sample studio+
one recording in, a finished pack out.
sample studio+ slices, shapes, layers, tags and names a long recording into a finished, organised sample pack — without leaving Ableton Live. This manual covers every control, every mode, and a set of step-by-step walkthroughs from real material.
built by Lux Cache · for Ableton Live 12 Suite
what it is
Take one long recording — a modular session, a sound-design jam, a drum take, a looped break — and sample studio+ splits it into a tagged, named, pack-ready folder of WAVs, plus a track of every slice laid back into your Set.
It's a four-stage pipeline you drive from a single window: slice the recording into samples, design each one (trim, fade, and a chain of automatable effects), optionally layer several into a composite, then export a named, tagged pack. Auto-tagging and key detection do the labelling, so the filenames and folders sort themselves.
Think of it as the whole sample-library workflow — refined over a decade of building packs at Lux Cache — folded into a right-click: point it at audio that already exists, tune the result, and it writes the pack.
You point sample studio+ at audio that already exists, tune the result, and it writes the pack — one focused pass, entirely undoable. It isn't a live instrument; it's the bench you take a recording to.
install & requirements
- Ableton Live 12 Suite, build 12.4.5 beta or newer (the build that ships the Extensions SDK).
- macOS or Windows.
- The
sample-studio+.ablxextension file.
- In Live, open Preferences → Extensions.
- Drag the
.ablxfile into the Extensions pane. - Restart Live so the Extension Host picks it up.
- Right-click any audio object — you should see a sample studio+ submenu. You're ready.
A packaged .ablx runs with Developer Mode off. If you're running the extension
from source instead, enable Preferences → Extensions → Developer Mode. Don't run both ways at once.
opening the tool
Right-click anything with audio in it, and pick from the sample studio+ submenu.
where it appears
The trigger lives on any audio source in your Set:
- an Audio Clip — in Session view or in the Arrangement;
- a Sample on disk;
- the sample loaded into a Simpler.
the three commands
Live prefixes every item with the extension name, so in the menu they read sample studio+: …
| command | what it does |
|---|---|
| Open file in studio | Opens the window on the slice tab so you can tune everything by hand. |
| Chop and export with current settings | Skips the window entirely and writes the pack with your last-used (sticky) slice, processing and naming — see the no-window pack. |
| Strip silences + normalise → new track | The quickest path of all: no window, no export — just gates the silence out, normalises each sound, and drops the slices as clips on a new samples track. See below. |
The window appears immediately. The waveform and preview audio render in the background and stream in, so there's no wait even on a long recording. Re-opening after the folder picker is instant.
the window
One modal, four tabs — slice → design → layer → export — with a persistent footer carrying the LC mark, a live hover-help line, and the cancel / next buttons.
The top-right corner always shows how many samples you currently have and the total duration, plus undo / redo. The footer hint line never goes blank — with nothing under the cursor it shows the active mode's description.
how you touch it
There are no sliders and no bordered buttons. The whole tool uses four gestures — learn these once and every control makes sense.
| gesture | does |
|---|---|
| click a heading | toggles it on / off — grey when off, dark when on. |
| drag a number | scrubs the value up / down (drag right or up to raise it). |
| click a value | cycles through its options (e.g. bit-depth, channels). |
| drag a dashed line | tunes one segment on its own, on the waveform. |
Light theme, blue accent, lowercase labels, Suisse Int'l, the LC mark in the corner. Whatever is under your cursor, the footer explains it.
140 bpm or 50ms to scrub it, and click a value to cycle it.1 · slice
A high-fidelity waveform with six detection modes in the mode dropdown, bottom-right. Pick the mode that fits the material, then fine-tune individual cuts.
the six modes
01 markers
Cut at the clip's own Ableton warp markers. Perfect when you've already gridded a loop.
02 transient
Cut at each hit / onset — with a sensitivity % to taste.
03 threshold
Strip the silence between sounds — a gate with min-silence. Great for takes of one-shots.
04 grid
Chop on Ableton's tempo grid — auto-BPM, nudgeable, skip-silences. See below.
05 division
N equal slices across the content, plus a "full file" edge-to-edge option.
06 manual
No auto-detection — draw each region by dragging it out by hand.
grid mode — the tempo-locked chopper
Grid mode pulls a musical grid straight from Ableton and chops on it. It's the fastest route from a looped recording to clean, tempo-named slices.
- BPM comes from Ableton's tempo. When that isn't usable it's detected from the audio, shown left of the grid control. Use −/+ to nudge it; click the BPM to reset to auto.
- ◄ ► nudge the whole grid's phase (Serato-style) to line it up with the downbeat.
- grid resolution drags through
1/32 · 1/16 · 1/8 · 1/4 · 1/2 · 1 bar … 8 bars. - skip silences drops the empty grid cells between hits, robust to slight mis-alignment.
- Each slice is auto-tagged drum / melodic, and per-segment subdivide works here too. Use
{bpm}in the filename and folders by tag to sort the result.
tuning one cut at a time
Every mode shares the same per-segment tuning: drag the dashed line over a segment to tune just that one — threshold dB, transient sensitivity, or ×N subdivide, depending on mode. A live readout floats above the segment as you drag, and a tuned segment's line turns blue to mark the override; double-click that blue line to drop the override and return it to the global setting. A min length control (default 50 ms) discards any slice shorter than that.
tools — preview & remove
Top-right of the slice tab, two tools:
- preview (the headphone) — click a segment to audition it from its start; space replays. Read-only — no editing while it's on.
- remove — click a segment, or drag across a region, to delete it.
Hovering or toggling a tool washes every segment so you can see what you're about to do — blue for preview, red for remove.
manual editing gestures
Outside the tools, the waveform is directly editable in any mode:
- drag across silence to draw a new cut;
- grab a top marker to dial an edge in or out;
- grab the bottom ~15% of a segment to slide it whole;
- double-click a marker to remove its segment;
- scroll to zoom the waveform around the cursor; scroll sideways (or ctrl-scroll) to pan and zoom in tighter.
Edits you make on the design tab reflect back here as real manual cuts.
advanced & denoise
A row of advanced controls sits top-left of the slice tab:
- denoise — noise reduction,
0–100%. It learns the recording's noise floor and lifts hiss / hum out before anything is cut, so every slice and audition is already clean. - pre-roll — extra time kept before each cut, to preserve the attack;
- post-roll — extra time kept after each cut, to preserve the tail;
- 0-cross — nudge each cut to the nearest zero crossing to avoid clicks;
- reset — every setting back to its default.
Press Tab while hovering a segment to jump straight into the design tab focused on that slice — the fastest way to slice-then-shape one sound.
2 · design
Audition and shape one sample at a time. The processing blocks don't just toggle effects — they draw what they're actually doing on the waveform, and update live as you drag while it loops.
auditioning
- play (space), loop, and prev / next with ← →;
- a headphone toggle that auto-auditions each sample as you step through them.
boundaries & fades
- trim in / out — trims silence off the start / end down to the noise floor (also ⇧← / ⇧→); drag the start / end, re-select, or slide from the bottom band;
- snap — when on, dragged edges snap to the nearest onset / tail;
- fade in / out lengths — drag the knobs or the numbers;
- in curve / out curve — the fade shape, −100…+100 (0 = linear, + convex, − concave); the bezier handles live on the waveform;
- apply to all — copies the fades and the full processing chain (and reverse) to every sample.
vari — global varispeed
vari in the toolbar tape-stretches the whole sample, −100…+100% (= ±2 octaves). It changes the sample's length, with the original ghosting underneath as a grey onion skin, and runs first — ahead of the fx chain.
the fx chain
Three fx slots — fx1 · fx2 · fx3 — each hold one effect, swapped from the slot's dropdown. Drag an effect onto the waveform and it becomes a draggable region with a coloured wash and visualiser; the chain runs in slot order fx1 → fx2 → fx3 (click a block to bring it to the front).
- breakpoint automation — every block's value is an editable curve: click to add nodes, drag them, double-click to remove. curve handles bend each segment (hover a line to reveal one); a live value tooltip follows the node, and the slot label shows the active node's value.
- edge fades — each block has a built-in anti-click ramp plus draggable fade handles (with curve bend); the wash and automation line fade with the envelope.
×
and dropdown), and apply to all.the eight effects
Any slot can hold any of eight effects:
vol
Volume over the region — from +100% (double) down to −100% (silence).
sub
A decaying low tone layered under the region for weight.
sweep
A pitch sweep dropping in from the top.
filter
A lowpass filter over the region.
shift
A frequency shifter — metallic, inharmonic tones.
noise
A noise layer over the region.
pitch
Tape varispeed within the region, ±2 octaves — separate from the global vari.
grain
A granular stretch that holds the pitch — drag the edge to set how far it stretches.
randomise
Short on ideas? The ∗ button throws a whole chain onto the sample in one tap — wild effects in the slots, blocks placed across the region, and drastic automation curves. It's a fast way to stumble onto a sound you'd never dial by hand; ⌘/Ctrl+Z steps back through it.
category override
Each sample carries a category dropdown next to its duration — override the auto-tagger by hand when it gets one wrong. Manual picks show in blue. Its detected key shows alongside.
render, reverse, export, undo
- render bakes the current processing into a pass — then you can stack more on top of the result;
- reverse the sample;
- export — write just this sample to a folder (native picker, remembers the last place) and drop it on a new track, mid-workflow, without touching the rest of the pack;
- delete it (delete / backspace);
- full undo / redo (⌘/Ctrl+Z, add ⇧ for redo).
Nothing here touches your original recording — your edits stay non-destructive right up to export, and render bakes a pass so you can keep stacking. Shape one sample, or — with apply to all — the whole batch.
3 · layer
Stack up to four samples into one composite sound. Each lane draws a sample's fully-designed buffer, so edits on the design tab are reflected here in real time.
per-lane controls
- nav (right of each lane): ▶ play just this lane · ∗ shuffle its sample selection · ‹ n / total › step through the pool. Drag a lane's clip on the waveform to delay it.
- mix (bottom row, tinted in the lane's colour; double-click to reset): volume (dB), pan (L / C / R), delay, tone (a DJ filter — left = lowpass, right = highpass, centre = off), reverse, mute and solo.
top controls
- play (space) plays all four lanes stacked; loop keeps it running. A playhead sweeps the stack as it previews.
- random shuffles the four sample selections · mix randomises the mix (levels, tone, pan, reverse, position on lanes 2–4) · all does both. Mute and solo are never randomised.
- reset clears every lane's delay, volume, pan, tone and reverse.
- save adds the stack to your sample pool — it then appears in the design tab and the export list, reusable like any other sample. export writes just this composite to a folder and drops it on a new track.
A saved stack is just another sample in the pool — so you can design it further, or layer it again inside a bigger stack.
4 · export
Name the samples, choose where they go, and write the pack. The file-list preview on the right updates live as you change the schema.
naming schema
Build the filename from tokens. The schema is case-aware: an UPPERCASE token
uppercases its value — {TAG} → KICK, {tag} → kick.
The default is {prefix}_{TAG}_{key}_{bpm}_{suffix}_{index} — empty tokens (a drum has no
key, a one-shot no BPM) simply drop out. See the full token reference below.
- prefix / suffix — click to toggle each on, type the text;
- index digits — how many digits the running number gets (
2→01); - auto-tag and detect key — toggle the classifiers that feed
{tag}and{key}; - presets — the + saves the current schema; the ▾ recalls or deletes saved ones.
the file-list preview
Every resulting filename is listed live on the right. Click a row to audition that sample as a one-shot — only one plays at a time. It's the last sanity check before you write.
{prefix}_{TAG}_{key}_{index}
resolves to lux_BASS_Amin_01.wav, lux_LOOP_Gmaj_01.wav and up.output & finishing
| option | choices |
|---|---|
| output folder | native folder picker. |
| format | click to cycle wav 16-bit / wav 24-bit / wav 32-bit float. |
| channels | stereo (keep the source) or mono (sum down). |
| normalise 0db | normalise each slice to ~0 dB peak. |
| trim / skip silence | tighten heads and tails on write. |
| manifest | off / txt / csv — a list of what was written (CSV columns: filename, tag, duration, bpm). |
| create subfolder | save into an auto-numbered {prefix}_exported subfolder, so nothing is overwritten. |
| folders by tag | sort the WAVs into a subfolder per tag — pluralised: kicks/, snares/, basses/. |
what export writes
export writes every sample as a WAV into your folder and builds a new
samples track of white clips — one per sample — back in your Set, so the
pack is both on disk and in the project you're working in.
{TAG}.
{bpm}, a CSV manifest and a subfolder.the no-window pack
Once your slice, design and naming settings feel right, you rarely need the window at all.
Right-click → sample studio+ → Chop and export with current settings. The extension applies your sticky settings — slice mode, processing chain, naming schema, output options — and writes the whole pack. No window, no clicks. It opens straight to the export tab if you want to glance at the result, or runs through entirely.
Settings persist in the extension's storage between sessions, including your naming presets. Only the per-clip BPM and grid-nudge reset each time you open — everything else is exactly how you left it.
strip silences + normalise → new track
The third command goes even further — it never opens the window and never writes files. It runs your
sticky threshold settings to gate out the silence, normalises each sound to ~0 dB, and drops the samples
straight onto a new samples track in your Set. No window, no export — just a take of
one-shots turned into clips in one click. Reach for it when you want the sounds in the project, not a
pack on disk.
auto-tagging
Every sample is automatically sorted into one of ten categories — driving the
{tag} token, the per-tag export folders, and the drum / melodic split.
The categories: Kick · Snare · Hat · Clap · Perc · Bass · Synth · Pad · Loop · FX.
It's a starting point you stay in control of: open any sample on the design tab and set its category by hand — manual picks show in blue and flow through to the names and folders.
key detection
Each tonal sample is analysed for its musical key (e.g. Amin, F#maj)
to drive the {key} token; it shows next to the tag on the design tab.
Percussion and FX are skipped — drums have no key — and a key is only written when the detection is confident, so the token stays blank rather than guess. Glance over it before you export, the same way you'd glance over the tags.
walkthroughs
Seven end-to-end recipes from real material. Each starts at a right-click and ends with a folder on disk.
a drum kit from a modular jam
You have a 12-second take of one-shots — kicks, snares, hats — recorded loosely with gaps between hits.
- Right-click the audio clip → sample studio+ → Open file in studio
- On slice, set mode → threshold. The recording splits at every silence between hits.
- Drag the threshold number until quiet hits are caught but the noise floor isn't. Raise min silence if a single hit is splitting in two; raise min length to drop tiny fragments. A touch of denoise first helps if the take is hissy.
- Anything still wrong? Drag the dashed line over just that segment to tune its own threshold, or use the remove tool to delete a bad slice.
- Hit Enter for design. Step through with →, headphone on. Add a short fade out to kill tails, and a quick vol swell on the snares for snap.
- Wrong tag on a slice? Use its category dropdown to set it right — this drives the folders.
- Enter for export. Schema
{prefix}_{TAG}_{index}, prefixmodular, turn on folders by tag. - Pick an output folder, leave wav 24-bit, enable normalise. Click export.
Result: modular_KICK_01.wav, modular_SNARE_01.wav … sorted
into kicks/ snares/ hats/ folders, plus a samples track of every slice back in your Set.
tempo-locked loops from a break
You recorded a 4-bar drum loop and want clean bar / beat slices named with their BPM.
- Right-click → Open file in studio, set mode → grid.
- Check the BPM shown left of the grid control. If it's off, drag −/+ to correct it, or click it to reset to auto-detect.
- Drag the grid resolution to
1 bar(or1/4for single beats). - If the cuts land off the downbeat, nudge the whole grid with ◄ ► until the markers sit on the hits.
- Turn on skip silences if there are empty cells you don't want as files.
- Enter → design only if you want fades; otherwise Enter again to export.
- Schema
{prefix}_{bpm}_{index}, prefixbreak. Set manifest → csv and create subfolder on. - Click export.
Result: break_174bpm_01.wav … in an auto-numbered subfolder with a CSV
listing every slice — tempo baked into the name so they drop straight onto a grid.
a keyed melodic folder
A recording of chords and stabs you want labelled with their musical key.
- Right-click → Open file in studio. Use transient mode (cut at each stab) or division if they're evenly spaced.
- Tune the sensitivity so each stab gets one cut. Drag dashed lines to fix any that merged or split.
- Enter → design. Confirm each slice's key reads sensibly next to its tag (it only shows when confident). Add fades so loops don't click.
- Enter → export. Make sure detect key is on. Schema
{prefix}_{key}_{index}, prefixstab. - Leave wav 24-bit · stereo. Click export.
Result: stab_Amin_01.wav, stab_Cmaj_02.wav … Slices the
model wasn't confident about simply omit the {key} rather than guess.
designing a kick — vari, sub, vol
You isolated one kick and want to turn it into a finished, weighty one-shot.
- On slice, hover the kick segment and press Tab to open it directly in design.
- Turn on loop so you hear changes continuously as you drag.
- Drag vari down a little for a lower fundamental — the original ghosts underneath as a grey onion skin while the length stretches.
- Set a slot to sub and drag it onto the start of the waveform; automate its frequency to drop a little as the hit decays for natural weight.
- Set another slot to vol over the attack and bend its curve into a quick swell, so the transient snaps and still cuts.
- Dial the fade out and bend its out curve so the tail dies cleanly.
- Happy with it? Hit render to bake the chain into a pass — now you can stack another round on top of the result.
- ⌘/Ctrl+Z any step you regret; ⇧ to redo.
Result: a designed kick, baked and ready to export — non-destructive until you render, and reversible even then via undo.
building a layered hit
You want a fuller kick — your designed kick plus a click and a sub-boom underneath.
- On layer, the first lanes hold your samples. For each lane, use ∗ to shuffle or ‹ › to step until lane 1 is the body, lane 2 a click / top, lane 3 a sub.
- Press space to hear all the lanes stacked; turn on loop.
- Drag lane 2's clip a hair later to delay the click behind the body; set its volume and roll its tone toward highpass so it sits on top.
- On lane 3, push the volume and roll tone toward lowpass for a clean sub.
- Not feeling it? Hit random to reshuffle the selections, or mix to reshuffle the blend.
- save the stack — it joins your sample pool, ready to name in export like any other sample; or export it on its own.
Result: one composite hit from three sources — saved into the pack, and re-openable in design for further shaping.
batch one treatment across the pack
Every sample needs the same short fade and a touch of shaping — and you don't want to do it 40 times.
- On design, pick a representative sample and dial it in: fade in / out, and a light vol or filter move.
- Click apply to all. The fades and the full processing chain copy to every sample.
- Step through with → to spot-check; tweak any individual sample that needs it (the batch is a starting point, not a lock).
- Enter → export as usual.
Result: a consistent pack with one decision instead of forty — then fine-tuned only where it matters.
the no-window pack
You've found a slice / naming recipe you trust and just want packs out, fast.
- Once, open the studio and set everything the way you like it — mode, processing, schema, format, folders-by-tag. Export once so it all becomes sticky.
- From then on: right-click the next recording → sample studio+ → Chop and export with current settings.
- It applies the whole sticky recipe and writes the pack. Glance at the export tab if you like, or let it run.
Result: a finished, named, tagged pack from a single context-menu click — no window, no clicks.
keyboard
The whole tool is wired to the keyboard — slice, audition, step and export without reaching for the mouse.
| key | does |
|---|---|
| 1 2 3 4 | switch to slice / design / layer / export. |
| Enter | next tab — or export on the last tab. |
| space | play / pause (design audition, slice preview, layer stack). |
| ← → | previous / next sample. With ⇧: trim in / out. |
| Tab | on slice, over a segment: open that sample in design. |
| delete ⌫ | on design: delete the current sample. |
| ⌘/Ctrl+Z | undo. Add ⇧ to redo. |
| Esc | cancel — close the window without writing. |
naming tokens
Build the export filename from these. Any token written UPPERCASE uppercases its value
({TAG} → KICK). Default schema: {prefix}_{TAG}_{key}_{bpm}_{suffix}_{index}
— empty tokens drop out, and runs of underscores collapse.
| token | becomes |
|---|---|
{prefix} | your prefix text (toggle + type). |
{suffix} | your suffix text (toggle + type). |
{tag} | the slice's first tag — kick, snare, hat, clap, perc, bass, synth, pad, loop, fx. |
{tags} | all of the slice's tags, joined with underscores. |
{key} | detected musical key, e.g. Amin — tonal slices only, when confident. |
{index} | running number, zero-padded to index digits. |
{index:pad3} | same, but pad to a fixed width inline — {index:pad3} → 007 — overriding the digits setting. |
{bpm} | tempo with its unit, e.g. 174bpm — populated in grid mode. |
{duration} | slice length in ms, e.g. 493ms. |
{sr} | sample rate in kHz, e.g. 44.1k. |
{date} | export date, YYYY-MM-DD. |
{original} | the source recording's name (falls back to segment_001). |
Any token written ALL-CAPS uppercases its value ({TAG} → KICK).
Save a schema you like with the +; recall or delete saved ones from the ▾.
tips & gotchas
- What you preview is what gets written. The on-screen waveform and audition match the exported result exactly — no surprises between the window and the files on disk.
- The waveform streams in. On a long recording the window opens instantly and the waveform fills in a moment later. That's expected, not a hang.
- render is one-way per pass, but undo isn't. Rendering bakes a pass so you can stack; ⌘/Ctrl+Z still steps back through it.
- Subfolders never overwrite. create subfolder auto-numbers
{prefix}_exported, so repeated exports don't clobber the last one. - Tag once, sort everywhere. Fixing a slice's category on the design tab flows
through to
{tag}, per-tag folders and the drum/melodic split — fix it there, not after. - Handles aren't stable. If you delete or move the source clip mid-session, re-trigger from the object that's still there rather than an old window.
troubleshooting
I don't see the menu item.
Confirm Live is 12.4.5 beta+ and the .ablx is listed in Preferences → Extensions,
then restart Live. Right-click directly on an audio clip, a sample, or a Simpler's sample.
The grid cuts are off the beat.
Correct the BPM first (drag −/+, or click to re-detect), then walk the whole grid onto the downbeat with ◄ ►. Per-cell issues: drag the dashed line on that segment.
A key didn't write.
By design — {key} only writes when the detector is confident, and never for drums/FX.
Verify the tag is tonal and check the key shown on the design tab.
A tag is wrong.
Open the slice on design and set its category dropdown by hand — manual picks show in blue and drive everything downstream (names, folders, the drum / melodic split).
Export wrote nothing where I expected.
Check the output folder is set and that create subfolder didn't place the pack one level deeper than you looked. The file-list preview on the export tab shows exactly what will be written.
Where do logs go?
The Extension Host log: on macOS ~/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live x.x.x/ExtensionHost.txt,
on Windows %APPDATA%\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\ExtensionHost.txt.
stop bouncing one-shots by hand.
One recording in, a finished pack out — sliced, shaped, layered, tagged, named and laid back into your Set. The whole workflow, refined over a decade of building sample libraries at Lux Cache.
luxcache.com/sample-studio · Ableton Live 12 Suite · macOS / Windows