Hey there,
I want to create some samples which I can put on DT and have them loop seamlessly.
Some samples will be pads, others ambience.
Any advice on how to create audio files that will loop seamlessly on DT?
Tried with zero cross points already but I guess I’d need some sort of cross fade between ending and beginning - just can’t figure out a way of doing out perfectly yet…
I have Ableton live 11 standard.
Thanks!
Seemless looping of sustained tone sounds (pads chords ambience etc) requires crossfade at the loop loop point.
Abletons sampler can do it. Octatrack can do it (although its a manual operation)
Digtakt doesnt have that feature, unless Im wrong. I didnt own one for very long.
So you can add fade in fade out to your sample in ableton. Ctrl alt F if I remember correctly.
Yeah there’s not any cross fade in the digitakt. Best bet would be to record the sustained notes in ableton and have them be so long that it won’t loop and the envelope just fades it out how you want. Zero Crossing is really just to prevent clicks when the same stops or starts.
Other options would to just use single cycles or if you’re lucky you can get the start and loop points to fade at the exact right point but that obviously is gonna be hard and very dependent on the sample.
Edit: to do this in Ableton I would use Simpler. Load the sample into simpler, use the Classic engine. Turn the loop mode on (underneath the wave form readout) and then adjust the start and end points. Then adjust the fade parameter how you see fit. Then I’d load up an audio track in ableton and route the incoming source from the simpler MIDI track. Then play the note for how long you see fit (10 to 20 seconds should do the trick, but it’s gonna depend on you). Once you have the audio recorded just export that to 48khz 16bit and load it onto your digitakt.
You indeed need to get the start and the end of your sample to be zero-crossing points if you want your sample to loop without clicks.
However if you record sounds with noticeable FX such as reverb you’ll hear the cut. Similarly a sample used for continuous pads/drones you want to avoid fades where it loops.
So best thing is to first use Ableton as a Looper. E.g. you set a loop to 5 seconds, record the sound while looping on the 5-second window, so that both start and end points are homogeneous.
Then you do your cutting at zero-crossing points for both the beginning and the end of your sample.
for ambience id use 2 x tracks on digitakt , each with long fade in and fade out envelopes.
one would trigger at beginning of the track
the other, on another track, would start half way through… so that the envelopes overlap
instead of using the looping of a sample, use envelopes to blend in / out ambient samples.
setup ableton to be 48k instead of 44.1 so that you are working in same format at digitakt and theres no conversion going on when you import to digitakt.
i dont use sampler, just set up a clip with looping turned on.
record things at 120bpm (as that works well with sample start/loop values on digitakt) and its easier to work out maths / samples wise…or 60
use the ‘set 1’ marker on beginning, and warp / tweak it to loop…
also on digitakt if you do make a loop that works in ableton, check the envelopes on digitakt arent fading in/out as that might also introduce a slight change in volume.
also use ‘crop’ on the right click menu… and then find where the clip is in the folder structure.(probably in the project name / crop folder).
and finally … i did use a ios sample editor a while ago which had nice cross fade editing… cant remember the name right now…
You can use crossfades in Arrangement mode to create seamless loops. I used to use Soundforge to do this but it meant exporting the audio I wanted to loop from Ableton.
I’ve always known about crossfades but I recently saw a video that someone did it and I was like “why the fuck haven’t I been doing it that way?!”. I can’t remember the video as it wasn’t at all to do with this process. It was just some thing that the presenter did during whatever it was I was watching it for.