Multisample Presets

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Multisample Presets

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Preset Maker finds multisampled instruments inside your packs and maps each sample to its key.

Filenames #

Each filename needs a note followed by its octave. Sharps and flats both work (F#1 or Gb1), and so do names that put the octave first, like 3C.

The files must match apart from the note and octave. The preset is named after the part they share.

Soft Piano A1.wav
Soft Piano F#1.wav
Soft Piano Bb2.wav

How many samples make a preset #

A multisample preset needs at least 2 matching samples by default. Change it with Threshold in Preferences → Multisample Presets, or click No Threshold to make a preset out of every sample that has a note name.

With No Threshold on, one-shot groups whose filenames carry note values are skipped, because those samples are being made into presets instead.

Other Names It Reads #

  • Logic Pro auto-sampler files. Logic adds an extra string of characters to each filename. Those are accepted even though the names don’t match exactly.
  • Numbered files. Some packs number their samples by MIDI note instead of naming it (36 rather than C2). With Interpret Numbers as MIDI Notes on, each file goes on the key its own number names, so a gap in the numbering doesn’t shift the rest. It needs at least 5 numbered samples of the same instrument, so a pack that uses numbers to tell two different organs apart (“Organ C1 1”, “Organ C1 2”) isn’t merged into one instrument.
  • Ignore basic counting. Keeps a set like Kick 1, Kick 2, Kick 3 as one-shots instead of mapping it to the very bottom of the keyboard.
  • Samples From Mars. Names that glue a number to a note, like Omni Double10A, are read as chromatic multisamples. Most of these packs work; a few with very unusual naming don’t.

Included Instrument Files #

If a pack already ships .sfz instruments, MPC keygroup .xpm programs or MPC 3 .xty keygroup tracks, Preset Maker reads those and uses the pack’s own key ranges, root notes, velocity splits and loop points instead of working it out from filenames.

  • Read Included .sfz Instruments and Read Included MPC Instruments are both on by default. Turn either off to map by filename instead.
  • Skip .sfz files that use one sample. Some packs ship one tiny .sfz per one-shot, which would turn into hundreds of single-note presets. This sends those samples back to normal one-shot grouping.

Instrument files that point at samples the pack doesn’t contain are skipped rather than turned into broken presets, and the report says which ones.

Velocity & Loops #

MPC, Ableton Live, FL Studio (DirectWave) and SFZ presets can layer velocities. Add a V and the velocity to each filename, either as velocity values or as layer numbers:

Soft Piano F#1 V35.wav        Soft Piano F#1 V1.wav
Soft Piano F#1 V65.wav        Soft Piano F#1 V2.wav
Soft Piano F#1 V95.wav        Soft Piano F#1 V3.wav

With single-digit numbers, the full velocity range is split evenly between the layers, so three files get a third each. Preset Maker’s MPC programs hold up to four velocity layers per key. Beatmaker and Deluge presets don’t layer velocities, so those formats get a separate preset for each velocity.

Loop points #

If a pack’s .sfz files define loop points, or the WAV files have loop markers embedded in them, the loops carry into Ableton, MPC, Deluge and SFZ presets.