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Sampling with Structure
After an initial sneak peak at January’s NAMM show and a longer then expected beta period, Digidesign’s Structure plug-in was finally released earlier this summer. As the A.I.R. groups fifth release in the last 18 months, it is clear that Digidesign’s commitment to expanding the creative usefulness of Pro Tools is here to stay and Structure is no exception. With super-tight integration into the Pro Tools environment, Structure is shaping up to be the “go to” sampler for PT users. I recently had a chance to catch up on my plug-in “sampling,” no pun intended, and give Structure a good workout. This week at the corner I will introduce Structure and walk you through a basic sampling workflow in Pro Tools while sharing some of my favorite features.
Structure is an RTAS virtual instrument designed to be the premier sampling workstation for Pro Tools. Developed by the A.I.R. group exclusively for Pro Tools, Structure leaves almost no stone un-turned as a full featured, super tweakable sampler and sound sculpting tool, shipping with a huge sample library of high-quality sounds from EastWest. Because the structure playback engine directly couples with the Pro Tools disk engine, sample streaming is best in class. With drag-and-drop sample loading, Structure is one of the most user friendly and efficient samplers I have ever used.
Structure’s features:
- Professional RTAS® sampler designed and optimized exclusively for Pro Tools delivers superior performance and unprecedented reliability
- Includes comprehensive, premium factory sound libraries from EastWest and A.I.R., including Quantum Leap Orchestral Elements, plus a 30-day trial of EastWest’s 40 GB professional sound library, Goliath — Structure Edition
- Uses existing SampleCell, Kontakt 1 and 2, and EXS24 sound libraries* (supports up to 8-channel interleaved samples)
- Drag-and-drop regions from within Pro Tools directly into the sampler
- Supports sample playback via a choice of disk streaming or RAM-only for optimal operation
- Powerful database and integrated file browser make finding sounds and managing them easy
- Integrated stereo and surround multi-effects processing engine offers over 20 effects types — including stereo and surround convolution reverbs — and hundreds of effects presets
- Universal sound engine provides support for an unlimited number of nestable patches, enabling you to easily create highly complex sounds
- Supports up to 128-level multitimbral playback per Structure instance and an unlimited number of parts, audio effects, and MIDI effects per patch
- Fully resizable built-in Sample Editor enables fast and easy waveform editing and sample mapping
- Supports all common bit depths, sample rates, and surround formats — up to 24-bit / 192 kHz / 7.1 surround
- Surround/stereo main outputs and up to 31 auxiliary outputs allow discrete source mixing and signal processing
- Six freely assignable, context-dependent Smart Knobs enable fast access to the most important sound sculpting parameters
- Powerful hands-on, real-time control of the sampler using a Digidesign control surface, or MIDI controller via MIDI Learn
- Integrated REX player allows you to use and manipulate REX 1 and 2 files
Sampling in Pro Tools with Structure:
Note: Digidesign offers a free 14 day demo of structure available at www.digidesign.com
For this example I have a set of samples in Pro Tools that I would like to map to a sampler patch in structure. I have imported some guitar chords that I want to chop up and trigger with midi notes, in this case using Structure in a similar way I would use an MPC to sample and map "one-off" hits to specific MIDI notes on the keyboard.
I begin by first cutting up my chord samples into small one-chord regions that I will eventually load into Structure. You can use the commands found under the Edit > Separate menu to cut larger regions into smaller ones. In this case I have made use of the tab to transient feature to help me quickly find separation points for the individual chords.
Next I rename each region to makes things easy to identify later on down the line. To rename a region, double-click on the region name in the regions list or directly on the region with the grabber tool.
Now that the samples have been edited and named I can call up the Structure plug-in on a new stereo instrument track.
Before I can create a new patch I must first delete the default "Sine Wave" patch. Select the “PATCH” menu and choose "Remove Patch."
Now that I have an empty Structure plug-in, this is where things start to get really cool. I can simply select my samples from the edit window using the grabber tool (either from the regions list or directly from the track playlist) and drag them directly into Structure's part list (the dark grey column on the left hand side of the Structure plug-in window). You can even drag and drop samples from the OS X finder or Window’s Explorer!
As soon as I drag multiple samples from Pro Tools into Structure the "Import samples as new Part" dialog appears, allowing me to create a new part from the selected samples.
Here is where things can get a little confusing. In the case of pitched samples, if the name of the region you have imported contains the note name (example "Bass A3", or "Piano C4") then structure can automatically map the sample using the "set Root Key - From Name" option. This can be time consuming since you are forced to name every sample you import, otherwise you have to manually setup root notes and key maps (it is easier to name them before you import them). I really wish Structure had a pitch detection algorithm like Reason's NN-XT to speed up the processes of mapping lots of pitched samples; even though pitch detection based mapping can sometimes be inaccurate at least I’d like to have the option.
For un-pitched samples like drums, loops, etc. This is no big deal and you can choose to map samples chromatically starting at any key. In this case since I have already added pitch names to my chords I can use the "set root key function." I have also chosen to map the key zone by root key and to the root key only (since they are chords and probably wont transpose well).
After clicking ok in the import samples dialog I am left with a new patch already filled with my chord samples. At this point I will rename the patch by clicking on the word "New Patch" and typing in the new name.
To check the key mapping of the samples I can enter the patch editor by clicking on the "Edit" button of the patch.
Once the editor opens I am presented with my patch and its corresponding samples on the left. Now all I have to do is click on a sample to edit its specific root key, key zone and velocity layers.
Sampler Vocabulary:
Root Key: A term used in samplers to define the starting pitch of a sample, untransposed. For example if I sampled a piano's C4 note the root key would be C4.
Key Zone: The range in which the sample is allowed to transpose itself over, usually centered around the root key. Samplers often take advantage of pitch shifting to extend the range of a single root key over multiple surrounding notes, keeping the total samples and thus ram or disk usage to a minimum. Although this saves space, as samples are "over-transposed" up or down, sample degradation can occur introducing unpleasant artifacts in the sound.
Velocity Range or Velocity Layer: The velocity or attack range in which the sample will be triggered. This generally comes into play in multi-layer patches where separate samples are used for different instrument attacks or articulations. For example, a snare drum sample may have 4 velocity layers, representing soft, medium, loud, and rim snare hits.
After clicking on the first sample, I am presented with a waveform editor where I can adjust the in and out points of the sample, determine whether the sample should loop and add/adjust any fades.
Below the waveform editor are the key map settings for the selected sample, here I can set the root key, key range, and velocity range of the sample as well as adjust any tuning or transposition (Hint: these fields can be selected and modified with a note from your midi controller, simply select the field you wish to adjust and strike the desired note on your midi controller). At this point I am just making sure that Structure mapped the samples correctly based on the region name and making any necessary adjustments to the sample. Because my samples are specific guitar chords, I will not be using a key range or any sample transposition. I can follow the same steps for each sample, samples can also be selected as a group to edited
Once I have finished editing the sample I can hit the "exit" button in the top right hand corner of the patch editor.
Now I would like to add some distortion to these samples, since Structure has built in insert and send effects I can right click directly on the part and select a new insert effect.
After inserting the distortion I can now see the effect below the new part. I can edit the effect's parameters simply by clicking on the effect, or change the order of effects by dragging them up/down within the patch.
I can continue to add new parts, samples and effects to this patch to create layers and spend tons of time tweaking key mappings, velocity splits, and an endless number of other sonic or performance parameters offered in Structure. At this point however, I am happy enough with this patch to save it.
To save a patch right-click on the patch and choose "Save Patch As..."
Next I can configure the settings to save my patch inside my global samples directory and choose to include the audio samples files along with the patch file (choosing the “monolithic” option saves all samples embedded into the patch file rather then separating them out into an adjoining “samples” folder). This is important if you want to recall the sample on another system, or just want to keep the patch's audio data in a specific place, not necessarily associated with the Pro Tools session file.
In Closing:
Overall I am very impressed with Structure's deep feature set and tight integration with Pro Tools, if nothing else the drag-and-drop features alone are worth using the sampler in a creation workflow. Having over a terabyte of existing sample libraries, I am extremely pleased to know that Structure will support all of my existing sampler formats. I did however find the interface of Structure to be a bit finicky at first and require a little more interface finesse then I am used to. While generally very easy to read and well laid out, the plug-in GUI would respond to various mouse clicks in unintuitive ways and seemed a bit sluggish to me at times. At any rate, as a big fan of the A.I.R. series of plug-ins, Structure will surely become an integral tool in my Pro Tools workflow in the months to come and I am sure we will see more of it here at the Pro Tools corner in the future.
Pro Tools Tid Bits:
- McDSP has discontinued individual LE products and is offering full “Native” versions of their plug-ins individually for the first time. McDSP Project Studio will continue to be available.
- Apogee has released an updated version of their X-HD card promising better integration with Pro Tools HD.
- Waves has recently launched a significant campaign to crack down on the piracy of their plug-ins, even going as far as employing “piracy spy’s” posing as potential studio clients. Pay for your plugs guys!
If you have a Pro Tools related question that you would like me to take a shot at answering or have any feedback, please send it to brian@audioMIDI.com. I will do my best to select the questions that seem to stump the most people.
As always, stay tuned to the audioMIDI.com eNews for the latest reviews and new product info.
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