SampleRobot® Essentials - CLEVER INSTRUMENT CLONING ___________________________________________________ Version History: ________________ Version 2.50 ____________ New Releases: - All SampleRobot® and WaveRobot products are now available as CAKEWALK SPECIAL EDITION download products. The SPECIAL EDITIONs are distributed via CAKEWALK online. See www.cakewalk.com for more details. The distribution of the packaged versions of all SampleRobot® and WaveRobot products is handled via ESI Audiotechnik's international distributor's network. See www.esi-audio.com for more details. New Features: - File menu SampleRobot® The entry "Project Wizard" [Ctrl+W] was newly added to the File menu. By default the Project Wizard opens when SampleRobot® starts. It helps the user to create complex sampling projects very easily. So new users can record their instruments fast without having to read the operation manual. And also experienced users will benefit from the Project Wizard since it logically combines several operation steps and makes creation of projects a lot easier than before. - Project Wizard SampleRobot® The Project Wizard checks automatically if an audio format is supported by the sound card and the dedicated driver. If it is not supported, an error message shows up. Also new functions like automatically creating Multi-Sample layers and several optional loop templates are included. - Preferences SampleRobot® New checkbox "Start Project Wizard at Startup" has been added to the Preferences dialog. You can disable the Project Wizard by unchecking the box. - SampleRobot® audio engine From now on it is possible to record audio from an input with dedicated ASIO driver in all bit depths: 8, 16 and 24 bit. Earlier versions only supported the native ASIO driver resolution which is very often 24 bit. You can now use all sound cards with ASIO drivers to record in 16 bit. Therefore SampleRobot® converts the ASIO stream automatically during recording. - SampleRobot® audio engine In earlier versions 24 bit audio samples could not be played back with an internal (16 bit, non-ASIO) sound card. Now 24 bit samples can be played with all cards and drivers. Therefore SampleRobot® converts the 24 bit data automatically to 16 bit during playback. Of course, the file data is not altered. - Import/Export menu SampleRobot® All common software sampler formats are now supported in the Import/Export menu. From now on you can export instruments directly to Apple's Logic Pro EXS 24 (*.sf2), Tascam Gigastudio (*.wav), Emu Emulator X (*.wav), Yellow Tools Independence (*.sf2) and NI Kontakt (*.sf2). - Help menu WaveRobot A new screen "Quick Help: Key Commands" was added to the help menu. On this page you will find all important editing commands and keyboard short cuts to speed up your workflow in WaveRobot. Changes: - GUI For the CAKEWALK SPECIAL EDITION all credit screens and startup windows have been changed, now including the CAKEWALK logo. - WaveRobot naming In the Information section in the lower left corner of the WaveRobot window the name Bars (Loop) was renamed to Beats (Loop). The entry field shows the beats not the bars in a loop. - Import/Export menu SampleRobot® The order of the export formats and the dedicated shortcuts have been changed. E.g. Cakewalk's sfz format is now heading the list of Multi-Sample export formats. Fixes: - Loading Projects into SampleRobot® When loading a Project that included a Release Length greater than 0, this information was not displayed correctly after the loading process. This has been fixed. - Selecting an Audio Out Device in SampleRobot® Under certain circumstances it could happen that the application crashed when right-clicking on the Audio Out Device display in the MIDI Monitor section. This error had to do with the number of audio interfaces and ports that are available on the computer system. This has been fixed. Now even a very long device list will be displayed without problems. Version 2.41 ____________ Fixes: - Demo Version only After starting the demo version of SampleRobot® V2.40 the program failed to initialize properly causing a program abortion because a file was missing in the installer package. This has been fixed. Non-demo versions were not affected by this issue. Version 2.40 ____________ New Features: - WaveRobot New display "Bars (Loop)" was added to the information section in the lower left corner of WaveRobot. In front of the display there is a lock button. Furthermore there was the new "Bpm (Loop)" display added underneath the Bars display. You will find a lock button for this display as well. These two displays are very helpful, if you try to loop tempo- based audio material. When the display is locked you can enter a value by right-clicking on the dedicated display. E.g. you have found a perfect loop and you want to know what tempo it is: Just count the bars of the loop and enter it in the Bars display (lock button must be active). Now the dedicated tempo is displayed in beats per minute underneath. If you now move loop markers, you will see that the tempo information will change while you drag a marker, based on the bar information that you entered. If you know the tempo of the loop it makes sense to lock the Bpm display. Now you can adjust loop markers and you will see directly how many bars are included in the loop. - WaveRobot Two new entries were added to the file menu: "Open" loads a WAV file into WaveRobot. If the WAV file contains loop information and/or root key information those information will be used in WaveRobot. As an alternative to open a file you can simply drag a WAV file to WaveRobot's waveform window. "Save as" saves the loaded WAV file including all WaveRobot marker settings. Except from loop and root key information this additional information can only be used by WaveRobot. Use the "Render Key-Sample" option in the File menu to export edited samples for other applications. - WaveRobot New minimize and maximize buttons were added to the window title bar. - Activation process (all applications) There are two buttons "English" and "Deutsch" added to the Activation dialog. By pushing these buttons you can connect to the dedicated SampleRobot® website for product activation. - Help menu (all applications) The new entry "Internet Links" was added to the Help menu. You can now directly connect to the SKYLIFE Online Shop, SampleRobot® and WaveRobot websites and to other related links like support sites and tutorial sites. - Help menu SampleRobot® and SampleRobot® Essentials When opening the About window SampleRobot® will play a special song. - WaveRobot (stand-alone) RELEASE! - WaveRobot (stand-alone) New menu entry added: "Edit->Set Root Key" [Ctrl+K] With this option you can manually set a root key for the loaded sample. - WaveRobot (stand-alone) You can open a Wave file by simply dragging and dropping it onto WaveRobot's waveform display. If there is a sample already loaded before this operation, the message box "Discard changes of loaded Sample?" appears. Click on "Cancel" to abort loading. Changes: - WaveRobot (stand-alone) The menu entries "View/Display->WaveRobot's Window->*" are greyed out. These function only makes sense in conjunction with SampleRobot®. - WaveRobot (stand-alone) The menu entry "Edit->Auto-Note/Auto-Loop for all" is greyed out. These function only makes sense in conjunction with SampleRobot®. - WaveRobot (stand-alone) New startup screen added. Fixes: - SampleRobot® and WaveRobot Under certain circumstances it could happen that the Auto-Note recognition was not executed properly after recording. This has been fixed. - WaveRobot With maximized WaveRobot window it could happen that some entry fields (e.g. to enter Release-In manually) were displayed partly out of the visible screen area. This has been fixed. Version 2.25 ____________ SampleRobot® Essentials V2 manuals can be found in the Manuals subfolder of your SampleRobot® Essentials installation folder. If you like to read more about the new features of SampleRobot® Essentials V2.25 you should download the recently released SampleRobot® Version 2.25 manuals from our website: www.samplerobot.com/support.php New Features: - Help menu SampleRobot® New function "Show Quick Info/Tool Tips" enhances the help menu. With this function activated a short description will show up in the bottom left corner of SampleRobot® when you move the mouse pointer over a button or entry field in SampleRobot®. Leave this function on to learn more about SampleRobot® and to receive some tips for the usage. - Import/Export menu The Wusikstation soundset (*.WusikSND) was added as an export option to the Import/Export menu. With this function all Wusikstation VSTi users can immediately export from SampleRobot® ready-to-play multi-sampled instruments in Wusikstation format. - Import/Export menu In the Export-Settings dialog there was a new function included: "Remove Audio after Loop-Out (recommended)". This option helps to keep sizes of exported files smaller since all audio information after Loop-Out normally would not be played anyway. It is recommended to leave this option on. This function only affects exported Key-Samples that include loop information. - Virtual Keyboard Now it is possible to move, copy or swap Key-Samples on the Virtual Keyboard. Just hold down the SHIFT-key on the computer keyboard and drag a Key-Sample to another key on the Virtual Keyboard at the same time. After releasing the mouse button there appears a new dialog window where you can specify the desired operation. - Edit menu SampleRobot® and Edit menu WaveRobot New function "Auto-Note/Auto-Loop for all" was added to the Edit menus. With this functions it is possible to apply loop marker settings and/or note marker settings from one Key-Sample to all other selected Key-Samples in a Multi-Sample or in a Project. This is a very powerful function e.g. to apply similar loops to a bunch of Key-Samples at the same time. If you would like to do batch processing (trimming audio or looping samples) this function is ideal. "Auto-Note for all" is useful e.g. if you have dragged Wav-files (that contain silence at the beginning) to SampleRobot®´s Virtual Keyboard. With this option you can correct all Sample-Starts (Note-In markers) at the same time. Another example for "Auto-Loop for all": Once you have found optimum loop points in one Key- Sample you can apply those settings to all other recorded Key-Samples in the Project or Multi-Sample. This is done very cleverly. SampleRobot® does not transfer simple absolute marker values but it does an automatic loop-search for each Key-Sample. Therefor a new dialog was added where you can select if all settings from the "loaded Key-Sample" or from the "Multi-Sample Record Settings" should be used for the "Auto-Note/Auto-Loop for all" operation. If you select "loaded Key-Sample" all markers including the Loop- Search markers and X-Fades are used to apply the perfect loop to all other Key-Samples. Please note that you can abort this function during processing at any time by pressing "ESC" on the computer keyboard. "Auto-Note/Auto-Loop for all" does not affect the momentary loaded Key-Sample in the NLR editor or WaveRobot. There is a check box in the "Auto-Note/Auto-Loop for all" dialog called "Make all Note Lenghts equal the loaded Key-Sample's Note length". This option sets all Note-Out markers of all Key-Samples in a Project/Multi- Sample to the same Note-Out position like the currently loaded Key-Sample. E.g. this function is useful if you have recorded in semi-automatic mode so that all Key- Samples have different lengths. Since SampleRobot® uses relative values for loop searching it makes a lot of sense to match all note lengths before applying an "Auto-Loop for all" operation. In other words if you mark the check box you will be sure that the loop points in all other Key-Samples will nearly match your alsolute settings of the loaded Key-Sample. Turn this function off if you have used full automatic recording with different note lengths or if you have used drag and drop to create your Key-Samples. With the option "Turn Release Off" in the "Auto-Note/ Auto-Loop for all" dialog you can switch off all releases in all samples of a Project or Multi-Sample at the same time. If off, no Release-Samples will be generated during export. - Edit menu SampleRobot® New functions "Clean" were added to the Project and to the Multi-Sample drop down menus in the Edit menu. Clean erases all unused samples from the hard disc. Attention: This function is not undoable. The following Key-Samples will be erased by the "Clean" action: Key- Samples from unselected keys and Key-Samples that are not inside the range of the Keyboard Range Selectors. You can clean a Multi-Sample or a Project. - Edit menu SampleRobot® Function "Auto-Set Sample Range/Auto-Select Keys" was added to the Multi-Sample drop down menu in the Edit menu. If you activate this function the following will result: All keys in the dedicated Multi-Sample that contain a Key-Sample will be selected. All other keys will be deselected. The lower Sample Range Selector will be set to the lowest selected key minus 5 semitones. The upper Sample Range Selector will be set to the highest selected key plus 5 semitones. - Preferences/GUI SampleRobot® With the new option "Skins" in the Preferences dialog you can change SampleRobot®´s graphical user interface. At the moment there are two options available: "Old grey Style" (SampleRobot® version 1) and "Default green Style" (SampleRobot® version 2). - Preferences/GUI All windows zooms and positions are now stored in the preferences file on hard disk when exiting SampleRobot®. SampleRobot® will show up with the same zoom and windows settings the next time you start it. - WaveRobot New silence markers have been introduced. Silence-In and Silence-Out define the area of a recorded Key- Sample where silence or noise exists before the sample starts. Silence markers are used for the Note-In recognition. The markers can be edited like all other markers. Since SampleRobot® does an automatic silence marker adjustment under normal circumstances it is recommended not to move silence markers. If you record audio that contains some background noises and/or clicks it might make sense to move the silence markers manually to let SampleRobot® know where the silence is and "how loud" the silence is. Then try the "Auto-Note" or "Auto-Note for all" function to adjust Note-In accordingly. - WaveRobot A new Preferences dialog was added to the Options/ Extras menu in WaveRobot. This was done in regards to the standalone version of WaveRobot. If you are using SampleRobot® including WaveRobot all preferences are mirrored from the original SampleRobot® preferences. - Program start A new window during program startup informs you about the momentary tasks (e.g. loading pictures) before SampleRobot® is ready. - Log file A new file called "sr_init_log.txt" will be created when you start the application. This file is for debugging purposes only and can be sent to support@samplerobot.com in case of hardware/software incompatibilities. Changes: - WaveRobot Now loop and crossfade area are better visualized (new coloring of waveforms). - ASIO driver support If an unsupported ASIO driver has been detected after starting SampleRobot® there will be an alert box with a special code which can be emailed to the SampleRobot® support team. SKYLIFE tries to support this ASIO driver as soon as possible then. - WaveRobot The maximum waveform y-zoom (SHIFT + right click + drag up or down) has been increased by factor 20. This makes manual editing even more precise. - WaveRobot The restriction that you can not move the X-Fade marker when Note-In marker and Loop-In marker have the same position has been removed. Now you are able to use Key-Samples that contain only a crossfade loop. Please note that you can not move the X-Fade marker when Loop- In and sample start have the same position. - WaveRobot and Note/Loop/Release Editor The handling of Release-Samples has been changed. In earlier versions release was automatically active when Release-In marker and Release-Out marker had different positions. Now the Release-Samples option can be switched on and off. Therefor the previous "Turn Rel. Off" button in WaveRobot has been modified to "Release ON/OFF". It is comparable to the "Loop ON/OFF" button. In the NLR Editor the little square button to show and hide the release markers has been fuctionally changed. It now activates (release markers are visible) or deaktivates (release markers are not visible) the Release-Samples functionality. - Temporary directory Now after starting SampleRobot® there is a check if the temporary directory exists. If not, a new dialog shows up with an option to automatically create this directory. - Keyboard shortcuts F1 is no longer the shortcut for "Key Commands". Now F1 activates or deactivates the "Quick Info/Tool Tips" function. - Recording menu Inactive functions "Clean sel. Project" and "Clean sel. Multi-Sample" were deleted from this menu and are now included in the Edit menu under "Project" and "Multi-Sample". - Export menu When selecting "Export as WAV-Files" all the spaces in the default names were erased resulting in shorter file names. Furthermore some naming restrictions have been removed. Now you do not have to include the name or the index of the Multi-Samples in the file name necessarily. - Rendering single Key-Samples A new dialog has been added displaying when audio rendering of single Key-Samples (ALT + left mouse click on a key of the Virtual Keyboard ) is in process. - Multi-Sample Export Settings The option map to "Release Velocity" was removed because only Release-Samples should be mapped to "Release Velocity/Note Off". Fixes: - GUI When using multiple monitors it could happen that entry-windows were displayed on the wrong monitor. This has been fixed. - WaveRobot Fixed the problem that you could not move Loop-Search markers when only Loop-Search markers were visible. - WaveRobot During rendering a single Key-Sample you could reload a new Key-Sample causing the rendering process to render silence. This has been fixed. You can not load Key- Samples while rendering any more. - WaveRobot When scaling the WaveRobot window in high x-resolution it could happen that some GUI parts were not displayed. This has been fixed. - Recording Under certain circumstances selecting a driver and then pushing the peak meter button could result in a crash of the application. This has been fixed. Please note that if you would like to record with 24 bit resolution ASIO is recommanded. If you would like to record with 16 bit resolution please select the dedicated MME driver, since most ASIO drivers support 24 bit. Version 2.01 ____________ New Features: - WaveRobot File menu Two new export options were added: "Render Key-Sample to Disk" and "Render Key-Sample to Disk (Loop only)". The second option is useful to create WAV files that start with the Loop In marker and end with the Loop Out marker. E.g. those files can be used in Ableton´s Live or other loop-based applications for further processing. Use the first export option to render the whole sample to disk (not only the loop). You can also use a shortcut by holding down the ALT-key on the computer keyboard and clicking with the mouse at the same time on the dedicated key on the Virtual Keyboard. Changes: - WaveRobot and Note/Loop/Release Editor marker editing When playing a loop and adjusting loop markers at the same time audio playback now restarts from Loop In marker not from Note In marker. - Import/Export menu The unit of the Silence Threshold parameter from function Import Single-Sample-Soundlibrary is now dB. - Multi-Sample Record Settings Now all parameters have the dedicated unit added (e.g. Note Length in seconds, Loop-Search Length in %). Note that Threshold Precision In and Out are special parameters (smaller values give better results when there is background noise during recording, higher values should be used in a studio environment when there are clean audio signals available). - Preferences The units are added to all parameters. Fixes: - "Gain Change left or right channel only" now works also for samples with 24 bit depth. Version 2.0 ___________ Release Known Issues: - ChessRobot not included yet. - Autogain feature of WaveRobot not included yet. - Yellow Tools Independence export not included yet. ________________________________________ Copyright (C) 2007 SKYLIFE Film Music, Sound Design and Music Label www.samplerobot.com www.samplerobot.de www.waverobot.com www.waverobot.de www.skylife.de