A sampler is an instrument that loads audio samples and lets you play them from a keyboard, from pads, or with MIDI notes. You can treat recordings of pianos, drums, and strings as playable instruments, or process voices and field recordings you made yourself. The word can refer to a hardware unit or to a software instrument inside a DAW.
How samples are played
A sampler plays back the loaded audio according to the note it receives. If you map one sound across several keys, the playback speed changes and so does the pitch. To create more natural instrument sounds, there is a method called multisampling, in which several samples are mapped by range and by velocity.
Using it for drums
Assign one-shots such as kick, snare, and hi-hat to separate pads or MIDI notes and play them. Writing notes in the piano roll lets you build rhythm patterns. Since the start position, length, level, and pitch can be set individually, the same material can take on different characters.
Shaping the sound
Most samplers include filters, envelopes, LFOs, and modulation. Beyond simply playing back, you can shorten the attack, darken the sound with a low-pass filter, or change the pitch. Compare the level of the original recording with the processed sound so that you do not push it too loud.
How it differs from a synthesizer
A sampler starts mainly from recorded sound, while a synthesizer generates sound with oscillators and the like. Today’s software instruments, however, sometimes have both. Rather than deciding on one or the other, choose by the texture you want and by how easy it is to edit.
Your first steps
Load a single sample and play it from a MIDI keyboard or the piano roll. Then check the level, the start position, and the pitch to get a feel for how it works. For ideas common to all instruments, see the article on software instruments.
