Simpler, Sampler and the drum devices

808 from a sine sample in Simpler Classic

A looped sine or a one-shot 808 in Classic mode with Voices 1, Glide and a Pitch envelope gives you the slide-808 that sits under half of modern rap.

1. Drop an 808 sample (or render one sine note from Operator at C1 and use that). Classic mode, Warp off, Snap on. Loop on over the sustained body with Crossfade 40%; set the root so C1 plays the sample's actual pitch (Transpose until it is in tune against a tuner).
2. Voices 1, Retrigger on, Glide mode Glide, Time 80 ms. Overlapping notes in the clip now slide.
3. Volume env A 0, D 2 s, S 0.7, R 150 ms. Pitch env Amount −12 st (if it starts above), Decay 35 ms, or +6 st for a click.
4. Filter MS2 LP 300 Hz, Drive 20%, Vel → Filter 25%.
5. After: Saturator Analog Clip to add harmonics the small speakers need, Utility Mono.

Slice a break to a Drum Rack and re-sequence

Slice to New MIDI Track with the Drum Rack preset gives one Simpler per slice on consecutive pads, keeping the sample's warp. From there you re-write the break, chop the pads further, and process pads individually.

1. Warp the break (Beats, Preserve Transients, Transient Loop Mode Off) at the set tempo. Right-click → Slice to New MIDI Track → Transient, Built-in Drum Rack.
2. The new MIDI clip plays the original order. Duplicate it and rewrite: move the snare slices, double the kick, drop hats to half-time.
3. In the rack, select all pads and set Simpler Volume env Decay 300 ms and Release 80 ms so slices do not run into each other at new positions. For stuttered slices, Decay 60 ms.
4. Pad-level: Transpose the snare pad +2 st and add Saturator; put Redux on the ghost-hit pads; set the kick pad's Filter LP to 2 kHz.
5. Rack macros: Decay (all Simplers), Pitch (all), Filter (all), plus a Choke macro mapped to nothing but used as a Variation selector. Store 4 Macro Variations: original, halftime, stutter, filtered.

Sampler round-robin snare with Sample Select

Four takes of one snare in four Sample Select zones, selected randomly by LFO 1 per hit, with velocity layers and a Morph filter that opens with velocity. The sampled snare that never machine-guns.

1. Drop four snare hits onto Sampler. In the Zone tab, Sample Select view: set each to its quarter of the 0–127 range with no overlap. Key zones all D1 (or the full range if you want pitched play).
2. Modulation tab: LFO 1 shape Random (sample-and-hold style), Rate anything (it updates per note), destination A: Sample Select, Amount 100%. Each hit lands on a random zone.
3. If you also have soft and hard takes, use the Velocity range for those: soft takes Vel 1–80, hard takes 81–127, each with the four Sel zones inside.
4. Filter/Global: filter type Morph, Freq 4 kHz, Morph position between LP and BP. MIDI tab: Velocity → Filter Freq +40% and → Volume +30%.
5. Volume env A 0, D 400, S 0, R 100. Pitch/Osc: Pitch env +2 st, D 20 ms for a tiny consistent transient.
6. Modulation: LFO 2 (per voice) → Sample Start 3% at a random rate: start-point variation makes even one take sound like several.

Osc FM on a sample in Sampler: metallic keys from anything

The Pitch/Osc tab's oscillator frequency-modulates the sample's playback. A piano, a vocal or a sine becomes a DX-ish electric piano with a per-note envelope on the FM depth.

1. Load a clean sustained sample (a single piano note, a sine, a bowed note) mapped across the keyboard from its Root key. Loop it with Crossfade for sustain.
2. Pitch/Osc tab: Osc On, waveform Sine, Mode FM, frequency key-tracked at the same pitch as the note (ratio 1) or ×3.5 for bells. Osc Volume (= FM depth) 25%.
3. Osc envelope: A 0, D 350 ms, S 20%, R 200: the FM bite decays into the clean sample, which is the electric-piano behaviour.
4. Filter/Global: Morph filter, LP at 5 kHz, Shaper Soft post-filter at 10% for a little glue. MIDI: Velocity → Osc Volume +40% so hard notes are more metallic; Aftertouch → Osc Volume +20%.
5. Spread 30%, Voices 8, Vol env A 2, D 1.5 s, S 0.5, R 800.

Variations: Mode AM with the osc at a fixed 30 Hz for tremolo-to-ring-mod; osc Noise waveform FM at low depth for grit on bass samples.

Drum Sampler kick: Sub, Punch and pitch envelope

The 12.1 Drum Sampler folds the usual kick chain (sample + sine sub + transient + saturation) into one device. One sample, tuned, with a sub layer tuned to the key and a pitch envelope for the punch.

1. In a Drum Rack, drop a kick sample on C1 and pick Drum Sampler as the player. Stretch 100%, Start at the first transient.
2. Pitch Coarse −2 st to put the body on the track key (check with Spectrum). Pitch envelope Amount +8 st, Decay 50 ms.
3. Envelope: Attack 0, Hold 0, Decay 350 ms. Shorter for techno (220 ms), longer for trap (600 ms with Sub taking over).
4. Effects: Sub 30%, tuned to the root (F for a track in F), decay slightly longer than the sample's. Punch 35%. Noise 0. Crush 0.
5. Filter LP 6 kHz, Env −20% with a 150 ms decay so the click is bright and the tail is dark. Velocity → Volume 20%.

Drum Sampler snare and hats: Noise, Ring and Crush

The other three built-in effects. Noise gives a sampled snare back its air after pitching down, Ring makes toms and hats metallic, Crush is the phonk / lo-fi hat texture, and the Drum Rack's choke groups finish the kit.

1. Snare on D1: Pitch −3 st, Decay 220 ms, Noise 30% with its filter around 3 kHz and decay 140 ms (shorter than the body), Crush 15%, Filter BP off. Velocity → Noise level if your build exposes it, otherwise → Filter 30%.
2. Closed hat on F#1: Decay 70 ms, Crush 35%, Ring at 2.4 kHz 20%, Filter HP 4 kHz. Choke group 1.
3. Open hat on A#1: Envelope mode Gate so the note length controls the tail; Crush 20%, Choke group 1 so the closed hat cuts it.
4. Rack return chain a: Hybrid Reverb Quartz 0.6 s; snare send −10 dB, hats −inf.
5. Drum Buss on the rack output: Crunch 25%, Damp 9 kHz, Transients +15%, Boom 0 (the kick has its own Sub).

Simpler Texture-mode freeze pad from any sound

Classic mode with Warp on in Texture mode, Start and End dragged almost together, Loop on: Simpler becomes a granular freezer. A single word, a chord stab, a field recording becomes a sustained pad with the source's colour.

1. Drop the source. Classic mode, Warp on, mode Texture, Grain Size 100–150 ms, Flux 20–30%. Set the clip tempo so the sample plays at its original speed, or do not care: time is frozen anyway.
2. Loop on. Drag Start into a stable part of the sound, End 50–120 ms after it, Loop Crossfade 70%. Snap on. Listen while moving Start: every position is a different pad.
3. Transpose so C3 is in tune (Detune to taste). Voices 6, Spread 60%.
4. Volume env A 800 ms, D 1 s, S 0.9, R 2.5 s. Filter MS2 LP 3 kHz, Env 20% with a 2 s attack. LFO Sine 0.08 Hz → Pan 30% and → Filter 10%.
5. Map Sample Start to a macro (it is mappable) for performance scanning through the source.

Variations: Complex Pro mode with Formants shifted keeps a vocal readable while frozen; Sampler with LFO 2 → Sample Start for voices that each freeze a different moment. For real granular control, Granulator III.

Stem Separation (12.3) as the sampling source

Separate a full mix into Drums / Bass / Vocals / Other, then treat each stem with the right sampler: drums sliced to a Drum Rack, vocals to Simpler Slice, the "other" stem frozen in Texture mode or chopped as stabs, the bass stem re-pitched in Classic. One recording, four instruments.

1. Warp the source clip (Complex Pro) to the set tempo first; the stems inherit the warp. Right-click → Separate Stems. Four new tracks appear.
2. Drums stem: Slice to New MIDI Track, Transient, Drum Rack. Separation artefacts live mostly in the 200–800 Hz range; EQ Eight Bell −3 dB at 400 Hz on the rack output, Drum Buss Transients +20% to re-sharpen.
3. Vocals stem: Slice to Simpler Slice mode by Region 1/8, Playback Poly, Fade 5 ms. Play chops from the pads; Pitch env −2 st D 60 ms makes them "sampler-pitched". Auto Shift (12.1) after for retune to the set key.
4. Other stem (chords, keys, guitars): find a chord, Simpler Classic with a loop over one sustained beat, Warp off, map chromatically: that is your stab or Texture-freeze pad.
5. Bass stem: Simpler Classic, Voices 1, Glide 40 ms, Warp Tones, LP 200 Hz; or Audio to MIDI (Melody) and replay it with Drift.
6. Glue: a shared Vinyl Distortion / Redux / Saturator return that all four tracks send to, so the stems sound like one record again.