# Fastest way to cut and organize samples



## Jonathan Howe (Jan 3, 2014)

Hey there!

This might not be the right sub forum for this but it was the closest I coul find. 

I recently recorded a bunch of samples to create one Kontakt Instrument with it. I think I have around 900 individual samples with velocity layers, RRs etc.

Then I went and started to cut each sample individually. I think I got the first 100 samples and it took _hours_. There's got to be a way to automate the process (to a degree at least) and get this done a little quicker.

If anyone here could share the techniques they use I'd be really grateful!


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## KingIdiot (Jan 3, 2014)

#1 Keymap 2, but that's no longer available (It's absolutely the best IMO, and I've backed up my HD on this macbook multiple times to make sure I have it available in the case of crash/failure.)

#2 Auto splitting based on transients. Most two track sample editors will do this. Wavelab, Soundforge, etc can do this. And you can use other software not intended for this with out of the box thinking.

#3 Region splitting/removing silence in your DAW and using the asset data after "consolidating", which gets rid of unused audio. This may require renaming files with a batch script if you want things neat and tidy. Protools will do much of this internally. Cubase can do it, and again you need to consolidate. Other DAWs should do it as well.

it should never take you hours to split 100 files. Use gates to clean up noises and remove unwated takes in the DAW/source audio. Keep things organized. That is key.

depending on source 900 files could take 15 mins, to an hour. but if it's messy it can take 3 or 4 to get to a basic place that you can go back to and adjust/clean up. later.


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## benmrx (Jan 3, 2014)

While this isn't exactly related, you also might try making a stripped down instrument first with less velocity and RR layers. This is just to sort of "test" your samples and how all the "cleanup" worked (or didn't work), and the playability of your instrument.


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## d.healey (Jan 4, 2014)

I recommend using Reaper - and here are some tutorials I made showing how to slice up samples, clean up the audio and batch export, all within reaper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Z9IO9lMhQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knDG8qYkR1A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsTlp1-qhrI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUZmvbtnwZmmI7lHFa4BQiRA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsTlp1-q ... lHFa4BQiRA)


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## Jonathan Howe (Jan 4, 2014)

Thanks a lot for all your helpful input! That will really make the process simpler. I already used the Transient Method once but that was directly in Kontakt and I wasn't smart enough to figure out other programs probably have the same feature. I'll go through all your suggestions and see what works best for me. Huge thanks to all of you!


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## MA-Simon (Jan 4, 2014)

Shameless bump.

I have the same "problem".
So far I have been cutting everything by hand. 
Cleaning up in audition, sorting the samples in cubase, cutting and setting little fade ins and outs etc...

It was okay while working on some early instruments, but I currently recorded lots of percussion and the editing is just getting nuts. >8o 

Do you know if there is a *feature for this* in *Adobe Audition CS6*, ore *Cubase 5.5?*
I currently can't shell out 200€ for something so specific, mainly because I have to be lucky to ever earn that amount with my little libraries. 

*EDIT: OMG. Reaper is perfect. Thanks so much for your tutorial videos! Awesome. A dream come true. o=? *


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## d.healey (Jan 5, 2014)

No problem


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## mistermikev (Jan 8, 2014)

just thought I'd offer my 2 cents in case it can help anyone...

a while back I needed to split up / massage a bunch of wavs. I settled on reaper for splitting. does a nice job of accurately/consistently getting the front/back of a wav split right. (and it's free to use - but they probably deserve our support)

after that I had a few other requirements: 

1) I wanted to organize/name them by level. 
2) I also wanted to normalize them... but didn't want to normalize them all to 0 because it would destroy the natural dynamics and introduce noise - more a relative normalization within 5 velocity groups.
3) needed to add a fade to the end and 
4) some low pass filtering.

I ended up writing a batch file that used sox. sox will output a txt file w peak mean db measurement for each wave. With some help from google, my batch file parsed that file and labeled wavs accordingly... then normalized them in groups (ie if between 0 and -4 db normalize to -3db, if between -5 and -10 then -8, etc).

I'm not sure how well my batch file would work for anyone else, and haven't used it in months, but if you want to try it - shoot me a message.


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