Rossum Electro-Music Assimil8or

[jpizzo]

Did you know that Assimil8or can be used as quantizer/pitch re-mapper? Attached are "mapping samples" for harmonic minor, root + offsets by one degree so it's easy to build chords from one CV. Levels are compensated for gain loss 1%, range 0-5V, no negative values.

"Mapping channel" settings: one shot, loop on, loop length 4 samples, start and loop start point fully modulated by CV A input (incoming pitch CV). Output will be quantized pitch CV that you can patch to your "oscillator channel". To change the scale key/root, offset the pitch of your oscillator channel.

Remember to remove the "mapping channel" from the mix.

Cheers...

Whoa this is such a cool idea!

[OHEXOH]

@HIMA Is zone lock on? Have you tried a new preset with the same sample in channel 1? Double check your start/end points and loop start/end points. It seems like channel 1 got its settings a little skewed. This used to happen to me until I became familiar with the Assimil8or workflow.

Yes, it sounds like Zone Lock is on. Double tap Zone to turn it on/off. It's useful to lock the Zone when you want to preview samples to load into the Zone or adjust any sample settings without hearing other samples from the Zone.

[HIMA]

@HIMA Is zone lock on?

Yes, it sounds like Zone Lock is on. Double tap Zone to turn it on/off.

That was it! Thanks and apologies for not first turning to the manual...

[nemox]

Hi,
I recently bought the Assimil8or and noticed that my 48khz/32 bits samples rendered in my daw were (over)clipping
And I say over because for example a drum sequence is transformed in a massive continuous noise with a hint of dynamic
I don't have this issue with the same samples rendered at 48Khz/24 bits and I'd like to understand what happen.
Can someone explain me the reason ?
I read that the Devine samples are in 44.1khz/24 bits ; does the Assimil8or allow the use of 32 bits samples ?
And if not what the point of a bit depth starting point at 32 bits ?
Or should I pay attention to the sample rate / bits couple ?
Well you understand that my technical skills are a bit limited (sorry I tried ) and questions are coming one after the other.
Thx !

[jupiter8]

Hi,
I recently bought the Assimil8or and noticed that my 48khz/32 bits samples rendered in my daw were (over)clipping
And I say over because for example a drum sequence is transformed in a massive continuous noise with a hint of dynamic
I don't have this issue with the same samples rendered at 48Khz/24 bits and I'd like to understand what happen.
Can someone explain me the reason ?
I read that the Devine samples are in 44.1khz/24 bits ; does the Assimil8or allow the use of 32 bits samples ?
And if not what the point of a bit depth starting point at 32 bits ?
Or should I pay attention to the sample rate / bits couple ?
Well you understand that my technical skills are a bit limited (sorry I tried ) and questions are coming one after the other.
Thx !

According to the manual it should work with 32 bit files however they need to be Integer files which makes me think you rendered 32 bit floating point files. That's what it sounds like to me.

[nemox]

Sounds right since Ableton uses 32 bit float for internal processing.
Good to know that Ableton even transforms a 24 bit file in a 32 bit float when freezing a track.
Thanx mate

[Sinamsis]

Ableton is not great for prepping these samples. Check out Audacity. It’s free. Works for Mac and PC I believe. For basic sample prep work it’s pretty good.

[uniquepersonno2]

Ableton is not great for prepping these samples. Check out Audacity. It’s free. Works for Mac and PC I believe. For basic sample prep work it’s pretty good.

Reaper is also excellent; $60ish, free demo, extremely good for rendering large groups of samples and such (also features batch processing. can convert all your incorrect bit-depth samples for you in a matter of a few minutes)

[Sinamsis]

Ableton is not great for prepping these samples. Check out Audacity. It’s free. Works for Mac and PC I believe. For basic sample prep work it’s pretty good.

Reaper is also excellent; $60ish, free demo, extremely good for rendering large groups of samples and such (also features batch processing. can convert all your incorrect bit-depth samples for you in a matter of a few minutes)

Batch conversion is really the critical part for me. Doing it in Ableton was just so clumsy, though maybe that was me. Being able to have some processing before the samples go into the Assimil8or would be nice but I guess you can always resample it. I tend to multitrack and eq/compress afterwards. Sure would be nice if Assimil8or had a basic eq function built in though. :p

[uniquepersonno2]

Ableton is not great for prepping these samples. Check out Audacity. It’s free. Works for Mac and PC I believe. For basic sample prep work it’s pretty good.

Reaper is also excellent; $60ish, free demo, extremely good for rendering large groups of samples and such (also features batch processing. can convert all your incorrect bit-depth samples for you in a matter of a few minutes)

Batch conversion is really the critical part for me. Doing it in Ableton was just so clumsy, though maybe that was me. Being able to have some processing before the samples go into the Assimil8or would be nice but I guess you can always resample it. I tend to multitrack and eq/compress afterwards. Sure would be nice if Assimil8or had a basic eq function built in though. :p

Ableton's export definitely leaves things to be desired (no batch MIDI has left me stranded quite a few times).

I have a few EQs and comps in my rack so I'm definitely planning on going the resampling route... Actually one of the things that made me pick up my Assimil8or a few days ago. Really looking forward to doing some analog processing on my soft synth samples especially! Its featureset is so focused on things that're hard to do with external modules I don't mind the lack of EQ, personally. I'm also not a programmer but my understanding is that more features like EQ would add to latency, too... I'll definitely take the super-quick response (100uS is incredible!) over EQ in my workflow.

[Bobby]

Latency is a very good point. Defo need it to be tight as a gnats vadge and anything that takes away from that is a no-no for me.

[OHEXOH]

Maybe it's just me but copying (and pasting) is so odd on the Assimil8or and essentially is the opposite of using a computer / virtually every other interface in existence.

With a computer you 'copy the object' and then 'paste the object'. With the Assimil8or you 'select the destination' and then 'choose what to copy there'. In essence, it's back to front and it gets me every time!!

I'm hoping by writing this I will rewire my brain... so whenever I think 'what's the order again?'... I'll remember this post and say to myself 'the other way bozo!'. That way I won't end up pasting empty channels onto fully looped & configured channels.

Feature request, maybe there could be an undo where if you long press the encoder to copy - you can rotate CCW past channel 1 to an Undo option...?

Ha!

[HIMA]

I wish there was some way to zoom out on the Waveform Display. But then again I'm only using audio samples... Still, would be fun.

[Sam Botstein]

Horizontal Zoom To adjust horizontal zoom, press, hold, and turn DATA1 to adjust the zoom from 1X to 32X. The zoom parameter is shared among all the Sample and Loop pages, and persists when leaving and returning to these pages.

Vertical zoom remains completely automatic.

Zoom Bars Both horizontal and vertical zooms have zoom bars to indicate the fraction of the total represented on the screen.

Sync Editing: When setting Loop Start and Loop End/Length on the Loop page, you can press and hold the Play Mode button while making adjustments to cause the Sample Start and End points to be set to the selected Loop points. This makes it extremely easy to simultaneously adjust the length of a sample and set the loop for the entire edited length.

http://www.rossum-electro.com/fqlzron/w ... 061820.pdf

Using the High Resolution Display

If you are programming a sample to loop while its audio is playing (as opposed to just looping a rhythmic phrase at its beginning and end), you will typically want to program the smoothest loop splice possible. While the Smoothing function described in Chapter 18 can help with that, it will do a much better job if you’ve programmed the best possible loop to begin with. That’s what the high resolution display is designed to help with.

As mentioned above, the red line at the center of the display represents the splice point between the loop’s end point and its start point. Although it may initially seem a bit counter-intuitive, the left side of the display is the region of the end of the loop, leading up to the end point as defined by the red line. The right side of the display is the beginning of the loop, with the start point defined by the red line. (Trust us. It makes sense if you think about it.)

The goal in programming a good loop is to end up with the smoothest transition across the red splice point. There are two main elements to a smooth loop: a smooth level transition at the splice point and a smooth shape transition.

To get a good level transition, choose points such that the samples at either side of the red splice point are as close to the same value as possible. Level discontinuities typically result in clicks at the loop points.

To set a good shape transition, try to find points where the samples on either side of the red spice point are moving in roughly the same direction at roughly the same slope.

While it’s not always possible to find points that perfectly satisfy both of those goals, the closer you can get to them, the better the loop.
In both cases, use the DATA 2 knob to get close to the region where you want your loop, and then use the encoder to adjust the points in single sample resolution to get the best result.

[OHEXOH]

I find making seamless loops on Assimil8or pretty achievable - though I mainly work with Mono samples. How well does A8 handle stereo samples and loop points—as often each channel will have different zero crossings? On the Octatrack it's a very difficult process so I would only every use mono samples, though the OT doesn't have a smoothing option like the A8.

[Sam Botstein]

I find making seamless loops on Assimil8or pretty achievable - though I mainly work with Mono samples. How well does A8 handle stereo samples and loop points—as often each channel will have different zero crossings? On the Octatrack it's a very difficult process so I would only every use mono samples, though the OT doesn't have a smoothing option like the A8.

It works great! Try it!

[Bobby]

Maybe it's just me but copying (and pasting) is so odd on the Assimil8or and essentially is the opposite of using a computer / virtually every other interface in existence.

With a computer you 'copy the object' and then 'paste the object'. With the Assimil8or you 'select the destination' and then 'choose what to copy there'. In essence, it's back to front and it gets me every time!!

I'm hoping by writing this I will rewire my brain... so whenever I think 'what's the order again?'... I'll remember this post and say to myself 'the other way bozo!'. That way I won't end up pasting empty channels onto fully looped & configured channels.

Feature request, maybe there could be an undo where if you long press the encoder to copy - you can rotate CCW past channel 1 to an Undo option...?

Ha!

Yeah copying and pasting was one of the first things I wanted to do cos I blanked the card and chucked a load of my own folders on there. I soon back tracked and just chucked loads of samples in one folder and decided to come back to sample management. Still not there yet though lol!

[HIMA]

Horizontal Zoom To adjust horizontal zoom, press, hold, and turn DATA1 to adjust the zoom from 1X to 32X. The zoom parameter is shared among all the Sample and Loop pages, and

Ah, sorry but I meant the display on the homepage. Here I was thinking everyone could read my mind...

Data1 doesn’t currently do anything if you give it a spin on the home page... just saying

[osten]

I’ve read some contradictory things about live looping functionality, is it possible and easy to do? Or is it achieved via workarounds? It would be cool to be able to sample on quantized steps

[Back Down the Path]

I'm in the GAS spiral and it's only a matter of days before I order one of these.

Given the great pitch tracking, is it possible to, say, load up a C3 note on 3 channels and use the 3 channels to trigger a triad? Is it possible to use zones to create a muti-sample? For example, loading a C2, C3 and C4 sample onto 3 channels and tuning a CV sequence to play the right sample for the desired octave? Anyone know of any demos of someone doing this?

[andybizarre]

I’ve read some contradictory things about live looping functionality, is it possible and easy to do? Or is it achieved via workarounds? It would be cool to be able to sample on quantized steps

This is quite easy to do. Just patch a start/stop gate in an available CV input, assign it on the sample page, set sample start threshold, arm and record your audio. This way you get yourself a perfectly looping sample.

[ima_jrk]

Ableton is not great for prepping these samples. Check out Audacity. It’s free. Works for Mac and PC I believe. For basic sample prep work it’s pretty good.

Reaper is also excellent; $60ish, free demo, extremely good for rendering large groups of samples and such (also features batch processing. can convert all your incorrect bit-depth samples for you in a matter of a few minutes)

Do you know of any good tutorials? I've been a long time Reaper user, but honestly have never jelled with sampling. Last year I acquired a lot of good libraries, but the prep work to get them on my modules and in to things like Digitakt/ARmkII seem daunting when you have hundreds/thousands to work with.

Thanks in advance!

[dBVelocity]

I'm in the GAS spiral and it's only a matter of days before I order one of these.

Given the great pitch tracking, is it possible to, say, load up a C3 note on 3 channels and use the 3 channels to trigger a triad? Is it possible to use zones to create a muti-sample? For example, loading a C2, C3 and C4 sample onto 3 channels and turning a CV sequence to play the right sample for the desired octave? Anyone know of any demos of someone doing this?

All of this should be simple enough. You can assign a CV to the zones independently or all to the same and use a steady voltage offset to select the octave/zone.

[Durdee]

Ableton is not great for prepping these samples. Check out Audacity. It’s free. Works for Mac and PC I believe. For basic sample prep work it’s pretty good.

Reaper is also excellent; $60ish, free demo, extremely good for rendering large groups of samples and such (also features batch processing. can convert all your incorrect bit-depth samples for you in a matter of a few minutes)

Do you know of any good tutorials? I've been a long time Reaper user, but honestly have never jelled with sampling. Last year I acquired a lot of good libraries, but the prep work to get them on my modules and in to things like Digitakt/ARmkII seem daunting when you have hundreds/thousands to work with.

Thanks in advance!

Strangely enough,i seem to remember that the Morphagene manual has a nice little section on sample preparation in Reaper. I’m wondering if the same techniques for making splices could transfer to making zones for the Assimil8or ?

[koyl]

I'm in the GAS spiral and it's only a matter of days before I order one of these.

Given the great pitch tracking, is it possible to, say, load up a C3 note on 3 channels and use the 3 channels to trigger a triad? Is it possible to use zones to create a muti-sample? For example, loading a C2, C3 and C4 sample onto 3 channels and turning a CV sequence to play the right sample for the desired octave? Anyone know of any demos of someone doing this?

All of this should be simple enough. You can assign a CV to the zones independently or all to the same and use a steady voltage offset to select the octave/zone.

I'm very interested in this (and on the fence or purchase) as well: Is it possible to switch octaves/change zones using the same CV source as for pitch ? So it's possible to play it with a keyboard ?