Introduction to MIDI and Computer Music:  DP nanosampler

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Digital Performer nanosampler

The nanosampler is a virtual instrument that lets you make simple sampler programs from within DP. To use audio files in DP, then, you have two options: make a soundbite out of the audio, or make a sampler program. The advantage of the soundbite is precise soundbite editing, Spectral Effects transposition and pitch automation; the advantage of the sampler program is the ability to play the sound from the MIDI keyboard. If you find yourself wanting to play the sound like a melody line, then you should make a sampler program.

Here are the steps you take to make a sampler program using a WAV, AIFF or SDII sound file.

  1. Make a new Instrument track, with nanosampler assigned to it:

    Project > Add Track > Instrument Track > nanosampler

    You should see the nanosampler window.

    Make sure that the audio output of the track is valid (not in italics). If it's invalid, choose Built-in Output 1-2 from the pop-up menu.
  2. Set the output of a MIDI track to: nanosampler-1 > nanosampler-1-in

    You trigger notes on the sampler using the MIDI track; the audio plays on the Instrument track. It's helpful to drag one of the tracks in the track list so that the two tracks are adjacent in the list.

  3. Record-enable the MIDI track.
  4. When you play the keyboard, you should hear the sampler. It plays a default factory patch. There are other factory presets in the mini-menu of the nanosampler window.

    To record, just record on the MIDI track as you would with the Korg. You can apply normal audio effect plug-ins to the Instrument track in the Mixing Board window.

  5. To make your own sampler program, first click on the arrow circled in the graphic below to invoke a pop-up menu of sound files and locations.


    Choose Project from the menu.



    This opens an empty window in the Finder, showing the contents of a new folder that is within your Project folder (specifically, project/Plug-In Data/nanosampler/Samples).
  6. Drag into this folder any sound files you want to play in nanosampler.
  7. Back in the nanosampler window, click on the same arrow you used in step 5. Now the Project menu item has a submenu, populated by any sound files you placed in the nanosampler folder. Choose one of them.

    Alternatively, you can drag a soundbite into the waveform view of the nanosampler. This copies the soundbite into a new soundfile and puts it into the Samples folder. (You can drag soundbites from the Tracks, Sequence or Soundbites windows.)

  8. By default, your program uses C4 (middle C) as the root key, but you can click on the root key (below the right side of the waveform display), and change it. (The root key is the key that triggers playback of the sample at its original pitch.)

  9. Experiment with the various envelopes, LFO, filter, looping parameters, most of which should be familiar from working in Reason.

©2007, John Gibson