INSTRUMENTS

The Sampler plays back a single audio file, pitched and shaped by incoming MIDI. It is the right choice for melodic instruments, one-shots, pads, and any time you want a single sound to span the keyboard.

LOADING A SAMPLE

Drag any audio file onto the Sampler's drop zone from the timeline or directly from Finder. The drop zone is replaced by a waveform display once a sample loads, with a moving playhead during playback. The Sampler holds one sample at a time.

PITCH & KEY TRACKING

MIDI notes pitch-shift the sample by changing its playback speed — higher notes play faster (and shorter), lower notes play slower (and longer). The Sampler does not time-stretch.

• Root note — the MIDI note that plays the sample back at its original speed. Range 24–108 (default C4). Other notes pitch up or down relative to this.
• Detune — fine tuning in cents, ±100, applied on top of the root.
• Reverse — play the sample back-to-front.
• Max voices — how many simultaneous notes the Sampler will play. 1 to 32, default 6. Set to 1 for monophonic instruments.

SUSTAIN & RELEASE REGIONS

The Sampler divides each sample into an optional sustain loop and an optional release tail. Drag the markers on the waveform to set start and end points.

• Sustain region — three modes: Classic (one-shot forward play), Loop forward, and Ping-pong (forward/back).
• Release region — four modes: off, one-shot forward, loop forward, ping-pong. Triggers on note-off and plays into the tail.

ENVELOPE & LEVEL

• ADSR — attack (0–20 s), decay (1 ms – 60 s), sustain level (0–100%), release (1 ms – 60 s).
• Gain — −100 dB (silent) to +6 dB.
• Pan — left to right.

The Sampler UI is split into two tabs: Sample (the waveform, loop markers, root, detune, reverse) and Envelope (ADSR + voice count). Every parameter can be automated.

The DrumRack is a 16-pad sampler laid out as a 4×4 grid. Each pad holds its own sample with its own envelope, gain, pan, pitch, and effect chain — useful for kits, percussion, and chopped loops.

THE GRID & MIDI MAPPING

Pads are mapped chromatically to MIDI notes 36–51 — that is, C1 through D♯2. The bottom-left pad is C1; the mapping fills left to right, bottom to top. Each pad shows its assigned note. The mapping is fixed.

Pads light up as their MIDI notes are triggered. Click a pad to select it for editing; the rack's controls below the grid then apply to that pad.

LOADING SAMPLES

• Drop a file on a pad — drag from the timeline or Finder. The pad now plays that sample when its MIDI note arrives.
• Drag between pads — move or swap samples by dragging one pad onto another.
• Clear a pad — remove the sample from a pad to leave it empty.

PER-PAD CONTROLS

With a pad selected, the inspector exposes:

• Playback mode — OneShot (ignores note-off, plays the whole sample) or Classic (respects note-off and the full ADSR envelope).
• ADSR — same ranges as the Sampler. Applied in Classic mode.
• Sustain & release regions — same modes as the Sampler (Classic / loop forward / ping-pong) for the sustain region; release region adds an off mode.
• Gain — per-pad level, −100 dB to +6 dB.
• Pitch shift — ±12 semitones for the pad.
• Pan — left to right.
• Reverse— play the pad's sample backwards.
• Choke group — assign the pad to a group (0–15) so that pads in the same group cut each other off. Classic use: open and closed hi-hat in the same group, so the closed hat silences the open one. Set to −1 for no choking.
• Effect chain — each pad has its own serial effect chain. Drop effects onto the chain to process that pad alone before it hits the rack output.

RACK OUTPUT

All 16 pads sum into a single rack output that feeds the MIDI track's own effect chain and fader. The rack-level chain gain and pan apply to that sum.

// CHOOSING AN INSTRUMENT

Use the Sampler when one sound should span the keyboard — a piano sample, a vocal chop, a synth patch. Use the DrumRack when you need a kit: many sounds, each on its own key, each with its own processing. For anything outside that — synthesizers, complex multisamplers, ROMplers — load a third-party plugin (see the VST3 plugins guide).