Is there any way in which I can “quantise” the LFO or my source sample such that it always starts at a random “slice” of the sample, if all slices are distributed evenly?
I know I can do this with sample slots but I’m just wondering if there is a way to do this that saves sample slots by packing the sounds into one sample. In my experiments I’ve not been able to find a way to do this - the start point often ends up in the middle of the sample, or in silence.
I don’t think so
You could parameter lock your slices , and maybe use 2x samples , both with same setup but different waveforms in each ‘slice’
Use the Lfo to select sample , combined with conditional trigs it’ll sound random but use only 2 slots instead of lots.
Then easily add more variety by adding an extra sample and updating modulation depth on lfo.
Or keep it simple and don’t worry about sample slots. Reduce slot usage by creating drum kits ( usually just simple playback ), use lots of slots for clever things.
i’ve been doing some rudimentary chopping up and granular stretching of samples in a single track using the LFO. it can be fun once set up correctly but it’s fiddly and could be way easier. a slicer is def top of my wishlist.
using the LFO chops involves using a sample that loops perfectly in time, param locking the 1st step to LFO retrig, and setting the LFO’s dest to start position. LFO depth needs to be set to -30, or a number divisible by the sample length param. i can go into more detail if anyone’s interested…
side rant: why on earth did elektron make the sample duration 120, rather than the 128 value like everything else in the box? maybe there’s a good reason but i can’t figure it out. i mean, 120 can’t be devided into ‘regular’ 4, 8, 16 etc beat divisions, so using the encoder-press-turn to increment in fours in the sample editor is useless for quick slices. 120 into 16 = 7.5
Yeah, I wondered the same this morning while chopping up a break to play with. I ended up going with chopping a 1 bar loop into 1/16ths, then padding it out with an extra 14 1/16ths silence so there are 30 1/16ths in the sample, then each increment of the sample start with the knob held down (i.e. 4.0) maps to a slice.
Works pretty well as you can then create a pattern which either plays 1/16th steps with each step 1/16th long with 4.0 start time increments, or a pattern which plays 1/8th steps with each step 1/8th long with 8.0 start time increments. I found the latter preferable as you can then add conditional trigs etc. in between your normal loop steps.
Seems a bit weird to have to make it 30 steps with silence – I guess you could add 14 other samples at the end, or loop the first 14 steps of the loop again… but 16 or 32 would be much nicer!
I’d be interested to know more about your LFO trick – would be really cool if I could get it so the LFO aligns to these 1/30th (4.0) increments!
it’s fairly simple really (not that many options on this box!), it just took me a little while to figure out i needed to set the Depth to -30, not -32.
2 pics of the settings i use with my 2-bar loops attached: in this instance i’m starting the sample at 60 (middle) but the phase is at zero. this is due to the LFOs being bipolar and also it gives me the option to p-lock the phase to jump backwards in the loop (add 2 p-locks here - one for the phase offset, one for retrig).
activate all steps and p-lock the first step’s LFO mode to TRG so it stays on-beat.
Things get easier if your tempo is 120 , your sample is 16steps long , as you can use ramp lfo , whole numbers and get results quite quick.
If you delve into retriggers you’ll find step 1 sounds weird because of the lfo retrig on the step.
Remember you can get weird noises if you also tweak pitch / filter and fx on steps which are playing your slices.
And personally I found doing the stretch weird stuff worked well in a breakdown / stopped back section of a track , otherwise it got a little messy track wise. But it can do lots of things if you get lfo and depth values setup well.
The lfo type also impacts initial start point , if you use ramp it’s at the beginning , use triangle and it may start in the middle.