Shape a sample · Koala Sampler guide

4.1Basics

Set a pad’s volume, pitch and pan

Three knobs on the SAMPLE screen act on the selected pad. They’re the quickest way to balance a kit, tune a sample to your track or spread sounds across the stereo field, and you don’t have to open the editor to use them.

Adjust a pad

Select the pad you want to change.
Hold VOL, PITCH or PAN and slide your finger. You can slide any way you like.
Changed your mind? Double-tap the knob to reset it.

Gestures

Hold VOL and slide: Changes the volume.
Double-tap VOL: Resets to the sample’s original volume.
Hold PITCH and slide: Changes the pitch.
Double-tap PITCH: Resets to the sample’s original pitch.
Hold PAN and slide: Changes the panning.
Double-tap PAN: Resets to the centre.

For everything else a pad can do, tap EDIT to open the sample editor. To clear a pad, see Delete samples from pads. With Samurai, you can also record moves of these knobs into a sequence while the pad is in keyboard mode: see Record and edit automation.

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4.2Basics

Open the sample editor and choose what plays

The knobs on the SAMPLE screen only go so far. Tap EDIT and you get the sample editor, where you decide how a pad plays, filter it, chop it and more. Most of the screen shows the sample’s waveform, with the controls underneath. Your first job is usually to pick out the part you actually want.

Choose which part of the sample plays

Select the pad and tap EDIT.
Find the area highlighted in red on the waveform. That’s the part the pad will play.
Drag its left corner to move the start of playback, and its right corner to move the end.
Pinch the waveform to zoom in when you need to be precise.
To shift the whole selection, zoom out, hold the stripe along the top of the red area and drag.

Gestures

Pinch the waveform: Zooms in and out.
Drag the top stripe of the selection: Moves the selected area around the sample.

What else is in the editor

Control	What it’s for	Read more
`ONE SHOT`, `REVERSE`	Whether a tap plays the whole sample, and which way it plays	Make a pad play through, play while held or play backwards
`LOOP`	Repeating the selection, with ping-pong, a loop point and a crossfade	Loop a sample
ATTACK, RELEASE, TONE	Fading in and out, and filtering	Shape a pad with attack, release and tone
`CHOKE`	Letting one sample cut off another	Let one sound cut off another
`STRETCH`	Locking the sample to your song’s tempo, with Samurai	Lock a sample to your tempo
`TOOLS`	Labels, info, colours, cropping, chopping, stems and more	Everything in the TOOLS menu
`MIX`	The pad’s EQ, once you’ve switched it on in the settings	Give a pad its own EQ

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4.3Basics

Make a pad play through, play while held or play backwards

Two buttons in the sample editor decide how a pad responds to your finger. A drum hit usually wants to ring out however quickly you tap, while a phrase might only need to sound while your finger is down. And sometimes a sample just sounds better the wrong way round.

The buttons

ONE SHOT: On: one tap is enough, and the sample runs through however short the tap. Off: the sound lasts only as long as your finger stays on the pad.
REVERSE: Plays the sample backwards.

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4.4Basics

Loop a sample

Turn on LOOP and the pad keeps going round. That’s how a short grab becomes a sustained note, or a bar from a record becomes a bed to play over.

Loop a sample

In the sample editor, set the red area to the part you want to repeat.
Tap LOOP.
Open its dropdown if you want one of the options below.
Check HOLD, which takes the place of ONE SHOT while the loop is on.

Loop options

PING PONG: Plays forwards to the end of the loop, then backwards to its start, and round again.
LOOP POINT: Gives you an extra marker for where the loop begins.
CROSSFADE: Sets how far the sound fades out and back in at the loop’s edges, which can smooth over the join.

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4.5Basics

Shape a pad with attack, release and tone

Three knobs in the sample editor change how a pad starts, how it ends and how bright it sounds. They’re a quick fix for a sample that clicks on the way in, stops abruptly or fights with the rest of your track.

The knobs

ATTACK: Softens the start. Turn it up and the pad fades in each time it plays, rather than arriving at full level.ATTACK knob
RELEASE: Softens the end. Turn it up and the pad fades out after you let go.RELEASE knob
TONE: A filter on one knob. Left of centre it’s a low-pass filter, which takes away top end. Right of centre it’s a high-pass filter, which takes away bottom end.TONE knob

For finer control over a pad’s tone, there’s also a three-band EQ. With Samurai, recording while a pad is in keyboard mode captures its tone, attack and release moves too: see Record and edit automation.

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4.6Intermediate

Let one sound cut off another

Samples in the same choke group can’t ring over each other: when one plays, anything else playing in that group stops. Koala has six groups. The classic use is hi-hats, where a closed hat cuts off an open one, just as it does on a drum kit.

Set up a pair of hi-hats

Select your open hi-hat and tap EDIT.
Use CHOKE to add it to one of the six groups.
Select your closed hi-hat and add it to the same group.
Play the open hat, then the closed one. The closed hat cuts the open hat off.

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To stop a long one-shot from another pad, put it in a choke group with any sample whose volume is turned down to zero. Tapping the silent pad cuts the long one. It’s a workaround, but elf audio suggests it. via elf audio Help: stopping a long one-shot

4.7Basics

TOOLS in the sample editor opens a dropdown of jobs that go beyond how a pad plays: naming it, tidying its audio, chopping it, splitting it and getting it out of Koala. Here’s the full list, with links to the sections that go deeper.

Gestures

Drag up or down on TOOLS: Opens the menu without tapping.

What’s in the menu

Entry	What it does	Read more
`LABEL`	Gives the pad a name of your own. `Show file names on pads` in the settings labels pads with their file names automatically.	Extra controls, downloads and backups
`INFO`	Shows the sample’s details, such as its format, length and origin.	See everything Koala knows about a sample
`EDIT`	Opens the wave editor, for cutting, pasting and fading the audio itself.	Edit the audio in the wave editor
`COLOR`	Chooses a colour for the pad.	Colour your pads and sequences
`CROP`	Cuts the sample down to the selected area, and the audio outside it goes.	Open the sample editor and choose what plays
`NORMALIZE`	Normalises the sample to 0 dB.	–
`AUTO-CHOP`	Samurai. Cuts the sample into chops, spread across free pads.	Chop a sample across your pads
`SPLIT STEMS`	Pulls the drums, vocals, bass and everything else out of the sample.	Pull a sample apart into stems
`MAKE MONO`	Turns a stereo sample into a mono one. You pick what it uses: just the left channel, just the right, or both mixed together.	–
`BOUNCE`	Puts a copy of just the selected area on a new pad.	Turn a sequence or selection into a pad, for whole sequences
`EXPORT`	Gets the sample, or every selected sample, out of Koala as audio files.	Get your work out of Koala
`CONVERT TO CHOPPER`	Samurai. Turns the pad into a Chopper instrument.	Play slices from one pad with Chopper
`CONVERT TO SAMPLE`	Samurai. Turns a Chopper pad back into a normal pad.	Play slices from one pad with Chopper
`EXTRACT SLICES`	Chopper pads only. Copies each slice to a free pad of its own.	Play slices from one pad with Chopper
`EXTRACT PATTERN`	Chopper pads only. Creates a sequence that triggers the slices in the order they came in the sample.	Play slices from one pad with Chopper

4.8Basics

Colour your pads and sequences

Once a song fills up, it gets hard to remember what’s where. Colour-coding your pads and sequences fixes that at a glance, and it carries through into the note editor too.

Colour a pad

Select the pad. To colour several, hold EDIT and tap each one: see Change several pads at once.
In the sample editor, open TOOLS and tap COLOR.
Pick a colour from any of the four palettes: KOALA, TOL, WONG or IBM.

Colour a sequence

Tap and hold a sequence slot to open its menu.
Tap COLOR.
Choose a colour in the same way.

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4.9Basics

See everything Koala knows about a sample

Forgotten where a sample came from, or want to know how long it runs at your tempo? The info window lays it all out, and it can set your song’s tempo to match the sample.

Open the info window

Select the pad and tap EDIT.
Open TOOLS and tap INFO.

Shortcuts

CMD + I: Opens sample info for the selected pad.On desktop
CTRL + I: Opens sample info for the selected pad.On desktop

What it shows

The sample’s name and file name.
Its format, bit depth and sample rate.
Its channels: mono or stereo.
How long it is, in seconds and as a number of bars at your tempo.
Its file size.
Its origin: recorded, imported, resampled, stem split or sample pack.
When it was created.
For samples from packs, possibly a key, a root note and tags.

4.10Intermediate

Edit the audio in the wave editor

The wave editor is for changing the audio itself, rather than how a pad plays it. Use it to take a section out, paste one in, fade an edge, clear away silence or generate new audio.

Make an edit

Select the pad and tap EDIT, then open TOOLS and tap EDIT.
Mark out a region by dragging across the waveform, and pinch if you need to zoom.
If you want the selection to land on the beat, use the SNAP dropdown to choose 1/16, 1 BEAT, 1 BAR or 4 BARS at the song’s tempo. FREE leaves it unsnapped.
Audition the selection with PLAY, and turn on LOOP if you’d like it to keep repeating as you work.
Apply one of the edits below.

Shortcuts

CMD + E: Opens the wave editor.On desktop
CTRL + E: Opens the wave editor.On desktop

What you can do

CUT, COPY, PASTE, DELETE: Move audio around within this sample, the way you’d move text in a document.
MODIFY: Opens a menu of processes for the selection: CROP, FADE IN, FADE OUT, INVERT, REVERSE, NORMALIZE, TRIM SILENCE and GENERATE….
UNDO, REDO: Take an edit back, or bring back one you took away.
WAVE, SPECTRUM: Switch between the two views of the audio.

4.11IntermediateNeeds Samurai

Give a pad its own EQ

Every pad can have EQ settings of its own, so you can carve out space for a kick or tame a harsh sample without touching anything else in the song. You won’t see any of this until you’ve switched it on.

EQ a pad

Tap MENU, open SETTINGS and switch on Show EQ in the EXTRAS group.
Select the pad, tap EDIT, then tap the MIX tab.
Tap ENABLE to switch the EQ on.
Drag the three poles to shape the sound. Play the pad to see its spectrogram while you work.
Toggle ENABLE to compare the pad with and without your changes.

Gestures

Drag a pole: Adjusts that part of the EQ.On the MIX tab
Double-tap a pole, then swipe up: Widens its Q.On the MIX tab
Double-tap a pole, then swipe down: Narrows its Q.On the MIX tab

The three poles

Left pole: Handles the bottom end as a low shelf. Pull it right down to the bottom of the spectrum and it turns into a high-pass filter.
Middle pole: A bell filter, for boosting or cutting around one frequency. Push its Q to an extreme and it turns into a notch.
Right pole: Handles the top end as a high shelf. Pull it right down to the bottom of the spectrum and it turns into a low-pass filter.

The buttons

ENABLE: Switches the pad’s EQ on and off.
RESET: Returns the EQ to neutral.
BUS: Chooses which mixer bus the pad goes to. This button belongs to the Mixer add-on rather than Samurai. Koala’s manual shows it labelled with the current choice, such as MAIN. See Send pads to the buses.

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4.12Basics

Copy, swap and combine pads

Dragging one pad onto another is how you duplicate a sample to try something different, rearrange a kit or glue two sounds together. What happens depends on whether the pad you drop it on is free.

Gestures

Drag PAD onto PAD: Copies to a free pad, or offers to merge, swap or add to the end if the target is taken.

What each choice does

You drop it on	What you get	What happens to that pad
A free pad	A copy of the pad you dragged	It now holds the copy.
A taken pad, and choose to merge	The two samples mixed together	Its sample is replaced by the mix.
A taken pad, and choose to swap	The two pads trade samples	It now holds the sample you dragged.
A taken pad, and choose to add to the end	The sample you dragged, joined on after the one on that pad	Its sample is replaced by the longer version.

Sequence slots have their own version of this: see Copy, combine and colour sequences. To bring samples over from another song, see Reuse sounds from your other songs.

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4.13Basics

Delete samples from pads

There are three ways to clear a pad, and only one of them asks first. Pick the one that matches how sure you are.

Delete one pad, with a prompt

Select the pad.
Tap DELETE. Koala asks you to confirm.
Tap OK.

Gestures

Hold DELETE + PAD: Deletes those pads without asking.
Drag PAD up to the trash: Deletes the sample without asking. The trash area appears once you start dragging.

Deleted the wrong thing? UNDO steps back through everything you’ve done to the song, so try that first: see Undo and redo.

4.14Basics

Mute and solo pads while a sequence plays

Muting and soloing let you pull a sequence apart while it runs, to check how the parts sit together or to hear what a beat sounds like without its drums. The buttons are hidden until you ask for them.

Mute or solo some pads

Switch on Show Mute/Solo in the EXTRAS settings. MUTE and SOLO now appear on the SAMPLE and SEQUENCE screens.
Start a sequence playing. You won’t hear any effect from these buttons without one.
Tap MUTE and pick the pads to silence.
Or tap SOLO and pick the pads to hear by themselves.

On a computer keyboard, hold B for mute and N for solo: see Play Koala from a computer keyboard. Mixer channels have mute and solo buttons of their own, for whole buses: see Set levels, names, mute and solo.

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