Get sound in · Koala Sampler guide

3.1Basics

Record from the mic

The fastest way into Koala is to grab whatever’s around you. Your device’s mic is the default input source, so you can have a sound on a pad within seconds, whether it’s your voice, a slammed door or a record playing across the room.

Record a sound

On the SAMPLE screen, check that the input source is on the mic. It will be, unless you’ve changed it or connected an audio interface.
Tap and hold an empty PAD. Recording starts.
Make your noise. The input meter shows how much level is coming in.
Let go of the pad to stop.
Tap the pad to hear what you caught.

Key combinations

Hold PAD: Records onto the pad until you let go, while the input source is the mic or an audio interface.On an empty pad

What Koala does to your recording

Auto trim on record starts the sample’s selection where the audible sound begins, so you don’t get silence at the front.
Auto normalize recordings lifts quiet takes, so they aren’t left too low.
You can switch off either one in the AUDIO settings.

Other ways to get sound in

Change how recording behaves, with locking, chaining and looping.
Colour the sound as it comes in with Add effects while you record.
Record through an audio interface, or in an AUv3 host on iOS.
Load audio files or pull the sound from a video.
Grab Koala’s own output by resampling.

From the community

If the mic stays silent on Android, an always-listening voice assistant may be holding on to it. Turn that listening off, check Koala has microphone permission, then try Use OpenSL (older devices) in the AUDIO settings. via elf audio Help: microphone on Android

The Best App For Beatmakers (Koala Beginner's Tutorial)
TAETRO
A 32-minute tour with chapters, from mic sampling and editing to sequences, the Perform page, resampling and the Mixer. Sponsored by Synido, and filmed before Koala 2.0.

Koala Sampler App and a Cheap USB Interface - The 35 Dollar SP-404 Alternative
Matt Greer Music
Sampling line-in audio through a very cheap class-compliant USB interface, for when you want to record gear rather than the mic. From 2020.

3.2Intermediate

Lock, chain and loop your recordings

Holding a pad is fine for a quick grab, but it ties up a finger, and it’s hard to land a take exactly on the beat. Koala gives you three better options for longer takes: lock a recording so it runs by itself, chain takes across several pads, or capture a loop that’s already in time with your song.

Lock a recording

With Hold to record on, start recording by holding an empty PAD.
Swipe up from the pad to the HOLD marker.
Lift your finger. Recording carries on.
Tap the pad again to stop.

Chain takes across several pads

Get a recording running with your finger off the pad, either by locking it as above or with Hold to record switched off.
With that take still going, tap another empty PAD. Koala ends the take on the first pad and carries straight on with the new one, leaving no gap.
Repeat for as many pads as you need.

Record a loop in time

Start recording by holding an empty PAD.
Swipe down from the pad to the LOOP marker.
Koala holds off until the next bar line. If the sequencer is stopped, the metronome counts you in.
Koala takes the recording and ends it on a bar line. Because it’s cut to the bar, the sample repeats cleanly at your song’s tempo.

Key combinations

Swipe up from PAD: Locks the recording, so it carries on after you lift your finger.While recording
Swipe down from PAD: Switches to a loop recording that starts and stops on bar lines.While recording
Tap PAD: Stops the recording, if it’s the pad you’re recording to.While a recording is locked
Tap an empty PAD: Moves the recording to that pad with no gap.While a recording is locked

The setting behind it

Hold to record: In the GENERAL settings. When it’s on, you hold a pad to record. When it’s off, one tap starts recording and another stops it.Range On, Off

From the community

As of October 2026, forum users report that swiping down to loop-record only works with Hold to record on. The developer has replied that a fix is coming, so this may not last. via Loopy Pro Forum, October 2026

Koala Sampler Tutorial - EP 30 - Update 1.4132 Lazy Chop - NervousCook$
NervousCook$
A short look at lazy chop from update 1.4132, where you record on one pad and carry on onto the next.

Looping in Koala Sampler | part 1 - BASICS
Rooshie
Part one of a live-looping series: sequence length, pad layout, counting, and adding bus, mic and Perform effects as you go.

Koala - the ultimate pocket-sized samplerLoopy Pro Forum — The long-running thread, where the developer still answers. Recent pages cover the 2.0.15 MIDI changes and the looper.

3.3Basics

Add effects while you record

Sometimes you want a sound mangled from the moment it’s recorded, not treated later. When the mic is your input, FX gives you eight effects that work on the signal during the take. They’re a fast way to turn a throwaway noise into something usable.

Record through an effect

On the SAMPLE screen, with the mic as your input, tap FX.
Choose one of the eight effects, which appear as icons under MICROPHONE EFFECTS.
Record to an empty pad as usual. See Record from the mic.

Key combinations

FX: Opens the eight input effects.On the SAMPLE screen

The eight effects

More Bass: Boosts the low end.
More Treble: Lifts the mid range.
Fuzz: Adds old-school fuzz distortion.
Robot: Gives the sound a robotic edge.
Reverb: A simple reverb.
8ve Up: Shifts the sound up an octave.
8ve Down: Shifts the sound down an octave.
Bass Synth: Adds harmonics in the low end.

From the community

Koala Sampler Mic FX Tutorial
elf audio
A two-minute demo of recording through the mic effects, from 2019.

3.4Intermediate

Record from an audio interface

For cleaner takes from a synth, a turntable or anything else with a cable, record through a USB audio interface. Plug one in and the input source’s mic option turns into Input, which listens to the interface instead.

Record through an interface

Connect the interface to your device.
On the SAMPLE screen, check that the input source now reads Input.
Tap MENU, then SETTINGS, and open AUDIO.
Set Input source to the interface inputs you’re using.
Back on the SAMPLE screen, tap and hold an empty PAD to record, as you would with the mic.

In the AUDIO settings

Input source: Picks which input channels Koala listens to. With a USB interface, these are the interface’s inputs.Range L, L + R, R
Input / Output: On desktop, the devices Koala records from and plays through.
Audio driver: On Windows, which audio API Koala uses. The choices include ASIO and WASAPI.
Sample rate: On Windows, the rate Koala runs at.

On macOS, Koala goes straight through CoreAudio, so there’s no driver to pick. Set up audio input and output has the rest of these settings. To hear what you’re recording as it comes in, see Hear your input before you record.

From the community

3.5Basics

Hear your input before you record

MONITOR lets you listen to your input. It matters most when Koala is capturing another instrument in AUv3 mode, on iOS: without it you wouldn’t hear that instrument at all, so you’d have no idea what you were about to sample.

Key combinations

MONITOR: Switches input monitoring on.On the SAMPLE screen

3.6Basics

Import audio files

If your device can play an audio file, Koala can load it, because it goes by what your operating system’s default media player handles. There are two routes in from the file system, and a third through the samples browser.

Fill the pad you tap

On the SAMPLE screen, switch the input source to IMPORT FILE.
Tap an empty PAD. The file selector opens.
Choose a file. It loads onto that pad.

Browse and preview

Tap MENU, then IMPORT AUDIO. The file browser opens at the last place you used.
Find a file and preview it.
Tap LOAD to put it on a pad, or drag it onto the exact pad you want.

Key combinations

Drag a file onto PAD: Loads the file onto that pad.In the file browser
Hold a file, then drag it onto PAD: Picks the file up after a second, so you can drop it on any pad.On a tablet

Choose your file picker

Import Audio: In the GENERAL settings. Picks what opens for IMPORT AUDIO and IMPORT FILE: Koala’s own browser, your system’s picker or, on iOS with the AudioShare app installed, AudioShare.Range KOALA, SYSTEM, AUDIOSHARE

What else you can bring in

What	How	Read more
MIDI files (`.mid`)	Drop one on a `SLOT`, or open it in the browser. Koala turns its notes into a sequence, assigning each note to a pad in turn from bank A pad 1.	Bring in MIDI, songs, packs and maps
Koala songs (`.koala`) and sample packs (`.kpk`)	Open one from the Files app or another app, and it comes straight into Koala.	Start, find and manage songs, Sample packs and kits
MIDI maps and QWERTY maps (`.json`)	Use the `IMPORT` buttons for maps you’ve exported from the `EXTRAS` settings.	Extra controls, downloads and backups
Files from your Mac	Drag audio from the Finder or your DAW straight onto pads. You can drag pads back out too.	Drag files in and out, and connect your gear

From the community

If Koala won’t load an MP3, the file may really be an M4A with the wrong extension. Try renaming it from .mp3 to .m4a. via elf audio Help: Koala won’t load my MP3

3.7Basics

Browse samples and your own folders

The samples browser is the place to go when you want a sound quickly. Your favourite folders are ready and waiting, the built-in library is a tap away, and you can load from your other songs as well. Open it with SAMPLES, at the bottom right of the SAMPLE and SEQUENCE screens.

Key combinations

SAMPLES: Opens the samples browser.On the SAMPLE or SEQUENCE screen
Drag a sound onto PAD: Loads the sound onto that pad.In the samples browser

What’s in there

Section	What you’ll find
`BASICS`	The library that comes with Koala: around 250 sounds, sorted by category. A tap previews any of them. To use one, tap `LOAD` or drag it to a pad.
`PACKS`	The sample packs you’ve bought or downloaded. Once you’ve installed a pack, `BASICS` moves in here too. See Sample packs and kits.
`GET MORE SAMPLES`	The pack store, on iOS and Android only. See Sample packs and kits.
`SONGS`	Your saved Koala songs, which you can load sounds from. See Reuse sounds from your other songs.
`MORE`	Instruments and toys. See Put the Quokka synth on a pad, Play external gear from a pad, Load plugin instruments onto pads and Sample Koala’s toys.
Custom locations	Any folders you’ve added with `ADD LOCATION`.

Add a folder to your favourites

Tap SAMPLES.
Tap ADD LOCATION.
Choose any folder on your device.

Handy extras

To take a folder off your favourites, tap the browser’s EDIT button.
To load several samples in one go, tap the multi-select button at the top right and pick them.
To reach iCloud, tap the cloud button, which opens it in the Files app on iOS 14 and later. There’s no cloud button on desktop, so use your normal file browser there.
To change how loud previews play, tap the speaker icon.
In an AUv3 host, the browser can still get at your custom locations and iCloud Drive. See Get more from Koala as a plugin.

3.8Basics

Sample packs and kits

Sample packs bring you new sounds and kits, and some include a free toy. On iOS and Android you can buy them without leaving Koala. Kits are the quick win: pre-built banks of 16 sounds that load in one go, which makes them an instant starting point for a beat.

Buy a pack, on iOS or Android

Tap SAMPLES.
Tap GET MORE SAMPLES to open the store.
Tap a pack to read about it and listen to a preview.
Pay through your app store as usual. Once it’s downloaded, you’ll find it in PACKS.

Load a kit

Tap SAMPLES, and select a pack in PACKS.
Pick a kit from the KIT dropdown.
Try its sounds by tapping the pads.
Tap LOAD KIT. The whole kit goes into your current bank.

Looking after your packs

Each pack in PACKS has a cover, a preview and a description behind MORE INFO. You can load its sounds one at a time, like anything else in the browser.
If a pack you own has gone missing, the store page’s RESTORE gets it back, and so does Restore purchases under EXTRAS. Packs belong to your app store account, so getting them back on a new device costs nothing. See Samurai, Mixer and sample packs.
To free up space, go to Sample Packs under EXTRAS, which shows how much room they’re using, and tap UNINSTALL. They’re still yours, so you can get them back later at no charge. See Extra controls, downloads and backups.
A pack can also arrive as a .kpk file. Open it from the Files app or another app and it comes straight into Koala. On desktop, you can drop it onto Koala.

From the community

Koala's New Sample Pack Store
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elf audio introduces the in-app sample pack store and explains the free toys that come with each pack.

Koala Sampler Tutorial - EP 29 - Update 1.4120 Pad Colour Sample Packs Etc
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What update 1.4120 brought, including pad colours and the first sample packs.

3.9Basics

Sample Koala’s toys

Some sample packs throw in a free toy: a small instrument or effect you can play inside the samples browser. A toy doesn’t go on a pad. While one is open, Koala feeds its sound straight to the input, so capturing it works just like recording from the mic.

Sample a toy

Tap SAMPLES and go to MORE. A toy appears here once you own the pack it comes with.
Tap a toy. It opens with a description of what it does.
Play with it until you’ve got a sound you like.
Record it onto a free pad, just as you would the mic. See Record from the mic.

The result is an ordinary sample, ready to edit like any other.

The five toys

Toy	What it is	What you can do with it
`DECKARD`	A turntable.	Put a sample on the deck and scratch away on the platter. `PUNCH` brings the sound in, and there’s a crossfader too. Switch the scratching between `VINYL` and `SPECTRAL`, and use the `SPEED` and `PITCH` knobs.
`HOLLY`	A retro voice synth.	Type something and it speaks your words. The `PITCH`, `SPEED` and `FORMANT` knobs change the voice, and `REVERSE` flips it backwards.
`RIKER`	A drum synth wired into a misbehaving reverb experiment.	Its controls are `DELAY`, `DIFFUSION`, `SCATTER`, `SHIFT` and `FEEDBACK`.
`DUB-SIREN`	A sound system siren.	Keep `HORN` held for as long as you want it wailing. Pick a `MODE` (`POLICE`, `ROBOT`, `BEEP` or `SLIDE`), then adjust `PITCH`, the modulation’s `DEPTH` and `SPEED`, and the delay’s `AMOUNT` and `TIME`. With `RETRIG` on, each press restarts the sweep.
`VALIS`	A cross-modulation synth that you explore through its presets.	Hit the randomiser to jump to a new preset, or type in a number. There are 1,099,511,627,775 of them.

From the community

3.10Intermediate

Reuse sounds from your other songs

Your old songs are a sound library. That kick from last month’s beat doesn’t need re-recording, because you can open that song in the samples browser and take just the parts you want.

Load from another song

Tap SAMPLES.
Go to SONGS, and select one. A preview screen opens.
Choose what to load, using the buttons below.

What each button loads

Button	What you get
`LOAD SONG`	All of it: the sequences, and the samples from every bank.
`LOAD BANK`	The samples in the selected bank.
`LOAD SAMPLE`	One sample at a time.

Key combinations

Drag a sample onto PAD: Loads it onto that pad in your current song.In a song preview

3.11Basics

Pull the audio from a video

Any video on your device can be a sample source, as long as its default media player can play the file. It’s a handy way to grab the sound from a clip you shot yourself, without needing any other app.

Extract the audio

Tap MENU, then IMPORT VIDEO. A window opens showing the videos on your device.
Tap a video to preview it.
Tap PLAY at the bottom if you want to watch it first.
Tap USE at the top right. The video’s audio lands on the next free pad.

From the community

How to record from YouTube with Koala Sampler on iOS
elf audio
The iOS screen-recording route into Koala, from 2020. Check you’re allowed to use whatever you sample.

How to Sample ANYTHING in Koala Sampler!
Chris Laps
A nine-minute flip from start to finish: bringing audio in, chopping it, sequencing and adding drums.

3.12Intermediate

Resample Koala itself

Resampling means recording Koala’s own sound back onto a pad. Play a long pass through the live effects, or bake a sequence and its channel effects into one sample, then chop and flip the result like anything else. It’s also a creative loop in its own right: resample with some effects on, and do it again.

Resample to a pad

On the SAMPLE screen, switch the input source to RESAMPLE FROM APP.
Tap the free PAD you want to record to. Recording starts.
Play other pads, or start a sequence. To add live effects as it runs, go to the PERFORM screen and use them there.
Tap the recording pad again to stop.

Key combinations

Tap PAD: Starts recording to a free pad. Tap the same pad again to stop.With the input source on RESAMPLE FROM APP

Capture one mixer bus, with the Mixer add-on

With Mixer, the input source option reads RESAMPLE : MAIN. Tap it.
Choose MAIN, or one of BUS A to BUS D, as the source.
Resample as above. You capture that one channel, along with its effects.

Things worth resampling

A Quokka pad. Once it’s audio, you can chop it, stretch it and reverse it like any sample.
A plugin instrument, to get its output onto a sample pad.
A chord. Play the resulting pad in grid keyboard mode, and you’ve got chords that always stay in scale.

From the community

My 2026 Koala Sampler Workflow: 3 Features That Changed How I Make Beats
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A beat from scratch on the current app, using Chopper, the improved stem splitter, an AUv3 synth, resampled bass, bus effects and arranging. Sponsored by Synido.

Koala Sampler Resampling Tutorial
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Resampling explained by the developer in under five minutes, from the app’s first weeks in 2019.

The Koala Sampler Update Nobody Is Talking About (Arp Edition)
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JFilt breaks down the arpeggiator added in 2.0.3, then resamples and chops the result into a new groove.

3.13Intermediate

Turn a sequence or selection into a pad

You don’t always need a live pass to put something on a pad. When a sequence is working, you can print it as a loop in a couple of taps and then treat it as one sample. And when part of a sample is what you’re after, you can copy just that part to a pad of its own.

Print a sequence as a loop

On the SEQUENCE screen, tap the SLOT you want.
Tap MENU.
Tap RESAMPLE LOOP. The sequence lands on the next free pad as a clean loop.

Bounce part of a sample

With the pad selected, tap EDIT to open the sample editor.
Drag the ends of the highlighted area around the part you want. See Open the sample editor and choose what plays.
Tap TOOLS, then BOUNCE. The selected area is saved to a new pad.

Which one to use

You want	Use	Where it goes
The selected sequence, as a clean loop	`RESAMPLE LOOP` in the menu	The next free pad
A part of a sample, as its own pad	`BOUNCE` in `TOOLS`	A new pad
A live pass, with effects or across several sequences	`RESAMPLE FROM APP`. See Resample Koala itself.	The pad you tap
A new recording that loops in time	Swipe down to `LOOP` while recording. See Lock, chain and loop your recordings.	The pad you’re recording to
Only part of a sample, and the rest thrown away	`CROP` in `TOOLS`. See Everything in the TOOLS menu.	The same pad

From the community