Finally finally finally, a proper stand-alone sampler for iOS for building multisampled instruments!
Now don’t get be wrong, there are some truly wonderful and amazing samplers for iOS, but just about all of them are oriented towards beat making or chopping or experimental sound design, not building full fledged multisampled instruments.
One kinda-sorta exception is the built in sampler in BeatMaker 3. It’s a fabulous sampler and you can build great multisampled instruments with it, but it’s confined to BeatMaker—which is a full on DAW, not a standalone sampler. AudioLayer, on the other hand, can be used standalone or from within any iOS app you like as long as it supports AUv3 (including BeatMaker 3).
AudioLayer also has some critical features that any respectable multisampler should include that BeatMaker 3 lacks:
- Round robin
- Automatic sample mapping based on file names
- Automatic sample mapping based on detected pitch
The automatic sample mapping features are HUuuuuuuUGE time savers. Building a large multisampled instrument without them is beyond tedious.
OTHER GOOD THINGS:
- iCloud integration just works
Why can’t more apps do this? Create an instrument on one device and it’s
saved to iCloud and available on all other devices.
- Pitch/Filter/Level sections are great
Super simple and straight forward. Organized so you can easily apply changes to a single sample (zone), a layer, or all samples in the instrument. If you’ve ever used an Ensoniq sampler (EPS, ASR-10) you should feel right at home.
- Effects section, also great
Sounds great and shockingly easy to use.
- Interface on iPhone, also great
Just as usable on an iPhone as on an iPad. Quite an accomplishment.
SOME OVERSIGHTS:
- No adjustable curve for crossfade loops
Being able the adjust the curve for a cross fade is crucial for creating seamless loops. BeatMaker 3 and many other samplers allow this.
- No threshold option when recording
Yeah, you can truncate the sample by hand before you save it (which is great), but this another common sampler feature that’s missing. Again, BeatMaker 3 has this option.
- No normalize gain
Another basic feature that’s missing.
WISH LIST:
Would love to see some sort of option for automatic slicing and mapping of single recording. Here’s how it would work:
- Start recording
- Play or sing a series of notes into the mic
- Stop recording
- Select a magical “auto slice and map” option
- AudioLayer auto-detects and slices and maps each note
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Hoppy Blings
noiseplayer
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