What Subsample does, and where to start
Subsample cuts separate sounds out of a recording or a live input, sorts them by how they sound, and plays them from MIDI.
Point a microphone at a kitchen, or give Subsample a recording of one, and every strike, knock and ring in it becomes a sample. Subsample measures each one: how bright it is, how it begins and how it dies away, and its pitch, if it has one. A MIDI map then says which sounds each note plays and how each is shaped on the way out, and a keyboard, a pad controller or a sequencer plays them.
What this guide builds
This guide builds one project, growing through its chapters:
- a drum kit cut from ten hits recorded in one room, played on MIDI channel 10 through a kit Subsample already knows how to mix;
- a map of your own, choosing the sound each note plays by its name, by how closely it resembles a drum, and by a rule;
- those sounds shaped as they play, with a knob on your controller turning any setting;
- a keyboard played by one held note, the same note held for as long as a key is down, and a rhythm you tapped on a table, kept on the beat;
- your kit in a folder of its own, short because its pads share their settings, which you can copy anywhere and play;
- a sample library that grows as you record, and stays tidy;
- several kits at once, and switching between them live;
- and the same project played by other software, over many audio channels, from a second machine, and live.
From A project folder on, the chapters build that one project, each carrying on from the one before it.
The configuration reference and the MIDI map reference describe every setting and every key. This guide teaches the ones a project needs, and links to the rest.
Where to start
- Starting from nothing? Installing Subsample comes next.
- Subsample installed already? Start at A project folder.
Recordings to follow along with
Recordings to follow along with are planned for this guide: the sounds its examples are made from, to download. Until they are here, a step that needs a sound uses one of yours, and says so.
How the examples are checked
Every configuration and every MIDI map in this guide is loaded by Subsample itself, at the release named at the foot of each page, whenever this site is built. One that Subsample refuses, or warns about, stops the site from publishing. A command shown with what it printed was run on a fresh machine, and printed what the page shows.
Some things cannot be done when this site is built: install a system package, reach your sound card or your controller, or listen. A block that is not run says so above it, and where the point is how something sounds, the page says what to listen for.