Setting Up My Erica Synths Sample Drum - Leaving The Laptop Episode 10

I just got this Erica Synths Sample Drum module and figured out how to integrate it into my compact live rig using my hacker skillz.
Patreon: / michaelforrest
Podcast: grandpodcast.com

[@mrbreaker101]

As a brand new Erica Synths Sample Drum owner, may I recommend Apple's own Compressor app for batch converting samples to 16-bit. £45 in the App Store and a worthy complement.

[@michaelforrest]

This is a great tip!

[@mrbreaker101]

@@michaelforrest yeah, I mean I don't mind using the command prompt but... it's just a bit messy. And then third party apps may or may not work, may be a bit crap, etc. Compressor is flawless. Set up a custom script and call it 16bit, and it just appends the text "16bit" to your converted samples. Drop on the SD card, and off you go.

[@ThomSonnyYeah]

Thank you! I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out what to do

[@iamnbutler]

Awesome, this was more useful to me than most of the 40-50 min vids I watched 🙌🏼 thanks.

[@JA-gt8cr]

Please consider doing a tutorial on using sox. I'd love to know if there is a way to batch process a whole folder of audio files. Things that would interest me would be how to batch process and add fade-in/out to the files, possible split files and create fade, or combine files with crossfades or fade in/outs, etc. Sometimes it's useful to combine some tracks for a podcast or separate them for an "album". Or could you share your bash script for batch processing?

[@grizcuz]

I told myself that 'I'd never get into modular' mostly because it looks like something that would cause me to obsess over the acquisition and constant churn of modules rather than actually producing music. But after watching this, your cool Waldorf 'modular keyboard' setup looks very tempting. If I could only fit so many modules into a case, then it couldn't get out of hand [famous last words!]

[@michaelforrest]

I know what you mean - it's a slippery slope! I started out with a plan to limit myself to a single case but there was inevitably a bit of "turbulence" as I made improvements to my rig. I did actually sell a load of modules though having "Marie Kondo"-ed each module asking "does this bring me joy?" and if not, listing it on Reverb. Good luck... :)

[@walrtbstudios5430]

If like me you don’t have a laptop/pc/Mac at all, but do have an iDevice of some sort, Audioshare for iOS- which is in any case an utterly essential file management app- will happily convert your samples to 16-bit, albeit one at a time. Helps you be selective I suppose… I find myself here because I’m waiting for my Sample Drum to arrive, and there are precious few SD tutorials out there. I may have to do one myself.

[@michaelforrest]

Let me know when you do - maybe I can pin it here?

[@endless_arps]

Now that is the complete oposite of LEAVING the laptop if u ask me. Instead u should call this video: "complex programming on a laptop" all day.

[@michaelforrest]

This is the crux of the series really. You have to go “through” the laptop to get where I want to be! More effort setting things up means a more personal sound, less prone to sounding like whatever the commercial hardware wants to sound like by default. But I agree, there is some irony that at some point a laptop is very much needed...

[@matrixmodulator]

Screen is blue and black or white and black?

[@pyrox2518]

cool video man, i tried many times to convert a bunch of samples to the right bitrate and all but so far i haven't found anything that won't crash my module. too bad i'm also total clueless when it comes to programming so i think your method won't help me either..

[@ThreetomModular]

pyrox Here’s a more elaborate tutorial I wrote a while ago on the same method. Hope this helps : www.threetom.com/news/batch-conversion-of-samples-for-erica-sample-drum/

[@ambiguoussignal806]

I use a batch file to convert my samples for the Sample Drum. Install Sox. Copy the commands below into a text file and then rename it to a .bat file. Place this file in the same folder as sox.exe. You can then drag and drop a selection of files onto the batch file and all the converted files end up in a sub-folder under the original sample directory called `converted'. Doing it this way means that once the sox settings are correct they will stay correct - and you get batch transfer for much quicker library conversion.
rem this is your batch file code
cd %~dp0
mkdir converted
FOR %%A IN (%*) DO "C:\Program Files (x86)\sox-14-4-2\sox" %%A -b 16 -Dr 48000 "converted/%%~nxA" channels 1 norm
pause

[@JMLRecording]

Folder conversions , file incompadibilities... imagine in the future we just make music instead of spending half our time overcoming the obstacles of cumbersome tech? C'mon Erica ...