NN19 Digital Sampler

[ LiB ]

The first of two digital samplers in Reason is the NN19. The NN19 has the features you would expect to find in a much more expensive hardware equivalent. And Reason allows you to add as many of these samplers to your rack as your computer can handle, removing any limitations to the number of patches or samples you can load (depending on the power of your computer).

Loading the NN19

Begin by adding the NN19 to an empty rack.

NOTE

Remember that you can also add any device to the rack by right-clicking on an empty space in the rack and selecting the device from the pop-up menu.

Loading an Example Patch

Begin by loading a Grand Piano patch into the NN19 in an empty rack.

Play a few notes from your MIDI controller to get familiar with the sound of this Grand Piano patch.

ModulationLFO

Just as with the SubTractor and Malstr m in Chapter 3, the NN19 is also equipped with an LFO section that is used to further shape the sound of its patches.

Now use the LFO to create a stereo tremolo effect with the Grand Piano.

Filters

NN19 has filtering capability similar to that in the SubTractor and Malstr m synthesizers.

A Softer Touch

Use the filters to give the Grand Piano a warmer sound.

The filter here removed some of the higher frequencies and left the lower frequencies more dominant, so the result is a warmer sound.

A Bright Piano

Next , tweak the filters to give the piano a brighter tone.

Amp Envelope

With the Amp Envelope section, you can control the characteristic of the instrument's volume. (Before continuing, you will need to reset the Filter settings.)

Sample Playback Controls

In the OSC section of the NN19 you can control how the samples used in the Grand Piano patch will play as you play your MIDI controller. (Before you begin, please reset the Amp Envelope section.)

NOTE

When the SEMI control is set to zero, no pitch change will be applied. With the OCT and FINE controls, the knob must be in the center position for no pitch changes to be applied.

Stereo Width

With the NN19 you can set how the notes will be placed in the stereo image.

Widening the Piano

If you have ever played a real piano, you may have noticed that the instrument has a natural panning law. What I mean by this is that the low sounds are generally on your left, and higher-pitched sounds are on your right. This is due to the physical design of the piano. To recreate this:

Bouncing Pan

The Spread feature is also used to bounce the keys between the left and right speakers , meaning that the first note you play will be placed on the right speaker and the next note you play will bounce to the left speaker, then back to the right for the next note and so on.

Key Zone Editor Building Your Own Patch

Every sample loaded into a sampler must be mapped to a key or group of keys on your MIDI controller; these groups are called "key zones." In the Grand Piano you loaded earlier, all the samples were already mapped to their respective keys for you. However, the beauty of the sampler is that you can import samples and create your own patches. Next you will import a few simple drum samples to build a small three-piece drum kit.

Before you begin, you will need to initialize the NN19 to clear all the samples and key zones created by the Grand Piano patch.

NOTE

For this exercise, download the drum samples from this book's companion Web site: http://www.courseptr.com/downloads. Download the file nn19drums.zip and extract the files to a folder on your hard drive.

Building the Key Zones

After initializing the NN19 there will be only one key zone, so the first thing you will need to do is build more key zones into which the samples will be imported. Since this is going to be a three-piece drum kit, you will need three zonesone for each piece of the kit. You will also create the zones so that each piece of the kit will be played on its individual key from your MIDI controller.

NOTE

When splitting key zones, it is important that you right-click on the zone you wish to split. If you accidentally right-click on any other zone, Reason will automatically change the selected key zone, and the split will be performed on the incorrect zone.

NOTE

Sometimes after performing a key zone split, you may need to scroll through the key zones to locate the newly created key zone marker.

Importing the Samples

Now that you have created the three required zones, you can import the drum samples to them.

Import the kick sample.

Import the hi-hat sample.

NOTE

Because we just finished importing the kick drum, when we click the Sample Browser icon the window will automatically return to the folder you imported the kick from, as this folder was the last used by the Sample Browser window.

Import the snare drum.

Now play the note C3 from your MIDI controller; you will hear a kick drum from this key. Play a C#3 and you will hear a hi-hat; play a D3 and you will hear a snare drum. Congratulationsyou have just built a simple kit. Now you can use the Save Patch feature to save this drum kit for later use.

Tuning the Samples

Sometimes you may need to fine tune a sample that is loaded into a key zone. Here's how:

Setting a Key Zone Volume

You can also set the volume level of each key zone independently from the others.

Sample Looping

One of the attractive features of working with samplers is that they can loop (repeat) a sample as long as you are holding the key. Typically, you wouldn't loop individual drum instrument samples, since the nature of the drum is to produce the sound every time you strike the key. However, to get an idea of what looping will do, you will apply it to the snare sample.

To have a sample automatically loop itself:

Assigning a Sample to a Key Zone

Sometimes you may wish to move a sample from one zone to another. For example, let's say you want to move the sample kick from C3 to D3 and the snare from D3 to C3 (so that the kick and snare swap places).

NOTE

The Sample knob will only allow you to select a sample that has been loaded into the NN19, whether or not it is being used by a key zone.

Selecting a Zone from Your MIDI Controller

With this drum kit, you're using only three zones; therefore it is fairly easy to remember which sample is on which zone. However, there may be some situations in which you are working with many more zones; at times it can be hard to be certain that you have selected the correct zone. One way to be sure you have selected the correct zone is to select it from your MIDI controller.

NOTE

Many users dedicate a portion of their hard drive for holding all samples and patches. In fact, some users (such as myself ) even have a separate drive for them. This is a good idea, not only to help with file management but also to help with system performance.

[ LiB ]