How to create soundbanks or similar type of resources

Question

I have a very old VST synth that doesn't really work that good with my latest OS version. It crashes a lot. The thing is I don't really need it that much anymore, but I have a few nice patches in it that are hard to reproduce in other synths.

How can I create some kind of a soundbank with the sounds I like from it, so I can use them instead of the VST?

Answer 1

Consider getting an old box with the OS it used to work on and using that box as a "hardware" synth. That is, run a midi channel to the old boxand run the audio from the old box back to your DAW as if it were a hardware synth. This way you retain all bends, legato and midi automation.

Otherwise, Openlabs has some software called MimiK that can be used to clone hardware synths and keyboards. I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to rout some midi channels in your DAW and have it pull from your synth. I don't know if they sell it standalone or you have to install it on a Neko board though...

I've also heard of SampleRobot and Autosampler that seem to do the same thing.

You'll probably have more luck this way than sampling by hand. The software method is more precise and, most importantly, automated.

Cheers

Blake

Answer 2

Unfortunately, the answer is that there is no easy way to do this manually. You can sample your synth, which involves making a recording of it playing each note individually, and then assembling that into a sampled instrument using the sfz format (or any other sampler).

However, this does not work well for all types of synth sound. In particular, if your synth supports any kind of rhythmic tempo-syncing effects, these will be lost. Also, if the timbre of the sound changes depending on the velocity of your key hits, you will need to multi-sample each note to capture this. Also, you will no longer be able to automate synth parameters in real-time.

Having said all that, it is possible to capture the basic sound of a patch. You need a fair bit of time and patience, as you will need to assemble a lot of samples, and quite probably create loop points for each one.

It is possible that somewhere you might find a program that will attempt to automate the task for you, by sending MIDI note on and off messages to your soft-synth one by one, recording the results and assembling them into some kind of sample file (e.g. sf2). For example I think Extreme Sample Converter has this capability, but I don't know of any free options.