Adding sampled strings and flutes

Music Lesson

So next up, then, I'm thinking about another instrument that would work with this. When I collect samples, as I've shown before in an early video, you can see that everything is categorized into the type of instrument.

Choosing an Instrument

What I think might work quite well now are some strings to complement the mostly percussive thing that I've got going on.

1. Creating a New MIDI Track
   I'm going to create a new MIDI track here and we're going to go into instruments again, double-click for simpler.

2. Arming the Track
   So it's automatically mapped to my keyboard. I just have to arm the track here like so.

3. Listening to Samples
   Then, I'm going to scroll down into my strings folder, have a little listen, see what's available. That's really nice there, that sustained string sound.

Key Considerations

But it might not work. I might find that it's actually in A major or minor chord. I'm not sure what my hang drum is in yet, which key it's in. So it may or may not work.

• Quick Assessment
  Again, it's very quick to work out whether this is going to fit.

1. Playing the Sample
   So when I play the keyboard now, a whole sample comes in. What I'm really after is this little section here: a kind of gentle sustained string.

2. Adjusting the Sample
   Now, the front of the sample here, as you can hear, just sounds a little bit odd the way it comes in. If it had a bit more of a fade at the start, then that might help.

   • I'm going to take my attack position forwards, do a little bit more than that, and you can hear it kind of gently comes in, really just following the natural shape of the sound, really there. You see it fades in and it's held.

Testing Compatibility

So, what I also want to work out is whether it's going to work with the track.

• Playing the Track Together
  Let's play the track. I'm feeling that the C is working nicely there, maybe the F.

Recording Ideas

So, what I'm going to do is jam something in and give myself sort of free reign of record time.

• Click to Record
  • Okay, so I've got a little something in there, a bit of variation as well.
  • And, yeah, I'd like maybe to interject something in between each of those string elements that I've just added.

1. Duplicating the Track
   To make my life a little bit easier, I'm just going to duplicate this track, like so, delete what I've recorded there, and I'm just going to replace the string sound.

2. Jamming Again
   I quite like this one here and let's just have a little jam again. At this stage, it's really generating ideas. I don't really necessarily know what's going to work, so it's just trial and error.

Filtering Sound

Now, listening to this sample, there's a little bit more low end in that, which is kind of confusing things. It's kind of getting in the way of the other sounds.

• Using a Bandpass Filter
  I'm going to filter it, and what I'm going to do is switch over to a bandpass filter here. This is really going to filter out the low and high frequencies so that we have a slightly thinner, more resonant version of the sound. Let's just turn it down a little bit and have a little listen to that.

1. Evaluating the Sample
   I quite like the way it ends here. It's quite rhythmical at the start; however, this little section here just sounds a little bit more fluid.

   • Because there's not really a defining rhythm there, it will actually fit better with the track.
   • But you can hear that it ends quite abruptly.

Adjusting Fade Out

So what I'm doing here is adjusting the attack, decay, sustain, and release so that the sample will have a bit of a fade out.

• I'm taking the sustain down, decay up full. A little bit too long there, so let's take that back down, add some release.

  • So that sounds kind of cool. It has a bit more of a fade out at the end.

Final Thoughts

So let's play the track. Instantly, I'm feeling that I've got something interesting there.

• Recording the Final Section
  Let's just turn it up a little bit as well.

  • Yeah, I'm just gonna keep things fairly simple. I'm going to record this in now.
  • So I'm going to come in between the last two string sections. That might do it there, just one simple little section.