Many of us, have never gone into deepness with STS. I own the STS 4000, but do not know how to use it fully.
1- Where should I start apart from reading the manual?
2- What can you do best with STS and what is not advisable to do?
3- What programs do we need to convert samples into the different formats available for STS and which formats do really work without problems?
4- Is it a very difficult software to learn?
Thanks
Experienced people, please answer: What is best done with ST
Well hi there Nestor,
I'm kind a in the same situation as you are, I own an Emu platinum sampler and I figured that one out just about after one year of fidling around. I'd like to do a little more STS-based sampling but I don't know s**t about them. Maybe if I poked around a little I'd get to learn them but if I want to replace my hardware sampler I need to get it up and running immediately.
Greetz
I'm kind a in the same situation as you are, I own an Emu platinum sampler and I figured that one out just about after one year of fidling around. I'd like to do a little more STS-based sampling but I don't know s**t about them. Maybe if I poked around a little I'd get to learn them but if I want to replace my hardware sampler I need to get it up and running immediately.
Greetz
The STS series is not too hard to learn the basics. As has been stated many times in other forums, the STS is basically an AKAI 1000/3000 series in soft/hardware.
1. To create a program from scratch: (a) create a program in the main STS window; (b) create keygroups in the Keygroup window; (c) add samples to the keygroups as you like by dragging or recording your own. That's about it. Of course, there's a lot more detail involved, but begin there.
2. If you want to record your own samples make sure you "create" a sample in the samples slots (you're really just making a place for a sample by doing this). You can record by several techniques; look that up in the manual.
3. The STS has a program pool where you can load a bunch of programs ready to be called up in the main window. I've never got this to work really good. It takes quite a bit of processor power; but that's just me. You may have different experience.
4. Get either cdxtract from http://www.cdxtract.com or Translator from http://www.chickensys.com. They will translate FROM almost any popular format TO almost any popular format. They are in Windows and are very close to become available in Macintosh.
5. STS works great with AKAI. It's supposed to work with soundfonts and they're OK but usually require a little more tweaking than you'd like. Use high quality sound fonts.
6. On the STS5000 you can do pitch shifting techniques which works Ok on simple, monophonic one-instrument/voice samples.
7. The great thing about any soft sampler is the fact that you can load programs very quickly, the sampler is very well integrated into a project and you can see everything on a (hopefully) large computer monitor instead of a tiny LCD screen.
8. The STS series are still a little buggy/quirky but if you don't push them to the edge they are so nice to work with on a project because they don't require you to break concentration to go to your rack and make changes and then break concentration to go back to the monitor. And they take a bit of load off the main computer processor which soft samplers, of course, don't.
9. The sample editor is not as easy to work with as the major sample editor packages, so you'll probably want to use whatever you use there. But I've been using the STS editors a little more lately and for just basic cut,paste and loop I've found it pretty powerful. You can zoom in down to a very tiny level and get the loops to sound adequate, in real time.
10. If you miss effects you can always send a program to one of the separate outs on the STS and plug it into one of the Pulsar Mixers that has inserts. It's really nice on the Pro Pack Pulsar Mixer. You can route STS separate outs to a channel on the Pulsar Mixer and have all kinds of effects if you've got the DSP power. I only have 10 DSP's so I run out quickly. This can be really powerful. And if you don't want to use the Pulsar Mixers you can always just route the STS individual outs to ASIO channels and have your Sequencer effects work on the sounds.
A little long, but that's my take on the STS today.
Have fun.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Gregory on 2002-03-18 10:59 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Gregory on 2002-03-18 11:01 ]</font>
1. To create a program from scratch: (a) create a program in the main STS window; (b) create keygroups in the Keygroup window; (c) add samples to the keygroups as you like by dragging or recording your own. That's about it. Of course, there's a lot more detail involved, but begin there.
2. If you want to record your own samples make sure you "create" a sample in the samples slots (you're really just making a place for a sample by doing this). You can record by several techniques; look that up in the manual.
3. The STS has a program pool where you can load a bunch of programs ready to be called up in the main window. I've never got this to work really good. It takes quite a bit of processor power; but that's just me. You may have different experience.
4. Get either cdxtract from http://www.cdxtract.com or Translator from http://www.chickensys.com. They will translate FROM almost any popular format TO almost any popular format. They are in Windows and are very close to become available in Macintosh.
5. STS works great with AKAI. It's supposed to work with soundfonts and they're OK but usually require a little more tweaking than you'd like. Use high quality sound fonts.
6. On the STS5000 you can do pitch shifting techniques which works Ok on simple, monophonic one-instrument/voice samples.
7. The great thing about any soft sampler is the fact that you can load programs very quickly, the sampler is very well integrated into a project and you can see everything on a (hopefully) large computer monitor instead of a tiny LCD screen.
8. The STS series are still a little buggy/quirky but if you don't push them to the edge they are so nice to work with on a project because they don't require you to break concentration to go to your rack and make changes and then break concentration to go back to the monitor. And they take a bit of load off the main computer processor which soft samplers, of course, don't.
9. The sample editor is not as easy to work with as the major sample editor packages, so you'll probably want to use whatever you use there. But I've been using the STS editors a little more lately and for just basic cut,paste and loop I've found it pretty powerful. You can zoom in down to a very tiny level and get the loops to sound adequate, in real time.
10. If you miss effects you can always send a program to one of the separate outs on the STS and plug it into one of the Pulsar Mixers that has inserts. It's really nice on the Pro Pack Pulsar Mixer. You can route STS separate outs to a channel on the Pulsar Mixer and have all kinds of effects if you've got the DSP power. I only have 10 DSP's so I run out quickly. This can be really powerful. And if you don't want to use the Pulsar Mixers you can always just route the STS individual outs to ASIO channels and have your Sequencer effects work on the sounds.
A little long, but that's my take on the STS today.
Have fun.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Gregory on 2002-03-18 10:59 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Gregory on 2002-03-18 11:01 ]</font>
Being quite a lazy person, with quite simple requirements from my STS, I find that the following tools are virtually essential:
Recycle (http://www.propellerheads.se/products/r ... frame.html), Awave (http://www.fmjsoft.com/awframe.html) and STS Creator (check the Presets and Tools section of this forum).
From what I can gather from other STS users on this and other forums, not many people use the actual sample recording functions of the STS, using alternative wave editors like Sound Forge in preference.
I was a bit disappointed with the fact that not much of the STS3000 is midi-controllable, as I would have liked to link my Phatboy up to it. However, I tend to use external (to the STS) effects in Luna, which generally tend to be midi-controllable.
Cheers,
Will
Recycle (http://www.propellerheads.se/products/r ... frame.html), Awave (http://www.fmjsoft.com/awframe.html) and STS Creator (check the Presets and Tools section of this forum).
From what I can gather from other STS users on this and other forums, not many people use the actual sample recording functions of the STS, using alternative wave editors like Sound Forge in preference.
I was a bit disappointed with the fact that not much of the STS3000 is midi-controllable, as I would have liked to link my Phatboy up to it. However, I tend to use external (to the STS) effects in Luna, which generally tend to be midi-controllable.
Cheers,
Will
I haven't used the STS too much since it seems to be to primarily focus on playback functions for multisample programs. most of my sample work is actually recording bits and pieces of non-musical material such as effects and quotes and percussive sounds. For this the STS seems quite labourious and cumbersome. SoundForge is much better.
However, I did come across a little utility which makes things way easier for STS novices. I recommend it:
Go here:
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... forum=13&3
The link was bumped recently by W_Ellis - and thanks, it works very well. basically you run the utility, define a whole lot of wavs in a directory and presto! a STS program is created for each wav you defined.
However, I did come across a little utility which makes things way easier for STS novices. I recommend it:
Go here:
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... forum=13&3
The link was bumped recently by W_Ellis - and thanks, it works very well. basically you run the utility, define a whole lot of wavs in a directory and presto! a STS program is created for each wav you defined.
Actually, I bought my CW card mostly because of the STS sampler, but not only, tho. It has been my principal working tool since I'm with CW. I'm composing with sample libraries and I did not use the sample editor much, but I went through almost every other functions...
I find that this sampler is very well made, very easy to understand, especially when it comes to programming and assigning midi controllers to the different sound-modifying engines (filters, lfos, envelopes, etc.)
For the work that I do, I rapidly run out of polyphony with my STS3000, that's why I'll go back to Giga once the XP drivers come out. I don't say I'll stop to use my STS completely, but I definitely need more voices, more stereo outputs and more power and control in general. If my STS would allow me to have it, I'd definitely stick to it, because it works really fine and is simple to use.
The pool is very useful when you want to have a patch change. Otherwise, I don't know what it can do.
To convert akai cds I use cdxtract and convert the whole cd directly in pulsar format.
I'd say go on and use it, and if you have any specific questions, post them here.
I find that this sampler is very well made, very easy to understand, especially when it comes to programming and assigning midi controllers to the different sound-modifying engines (filters, lfos, envelopes, etc.)
For the work that I do, I rapidly run out of polyphony with my STS3000, that's why I'll go back to Giga once the XP drivers come out. I don't say I'll stop to use my STS completely, but I definitely need more voices, more stereo outputs and more power and control in general. If my STS would allow me to have it, I'd definitely stick to it, because it works really fine and is simple to use.
The pool is very useful when you want to have a patch change. Otherwise, I don't know what it can do.
To convert akai cds I use cdxtract and convert the whole cd directly in pulsar format.
I'd say go on and use it, and if you have any specific questions, post them here.
I'm a bit disappointed at recent software samplers. Too often they seem to focus on all the complexities and forget about the person who just wants a quick wav.
I remember fondly the sampling setup of the Ensoniq EPS and ASR-10:
- check the level
- hit record
- hit stop
- define low note
- define high note
- name & save
Sure you could get complex if you wanted to, but you weren't FORCED to fiddle with settings that you didn't want to alter anyway.
SoundForge is as close as you get to this and does it's job extremely well.
You'd think with software that they'd be some "fast sample" options. For example, maybe you want to quickly record 50 snippets of something each on a separate note and clean them up later. The old Ensoniqs were brilliant at doing that.
Perhaps the new NI Kontakt is more flexible ?
For now I'm a happy puppy with SoundForge
I remember fondly the sampling setup of the Ensoniq EPS and ASR-10:
- check the level
- hit record
- hit stop
- define low note
- define high note
- name & save
Sure you could get complex if you wanted to, but you weren't FORCED to fiddle with settings that you didn't want to alter anyway.
SoundForge is as close as you get to this and does it's job extremely well.
You'd think with software that they'd be some "fast sample" options. For example, maybe you want to quickly record 50 snippets of something each on a separate note and clean them up later. The old Ensoniqs were brilliant at doing that.
Perhaps the new NI Kontakt is more flexible ?
For now I'm a happy puppy with SoundForge
for sample playback
the old sample playerF is must better to control and uses less DSP overall.
for sample editing, it's a pain in the to edit in STS series.
hey they one with 10DSP, most of us only have 6 DSP...............
the old sample playerF is must better to control and uses less DSP overall.
for sample editing, it's a pain in the to edit in STS series.
hey they one with 10DSP, most of us only have 6 DSP...............
I'm still seeing new things in life.
<p><a href="http://mp3.com/dxl">www.mp3.com/dxl</a></p>
<p><a href="http://mp3.com/dxl">www.mp3.com/dxl</a></p>
sorry Am i wrong?
or u just again hate whatever i said?
or you have to make yourself think to the bright side only?
oh make it more detail:
if you don't do any modulations, don't record anything, and want to add effects to each insturments, Sampleplayer is for you.
you don't use lots individual outputs but alot of insturments and some modulation, programings, STS3000 is for you.
STS5000 will work effective with people have at lease 6DSP. that is the truth.
people can't even get full polyphany on 9DSP with STS5000, how can Creamware pack STS5000 in 3DSP card?
isn't that a good question?
or u just again hate whatever i said?
or you have to make yourself think to the bright side only?
oh make it more detail:
if you don't do any modulations, don't record anything, and want to add effects to each insturments, Sampleplayer is for you.
you don't use lots individual outputs but alot of insturments and some modulation, programings, STS3000 is for you.
STS5000 will work effective with people have at lease 6DSP. that is the truth.
people can't even get full polyphany on 9DSP with STS5000, how can Creamware pack STS5000 in 3DSP card?
isn't that a good question?
I'm still seeing new things in life.
<p><a href="http://mp3.com/dxl">www.mp3.com/dxl</a></p>
<p><a href="http://mp3.com/dxl">www.mp3.com/dxl</a></p>
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kensuguro
- Posts: 4434
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What? They're packing sts5000 with luna? Anyway, it's good to start with percussion samples cuz they're easy to handle, and then work your way into longer samples. It seems to me tho, that you'd need to invest in lots of good sampling CDs as samples are REALLY hard to hand make.
The thing is, samples only let you do a specific type of expression on that specific instrument. As soon as you try to do something outside of that range, you're kind of stuck. That's with samples, no matter what kind of sampler you use, that'll be the limit. Especially when you're trying to do something with continous pitch and tone.. you gotta do so much tweaking and what not it becomes so rediculous, you might as well invest the time to buy and learn the instrument. But it's still possible to tweak them to a pretty real state tho. But with cheap solo instruments, buy it and learn it.
OT from here below
====================
And dxl, ya don't have to defend yourself by attacking. We all know it only makes things worse and I don't think niether you or I want that. just say "just tried to offer my 2 cents" and it'll go down. Otherwise, I don't find anything wrong with your post.
Oh yeah, BTW d'you check out my tune in the music forum? That's a heng-di that I got in Kaohsiung. You might notice that tone.
The thing is, samples only let you do a specific type of expression on that specific instrument. As soon as you try to do something outside of that range, you're kind of stuck. That's with samples, no matter what kind of sampler you use, that'll be the limit. Especially when you're trying to do something with continous pitch and tone.. you gotta do so much tweaking and what not it becomes so rediculous, you might as well invest the time to buy and learn the instrument. But it's still possible to tweak them to a pretty real state tho. But with cheap solo instruments, buy it and learn it.
OT from here below
====================
And dxl, ya don't have to defend yourself by attacking. We all know it only makes things worse and I don't think niether you or I want that.
just say "just tried to offer my 2 cents" and it'll go down. Otherwise, I don't find anything wrong with your post.Oh yeah, BTW d'you check out my tune in the music forum? That's a heng-di that I got in Kaohsiung. You might notice that tone.
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ernest@303.nu
- Posts: 217
- Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2002 4:00 pm
- Contact:
Quite often I've seen people mentioning using stand-alone utilities for converting AKAI CD-roms to sts-format. Having "no money" as my middle name I never got to buy such an utility, even though I'd like to copy complete AKAI CD-roms to my harddrive at once. Until I found out that Pulsar 3.0's FileBrowser does the job perfectly! Just select all folders on the AKAI disk (select first entry, then hold shift while selecting the very last entry), choose 'copy' from the 'Edit' menu, browse to the destination folder on your harddisk and finally choose 'Paste' from that same edit menu. PRESTO! All samples and programs are on your harddisk.
[edit] Oooooops, this doesn't convert the samples to STS-format but simply copies the CD-ROM to your harddisk in Akai-format. (.p- and .s-files)
But then again, this works perfectly well for me, it allows me to have all my AKAI library ready on the network, and if I apply changes to the program I can still save as .sts-file. As the Akai CD-ROMs never hold STS-specific data this appears to be acceptable for my application. [/edit]
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ernest@303.nu on 2002-03-22 11:21 ]</font>
[edit] Oooooops, this doesn't convert the samples to STS-format but simply copies the CD-ROM to your harddisk in Akai-format. (.p- and .s-files)
But then again, this works perfectly well for me, it allows me to have all my AKAI library ready on the network, and if I apply changes to the program I can still save as .sts-file. As the Akai CD-ROMs never hold STS-specific data this appears to be acceptable for my application. [/edit]
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ernest@303.nu on 2002-03-22 11:21 ]</font>
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algorhythm
- Posts: 1139
- Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2001 4:00 pm
- Location: Tennessee, USA
- Contact:
Do you use the STS2000? - If you are only playing back sample programs, you could use this to up your polyphony on the STS3000 for the more complex tasks . . . definitely a work around, but hey . ..elaim said:
I definitely need more voices, more stereo outputs and more power and control in general.
thanks ernest@303.nu. This would be an absolutely great tip, but how long on average does it take to copy the whole cd?
Becuase mine seems to take an absolute age to do it.
Becuase mine seems to take an absolute age to do it.
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ernest@303.nu
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algorhythm
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To "Ez Record" Spirit - I just wanted you to know I thought of you the other day. . . I just got a Kaoss pad for my live rig - it has a sampler in it you press "record" and it is there, and then press "play." - Doesn't get much easier than that, eh? Maybe you should get oneOn 2002-03-20 02:29, Spirit wrote:
I'm a bit disappointed at recent software samplers. Too often they seem to focus on all the complexities and forget about the person who just wants a quick wav.
I remember fondly the sampling setup of the Ensoniq EPS and ASR-10:
- check the level
- hit record
- hit stop
- define low note
- define high note
- name & save
? oh - it doesn't render waves, never mind. take it easy folks . ..