Samples

Default Sample Map

As we have seen, s can play back audio samples:

s("bd sd,hh*8,misc/2")

These sounds come from Strudel’s in-built default “sample map”. To know which sounds are available, open the default sample map.

Custom Sample Maps

You can load your own sample map using the samples function. In this example we create a map using sounds from the default sample map:

samples({
  bd: 'bd/BT0AADA.wav',
  sd: 'sd/rytm-01-classic.wav',
  hh: 'hh27/000_hh27closedhh.wav',
}, 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tidalcycles/Dirt-Samples/master/');
s("bd sd,hh*8")

When you load your own samples, you can choose the names that you will then refer to in your pattern string inside the s function. Compare with this example which uses the same samples, but with different names.

samples({
  bassdrum: 'bd/BT0AADA.wav',
  snaredrum: 'sd/rytm-01-classic.wav',
  hihat: 'hh27/000_hh27closedhh.wav',
}, 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tidalcycles/Dirt-Samples/master/');
s("bassdrum snaredrum, hihat*8")

Here we have changed the “map” to include longer sample names.

Loading Custom Samples

The samples function has two arguments:

A JavaScript object that maps sound names to audio file paths.
A base URL that comes before each path describing where the sample folder can be found online.
- Make sure your base URL ends with a slash, while your sample paths do not begin with one!

To see how this looks in practice, compare the DirtSamples GitHub repo with the previous sample map example.

Because GitHub is a popular place for uploading open source samples, it has its own shortcut:

samples({
  bd: 'bd/BT0AADA.wav',
  sd: 'sd/rytm-01-classic.wav',
  hh: 'hh27/000_hh27closedhh.wav',
}, 'github:tidalcycles/Dirt-Samples/master/');
s("bd sd,hh*8")

The format is github:user/repo/branch/.

Let’s see another example, this time based on the following GitHub repo: https://github.com/jarmitage/jarmitage.github.io. We can see there are some guitar samples inside the /samples folder, so let’s try to load them:

samples({
  g0: 'samples/guitar/guitar_0.wav',
  g1: 'samples/guitar/guitar_1.wav',
  g2: 'samples/guitar/guitar_2.wav',
  g3: 'samples/guitar/guitar_3.wav',
  g4: 'samples/guitar/guitar_4.wav'
}, 'github:jarmitage/jarmitage.github.io/master/');
s("[g0 g1 g2 g3 g4]/5")

Loading Multiple Samples per Sound

It is also possible, to declare multiple files for one sound, using the array notation:

samples({
  bd: ['bd/BT0AADA.wav','bd/BT0AAD0.wav'],
  sd: ['sd/rytm-01-classic.wav','sd/rytm-00-hard.wav'],
  hh: ['hh27/000_hh27closedhh.wav','hh/000_hh3closedhh.wav'],
}, 'github:tidalcycles/Dirt-Samples/master/');
s("<bd:0 bd:1>,~ <sd:0 sd:1>,[hh:0 hh:1]*2")

The :0 :1 etc. are the indices of the array. The sample number can also be set using n:

samples({
  bd: ['bd/BT0AADA.wav','bd/BT0AAD0.wav'],
  sd: ['sd/rytm-01-classic.wav','sd/rytm-00-hard.wav'],
  hh: ['hh27/000_hh27closedhh.wav','hh/000_hh3closedhh.wav'],
}, 'github:tidalcycles/Dirt-Samples/master/');
s("bd,~ sd,hh*4").n("<0 1>")

In that case, we might load our guitar sample map a different way:

samples({
  guitar: [
    'samples/guitar/guitar_0.wav', 
    'samples/guitar/guitar_1.wav', 
    'samples/guitar/guitar_2.wav', 
    'samples/guitar/guitar_3.wav', 
    'samples/guitar/guitar_4.wav'
  ]
}, 'github:jarmitage/jarmitage.github.io/master/');
s("[guitar:0 guitar:1 guitar:2 guitar:3 guitar:4]/5")

And as above, we can choose the sample number using n for even more flexibility:

samples({
  guitar: [
    'samples/guitar/guitar_0.wav', 
    'samples/guitar/guitar_1.wav', 
    'samples/guitar/guitar_2.wav', 
    'samples/guitar/guitar_3.wav', 
    'samples/guitar/guitar_4.wav'
  ]
}, 'github:jarmitage/jarmitage.github.io/master/');
n("<0 1 2 3 4>").s("guitar")

Pitched Sounds

For pitched sounds, you can use note, just like with synths:

samples({
  'gtr': 'gtr/0001_cleanC.wav',
}, 'github:tidalcycles/Dirt-Samples/master/');
note("g3 [bb3 c4] <g4 f4 eb4 f3>@2").s('gtr').gain(.5)

Here, the guitar samples will overlap, because they always play till the end. If we want them to behave more like a synth, we can add clip(1):

samples({
  'gtr': 'gtr/0001_cleanC.wav',
}, 'github:tidalcycles/Dirt-Samples/master/');
note("g3 [bb3 c4] <g4 f4 eb4 f3>@2").s('gtr').clip(1)
  .gain(.5)

Base Pitch

If we have 2 samples with different base pitches, we can make them in tune by specifying the pitch like this:

samples({
  'gtr': 'gtr/0001_cleanC.wav',
  'moog': { 'g3': 'moog/005_Mighty%20Moog%20G3.wav' },
}, 'github:tidalcycles/Dirt-Samples/master/');
note("g3 [bb3 c4] <g4 f4 eb4 f3>@2").s("gtr,moog").clip(1)
  .gain(.5)

If a sample has no pitch set, c3 is the default.

We can also declare different samples for different regions of the keyboard:

samples({
  'moog': {
    'g2': 'moog/004_Mighty%20Moog%20G2.wav',
    'g3': 'moog/005_Mighty%20Moog%20G3.wav',
    'g4': 'moog/006_Mighty%20Moog%20G4.wav',
  }}, 'github:tidalcycles/Dirt-Samples/master/');
note("g2!2 <bb2 c3>!2, <c4@3 [<eb4 bb3> g4 f4]>")
  .s('moog').clip(1)
  .gain(.5)

The sampler will always pick the closest matching sample for the current note!

Sampler Effects

Below are four different examples of sampler “effects” which are functions that can be used to change the behaviour of sample playback. Note that most of what you’ve learned already about Tidal mini-notation can be used with these functions too. Almost everything in Tidal can be patterned using strings!

`begin`

a pattern of numbers from 0 to 1. Skips the beginning of each sample, e.g. 0.25 to cut off the first quarter from each sample.

amount (number|Pattern): between 0 and 1, where 1 is the length of the sample

samples({ rave: 'rave/AREUREADY.wav' }, 'github:tidalcycles/Dirt-Samples/master/')
s("rave").begin("<0 .25 .5 .75>")

`end`

The same as .begin, but cuts off the end off each sample.

length (number|Pattern): 1 = whole sample, .5 = half sample, .25 = quarter sample etc..

s("bd*2,oh*4").end("<.1 .2 .5 1>")

`cut`

In the style of classic drum-machines, cut will stop a playing sample as soon as another samples with in same cutgroup is to be played. An example would be an open hi-hat followed by a closed one, essentially muting the open.

group (number|Pattern): cut group number

s("rd*4").cut(1)

`loopAt`

Makes the sample fit the given number of cycles by changing the speed.

samples({ rhodes: 'https://cdn.freesound.org/previews/132/132051_316502-lq.mp3' })
s("rhodes").loopAt(4)

`chop`

Cuts each sample into the given number of parts, allowing you to explore a technique known as 'granular synthesis'. It turns a pattern of samples into a pattern of parts of samples.

samples({ rhodes: 'https://cdn.freesound.org/previews/132/132051_316502-lq.mp3' })
s("rhodes")
 .chop(4)
 .rev() // reverse order of chops
 .loopAt(4) // fit sample into 4 cycles

`speed`

Changes the speed of sample playback, i.e. a cheap way of changing pitch.

speed (number|Pattern): inf to inf, negative numbers play the sample backwards.

s("bd").speed("<1 2 4 1 -2 -4>")

speed("1 1.5*2 [2 1.1]").s("piano").clip(1)