Serato

16 pads or its assigned QWERTY/MIDI key to
place a cue point and map it to that pad.
Triggering the pad then initiates playback
of the cue. Rinse and repeat, creating new
cues and moving/copying existing ones
between pads, to build a bank of up-to-16 pad-
triggered sounds – and that, really, is the
essence of Sample. Map, say, the kick, snare
and hi-hats from a drum break to three pads
and you have a drum kit; slice the notes of a
bassline across the requisite number of pads
to reconstruct it as you see it; inely chop
a vocal into slices for classic house cut-ups…
you get the idea.
Right on cue
Having set the start of a cue, you can also
specify an end point by dragging the bottom
handle of the cue marker to the right (or left in
Reverse mode). Playback can be gated
(stopping when the triggering key is released)
or latched (playing all the way to the end of the
region no matter what), and entering Keyboard
mode automatically maps the currently
selected pad up and down the keyboard – ideal
for instant melodics or quickly inding the
optimal pitch for a pad. There is, however, no
way to loop a region – a serious and lamentable
omission that we sincerely hope gets addressed
in a future update.
By default, regions are triggered
monophonically (ie, cutting each other of as
they overlap), but there’s also a Polyphonic
mode for playing chords and layering sounds.
This proves particularly useful in conjunction
with the aforementioned Keyboard mode, as
you’d imagine.
When it comes to processing, each pad can
be reversed, levelled, iltered (a simple
combination low-pass/high-pass), faded in and
out with Attack and Release parameters, and
independently pitchshifted and timestretched
by -75% to +300% and 24 semitones. Pitch ‘n
Time impresses once again here, but the general
paucity of editing, sound shaping and
transformative options is disappointing, letting
the plugin down somewhat. More iltering,
panning and a few choice efects feel like the
minimum that should be added.
A flawed gem
If our criticisms makes it appear that Sample
has failed to loat our boat, we really don’t
mean them to. This is a truly fantastic
instrument on its own terms, with a wonderfully
slick worklow and enormous fun factor,
successfully bringing classic MPC-style
samplism and the old-skool beat making ethos
to the modern DAW. The overall concept
– efortless, quick-’n’-dirty extraction,
manipulation and triggering of disparate sounds
from full tracks – is unarguably solid and
beautifully realised.
That said, some onboard efects and more
versatile iltering would top it of nicely (we’ll
stop short of hoping for any modulation), and
we can’t think of any good reason whatsoever
for the lack of looping, which is a standard
feature in any sampler.
So, ultimately, until those things are added
– if they ever are – we have to consider Sample
a little overpriced and underpowered, despite
being an excellent, genuinely inspiring
production tool at heart.
Web www.serato.com
Verdict
For Super fast and fun worklow
Peerless pitch shifting and
timestretching
Autoset is handy
Against No looping or efects
No transient detection
Limited ilter
There’s a lot missing from Sample, but its
basic low is so enjoyable and productive
that you can’t help but fall for it
8/10
Alternatively
New Sonic Arts Nuance
191 » 8/10 » €9
Streamlined plugin sampler
with iltering, dynamics,
distortion and unison voicing
Vengeance-Sound VPS Phalanx
196 » 9/10 » £135
Phenomenally powerful (and
comparatively complicated!)
pad-based sample player
Setting cue points in Sample by hand is
easy, but you can let the software
populate the 16 pads for you in one of
four distinct Autoset modes.
In Key Shift Pad mode, the current
pad is copied and pitched across all 16
pads, from -12st to +12st, for melodic
play. Find Samples mode uses “an
algorithm” (speciics aren’t given) to
ind regions in the clip or track that are
“suitable for sampling”, then randomly
places cues on the timing grid within
those regions. Set Random simply
chooses 16 random cue points. And Set
Slicer inserts 16 evenly-spaced cue
points starting from the playhead
position, then lets you collectively shift
them left and right, and set the spacing
between them to a range of lengths
from 1/16th to 16 beats.
If you don’t like the results you get
from Find Samples or Random mode,
reapplying either invokes a new
selection. Individual pads can be
locked by setting them as Favorites, so
you can hop around within and
between modes on the hunt for cool
sounds, locking of successful
candidates as they appear.
Lastly, it’s worth noting that there’s
no transient detection mode, and that
cue end markers aren’t placed in any of
the four modes – they only create start
points, not demarcated regions.
Set and forget
In Keyboard mode, the selected pad is pitchshifted
up and down the keyboard for melodic play
Here we’ve used
Set Slicer mode to
create 16 evenly-
spaced cues
“Map, say, the kick,
snare and hi-hats
from a drum break to
three pads and you
have a drum kit”
Autumn 2017 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 93
serato sample / reviews <
CMU248.rev_sample.indd 93 18/08/2017 15:23