It’s been an interesting week…
Visitors to the studio to record Piano,Cello and a Ney (Egyptian Flute), recording /Sampling Sounds in the real world and manipulating them in the digital realm and then releasing back to the physical (analogue) realm. Extreme Heat, Thunderstorms and got stung by Hornets six times!
I received a phone call out of the blue end of last week, inquiring about booking a session to record a cover song with Piano ,Cello and Ney (Egyptian Flute). Interesting combo!
I do like to be well prepared for recording sessions whether doing the ‘engineering’ side or performing, simply because it reduces stress. I’ve experienced sessions, concerts etc where things have gone haywire in the technical department and it can really make it difficult to recover the ‘good vibes’ feeling.
So I set up everything well ahead of the session, created a template in Logic, checked the routing to the various Mics, I planned to use, then actually did some test recordings to experiment with mic choices and placement.
This ended up serving two purposes I could experiment with different Mic set-up’s for the recording session, saving time getting the technical aspects right before the artists arrived, thus allowing them to stay in the zone of what they were going to perform. And Secondly, it got my butt in gear to experiment and make some samples of my own, the rabbit hole beckoned!
After the session, I left the Mic’s set up and chose three ‘instruments’ to sample: a cello, a saucepan lid and, a water-filled bottle. The idea was to try to create some new sounds from the samples that I could manipulate and essentially create new instruments. I use Logic Pro, which has a great built-in Quick Sampler plugin that makes the whole process really easy. While it won't produce sample libraries as comprehensive as leading manufacturers, it's a great place to start.
Logic Pro’s Quick Sampler-Drag and Drop Sample, adjust length, create fade in and out, Play!
One of my goals this year is to build my own ‘proper’ sample library, so I’m finding this is a great way to have a go and experiment. There are literally thousands of sample libraries out there, and it can take a lot of time to produce a ‘good one’, so I want to ensure my effort creates something unique rather than recreating what others have already perfected.
BTW If you're looking for some incredible free sample libraries, I highly recommend Piano Book (soon to change it's name to Audio Inc). It’s a fantastic community of samplists creating everything from the weird and wonderful to the sublime and hair-tingling.
The great thing about capturing real-world sounds and processing them is you can end up with something unique that makes you go "Whoa, that's cool!" When recording the cello, I initially wanted to record a low-sustained note for a drone. The challenge was that I'm not a cellist—I picked up my cello a few years ago from FB marketplace for AUD$160 (a bargain), plus another $50 for new strings, intending to sample it. It had been gathering dust until this week's session prompted me to clean it up and upset the cat with my woeful scraping!
After some practice with the magic wand (the bow), I managed to record a few decent notes, then captured a series of bouncing blows , détaché or sautillé (for you string connoisseurs—and yes, I did look that up!). A few knocks and taps on the cello body, and voilà, I had some sounds to chop up and work with.
Next came the water bottle—not much variety there, but mallets and drumsticks produced some interesting tones.
Last up was the Mouse Pan (my name for a saucepan lid with a rubber -weighted ball from a computer mouse—not some biological mutated zombie mouse from a post-apocalyptic world!). I literally stumbled across the lid when it fell off a shelf while I was searching for one that fitted my cooking pot. This turned out to be the most interesting, producing unique-sounding samples that varied considerably depending on the pitch they were replayed at.
Getting the Ball rolling and maintaining it was very much like Hula Hooping, except the Ball would often fly off to find the most awkward locations to retrieve it from!
It’s worth noting when sampling like this—using one-shot or single-note samples—the further you go from the original source note, the more extreme the sample will sound. This can be both good and bad. If your goal is to reproduce an instrument's full range (like a piano, cello, or guitar), you'll need to record a wider range of notes and learn more about building a sampler instrument. With a one-shot sample, lower pitches play back slower and higher pitches play back faster—very different from a physical instrument like a piano, where the sound lasts as long as you hold the note until natural decay.
But this limitation creates some quirky results. By exploring these pitch extremes, you can discover fascinating and intriguing new tones. Think of the different areas (pitches- High and Low) as sound palettes: some work melodically, some rhythmically, some for effects (booms, whooshes etc). This opens up new possibilities for textures and compositional directions.
I really encourage you to try this yourself. Most DAWs today have some kind of built-in sampler, but if yours doesn't, SoundPaint (I'm not affiliated) is a great free plugin/sample library for manipulating your own samples. I plan to experiment with it in the coming weeks, as it offers more possibilities than Logic's built-in sampler and seems easier to get started with than Kontakt—which makes my head explode just looking at the interface! I'll work up to that, I think :)
My Humble Corner
Mouse Pan Cello (probably should be called "What on earth were you thinking,LOL") is essentially an improvisation using the samples described above, plus some sounds from SoundPaint's free collection, some AMSR amongst others. I really enjoyed creating this and definitely want to explore more, particularly the rhythmical elements. I purposely worked off-grid—no click track or quantization. As I performed each part, I listened and responded to what came before. While I made minor edits to tidy things up, it's mainly a live composite recording (one layer upon another), and it's...a bit different.
©2025 Toby the Hat
Ted Gioia's recent essay from "Music to Raise the Dead" touched on something I've wanted to explore more: the healing power of music. I'm really interested in finding evidence-based research and practice, as well as cultural traditional practices. If you've come across any interesting articles, please share in the comments. Thank you in advance..
Thanks for Listening! Please reach out, engage, comment, boop a like, or if you haven’t already…..
Oh re Hornets- The car wouldn’t start (dead battery) whilst opening the bonnet to investigate I must have encroached on their territory, Man they get angry quick, they swarmed on me in seconds, I haven’t run so fast in Years! However now fully recovered from the Hornet Stings thanks to antihistamine and Pain Killers.
We love that our recording session with you, helped inspire this very cool article 😊 …And 6 hornet stings - ouch!!