EMU Ultra Proteus User Manual download pdf (Page 85)

Intermediate Lessons

24 Cycle Groups

Emulator X / Proteus X - Advanced Applications Guide 85

24 Cycle Groups

The advent of sampling and sampled drum machines allowed non-drummers

to create their own drum tracks. But even though early drum machines used

actual digital recordings as their sound source, you could still tell that it was a

machine and not a real drummer playing.

Part of this is probably due to overuse of the Auto Correction feature, and that a

real drummer plays, well, like a real drummer. But a big part of the problem

stems from the fact that the human ear is extremely sensitive and can discern

that the same sample is being played over and over. Your brain gets bored

easily.

The Cycle Group feature on the Emulator X is designed to correct this short-

coming. Instead of playing one sample over and over, the cycle group feature

allows 2, 3 or 4 samples to be cycled, or if you so desire, played randomly. As it

turns out, this little juggling act is enough to fool the ear.

Other slight variations in the sound can also work wonders. Drum

programmers commonly route: velocity-to-volume, velocity-to-filter, or

velocity-to-sample start to make each note unique.

The use of Cycle Groups is not limited to drums and percussion. Cycle Groups

work great with bowed strings, so that you can alternate between up and down

bowing. Most instruments will benefit from the variation that Cycle Groups

provide. However it’s much more difficult to match the tonal properties of

pitched instruments to create a realistic sounding instrument model.

In this example, we’ll use just two snare drum samples to illustrate the point. If

you want the ultimate drum set, you’ll want to sample two to four similar-

sounding hits at several strike velocities. Some keys in our Protean Drums

bank have eight or more samples mapped to create a super-realistic acoustic kit.

 How to Use Cycle Groups

Locate Samples and Load them into the Bank

1. Make sure you have either the Proteus Composer or Proteus X Composer

bank on your hard disk.

2. Let’s start with a clean slate. Select New from the File menu.

3. Click the System Tab at the bottom of the Tree.

4. Locate the Proteus X Composer bank on your hard disk. The default

location for sound banks is: “Program Files\Creative Professional\

Emulator X\Production Sound Banks”.

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EMU Ultra Proteus User Manual Page 85