1. What is EXS24?top
The EXS24 (Emagic Xtreme Sampler 24 Bit) is a professional
polyphonic software sampler plug-in for use in Logic
Audio. Although currently available to both Mac and
Windows users, as from September 30th 2002 Logic Audio
will only be supported on the Mac.
2. What is
a software sampler?top
A software sampler allows the user to sample sounds,
edit their parameters, then playback and record these
sounds from a MIDI keyboard into a compatible sequencer.
3.What forms
the basis of an EXS24 sound?top
The basis of an EXS24 sound is called an Instrument.
An Instrument can be comprised of a number soundfile
formats, the most basic of which are AIFF, WAV and
SDII. However, the EXS24 is also compatible with Akai
S1000 and S3000, SoundFont 2, SampleCell 2 and RX2,
as well as EXS24 native sample formats.
4.What is an EXS24 Instrument? top
An EXS24 Instrument is best described as a single
keyboard map. This can be one sample mapped across
the entire range of the keyboard, or a series of multi-samples
mapped to specific keyboard ranges, or a different
sample for each one of the 127 keys. The flexibility
of the EXS24 means you can customise your Instruments
in whatever manner you like.
5. How do I create an EXS24 Instrument from
scratch?top
Open the Track Mixer (ctrl-M) then click and hold
on the Inserts bar of, for example, AudioInst 1. A
drop-down menu will appear, from which you choose
Stereo>Logic>EXS24. When the EXS24 appears on
screen, click on its edit button. This opens the edit
screen which has a keyboard running across the top.
At this point you'll notice there are now four new
headings on the main menu bar (Instrument, Zone, Group
and View). Click on the Instrument menu and choose
New. In order to change the default name of your new
Instrument, choose Instrument/Rename from the main
menu and type in the name you want. When you click
and hold on the EXS24 selector pane/flip menu (located
between the edit and options buttons) you are able
to select your new Instrument. You are now ready to
load sounds into EXS24.
6. How do I load single samples into a new EXS24
Instrument?top
Now that you have your new EXS24 Instrument, the next
step is to create a Zone - by, unsurprisingly, selecting
Zone/New Zone from the main menu - whereupon a thin
white bar appears in the edit screen spanning the
keyboard, and beneath it the Zone range panel. In
the Zone range boxes it tells you that the default
range is from C-2 to G8. To change the Zone range
all you need to do is click and drag (up or down)
in either of these boxes and note that the Zone range
bar changes accordingly. Now click once in the window
to the right of Audio File in the Zone range panel
and locate your sample from the browser. Upon making
your selection and clicking OK your sample is loaded
and its name appears in the Audio File window. Once
you have set the desired Zone range for your sample
you might want to rename the Zone so that it indicates
the nature of the sound it refers to (each sound you
load must have a corresponding Zone). To do this double-click
on the Zone panel title and type in the new name.
In order to add more samples to your EXS24 Instrument,
simply repeat the procedure outlined above until your
Instrument is how you want it. Play around with the
Zone panel controls and see how it dictates the sample's
behaviour - you can change the key note, reverse the
sample, disable pitch, alter the volume and loop settings,
and so on.
7. How do I load multi-samples into an EXS24
Instrument? top
To load multi-samples into your EXS24 Instrument simply
choose Zone/load multiple samples from the main menu.
This opens a two-windowed browser. The top window
is where you navigate through your drives in search
of the relevant samples. When you select a sample
click on Add File. The sample now appears in the lower
window, which is the container or shopping trolley
for all the samples you're collecting. Once all the
samples you want are in the lower window click on
Done. You are now presented with an options box asking
you how you would like the samples to be loaded into
the Instrument. Unless you wish to cancel the operation
you have three options here. If the samples are from
a library disc with added information readable by
EXS24, then choose either Auto map or Drums. Otherwise
you should choose Chromatic, which loads each sample
to a single key (you can of course change these settings
afterwards in the Zone Range boxes as described above
in Answer 6). Now that you have your multi-samples
loaded into EXS24 you will notice that each sample
has a corresponding Zone panel in the Instrument editor.
Only one Zone can be active for editing at any given
time, and the best visual clue as to which is active
is provided by the Zone range bars beneath the keyboard
- only one of them is white, the others are grey.
Experiment with expanding the Zone ranges of each
sample the better to understand how they behave and
you will soon discover how easy it is to edit multi-samples
in EXS24.
8.How can I edit related groups of multi-samples
in an EXS24 Instrument without having to edit each
sample individually?top
Once you've loaded your multi-samples into an EXS24
Instrument take a close look at the Zone panels in
the Instrument editor and you'll notice that one of
them is not a Zone panel at all, and is in fact called
Group#1. This is the default Group panel which appears
whenever you load multi-samples into an Instrument.
Click on the arrow icon in the top left corner to
expand the panel and take note of its parameters (Volume,
Pan/Bal, Voices and Velocity Range). By assigning
Zones to this Group, and then editing the Group panel
parameters, you are also editing these parameters
for all the related Zones! To assign Zones to this
Group simply click in the Group pane of the Zone panels
you wish to assign and select Group#1.You can of course
add more Groups to an EXS24 Instrument by selecting
Group/New Group in the main menu, and you can also
change the name of a Group by double-clicking on its
title bar.
9.
How do I load an Instrument from an EXS24 format CD-ROM?top
To load an Instrument from an EXS24 format CD-ROM
simply copy the Instrument file you wish to load (but
not the samples related to it) and paste this file
into your Sampler Instruments folder (which is contained
within your Logic Audio folder). When you load this
Instrument into EXS24 (click and hold in the Instrument
pane/flip menu between the edit and options buttons)
you must ensure that the CD-ROM is present in your
CD drive because the EXS24 will now search for the
related samples on all your local drives. If the CD-ROM
is not present you will have to re-insert it and then
reload the Instrument.
10.
How do I import SoundFont 2 files into EXS24?top
To import SoundFont 2 files into EXS24 copy the relevant
files into the Sampler Instruments folder. Now when
you select one of your SoundFont 2 files from the
EXS24 flip menu it will be automatically converted
into an Instrument.
11.
How do I import SampleCell 2 files into EXS24? top
To import SampleCell 2 files into EXS24 simply follow
the procedure for importing SoundFont 2 files.
12.How do I import Akai samples into EXS24?top
To import Akai samples into EXS24 choose Options/Akai
import from the main menu (depending on the version
of Logic Audio you're using you might find Akai import
under Instrument in the main menu). Now you should
see a new window on your screen divided into four
columns (Partition, Volume, Program, Audio File).
Insert your Akai disc into the CD-ROM drive. Once
the disc has been read the window will display its
contents. (The time it takes EXS24 to read the disc
is dependent on several factors and can sometimes
vary dramatically, so be prepared to exercise a little
patience! If you find it's taking an unacceptably
long time you might prefer to use another utility
to perform this task such as CD Extract.) To view
the contents of the entries in the four columns simply
click once on the relevant entries. When you are ready
to start importing just click on the appropriate Convert
buttons at the foot of each column. All the selected
parts will now be imported into EXS24 along with the
accompanying Audio Files. If you wish to convert your
entire Akai CD-ROM into EXS24 Instruments simply click
on the Convert entire CD button.
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