Edit your notes · Koala Sampler guide

9.1Basics

Edit notes on the grid

The note grid is where you fix a missed hit, draw in a part you couldn’t play, or change how long a note rings. Each row belongs to one pad, starting with PAD 1 of bank A and running down to PAD 16 of bank D.

Place and change notes

On the SEQUENCE screen, double-tap a SLOT to open its grid. It fills the screen, so tap the cross at the top right when you want to close it.
Check that PEN is on, so your taps add and remove notes.
Tap a free area to place a note.
Tap a note to remove it. The exception is a note recorded in keyboard mode: tapping that opens the piano roll.
Drag the start or end of a note to change its length.

Gestures

Double-tap SLOT: Opens the note grid for that sequence.
Tap a free area of the grid: Places a note.In the grid editor
Tap a note: Removes the note.In the grid editor
Drag either end of a note: Changes the note’s length.In the grid editor
Pinch the grid: Zooms the visible area in or out.In the grid editor
Drag along the bar numbers: Loops playback over that area.In the grid editor

Zooming with two fingers doesn’t lose your place: a preview bar shows the whole sequence and highlights the stretch you’re looking at.

Loop a section while you edit

Find the bar that shows the bar numbers.
Tap and drag along it, over the part you want to work on. Playback now loops around that area.

For selections, see Change several notes at once. For the grid’s own buttons, such as velocity and chance, see Choose a tool in the grid.

From the community

Koala Sampler Tutorial - EP 13 - The Piano Roll Editor
NervousCook$
The piano roll, including how to use it to turn samples into playable instruments. Later versions have added to this editor.

9.2IntermediateNeeds Samurai

Edit pitch in the piano roll

Notes you played in keyboard mode have pitches of their own, and the piano roll is where you edit them. It’s the place to fix a wrong note in a melody.

Open and use it

Double-tap the sequence’s SLOT to open the grid.
Tap a note you recorded in keyboard mode. The piano roll opens.
Tap the keyboard icon for a keyboard beside the roll, so you can try notes as you edit.

What you can do there

Change notes’ pitch and velocity.
Copy and paste, reverse, stretch and add legato. See Change several notes at once and Choose a tool in the grid.

From the community

Koala - Samurai Mode
elf audio
The developer explains time stretch, auto-chop and the piano roll. It’s from January 2021, so later Samurai features such as Chopper and Quokka aren’t in it.

Samuraielf audio — What the Samurai add-on unlocks: time stretch, piano roll, auto-chop, 3-band EQ, the Quokka synth and MIDI out.

9.3Intermediate

Change several notes at once

Going note by note gets slow. Draw a selection around a group of notes and a popup offers tools that work on all of them together, from tidying their timing to changing their lengths.

Select notes

In the grid, tap in a free area and drag to draw a selection around the notes.
Choose a tool from the popup that appears. An arrow at its end takes you to the rest of the tools.

Gestures

Tap a free area of the grid, then drag: Draws a selection around notes.In the grid editor

In the popup

DELETE: Removes the notes you’ve selected.
COPY: Keeps the selected notes in a buffer, ready for PASTE. See Choose a tool in the grid.
SNAP: Moves the selected notes to the grid, following the current snap setting.
LEGATO: Adds legato wherever notes in the selection overlap.
REVERSE: Flips the selected notes so they play back in reverse.
200%: Makes the selected notes twice as long.
50%: Makes the selected notes half as long.
REPEAT: Copies the selection onto its own end, so the phrase plays twice.

9.4Intermediate

Choose a tool in the grid

The grid’s buttons decide what your finger does when it touches a note, and how precisely notes land. Velocity sets how hard a note plays, and chance sets how likely it is to play at all, which can stop a loop from sounding like a loop.

The buttons

PEN: Lets you add and remove notes.
VEL: Lets you change how hard notes play, on one note or a selection.
DICE: Lets you randomise notes by setting their chance of playing, on one note or a selection.
SNAP: Keeps notes on the grid as you place and move them.
UNDO: Goes back one step with each tap. See Undo and redo.
REDO: Brings back one undone step with each tap.
PASTE: Drops the notes you took with COPY at the playhead. See Change several notes at once.
AUTOMATION: Shows the automation lane under the notes. See Record and edit automation.

Gestures

Slide up or down on a note: Changes its velocity. This works on a selection too.With VEL on
Slide up or down on a note: Changes its chance of playing. This works on a selection too.With DICE on

The SNAP menu sets how fine a grid your notes snap to when you move and place them. Two of its settings are worth knowing.

In the SNAP menu

FREE: The finest placement of all, with no snapping to the grid.
SNAP END: Snaps the end of a note when you change its length.

From the community

Koala Sampler Tutorial - EP 20 - All About Drums (Deep Dive)
NervousCook$
A 50-minute deep dive on drums, with timecodes: tuning, layering, velocity, chance, swing and variation.

9.5AdvancedNeeds Samurai

Record and edit automation

Automation lets a sequence move the controls for you. Perform a filter sweep or a fader ride once and it comes back on every pass, and you can redraw it by hand afterwards. It works across the perform effects, the mixer and sample settings.

Record a move

Tap REC on the sequencer.
While the sequence plays, move a control: a perform effect’s slider, a fader in the mixer or a knob on a bus effect.
Let the sequence come round. The move now lives in the current sequence and repeats every loop, and the slot carries a small automation mark.

Keyboard mode changes what gets captured. With a pad in keyboard mode, recording picks up that pad’s own settings: volume, pan, pitch, pitch bend, tone, attack, release, EQ and synth parameters.

Edit a move

Double-tap the sequence’s SLOT to open the grid.
Tap AUTOMATION to show the automation lane.
Tap CHOOSE and pick the parameter you want to see.
Choose a tool and change the curve.

Gestures

AUTOMATION: Shows the automation lane.In the grid editor

What CHOOSE lists

Situation	Parameters
Normally	The perform effects. With the Mixer add-on, also the volume and effect parameters of each channel.
With a pad in keyboard mode	That pad’s parameters, with `PITCHBEND` already selected.

Tools for the lane

Pencil: Draws a curve freehand.
STEP: Draws stepped values that lock to the grid.
EDIT: Lets you pick up points that are already there and drag them.

From the community