From Xtractpler main window, by clicking on the Gree Dot icon button on the top-right of the window, will open the Help page. Otherwise, by using Shift+Ctrl+H in Windows or Shift+Cmd+H in Mac will also open the Help page.
This may be subject to a couple of things: the audio-input device is not properly setup, Xtractpler may not have granted access to system microhpone (Mac OSX only) or MIDI output device and channel used by Xtractpler is not matching the one configured in destination (i.e. VST/AAX/AU or DAW plugin/program), MIDI note sent is not triggering any sound in destination.
Xtractpler allows four different audio capture modes: Drum, Sound, Live and Speech.
Each capture mode aims to different goals. Therefore use Drum to send MIDI notes when expected audio has a short duration, like percusion or drums. Use Sound mode when attempting to capture audio generated by Synthesizers or other samples, like drone sounds where duration and decay of the sound is longer than 15 seconds and less than 100 seconds. Both Drum and Sound capture modes trigger MIDI notes to desired sound generator (either VST/AU/AXX/DAW or MIDI hardware).
Live and Speech capture mode are oriented to those scenarios where no MIDI is required or available, such as the case of acoustic instruments or vocals. In Live mode, Xtractpler guides the way to genearte each sample based on a expected velocity (volumen). In Speech mode, however only one output file is generated where the long silences between spoken phrases are reduced, typical required for podcasts or videos.
Definitely yes, by using either Live or Speech capture mode. Live capture mode, listening the incoming audio from system audio-input port and record it for later trimming & optimization process. The Speech mode, however is more oriented to reduce the silence between spoken phrases by reducing its size and time, which is ideal for podcast use. In such situation only one file is generated as output without any sliced audio.
Yes, you can capture the external source sounds by using two capture modes:
- Drums mode: by connecting the computer via MIDI or USD MIDI and use the MIDI output device that may trigger the external module. Then, configure the external output of the physical module to a recognized computer audio input port. Use such port as default system audio input to enable Xtractpler to listening from it. Then, just follow the same procedure as capturing the sounds from VSTs.
- Live mode: without triggering MIDI notes. Just make sure that the output sound of your external hardware module is redirected to your defined Xtractpler audio-input port. Then, by following the indication on Xtractpler console text, play the desired sound of indicated sample and velocity expected by Xtractpler. When completing the capture of configured samples, just follow the trimming and optimization process to obtain the sliced samples audio files.
The following limitations apply:
- Max audio recording time: Up to 210 seconds.
- Max samples names per configuration file: 50 samples.
- Max quantity of samples per individual sound: 30 samples.
- Max duration per sample: Depends on capture mode: drum:15, sound: 100s, live: 180s, speech: 210s
Xtractpler already contains a EZDrumer Basic template file that can be reused for configuring other similars VST/AAX/AU plugins. We may offer in the future additional templates for other popular softwares.
You don’t need a DAW to use Xtractpler, but you can certainly use it if your VST/AAX/AU plugin requires a host app to run and listening on MIDI input. If you run on MacOS you need to have installed any audio internal router extension, like the free Soundflower or BlackHole ones, or paid versions of Apowersoft or any other alternative like those programs. In the case of Windows computer, it’s required to enable StereoMix (Audio) in Control Panel and also have a third party free/paid tool for MIDI messages routing internally, like LoopBe. MIDIYoke or similar.
By adding an extra configuration line in Xtractpler configuration window, like this:
- SampleNameXXX_hi:True:NN(MIDI note):10:SS(duration):127(maxVel):100(minVel)
- SampleNameXXX_md:True:NN(MIDI note):10:SS(duration):100(maxVel):40(minVel)
- SampleNameXXX_lo:True:NN(MIDI note):5:SS(duration):40(maxVel):10(minVel)
Then, when conversion process is completed, you may want to manually put the generated files from each folder (i.e. SampleNameXXX_hi/md/lo) in one single folder (like: SampleNameXXX). The folder will contains:
- 10 files named SampleNameXXX_hi_001 to _010.wav
- 10 files named SampleNameXXX_md_001 to _010.wav
- 5 files named SampleNameXXX_lo_001 to _005.wav
To proceed on this scenario do as follow:
- Put the wav audio file in the Xtractpler Output Folder.
- Then, configure one single row in Configuration Window, by providing a name for the samples to be generated. The sample name has to match the audio filename copied already in the Output Folder.
- For instance: the Row in the Grid may look like this:
SampleName:True:NN(MIDI note):10:SS(duration):127(maxVel):100(minVel).
IMPORTANT, in such case, Xtractpler will only consider the SampleName and the Enabled Column value (it has to be True, to be taken into consideration), the other values in the row will be ignored (because they are useful during capture time, however in this case, only conversion will be used as an existing audio file already resides in the Output Folder location).
- Apply changes and go back to Xtractpler Main Window.
- Then click on Convert button. (Xtractpler will analyse the audio file and convert it according to selected Frequency, BitRate and Stereo/Mono options as well as attempt to trim and slice as many samples it detects in the audio file during this process.
We’re here to hear from the user community to improve and offer more features. Feel free to drop an email to our support at: support@studiomob.ca and put the Xtractpler Feature Request in the subject.