Renoise - Sample Sync

[bokip Profile]

Hi Everyone, I'm fairly new to Renoise although I've used ImpulseTracker since 1998.

I have a question about the Sample Sync box in Renoise -- I've been messing around and looking at other people's songs to study their techniques, and I've noticed that some people use this feature and some do not.

Personally I don't understand why you wouldn't use this -- you can slow down the bpm and the sample will scale itself properly, which is useful if you are creating the patterns at a slower speed and then upping the bpm.

Am I missing something inherent... is there anything Wrong or Bad about using the Sample Sync feature that I'm missing?


Thanks a lot!

[nsound Profile Website]

i never use the sync feature and i dont see why people do - i totally dont get it?

[weyheyhey !! Profile Website]

Yeah, as I understand it the sample sync simply adjusts the rate of your samples to scale with the current BPM. However, it's nowhere near as sophisticated as software like Ableton Live/etc and so what it does is adjust the playback sample rate - which doesn't preserve the sample's original pitch, ... pretty useless to me.

Effectively, it's the same as playing a vinyl and adjusting the deck's pitch slider.

I guess it'd be ok with slight increases in bpm, perhaps +/- 10BPM but more than that would sound like chipmunk stuff I reckon...

[JBL Profile]

Actually.. it depends what you are doing.. here are some situations and I'll tell you how I would deal with them.

I've got a break.. I want to use it as it is. without modifying it much, maybe a bit of 09XX... BUT, the break doesn't loop in my song because it's not the right bpm. Then, I'll probably sync it (actually, even if it happens to be the right bpm, when I use a break in this way I'll probably sync it to make sure.)

There are two major problems with the sync fonction. first one is that once you sync it, no matter which note you input, the sample will always sound the same.. the solution to this problem is to render to sample the sync'd version and then use it, unsync'd.

The 2nd problem is that if the sample's bpm and your bpm are too different, the pitch of the sample will be fucked up.. you might want your beat to sound super slow or super too fast.. but.. maybe you don't.

Now suppose I'm planning to mess a lot with the break's structure, at different speed and I want my "hits" to always sound the same.. then it would be preferable to chop the break into many "hits" and make a drumkit out of it.. this method is also very nice when you simply want to mess (live) with the break to find new beats to make with it.

Anyway, in most of my songs I use both techniques.. I mix then and make a percussion that is made of more than one break.

[disposition Profile]

If you go about the method of chopping the break up into individual hits into a drum kit, will that not take away the natural flow and lead to choppy sounding drums when you are making your new drum patterns?