Sample Lab

Documentation

Quickstart Video



 

Top Toolbar Functions

 

Composition

This will open a saved pattern and the associated sample kit

 

 

 

Sample Kit

This will open a saved sample kit without modifying the working pattern.

 

 

Composition

This will save the working pattern and sample kit to a composition that you can open later.

 

 

Mixdown

This will save a 16 bit 44.1kHz stereo mixdown of the working composition.  You can mix volume of tracks, trigger samples & un-mute/slam-fade and use the FX during the mixdown.

 

This opens the FX & trigger pad dialog.  To close the dialog, touch anywhere outside of the dialog.  The FX are global (applied to the master output.)  The dialog trigger pads are multi-touch enabled allowing for triplets etc.    You will get the lowest latency from the trigger pads when the composition is not playing, and you have the buffer size set to 256 in the config settings. By using this configuration with a MIDI drum trigger pad, ~6ms latency can be achieved.

 

This opens the configuration dialog discussed below.

 

 

This controls the shuffle/swing delay applied to every-other beat.

 

 

This controls the composition tempo.  Note that when the composition is playing tempo changes are applied when the next measure starts.

 

 

Press this to show the fine BPM control dialog.  Tap the + and - buttons to increment or decrement by 0.1 BPM.

 

 

Sample Editor Functions

 

This allows you to load samples from your document directory.  See Importing WAVs and MP3s from your computer.

 

 

Tap once to start recording.  Tap again to stop recording and load the results in the waveform editor.

 

 

Trim/Crop

This trims the sample to the selected segment.

 

 

Normalize

This brings the sample volume up to the maximum possible.

 

 

Copy

Copy contents of the waveform editor to the clipboard to share with other apps.

 

 

Paste

Paste contents of clipboard into the waveform editor.

 

 

SoundCloud

Upload the contents of the waveform editor to soundcloud.  Requires registration with SoundCloud.com (free.)

 

 

This loops the selected audio in the waveform editor.  Note that you can move the sliders while the sample is looping.  Press again to stop.

 

 

This will play the selected audio once.  Press again to play from beginning of selection.

 

 

Move the sliders to change selection start and end.  Pinch-to zoom in and out on the waveform.  Drag your selection on to a track below to copy the selection to a track (16 seconds maximum length due to memory constraints).

 

 

Track Controls

 

Tap the track display to toggle the track between sequencer and mixer panels.

 

 

Tap the beat buttons to turn a beat on or off.  Pull/drag down on a beat button to edit velocity and pitch for the beat.  Pitch shifting +/- 12 semitones is supported.  Pitch shifting is only supported for samples less than 3 seconds in length due to memory constraints.  It is worth noting that the pitch shifting is done on-demand. That is, the sample is pitch shifted the first time it is requested by the sequencer. There can be a delay of a second or two between when you request a pitch and when it first becomes available. Once the new pitch is in memory, there is no further delay. You will notice a faint gear icon in the track control display while a track still has a sample being processed.

The Pan slider controls how far left or right the beat is rendered in the stereo mix. You can use the Copy and Paste buttons to copy all the settings out of the dialog and paste them into another beat.


The new beat editing dialog (v.1.5) lets you control the start, stop, and loop points of the sample for each beat. You can use this to load a drum loop into one track, and have each beat trigger a different part of the loop. Experiment looping tiny sections of the sample, or looping the end of a sample to extend it. We are excited about this new feature and look forward to hearing how you are using it.


Move the start(left-hand) and stop(right-hand) cue points by dragging the triangles in the upper left and right corners of the window. Like in the main editor, you can use pinch-to-zoom. The sample is played starting at the left-hand cue point, through to the right-hand cue point, then looped back to the loop cue point if it is not locked to the right-hand cue point. To stop the loop, add a subsequent beat in the sequencer, maybe with 0% volume.


When the loop selector is equal to the end/right-hand cue point, the sample will not loop.

When the loop selector is less than the end/right-hand cue point, the sample will loop.

 

This mutes the selected track.

 

 

This mutes every other track.

 

 

This clears all beats on this track for the current measure.

 

 

Tapping the "edit" button opens this dialog. The first button - "Edit Sample" - will load a copy of that track's sample into the main editor. The second button - "Lock to BPM" - locks that track to the current BPM so that you can later change the composition BPM up or down to stretch or compress any locked tracks' samples automatically. Each track can be locked to a different BPM to allow syncing of samples recorded at different tempos.


To easily lock & stretch a drum loop sample:

  1. Starting with the track "unlocked from BPM", load your sample into a track.
  2. Set the sample to trigger on the first beat.
  3. Press play and adjust the track BPM until the sample loops perfectly.
  4. Tap the "Lock to BPM" button to lock that track to the current tempo.

 

 

 

This lets you load a new sample into the track from the sample browser. The samples included with the app can be found under composition StarterKit.


You can select a category and/or composition to narrow the results shown to find samples quickly.

 

 

This button has three different functions:

  1. While the composition is playing: tap to record beat and trigger sample.
  2. While the composition is playing and the track is muted: tap to un-mute for percussive slam-fading.
  3. While the composition is stopped tap to trigger sample without recording.

 

 

This controls punch-in recording, turning Sample Lab into a powerful loopbox for live performance. Here's how it works:

  1. While the composition is playing, tap the button to prime for recording.
  2. A countdown message will be displayed until the start of the next measure is reached when recording will start. The countdown will ensure your recording is synchronized with the playing composition.
  3. Tap the button to stop recording. Your recording will be loaded and the first beat of the measure where recording began will toggle on.
  4. You can repeat this on all tracks to build layers of guitar, vocals, beatbox, etc live. MIDI pedalboards like the Behringer FCB-1010 are supported to allow hands-free punch-in on all tracks. See the recommended hardware section below for more details.

 

 

Sequencer

 

The sequencer has 3 modes:

  1. Off: selected measure does not change unless you tap another measure.
  2. On: selected measure advances to loop the entire composition.
  3. Loop: selected measure advances to loop the selected measures.

 

 

To select a range of measures, touch and hold the start measure, and tap the end measure.  You can select a single measure by tapping it.  If you change the selected measure while the composition is playing, that measure button will flash until the end of the previous measure is reached and the selected measure is played.  This is to allow smooth navigation of patterns during live performance.

 

 

Repeat/duplicate selected measures and append to end of composition

 

Delete selected measures.

 

 

Move selected measures forward or backward to rearrange sequence.

 

 

Importing Samples

 

Sample Lab utilizes iTunes file sharing to import/export MP3s and 16-bit 44.1kHz WAV files (WAV is recommended if possible).  The steps to import are:

 

  1. Open iTunes on Windows or OSX & connect your iPad.  
  2. In iTunes, select your iPad under "Devices"
  3. Select the "Apps" tab.
  4. Make sure "Sync Apps" is checked.
  5. Scroll down to "File Sharing" and select Sample Lab under "Apps"
  6. Drag your files into the “Sample Lab Documents” window.
  7. You can now open the files in the sample editor.

 

To export samples from your Sample Lab, just drag and drop from "Sample Lab Documents" to your desktop.

 

Supported Hardware for MIDI and Audio I/O

 

Sample Lab now supports MIDI input control over a variety of functions like sample triggering with dynamic velocity/volume, punch-in recording, and track volume control. You can get MIDI into the iPad using a variety of CoreMIDI compliant USB devices VIA the iPad camera connection kit, or with a hardware solution made specifically for iPad like the Alesis iO Dock.

Sample Lab has support for some common MIDI controller configurations:

  • Keith McMillen SoftStep controller will let you control almost everything in Sample Lab with your feet. Just download the Sample Lab SoftStep scenes here and use the SoftStep Librarian to load the scene.
  • Behringer FCB-1010: Select program 1. Pedals 1-8 control punch-in/out on tracks 1-8. Pedal 9 and 10 toggle crush and cutoff and the expression pedals modulate crush and cutoff.
  • Akai LPD8: Program 1: Velocity sensitive sample triggering on all pads and knobs. Program 1 cc mode: Trigger samples with velocity as long as the pad is depressed, allowing for gated percussion. Program 2: Velocity insensitive trigger. Program 4: Punch-in/out on all pads, knobs control track volume.


Regarding recording, there are a few options we recommend:

  • Sample Lab now supports stereo recording through several CoreAudio compliant USB 1 audio interfaces VIA the camera connection kit. Our favorite is the Mackie ProFX8 mixer which lets you mix down several recording sources to one stereo input bus that Sample Lab uses for recording. Sample Lab's main bus stereo output is sent to the mixer's USB bus as well.
  • If you just need mono input, IK's iRig is the way to go. (Also the IK iKlip + a desktop mic stand is our favorite iPad mounting solution.)

 

 

Configuration Options & MIDI Output

 

To access other options including recording input level, metronome and MIDI out configuration, tap the config button.


The Background Audio setting allows you to control whether or not Sample Lab runs in the background after you press the iPad's home button.


The Virtual MIDI setting controls whether or not Sample Lab will send MIDI output to other apps running in iOS audio multitasking with virtual MIDI ports open. Sample Lab does not accept virtual MIDI input.


The Pitch/Stretch Quality setting allows you to choose faster/lower-quality or slower/higher-quality pitch shifting and time stretching. You will notice a faint gear icon in the track control display while audio on that track is being stretched or pitched.


The Buffer Size setting works much like on any other DAW. If you do not care about trigger pad latency, go with the 1024 setting as this allows Sample Lab to use less CPU and you can run more apps in audio multitasking. If you need low latency sample triggering, use the 256 setting. Also many apps simply do not support lower buffer sizes; if you are having drop-outs or screeching feedback issues while multitasking, make sure to use the 1024 setting.


The MIDI output settings can be configured for each track.

 

The drum setting will output a standard drum signal for each track and can be used to trigger drum machines, lighting controllers, etc. This setting will also let you use the on-screen trigger pads to send MIDI. The low-high settings will output MIDI notes based on the beat pitch. Ex: a beat with no pitch delta will result in a C note, a beat with a +1 pitch delta will result in a C#, and so on. Changing from low to high will shift the output octave.

 

The MIDI clock sync will send transport start and stop events as well as clock ticks to a synth, sampler, or digital audio workstation. This lets Sample Lab keep everything in sync by controling tempo in real-time on other devices and applications that can function in MIDI clock slave mode. Tempo jitter will vary based on devices, MIDI interfaces used, and MIDI buffer saturation.

Function

MIDI Signal

Trigger track 1 @ variable velocity:        

CH1 G#2 note on

Trigger track 2 @ variable velocity:

CH1 A2 note on

Trigger track 3 @ variable velocity:        

CH1 A#2 note on

Trigger track 4 @ variable velocity:

CH1 B2  note on

Trigger track 5 @ variable velocity:

CH1 C3 note on

Trigger track 6 @ variable velocity:

CH1 C#3 note on

Trigger track 7 @ variable velocity:

CH1 D3 note on

Trigger track 8 @ variable velocity:        

CH1 D#3 note on

Toggle mute track 1:        

CH3 C5 note on

Toggle mute track 2:        

CH3 D5 note on

Toggle mute track 3:

CH3 E5 note on

Toggle mute track 4:        

CH3 F5 note on

Toggle mute track 5:        

CH3 G5 note on

Toggle mute track 6:        

CH3 A5 note on

Toggle mute track 7:        

CH3 B5 note on

Toggle mute track 8:        

CH3 C6 note on

FX - compress on/off:        

CH1 E5 note on

FX - bit crush on/off:        

CH1 F5 note on

FX - cutoff on/off:        

CH1 A#5 note on

FX - reverb on/off:

CH1 B5 note on

FX - compress ratio:        

CH3 CC1

FX - compress threshold:

CH3 CC2

FX - bit crush resolution:        

CH3 CC3

FX - bit crush sample rate:

CH3 CC4

FX - cutoff frequency:        

CH3 CC5

FX - cutoff resonance:

CH3 CC6

FX - reverb delay:

CH3 CC7

FX - reverb amount:        

CH3 CC8

Punch-in toggle track 1:

CH4 C3 note on

Punch-in toggle track 2:

CH4 D3 note on

Punch-in toggle track 3:

CH4 E3 note on

Punch-in toggle track 4:

CH4 F3 note on

Punch-in toggle track 5:

CH4 G3 note on

Punch-in toggle track 6:

CH4 A3 note on

Punch-in toggle track 7:

CH4 B3 note on

Punch-in toggle track 8:

CH4 C4 note on

mixer volume track 1:        

CH4 CC1

mixer volume track 2:        

CH4 CC2

mixer volume track 3:        

CH4 CC3

mixer volume track 4:        

CH4 CC4

mixer volume track 5:        

CH4 CC5

mixer volume track 6:        

CH4 CC6

mixer volume track 7:        

CH4 CC7

mixer volume track 8:        

CH4 CC8

 

 

Need more help or have a request?

 

Follow us on twitter and check the app store for updates.  Please send any questions/suggestions/feature requests to support@samplelabapp.com.