Samples vs sounds and how they relate to OB

Elektron Gear Analog Rytm
#1

Another day of extended OB experimentation here, and I’m beginning to realize that the time for reckoning has come for me in terms of wrapping my head around how to use sounds.

So I get that a sound is comprised of the various parameters of the analog synth engines, and the sample settings if you’re using one. I think most of us use “sounds” this way most of the time, as this combination is pretty powerful. In general, I’ll load up a sample and tweak the mix with the analog voice, filters, lfos, etc. and get something pretty cool.

What I haven’t been bothering to do much is save the result of this mix as a sound, either in the pool or the +drive. I guess I haven’t dived deep enough and run into limitations where I’d need to use sound locks, and beyond that, there hasn’t been much incentive to save the “sound” as it is already saved with my kit and pattern, so I don’t have to worry about losing it.

But messing around with OB, there’s this wonderful Sound Browser page, complete with A-P banks, tags, and easy drag-to-pad functionality. But I don’t have any sounds to do anything with, and I feel like I’m wasting something valuable :disappointed: .

But…it seems like a PITA to build up the +drive with sounds (there’s slots for 4096 of them!), and I end up kind of just wishing that samples could be saved as sounds or imported over somehow. Now I know this doesn’t work insofar as certain sounds can’t be used with other engines. But…

Yeah, confused. Enlighten me on how you all use sounds. Anyone built up a big library and can share a process for getting there?

#2

I use saved sounds for my bread and butter.

When I first got my AR I took for granted sound sculpting. I would come up with a beat in my head, race to the AR to put it in, and find myself frustrated and disappointed from not having the sound ready-to-go (no offense meant to the programmers of the presets :)). I would start trying to sculpt it and in the meantime lose the beat, or use up more time finding it again.

So recently I loaded up a whole mess of samples and spent days sculpting sounds that would do well as a basis for hiphop, glitch, elektro, ect. I’d get the beat down with the appropriate sounds and THEN start chiseling away. Everything is so much fun now and flows smoother.

I save these sounds to always have them at my fingertips. If I make something dope in the meantime, I’ll go ahead and save it. But I don’t use those anywhere near as often as the bread-n-butter sounds.

Wish someone had told me this over a year ago :slight_smile: