I know what we need. It's an ADA (an­other damn acronym)! It seems likeAudio File Formats the technology geeks who are reengi­

neering our world know how to program and speak in code. The goal of rhis guide is Demystified to help you find your way through the maze of the most common file formats used in

BY NORMAN WEINBERG digital music making. { COlli . Pf1gt116 }

FEBRUARY2006 DRUM! 115

__ _

FILEFORMATS

M4A

t hro ug h o rhe r co m p u te r p ro ­UNCOMPRESSED cess ing . Fi les th at have bee n

Wh en au d io is d ig itized , it is AUDIO FORMATS

co m p resse d w it h lossy co decs rransform ed fro m analog soun d wi ll o nly be de gr aded furth er if

pr essure levels to nu m bers. Your they are sub j ec t to ad d it io nal com p u rer , s t e reo syste m , or comp u te r mo d ificat io ns. Co m ­

porr able mu sic pl ayer ne eds to p ressed for ma rs are used w hen u nderstan d the n umber s a n d t he high est-quali ty aud io is no t even tu ally turn all the littl e ze­ necessary o r whe n sto rage space

ros and ones back into sign als and tr an sfer ti me are imp orr anr

th at your ears can hear and you r cons ideratio ns. We'll first take a

b rain ca n und er stand. Th is is loo k ar the twO mo sr com mo n w her e th e wo rld of audio file lossless aud io form at s.

fo rmars come s int o play. Audi o files are b roke n down AIFF (Audio Interchange File

into two di fferent gro ups - un­Format). The se flies w ill o fte n

co m pressed (loss less) and co m ­ use the .aif extens io n. Thi s is a

p ressed (lo ssy) . U nco m pressed non comp ressed for m at th at is

file fo rma ts are used when m ax­ used to sto re audi o files p rim ar­im um audio qu al ity is desired . ily on App le co m pu te rs. H ow­While an alog puri sts will argue ever, most PC so ftware can read

that digit izin g any signal resu lts AI FF files wirhour a p ro bl em . in a loss in qua lity, lossless aud io The AI F F for m ar wa s d evel ­

files try th eir best to keep all the op ed by Apple (so m e fol ks be­dig it ized dara in its full form . In lieve t hat t he acro ny m sta nds general term s, yo u' ll wa nt to use for Ap ple Inte rcha nge Fi le Fo r­lossless fo rmats wh en th e aud io ma t) and was based on the Elec­ma y be furth er ed ired or passe d rr oni c Arrs In rer ch an ge Fil e

AUDIO FILE FORMATS - -. -- - - - -- - - -

Uncompres sed AIFF

Compresse d Lossless ALAe APE CAF FLAC

Compressed Lossy AAC ASF ATRAC CAF

NOTE: Some formal s, like m4a and WM A, can house both lossless and lossy compre ssed files.

Without audio compression, it wouldn't be

possible to get all those , songs on your iPod

Format. O ne o f rhe advanta ges All co m pressio n form at s use o f thi s fo rmar is th e l a r ge a codec of some SOrt . An aud io amo unt of non audi o d at a tha t codec is a process o r a sofrwa re can be sto red alo ng with th e au­ pro gram that comp resses (co-) d io inf o rm ation . AfFF files o f­ an d th en d ecomp ress es (-de c) ten co n tai n inf orm ari on such as an aud io signa l based o n a num­name, aut ho r, co py r igh r, and be r of ru les and ass u mp t io ns com ments . abo u t how we pe rceive m usic.

Co m p ressed aud io is fu rth er d i­WAV(Waveform Audio Format). vided into cod ees that are lossy Th e commo n exte ns ion for this a n d th o se r h a t a re lo ssles s. rype of file is .wav. T h is is a file W irh lo ssle ss aud io co m p res­fo rm ar de signed to stor e aud io sion fo rmats, th e size o f rhe file data on PC s, yet mos r Mac soft­ is reduc ed bur rhe quali ty o f th e war e wi ll also ope n WAY files. mu sic rem ain s rh e same . In the­While rh is form at is a c lo se o ry, th e decom pressed signa l is cousin to AI FF,ir makes som e use exactly the same as the o riginal of rhe spe cial feat ures ava ilable signa l. W h ile lossy compr essio n with Int el CPU mach ines. WAY form ars can of fer a hug e red uc­files can hold aud io thar has been tion in th e file size, yo u can ex­com pressed , bur th ey are rnosrof­ pecr on ly abo u t a 50 -percent re­t en us ed to h ou se non com­ ducti on whe n u sing lo ssless pressed aud io. Du e [Q the lim ita­ co decs . t io ns of rhe fo rmat, WAY files can't be larger th an 2G B. AAC (Advanced Audio Coding).

T h is is a com pressed and lossy file format th ar was develop ed [Q be COMPRESSED AUDIO an imp rovement over M P3 and

Beca use un compr essed a ud io FORMATS

design ed for aud io srrea m ing. produ ces larg e files, th e po pu­ So m e of the feature s rh ar mak e lariry of w or k ing wi th co m ­ MC more rob usr than M P3 are pr essed file fo rm ars has grow n . the ab ility [Q sam p le frequenc ies C D -q ua liry sou nd (44 .1kH z , from 8 Hz up to 96 kHz , the use 16-bir stereo) eats ap proxi m ate­ of up to 48 channels, and high er ly 10MB p e r minut e . Th at codi ng efficienc ies for stationary mak es a 1O- minute u n co m­ and tran sient signals. The M C p ressed aud io file about 100MB file form at was first publi shed in in size. So me audio co m press ion 1997 but carne inro the popul ar schemes can redu ce file size by a con sciousne ss when Apple com ­factor of ten or m o re. W ithout pure r's iPod began using this file aud io co m pressio n, it wo u ld n't for mal in 2003 . be po ssible to ge t all th ose songs o n your iPod! ASF (Advanced Streaming For­

mat ; la te r changed to Advanced Systems Format). Th is file fo r­

mat is p aten ted in th e US by Mi croso ft and is used by W in­dow s Media fo r both audio and

m4a OGG WMA v ideo . ASF fi les a re m ore lik e co nt ain er s t h at can h old d a ra

m4a MP3 WMA comp ressed by a num ber of di f­ferent code cs. WMA (W indow s M edi a Audio) and WMV (W in-

116 DRUM! www.dnrmmag azine .com

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an imp rovement over M P3 and FORMATS Beca use un compr essed a ud io design ed for aud io s t rea m ing. produ ces larg e files, th e popu­ Som e of the featu res rhar mak e lariry of w o r k ing wi th co m - MC more rob usr than MP3 are ~_~ o ..l ~ I~ c~.~ _ •• h M M~ • •• . 1.0 _ h; I; ~ . M ._~ ~ Io CM_"~ _.:M I

_... ... ... ... ...... ....... ....... .... ... ... .. ... .... ... ..

MlKlNGTIPS

A Natural Tom Sound Out Of The Gates The usual tendency when miking toms is to place a directional mike about two inches from the drum, which picks up a prodigious amount of attack and results in an artificial low-end boost from proximityeffect (which is not necessarily an enhancement of the drum's actual tone). In the pursuit of capturing a more "mature" bottom end and a fuller,natu ral sound from the toms, fellow engineer George Borden shared with me one of his favorite recording techniques.

By placing sensitive condenser

.s mikes between six to ten inches from the toms, you allow the

I). sound of the drum to

Ie develop before it

)C reaches the mikes.

id The downside is that the mikes willalso pick

g. up all sorts of bleed . ke To control unwanted re sounds, use close es mikes (rim-mounted

se versions are most

ter practical) on the toms

d ows Me d ia Video) are the two In most co m mo n file rypes held in ­lar side an AS F file. ro­file ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio

Co de c) . Thi s format is a lso ca lled Apple Lossless En cod er ,

'or­ o r ALE for sho rr. Simil ar to ASF :ed files, ALAC files serve as a con ­or­ tainer ro hou se files that have the by extension m4 a. This form at was 'in­ first introduc ed in a QuickTim e md up grade in 2004 and imple­like mented into Apple's iTunes 4. 5. lata dif- ATRAC (Adaptive Transform ows Acoustic Coding). This algo­rin­ rithm was developed in 1991 by

to trigger the opening of gates inserted on the more distant mikes. You'llget the benefit of lightning­fast response and control while capturing the sound of the toms from a more natural standpo int.

Place medium - to large-diaphragm cardioid or hypercardio id condensers such as AKG's C3000 or C414 B-ULS, Shure 's KSM32, Audio­Technica's 4030, or a similar mike, six to ten inches above the toms (listen to the sound to determine the best

( FIG. B)

During

By KAREN STACKPOLE

Send clip-on mike and distant condenser mike to separate channels.

( FIG. A)

distance), over the rim, and angled toward the heads . Insert gates on the distant mike channels . The gate will open to allow the sound to pass when it reaches a certain threshold determined by the attack and then willclose when the level dips below a certain point determined by the release setting .

The problem one faces in this situation (FIG. A) is having the gate open too late and close too early. The solution is to create a physical "look ahead" function on the gate by simply using clip-on tom mikes - for example , Sennheiser 's e604, Shure 's Beta98, or Audix's micro -D - and feeding the output of those mike channels to the side chain/key input of the gates on the distant mikes (FIG.

B). The sound hits the close mikes earlier, so the gate opening is instantaneous. Adjust the release control to set a natural­sounding decay time. Borden comments that "the beauty of the sound is when the stick leaves the head .. . Let it ring!"

Sony as a file fo rma t for th eir M inid isc record ers.Two mo re re­cent versio ns, AT RAC3- LP2 and ATRAC 3- LP4 , enab le th e lon g pl ay mod es feat ure d o n man y c u rr e n r M in id isc re cor de rs . Th ese tw o for ma ts in cr e ase record ing tim e up to 324 min ­utes on an 80- mi nute M inid isc.

CAF (Core Audio Format) . Thi s is the newest addi t ion ro th e au­di o for m at fam ily and is su p­porr ed nati vely in the Mac intos h as x ope ra ring syst em . Apple claim s that this file fo rm at can record as m an y as a th ou sand channel s of audio fo r as lon g as a

th ou sand years (now that 's going to be a big file'). Like its cou sin s, it ca n serve as a co nta iner that ca n hou se both com pressed and un compr essed files.

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) . Th e "free" part of thi s file form at 's nam e mean s th at the FLAC pro cess is not covered by an y patenr. Like othe r loss­less com pression for mats , FLAC ca n red uce an aud io file by 30 ro 50 percenr. FLAC files are be­co m ing more popular as a way to arch ive CD collections and as a way to transfer high-qualit y audio over the Inrerner. FLAC

files can be read by a numb er o f different pro gram s on all major computer plat form s.

m4a (MPEG-4 Audio Standard). This is the file extension of an audio file that u ses M PEG-4 Advanced Audio Codin g. Ap ple made this format famou s by us­ing it for their iTun es so ftware . Most software that will read MPEG-4 files will support the m4a formar.

MP3 (Moving Picture Experts Group-l Audio Layer 3). With­out a doubt, this is currentl y the most popul ar audio co m pres ­sion format on th e p lan er. Th e MP 3 audi o compre ssion forma t was fir st d evelo ped as early as 198 7 a n d finali zed in 19 92 . Th e first commer cial sof tw are to u se th e M P3 formar w as W in p lay3 in 19 95 . Since th at time , M P3 files sta rte d appea r­ing on th e Int ern et , and as th ey say, "the rest is hi stor y." Tod ay, the number o f applications th at can read or write M P3 fi les is enormou s. It is t he ub iqu ito us standa rd for shar ing aud io files over the Internet , and for good reason. It's fast , it 's free (for th e user), and it ca n d rastical ly re­duce the size of a n a ud io fi le without totally desrro yin g the quality. Like other lossy co m­pression schemes, it do es thi s by removing portions of th e aud io image that the algorithm det er­min es can 't eas ily be he a rd . MP 3 fil es can perf orm their compr ession m agic ar a nu mb er of di fferent b ir rates rhar can ad­JUSt the tr ade-o ff bet ween file size an d aud io qu alit y. Co m­mo n bit rares range between 32 and 32 0 k ilo b irs per seco n d (Kbps), with 128 Kbps and i 92 K bps bein g th e mo st popul ar co m p ro m ise . Fo r m o st c iv il­ians , an MP 3 file at 128 Kbp s w ill so un d JUSt fin e . If yo u're plannin g o n listen ing to mu sic files in a movin g car, 128 Kbps m igh t sa tisfy yo u r ea r. Bu t for mos t mus ician s who are famil­iar w ith th e sonic fingerp rint of high-qu ali ry inst ru ment s, a 192 Kbp s fo rmat o r high er is often necessary.

{Cont. Page II 8}

mixdown, insert a gate on the condenser track.

Send direct out of clip-on mike track to side chain input on gate to trigger gate opening.

FEBRUARY2006 DRUM! 117

WllllUUl lVlc1l1)' UL,)lIV YIl1 5 lin :: the release control to The downside is that id quality. Like other lossy co m ­set a natural­the mikes willalso pick

pression schemes, it do es thi s by g. sounding decay time. up all sorts of bleed . ke Borden comments removing portions of th e aud io To control unwanted Send direct out of

that "the beauty of the re image that the algorithm det er­sounds, use close clip-on mike track to side : -10 -10 sound is when the L.. : -10 : ~ ;~ ~ _ r"~ '. " " ;1 " 1- ~ h M ',.l I

FILEFORMATS

-=AU MAS

~ VST OirectX -=-LAOSPAOSSI

1m: RTAS TOM

NOTE: Some pluq-in hosts are able 10

ope n files in many diff erent formals.

OGG (OffVorbis) . Vorbis isan au­dio codec tha t is often placed in­side an OGG con taine r. Togeth­er, they use the .ogg file extension. T his form at has been gaini ng popularity with those that sup­po n open sou rce software, and it 's been showing up on several web sites around the world.

WMA (Windows Med ia Audio). WMA files are compres sed files th at are p layed using M icrosof t's Wi ndow s Media Player. Or igi­nally, th e forma t was develop ed to be a competitor to MP3; it 's

now a competito r to Apple 's M C fo rm at. The newest ver­sion of WMA is 9. J and con­tain s codecs fo r m u ltic h a nnel su r ro u nd so und and lossl ess suppor t. W MA files are mo st of­ten containe d inside an ASF file.

The re are a nu mber of ot her lossy and lossless file fo rma ts, and it seems that new o nes are being develo ped at a surpr ising pace. Some, like Mo nkey's Au­dio 's APE format , are o nly sup­po rt ed on t he PC p la tform . O ther s, like Rea lP layds Re­alAud io Loss less forma t, are de ­signed to be read by a sing le ho st pro gram (althoug h ot he r software may be ab le to im po rt th e files).

MIDI FORMAT MIDI is itself actua lly anothe r acrony m an d stands for Mu sical Instru m ent D igi ta l Interfa ce . M IDI is a comm unicat ion pro­tocol rather than a file rype , but files co ntain ing MIDI inforrna ­non are commo n.

GE'rl1NG A GREAT SOUND

Using EO Following proper tuning and microphone selection, equalization (detailed tone control via the adjustment of particular frequency ranges) offers drummers an effect ive way to provide the best drum and cymbal sounds to a recorded medium or a live audience. A standard three ­band , fully-parametri c EO is a superior tool for sculpting the best individual drum sounds; it allows low-, mid-, and high­range frequencies to be targe ted for ± adjustment plus the added bene fit of variable bandwidth (the range of frequencies to be affected , often referred to as "0" ).

As a general rule, the equalization proce ss should begin with all sett ings flat, which means no frequency is boosted or cut. For more natural sounds, use subtract ive equalization : Instead of finding a sound source's most pleasing or integral frequencies and boosti ng them , find the least pleasing frequen cies

present and take them away.

Here, we willexamine EO adjustments to try on various components of a stand ard drum kit. The inexpens ive ($129 .95 MSRP) PreSonus E03B willact as a visual reference (FIG. c).

BASS DRUM For more powerful fullness and body, boost around 60 to 80Hz. To alter papery flap, adjustments can be made ± from 300 to 800Hz . Generally, a slight cut of

SMF (Standard MIDI File). T he SMF specificat io n was d evel­ope d by the M IDI Manufac tur­ers Associate (MMA ) as a way to sto re the infor mation co nta ined in a MI DI perform ance. Whi le so frware seq uence rs use prop ri­et ary file form ats to handle their own files inte rna lly, JUSt abo ut a ny M I DI sof twa re p ro gr am wi ll let th e user expo n to the SMF fil e typ e . O nce saved, these files can be ope ned or im­ported into m ost music software p rogra m s . Us ing Sta nda rd MI DI Files, it's poss ible to sha re a M IDI perfo rmance berween a sequenc ing progr am and a nota­tion program . It 's also possible to use the SM F format to trans­fer informa tion berween di ffer­en t co mp uter platf o rms . SMF files are a commo n way for com­posers to sha re the ir co mposi­tion s an d tra nscript ions of per­forma nces on the Web .

The re are t h ree d if ferent M ID I file formats. Type- J files are the mo st com mon , as they

low-mids from 400 to 600Hz provides better overall tone . To add or adjust beater attack, find the click within the range of 2.5 to 6kHz and tweak as needed . To reduce leakage from cymbals, remove high frequenc ies above 5kHz.

SNARE DRUM Iftuned and miked correctly, snare drums gene rallyneed little EO adjustment. However, for a bit more brightness, add

can con tain an unl im ited nu m­ber of tracks and aJI the neces­sary in formation to repr od uce an en t ire multitr ack MIDI song pe rforman ce. Type-O fi les are much less com mon, as they con ­tain all th e MID I mes sages in­side a single track. Type-2 MIDI files are even mo re rare. If you want to send M ID I files over rhe Int ernet or collabo rate with oth­er mu sicians by tra d ing M IDI files, yo u' ll want to use the Type J SM F forma t for the mos t mu­sicaJ flexibiliry.

PLUG·IN FORMATS A plug-in is an add itional com ­purer progr am that ru ns inside another progra m, o ften ca lled th e " host" p rogram . Pl ug-in s give a pro gram ad d it ional fea­tu res or expa nd the softwa re's funct ionality If you've used im­age-edit ing programs, you may be familiar with plug -ins that aJ­rer the source image in some way. For examp le, you might run an image throug h a plug-i n that is

By STROTHER BULLINS

between the 5 to 7kHz area . Snare fatness resides around 240Hz ; nearby mid-frequencies can also be added for more body, but beware of "tubby" results . Likewise, reduc ing mid­frequencies often uncovers extra crispness within the signal.

TOMS For increased impact on both

rack and floor toms, boost at 5kHz. Likea snare's fatness and attack , a rack tom's fullness and snap are usually in the ballpark of 240Hz and 5kHz, respectively, varying on the size of the drum. Floor tom fullness is closer to 80 to

120Hz. Zero in and adjust to taste . As with the bass drum, remove frequencies over 5kHz to reduce cymbal bleed.

CYMBALS/HI-HAT The c1angy gong sound of cymbals and hi-hats is usually around 200Hz . To adjust cymbal shimmer - adding to it is the most common EO adjustment - work in the area of 7.5kHz to 12kHz for optimal results . To reduce low-end rumble, cut all frequencies below 75Hz.

lIS DRUM! www .drummagaz ine .com

.. .

Iequalization (detailed 'tone results . Likewise, reducing mid­

frequenc ies often uncovers control via the adjustment of extra crispness within the signal. particu lar frequency range s)

offers drummers an effect ive TOMSway to provide the best drum For increased impact on both ... ... ,.,1 ..... ..- .... ... 1 ....,. .. ....,., ... . "" .....

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in wh ich dat a is pas sed ba ck and

I Plug-ins can I I designed to make a photo graph look like a watercolor paintin g or an old ­time sepia tint ph otograph .

Audi o plu g-in s can be syn rhs , sampl ers, signa l p tocessors, or oth er to ol s that help you work with o r pto cess digital aud io. For example, plug -ins suc h as DFH Su pe rior , Batt ery, or Absynr h are sound gen­erato rs that wo rk within sequenc ing pr o gram s . Nativ e Instrument s' Konrakr 2 is a popu lar soft sampler plu g-in that o pe ra res in a simi lar manner. O ther plug-ins, like iZo­top e 's Tr ash or Ca me l Audi o 's C amelS pace , serve to modify the audi o from the host pr ogram or even from other plu g-ins.

When workin g with plug- ins , th e host program pro vides a manner in wh ich dat a is passed ba ck and

I Plug-ins can I be synths,

samplers, signal processors,or

other tools

forth between the hosr p rogram to

the plug-in .Th e term API stands for Ap p lica tio n Pr ogrammin g Int er ­face, an d it's the set of rules that one piece of software uses to com mun i­cate wirh ano rher piece of softwa re. Below are som e of th e rnost co m­mon plu g-in formats .

AU (Audio Units). T his plug-in for­ma r was develop ed by Apple Co m­purer to add funct ionali ty to software running on thei r machin es. It's a sys­tem -level plug-in char is part of Ap­ple's Cor e Audio system in System X.

DirectX. The Dir ectX format (origi­nally called Gam e SDK) was designed to handl e game programmin g on Mi­crosoft Wind ows machin es. Today, there are several DirectX -compa tible mu sic software applications and quire a few developers that offer their plug­ins in th is forma t. T he most cur rent version is now DirectX 9.0c.

0551 (0551 Soft Synth Instru ­ment). This is the plu g-in architec­ture for virt ual in strum ent s run­

[Cont. Page 120 1

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FILEFORMATS

ni ng the Linux ope rating sys­tem . C lose ly r el ated to LA DS PA , th e D SSI lab el is used prim arily for instrum en ts, wh ile LAD SPA is used most of­te n for o the r sound-p rocess ing ap p licatio ns .

lADSPA (Linux Audio Develop­er 's Simple Plug-In API).

LADSP A pl ug-in s are designed ro ru n in host p rogram s un der th e Linu x ope rating system. Fi­nalized in 20 00, rhe for mat has q u ite a few plu g-in develo pers. W it n th e popularit y of Lin ux ex pa nd ing ev e ry year, yo u 're sure ro see mo re plu g-in s bu ilt for Linux in the fuw re.

MAS (MOTU Audio System). M AS is a p ropriet ary form at of t he c o m pa ny M a r k Of T h e Uni corn (co m mo nly kno wn as M OTU). MAS plu g-in s in ­cl ude virr ual ins t ru ment s and aud io effects.

RTAS (Real Time Audio Suite). RTAS is a p lug-in fo rm at th at is used in th e Pro Tools environ­men r. W nil e de signed for Pro Too ls, o ther host app licat ions, li ke Digi tal Perf orm er 4. 5 o r hi gher, are ab le ro use RTA S plug-in s.

TOM (Time -Division Multiplex­ing) . O rigina lly invent ed fo r th e

I teleph on e in du st ry, this is t he way th at Pro To ols co m m un i­cates with o ther extern al input and o u tp ut so u rces. It is also the fi le fo r mat us ed fo r plu g -i n s chat can use Pro Tools as th e host p rog ram.

VST (Virtual Studio Technolo­gy) . The VST form at was devel­ope d by S te in b erg for use in th e ir Cub ase soft ware . Tod ay, VST p lug -i ns (a nd th ere a te

MAS hund reds o f rhern ) can be used in nea rly every audi o pro gram on borh th e PC and Mac plat­for ms. VST can be viewed as th e d e fa er o s ta nda rd for a u dio p lug-ins. VST plu g-in s can ei­th er be sof t instrum ent s, such as sy n rhs or sa m ple rs, or effec ts su ch as rever bs, co m pressor s , di s ro rrion b o xes , a n d o r he r meth od s of p rocessi ng a ud io . In strumen ts are oft en given th e V STi acro nym ro d istingui sh th em selves from effect plu g-ins.

I IIf you're involved with

creating electronic music, at some point you're sure

to use sample libraries I

Th e VS T 2 fo rma l , rel eased arou nd 1999 , added more flexi­bili ry ro the o rig inal fo rm ar.

If yo u r host so ftwa re and a part icular pl ug-in a ren't co m ­patibl e, all is not losr . T here are a few co m pa n ies th at are mak ­in g ada p ters or "w ra ppe rs" so that plug-i ns wrirr en in on e fo rm a t can be used in a host th at uses anot he r. Th e fxpan­sion fo lks m ake popul ar pr o­grams th at a llows VST plu g-in s

ro be used in ho st p rogr am s th at rea d RTAS , AU , and Re­wir e app lication s.

I f yo u're in ceresred in learn­ing mor e abou t plu g-in s, check OUl kvraud io.co rn . It is the # I web site fo r all au d io plu g-in s ­instrum ent s, effects, and hos ts.

SAMPLE FORMATS If you 're at a ll invo lved with cre­atin g electro nic musi c, at som e point yo u're sure ro use sampl e libr aries. It 's a facl t ha t sam plers (hardware an d software) all read and play digi tal aud io files, bu t how these files are incorp orated inro t he sam pler and how the samp ler saves its files ro a sro r­age med ium can be very d iffer­enr. For instan ce, if you 've got a g rea t drurnki r in the N N- XT sa m pler in sid e Prop ell e rh ead 's Rea son , you wo n' t be ab le ro ope n tha t fil e dire c tl y into Ca kewa lk's Project 5. M anufac­tur er s h ave recently realized that it 's ro their ad vanrage ro of­fer a produ ct th at is ca pa b le o f readin g a variety of file for mats. Tod ay, you can find soft sam­plers th at claim to be "u n iver­sal" in t he ir ab ili ty to read a large number of p roprie tary for­m at s a nd " interp re t" t he m so that they can be playe d by th e host sa m p le r. N ative l nsrr u­menr s' Ko nrak r 2, for exa mp le,

will nativel y read and in terp ret at least 20 diff erent file fo rma ts .

It 's possibl e ro pur chase o r do w nl oad aud io file s in .wa v an d .a if fo rma ts th at ca n b e us ed t o con st ruct b anks o f soun d s fro m sc ra t c h in an y sam p le r for m ar. H o weve r, if you d on 't wan t ro d o a ll th e work yo u rs e lf, yo u can bu y packages th at have eve ry th ing read y ro go . JUSt copy th e ban k ro yo u r nard d r ive an d then op en it in you r h a rd wa re or so ftwa re sam pl er. T he mo s t popul ar sampl e forma ts a re for Acid , Aka i, E-m u , EXS24 , Gi­gas tudio, H A Li on, Ko n ra kr, Ku rzw e i l , R e ason, Ro la n d, RM X, Sam pleCel l, and So u nd­Fo nr.

On e parti cul ar rype of file is so un ique that it deserves specia l arrenri on . REX files (mo st o ften loop s) are created by Prop eller­he ad 's ReCycle So ftware. Th e o rigina l version o f ReCycle ex­porr ed REX files so rhat the y co u ld be used inside th eir Rea­son softwa re packag e. An upd at­ed version, ReCycle 2. 0 creates RX2 forma t files tha t use a co m­pressio n codec to red uce the size of th e file. REX files have been sliced inro a nu mb er of d ifferenr parrs th a t ca n then be p lay ed back sl ice-by-sl ice . U sin g thi s techn ique, it's possib le ro time ­alter loops and alte r th e o rder of the var io us sli ces of file. REX file s have be com e so popu la r t ha t m any so ftwa re p ro gr ams now read them natively.

CONVERSION SOFTWARE W ith so ma ny di fferent sampl er for ma ts, yo u mi ght thin k that sh aring sa m p les betwe en rna­chines or so frwa re wo uld be im ­pos sib le . Bu t JUSl as th er e a re programs that will convert one aud io for mat inro anot her , there are so frware p rogram s design ed ro con verr one sam p ler fo rmat in ro an o th er, Two th at th is au­tho r has use d and ca n reco m ­mend ate C D Xtrac t by Bern ard C havonne t and Tra ns la to r by C h ic ke n Sys te ms. Both pro ­grams have a pr et ry wide m atrix of sour ce file form ats ro destin a­tion file for mars. •

120 DRUM! www.clrummagaz ine .com

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techn ique, it's possib le ro time ­TOM (Time -Division Multiplex­ V STi acro nym ro di stingui sh point yo u're sure ro use sample ing) . O rigina lly invent ed fo r th e th em selves from effect plug-i ns . libr ari es. It 's a facl t ha t sam plers alter loops and alter th e o rder of

(hardware an d so ftware) all read the vari o us sli ces of file. REX fi les have be com e so popu la r and play digi tal aud io files, bu t

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