STS keygroups - what am I doing wrong?

Talk about the STS series of Creamware samplers.

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jbraner
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Post by jbraner »

I'm not a big fan of the STS user interface, but I'm the first to admin that there is still a lot that I have to learn, so there's always a (very good) chance that I'm doing something wrong.

Last night, though, I got some unexpected results when I tried to copy a keygroup within a program on my STS5000, and I found it really annoying.

I've got a simple program with some vocal clips spread across the keyboard. All I wanted to do was make a copy of one of the samples but have it start midway therough the sample. (actually I wanted to have three copies all starting from different parts but we'll use two in the example) This should be very simple. I copyied the keygroup, and now my second keygroup was accessing sample(2).wav. I changed it to trigger in the middle of the sample, and it worked fine (of course it takes ages to find the right point because you're working with numbers - ie sample 102500 out of 238655). Anyway, when I played the key of the original sample, it too was triggering from the middle, and it was tuned to the new key! When I looked at the original keygroup, it was also accessing sample(2).wav!

Surely you should be able to have a copy of the same sample in 2 different keygroups, with one firing from the beginning of the sample, and another firing from a different point? I would expect one to have sample.wav listed as it's sample, and the other one to have sample(2).wav listed as it's wav. This is not rocket science.

After a while, with all my creative juices completely stifled, I went for the manual, and I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. I tried all different ways, but I don't think it's possible to load a copy of the -same- sample in a STS program more than once. When you try it, it always alters the original sample, but calls it a copy of itself.

Of course I could get around it by copying the wav file, and using Cool Edit Pro to delete the beginning of the copy so it starts at the right point (why mess with the stupid numbers in the STS interface) - but the point is, I wanted to do this quickly and easily and I was already in the STS5000. It should have taken a couple of minutes, including dialing in the correct start point (which isn't really -that- bad once you get close).

I'm sure I could do this (have different instances of the same sample within a program) with my ancient sampler program on my old Turtle Beach Tropez sound card.

Another thing I noticed, is that I had envelope 1 (VCA) set up for a fast release time for the whole program (edit all was ticked when I set it up). When I put my new keygroups into the program, that did not have this quick release time set - their relase time was set to "ind". Surely any keygroups added to a program would take on the default envelopes that the rest of the program is using?

Is this just me? Am I doing something wrong here? I don't think I'm expecting too much, and I'm really trying to make sure I'm right before I call the STS user interface a piece of crap.
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Ricardo
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Post by Ricardo »

'Of course I could get around it by copying the wav file, and using Cool Edit Pro to delete the beginning of the copy so it starts at the right point '

That's how I would have done it. I think only one wav. sample is assigned to one keygroup. I don't think you can copy a keygroup without it referencing to the original wav. file. You need a new keygroup, I think...I may be wrong
jbraner
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Post by jbraner »

That's what I did, I made a new keygroup (a copy of the original one), and expected it to be able to access a copy of the original WAV file. It seems this is not possible.

This leads to the question, then what's the point of letting you copy a keygroup? Why would you ever want to do it??
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braincell
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Post by braincell »

I'm totally frustrated by the STS. I have the same problem with it. Things also seem to disappear after I spent a lot of time placing samples. I wish they would overhaul the GUI and make it bigger and easier to use!
mythalethe
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Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2001 4:00 pm
Location: The Emerald City

Post by mythalethe »

I agree. Why couldn't it be as easy to use as halion? I have a sense that STS5000 is very powerful, but for a moron like me it is very un-intuitive...

-M
hubird

Post by hubird »

agree.
I got it working perfect, but changed to a VSTi sampler coz of un-intuitive-ness...
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