Packed with features, TX16Wx is one of those freeware tools that makes us wonder what on earth its creators were thinking when they offered it up free of charge.
Modelled on Yamaha’s TX16W, the software can handle WAV, AIFF, Ogg, FLAC and Yamaha, making for boundless sonic manipulation, with keyboard-mapping and two resonant 6/12/24dB multimode filters thrown in for good measure.
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Step 1: TX16Wx is undoubtedly one of the very best free software samplers available to you, if you haven’t already, download it from their website.
Step 2: Once it’s installed, open up your DAW of choice, find TX16Wx by selecting it in your plugins library under CWITEC.
Step 3: To the left of the UI, you’ll see the file browser. Here is where you can select samples and sound files from your computer and map them onto the keyboard (visible by selecting ‘Regions’).
Step 4: We’re going to assume you’ve got a rich library of source sounds to play with (or sounds you’ve recorded from the real world). We can simply drag and drop some raw drum elements into our keyboard to start to build up a multi-sample instrument. If you're after free music samples, head over to SampleRadar.
Step 5: Once you’ve got a nice selection of drum components, and/or real instrument textures, you might find that some of the sounds are cutting off too soon. Make sure this doesn’t happen by clicking Sounds and raising the Release parameter to taste.
Step 6: You can save each bespoke sample-mapped super instrument as a .txprog file. This will copy all the dragged in sample and sound files to one project, which you can then edit elsewhere.
Step 7: For longer pieces of audio, use the Waves tab to slice up your audio into multiple sections that can be mapped onto your MIDI keyboard. Input the number of slices into the Slice/Beat box.
Step 8: Once you’ve dissected your audio, clicking the cog and selecting Slice > Layout Slices automatically maps these track segments onto your keys.
Step 9: For a free sampler, it’s remarkable how much fun can be had concocting weird and wonderful multi-sampled instruments, or by fashioning new sounds using wave-slicing. This ain’t a download you’ll regret.
