must have hundreds of thousands of samples on my computer so this C0 tip will really help out. Building and sampling my own libraries has made all the difference in the AR. I wish I had the MKII now with it’s additional sampling features but will have to keep bagging the MKI.
In the end I was importing my AR samples to any folder and it became disastrous. Can’t wait to clean this up and start working effectively. I sort of do want to start building my go to kits, but I always side with starting a new project or kit from scratch every time. I think I’m going to try to go for 4-5 clutch kits that I can mutate but maybe not save over. How does everyone else manage this?
Hi I downloaded the app Transfer 1.1 for transfering 808 samples to my new Analog Rytm. I followed the steps in the manual but I cannot find the samples on the Rytm.
Edit: don’t know why I’m so afraid of menu diving lol
So now I got this huge SuperAnalog808 library on the Rytm. How do you guys organize huge sample libraries within the Rytm so that you have the easiest workflow when jamming?
This is seriously some of the most frustrating shit ever, seriously almost, and might smash this damn thing. I have a sample slot, let me SIMPLY ADD A SAMPLE. I don’t want to transfer and menu dive i,import to pool, and ten other gd steps, of which none are included in the manual. You describe the damn thing but dont illustrate a number actionable process. I didnt come to the manual for a dictionary, F
Holler if not!