Recording Your First Samples Options

[Mac-Dee]

I am a new composer and i want to know how i would record my first samples. i have seen those guys with huge mics and a recording device ...........

What do i need .................?
what mic ???
what device to record on to , so i can connect it to a Pci card (spdif or analog in ?

[pdgood]

OK, I'll give this a shot. First record your sound the same way you would record anything else - maximim quality on any device from a tape recorder to a hard disk recorder. Then you play back your signal into the computer. Most computers have an audio input so you don't have to buy hardware. Purchase a wave form editor to edit the sample (make it as loud as possible and trim away all the blank space before and after the sample). Amadeus is a really nice share-ware (inexpensive) wave form editor.
Now that you have your sample all trimmed and maximized you need something to play it back. Software programs called Samplers are usually sample players (not wave form editors) so this is exactly what you need. Some are: Kontakt, Giga, Mach5. They tend to cost $300 or so. These will play the sound back as a stand alone unit (you can trigger from the sampler or a keyboard via midi) or you can place the sampler in a sequencer and have it trigger via midi in time with a song.
You might want to call a dealer like Sweetwater in Indiana for more details. Since they have something to gain by selling you equipment, they have good reason to spend time explaining the details. Hope this helps.

[abbie]

A good sampler program is VSAMP which comes in standalone mode or also as a VST instrument. It plays samples, has tweaking capabilities and can import SF2 files as well. It cost me around $35 but I am not sure what it costs now.