In this six-part video series we are teaming up with audio software giants Steinberg to explore the power and creativity of modern sampling and instrument creation.
Throughout these half a dozen episodes, we’ll use Steinberg’s insanely powerful sampler-and-synth hybrid instrument HALion 6 to walk you through the full spectrum of sampling and sound design techniques: from basic audio sampling, sonic manipulation, cutting-edge synthesis and resynthesis; through to DIY field recording, sound-layering, multisampling and much more.
In the fourth episode we reacquaint ourselves with an old friend, the indomitable Yamaha CS-80. 40 years old and this beaut still seems as fresh as ever, especially with the current analogue and synthwave revival. There is one problem with such a revered relic and that is a lack of control. No CV or MIDI ports firmly places the CS-80 in the ‘performance instrument’ category, so you’re always going to be giving those fingers a workout.
There’s also another slight hitch when encountering a rare beast such as this and that is the overall time you get to play with one. If your time is fleeting then there is only one thing to do: sample the hell out of it! We try not just to play around with this vintage synth and get into some multisampling with HALion 6.
You can download the fourth episode’s instrument from here, then load it up in HALion 6 or HALion Sonic 3. Don’t worry if you don’t own these, though – simply download the free HALion Sonic SE player instrument from Steinberg’s website and load up our patches.
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