There is a lot to go over here... In future videos we'll be talking about the Looper tracks, resampling, and using samples on tracks. In this video we're discussing how to record live sounds into the Verselab.
Thanks, I appreciate the encouragement. I plan to make my next video next week (on vocal takes), and I've got around a half dozen more videos outlined before we get more into theory, composition, and some project based fun (putting all this stuff to *use*). I have some health issues that make video editing nearly impossible, so some of my biggest challenges are structuring everything so that I can present it in a single take... also, life has been a bit... unpredictable lately. Hopefully I'll be able to put out content a bit more predictably in the near future. Thanks for following along, and for taking the time to comment.
Dear friend, I speak to you from Chile. I want to thank you for the great quality of your teaching. I was about to sell the verselab and thanks to your videos I have been able to understand all the possibilities it offers. Please trust in the quality and care you give when teaching, especially when you face difficulties along the way. Thank you very much for everything and I hope to see the channel grow.
Thanks for the encouragement, it's very easy for me to get discouraged these days. There should be a new video in the next couple of days discussing using long samples on a kit track.
I'm so glad! I intend to post many more videos, but life's been getting a bit in the way... hopefully we'll be diving more into project based stuff, some theory, and composition ideas, etc. If you're not in the verselab groups on Facebook, definitely check that out, lots of people there to keep people motivated!
@@DonDiegoMorel The files you're talking about are clips that are included with the verselab. To use these, in the SEQ portion of the workflow, select the track you want to load the data from, then press SECTION SELECT. In section select press EDIT+PAD (selecting the section you want to edit, on this case press pad 1). Select LOAD CLIP, then CLIP FILE. Now you can select between drum and melodic (depending on what you want), and there are several to choose from. There's no way to preview these, but once you select one, it will change the instrument and the sequencer data on that track. This is the same way you'll load your own clips that you've saved, or clip packs you buy from Roland.
@@DonDiegoMorel I think they *do* have some others you can buy (and there used to be a pop pack for free), but the cost, and limited usefulness, make it difficult to recommend. I mean, with no way to preview either the instrument OR the rhythm of what you're importing, it's very tedious and hit & miss to use them for anything serious.
Love your videos! Found this very useful. I have been wondering about a lot of these features but had no idea how they worked. Also I never knew how sample rates worked. Great video
I didn't assume that from your comment. 🙂 There are a couple of things going on here, first, a lot of questions about the sampler are about stereo vs mono, and since the sampling engine never records in mono, it's an important area to have a good handle on with this device. Second, I have some health issues that make editing a video a bit difficult, so all of my videos are made in a single take. That can, unfortunately, make them a bit longer and more convoluted than I intend. I do spend about a week prepping for a video, and making notes, but since I only do one take, I kind have to roll with whatever comes up.
I wish I could make the videos more frequently, or spend time editing, but as long as people are watching and we're learning (I learn a lot while diving into the device every week to prepare, too), I'll keep making more (as I enjoy the process). 🙂
This is cool because i wasnt sure if this could sample, tho i did see a guy hook a guitar into it so i thought maybe it could. Also there is a way to record in mono versus stereo because the guy in the guitar video shows you how to save it on just the left side
On the Verselab you can't save in mono with the sampling engine, but you can save in mono if using a vocal take (video on vocal takes coming soon). Unfortunately, even with a vocal take, there's no way to EXPORT the mono file. You can't export a vocal take directly, and if you resample it, the sampling engine makes it stereo. The other solution is to record the vocal take in a mixdown, bit that's also stereo. So, you can *record* a mono source, but it will always end up as a stereo file of you export it.
You can, however, that only toggles whether you're using stereo or mono for LINE IN if you have 2 inputs plugged in, otherwise, it does nothing. It, unfortunately, doesn't affect the built-in mic, XLR input, or LINE IN if it's only using one of the stereo inputs. This doesn't affect the data recorded with the sampling engine. Even mono sources will be recorded as stereo. ☹️ (the difference with the LINE IN inputs is, say you have two mono channels on the LINE IN inputs, but you're only using one... if this is set as stereo, it will record both channels, one as silent. If you're only using one of the LINE IN inputs, this setting is irrelevant). Again, though, everything going through the sampling engine will be stereo, you can verify this by exporting anything you record, and bring up the exported file in an audio editor. No matter the source, it will always record stereo. Conversely, Vocal Takes WILL record mono sources as mono, but there's no way to export the mono files... if you resample them, it goes through the sampling engine, which makes them stereo, and if you use a mixdown of the vocal track, it's also stereo. ☹️
Hello Leroy!!!very nice video!!!....So because I have some 3rd party sample packs(especially drum one shots/basses etc) on my SD card, most of them are 44100 24bit or even 32bit(I'm not so sure for the 32bit)... Let's say they are 24, Is that a problem for the memory space?
So, the bit rate is a bit complicated... It makes every number larger. So, in, say, a 16-bit sample at a sample rate of 44.1khz, each second 44,100 numbers will be jotted down, and it will use 16-bits per sample. A zero would be 0000 0000 0000 0000. A 24-bit sample, as you might imagine, has 8 extra bits to record for each sample, that same zero would be: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000. So, typically, yes, this will affect the file size. There are a couple of things to consider. First, don't forget that the verselab can't load 32-bit sample, so if you have samples at that bit rate, it won't even load them. Second, from what I can tell, it *seems* like internally the verselab is converting these to 16-bit when you load them (all I have to go on are the percentage of the memory used, 24-bit files don't appear to use any more space than 16-bit files, so my assumption is that there's an conversion... I'd need to do more testing to be sure). It's also worth noting that you can do batch conversions of your audio files. I've found more than once that a purchased sample library I bought at, say, 24-bit, 96kHz, was actually 16-bit, 44kHz, just saved in a larger format (this is like putting a loaf of bread into a larger bread box... It doesn't change the bread, it just makes it take more space). They seem to do this to make it *appear* that you're getting more for your money, but all it really does is take up extra space. Finally, honestly, there aren't a whole lot of good uses for files with high bit rates or high sampling rates on the verselab (my opinion). Higher bit rates only give you more dynamic range, which could be useful if you're, for instance, recording a band live and you only get one shot at recording, you want to make sure they don't peak, you want to make sure everything is recorded accurately. If you're buying mixed/mastered music, or samples, it makes less sense, you won't be able to make use of all the dynamic range in a 16-bit file. One use is for purchased samples, as some effects and plugins can make use of the extra headroom. I don't believe the verselab does this, however (and you'll notice that the verselab, when rendering a track, outputs 16-bit 44kHz stereo WAV files). Finally, the sampling rate... This is something that may be useful if you're recording things with really high pitches (or a large series of overtones, like an orchestra, live), or if you're going to be slowing a sample down A LOT. But these don't work well on the verselab. When slowing down samples, especially, the extra resolution can give more detail, but it won't help with the loss of transients or the corruption of timings. That was a long explanation to say, for my money, it seems that for most uses, 16-bit, 44kHz is perfect for the verselab. Use mono when you can, and if you're using a sample that won't have notes or overtones above 16kHz, you can get away with 32kHz as the sampling rate to make the files smaller, which will give you the ability to have more time in the available memory. I find that, usually, in actual practice, having 12 min for mono, or 6 min for stereo for a song is plenty. But the benefits of using higher bit rates or higher sampling rates pales in comparison to the huge hit you'll take with the limits of sample memory. Sorry for the rambling, hope that helped a bit.
Sorry, one more small point to add! You asked about using, for instance, drum samples at a higher bit rate/sample rate. Honestly? I wouldn't worry about that! Most drum samples, or even short melodic one-shots are so short (usually under a second!) that the extra space used in larger formats aren't really going to be seen. If you're using samples that are 30 seconds, or longer, it will become noticeable quickly, but if you're just filling a couple of kit tracks with drum one-shots, you're unlikely to even notice the size differences. 😊
How’s it going ? Once again amazing job on verselab vids. im using song mode to record synths using vocal track, for some reason in the sequence mode the transition isn’t smooth. There’s a clip sound that happens when my recorded synths goes to the next section. Would you happen to know why ?
@@TheonlyMrlab hmmm... I'm not sure I'm fully understanding. Could you break it down a bit more for me? If it's too much to do on RU-vid comments, you can get a hold of me on the Facebook group, or my website (both in the description). Perhaps you could make a short video of the issue and post a link?
You can, but using the sampling engine (as opposed to vocal takes), it will *always* record stereo. If it's a mono signal, it just records it as dual mono.
Good question! The sampling engine only recording in stereo is a pretty big gripe, however, you *can* record in mono using vocal takes (video on this coming soon), and you can also import audio that's mono. You could also export the audio from the sampling engine, convert it to mono on your computer, and export it back in (admittedly that's frustrating for a "self contained" piece of hardware). At the end of the day, even 6 minutes is a lot of space, and it usually won't be an issue, and most of the audio you're going to be working with isn't going to be sampled live from the sampling engine, most of the audio, likely, will be loaded as a WAV (which can be mono) or recorded as a vocal take.
So based on a 50% redundancy that all mono samples are converted to Stereo it seems like you would ALWAYS sample in mono on your computer and then import over USB … did I misunderstand that?
@@ianbrown1474 If you were trying to squeeze every second of space out of this, sure. You could also sample on the verselab, then convert to mono on your computer later, and bring the mono sample back in. In practice, though, even the 6 minutes of stereo are usually more than enough for a track. If you DO need more time, usually that means you're going to have to have a sample extend over the length of one section (the longest a section can be is 1m 30s), so you'd need to use vocal takes. Vocal Takes WILL record in mono if the source is a single channel from line-in, or from the mic input. I do still plan to make a video on vocal takes (I've got the outlines done for about half a dozen new videos), but things have been a bit ... complicated here, and I haven't been able to make them yet.
