Songs and export · Koala Sampler guide

13.1Basics

Start, find and manage songs

MENU is the home of your songs. Tap it and the top of the screen shows the current song’s name and size, how much storage and RAM you have to spare, and whether the song is in iCloud. There’s no set limit on how many songs you can keep: you can go on saving for as long as your device has room.

Start a new song

Tap MENU, then NEW.
If the current song has changes, Koala offers to save it first.
If you’ve set up a template, your new song starts from that.

Load a song

Tap MENU, then LOAD.
Look through the list. Each song shows a small view of its pads, and its play icon gives you a quick listen before you commit.
Tap a song to load it.

Save your work

Saving takes one tap, and SAVE AS gives you a separate copy under a new name. That copy is worth making before you try something drastic, like the clean-up tools in Slim down a song and set its options.

Save the current song

Tap MENU, then SAVE. The song is saved straight away.

Save a new copy

Tap MENU, then SAVE AS.
Enter a new name in the window that appears. Your song is saved as a new file under that name.

When you start Koala, it loads the song you last worked on, in the last state it was in. That tells you what opens at launch. It isn’t a promise that unsaved changes survive on every platform.

From the community

On Android, uninstalling Koala deletes your songs, so never uninstall to fix a problem. To back up, go to SETTINGS, then GENERAL, press OPEN next to Koala folder, and copy your songs somewhere safe. via elf audio Help: where songs are stored on Android

13.3Intermediate

Slim down a song and set its options

Songs grow, especially once they hold long samples you only use part of. The cog next to the song’s name at the top of MENU has two tools for slimming a song down when you’ve finished it, plus a quick way to share it and a background of its own.

What’s behind the cog

DELETE UNUSED PADS: Looks for pads that no sequence plays and removes them. You’ll see the count, and get a chance to back out, before anything goes.
CROP ALL SAMPLES: Keeps only what’s between each sample’s start and end markers, and removes the rest, for every sample in the song. The saving can be large.
EXPORT SONG: Shares the song as a .koala file, just as SHARE KOALA SONG does in Get your work out of Koala.
SET SONG BG: Gives this song alone its own background image. See Give Koala a background image and effect for more on images and effects.

Key combinations

Tap the cog: Opens the options for the current song.In the menu

13.4Intermediate

Start every song from your own template

If you find yourself setting up the same things each time you start a song, make them your template. Any song can be the template, so it might be a go-to kit on the pads, or a favourite chain of effects on MAIN if you have the mixer. From then on, NEW gives you that song and not an empty one.

Make a template

Set up a song the way you want your new songs to begin.
Tap MENU, then SETTINGS, and go to the EXTRAS settings.
Under Save as template, tap SAVE TEMPLATE.

When you want a blank slate again, tap REMOVE TEMPLATE in the same place, and NEW returns to an ordinary empty song. Extra controls, downloads and backups has the rest of that screen.

13.5Basics

Koala can hand over anything from one sample to a whole song, and the EXPORT menu is how you ask for it. Choose by where the work is going next: audio files for a DAW or a friend, a .koala file for another copy of Koala, or MIDI for another sequencer.

Export something

Tap MENU, then EXPORT.
Tap the entry you want. The EXPORT window opens.
Set the format, as described in Choose the format of an export. Koala then renders the files.

What each entry gives you

Entry	What you get	Types
`SELECTED SAMPLE` / `SELECTED SAMPLES`	Audio files of the selected pad, or of all the pads you’ve multi-selected with `EDIT`.	`RAW`, `EDITED`
`ALL SAMPLES`	One zipped file containing all of the song’s samples.	`RAW`, `EDITED`
`CURRENT SEQUENCE`	The sequence you have selected. `MIXED` makes a single file, `STEMS` makes a zip holding one audio file for each sample in the sequence, and `BUSES` makes one file per mixer bus.	`MIXED`, `STEMS`, `BUSES`
`ALL SEQUENCES`	All the song’s sequences. `MIXED` makes one mixdown per sequence. `STEMS` makes a zip covering every pad of every sequence, numbered so that the first number in a file name is its sequence.	`MIXED`, `STEMS`, `BUSES`
`SHARE KOALA SONG`	A `.koala` file of the song, to pass to a friend or to another of your devices. Any other version of Koala can open it.	–
`CURR SEQUENCE MIDI`	A standard MIDI file of the current sequence. Bring it into a DAW to keep working, or play hardware from it with another sequencer.	–
`ABLETON DRUM RACK`	An `.adg` file holding all your project’s pads. See Take your work into Ableton Live.	–
`ABLETON LIVE SET` (iOS)	Mixed-down loops or sequence stems as a Live Set. See Take your work into Ableton Live.	–
`GET ABLETON LIVE LITE` (iOS)	A prompt that takes your email address, in return for a free version of Live Lite. See Take your work into Ableton Live.	–

From the community

Koala Sampler Tutorial - EP 17 - Exporting Options
NervousCook$
The export options as they stood in 2023. Version 2.0.3 added more, so use this for the basics.

13.6Basics

Choose the format of an export

Before Koala renders anything, the EXPORT window asks what you want the files to be. Your last choices are remembered, so if you always export the same way, you’ll only need to set this up once.

Settings

Type: What goes in the files. The table below goes through the options.Range MIXED, STEMS or BUSES for sequences; RAW or EDITED for samples
Format: The kind of audio file.Range WAV, FLAC or AAC
Sample rate: The rate of the exported files. A speaker icon shows which rate your current session runs at. Pick any other, and the export gets resampled.Range 22.05, 44.1, 48 or 96 kHz
Bit depth: The resolution of the exported files. The choices depend on the format: AAC doesn’t have a set bit depth, so it uses AUTO.Range 8, 12, 16, 24 or 32 bit for WAV; a smaller set for FLAC; AUTO for AAC

Which type to choose

Type	What you get	When to use it
`RAW`	The sample in its original state, as recorded or imported, with no edits.	You want the untouched source, to do your own editing.
`EDITED`	The sample after your changes, with its pitch, volume, pan, envelope, reverse and selection area all applied, among other edits.	You want your edits to come with the sample.
`MIXED`	The whole sequence folded down into a single stereo file.	The sequence is finished, or you just want to share it.
`STEMS`	A separate file for each pad, all running the full length of the sequence.	You want to rebuild and balance the sequence pad by pad elsewhere.
`BUSES`	A separate file for each mixer bus, including the effects on that bus. It needs the Mixer add-on.	You like your bus effects, and want to carry on mixing in your DAW.

From the community

13.7Intermediate

Take your work into Ableton Live

If Ableton Live is where your tracks get finished, Koala has export options made for it. A Drum Rack moves your pads across so that you can play them in Live. On iOS, a Live Set moves your sequences across, so that you can arrange the song there.

The Ableton entries

`EXPORT` entry	What it does
`ABLETON DRUM RACK`	Makes an `.adg` drum rack from all the pads in your project. Any recent version of Ableton can open it.
`ABLETON LIVE SET` (iOS)	Packages your sequences for Live, as mixed-down loops for Ableton Live Lite or individual stems for the paid versions. Pick it if you plan to carry on building the song in Live’s arrangement mode.
`GET ABLETON LIVE LITE` (iOS)	Asks for your email address, which is how you get Ableton Live Lite for free.

Get Live Lite on iOS

Tap GET LIVE LITE in MENU, or GET ABLETON LIVE LITE in the EXPORT menu.
Enter your email address in the window that opens, and confirm it. A free version of Live Lite then comes your way.

From the community

Koala exports to Ableton Drum Rack and Ableton Session. Kind of a slept on feature.
BJamminSinceBirth
A 19-minute look at exporting to an Ableton Drum Rack and session, which the creator calls a slept-on feature.

13.8Intermediate

Bring in MIDI, songs, packs and maps

Audio isn’t the only thing Koala takes in. A MIDI file lets you start from a part you wrote elsewhere, and songs, sample packs and maps let you move your setup between devices. For audio itself, see Import audio files.

Import a MIDI file

Drop a .mid file on a SLOT, or use the file browser to open it.
Koala writes the notes into a sequence. They go to pads in order, with bank A PAD 1 first.

Key combinations

Drag a .mid file onto SLOT: Writes the file’s notes into a sequence.

Other files Koala can take in

File	What it is	How to bring it in
`.koala`	A Koala song	Open it from another app or the Files app, or tap `IMPORT SONG` in the song list (Start, find and manage songs). On desktop, you can drop it on Koala (Drag files in and out, and connect your gear).
`.kpk`	A sample pack	Open it from another app or the Files app. On desktop, you can drop it on Koala to install it (Drag files in and out, and connect your gear).
`.json`	A MIDI map or QWERTY map, exported from the `EXTRAS` settings	Use `IMPORT` next to `MIDI Map` or `QWERTY Map` in the EXTRAS settings. See Map controls with MIDI learn and Play Koala from a computer keyboard.

From the community