sample studio+

what it is

Give sample studio+ one long recording, such as a modular session, a sound design jam, a drum take or a looped break. It cuts it into WAV files and names and tags each one, so the folder is ready to use as a pack. In Live, it also adds a track with every sample on it to your Set.

You work through four tabs in one window:

Auto-tagging and key detection label each sample, so the file names and folders sort themselves.

This is the process Lux Cache has used to build sample packs for over ten years, in one tool. You start from audio you already have, adjust the result, and sample studio+ writes the pack.

install & requirements

One download holds sample studio+ in two forms. The plugin is a standalone app, VST3 and AU on macOS, and a standalone app and VST3 on Windows. The Ableton Live extension is an .ablx file. Only the extension is connected to Live: you open it by right-clicking a clip, and it sends a track of finished samples back into your Set.

the plugin

• macOS or Windows.
• Any VST3 or AU host. You need no host if you use the standalone app.

1. Open the download and run the installer for your system.
2. Rescan plugins in your DAW, or open the standalone app.

The plugin and the extension work differently in a few places. See extension or plugin.

the Ableton extension

• Ableton Live 12 Suite, build 12.4.5 beta or newer. This is the first build with the Extensions SDK.
• The .ablx file, for example sample-studio+-by-Lux-Cache-1.3.4.ablx. It is in your download, next to the installer.

1. In Live, open Preferences → Extensions.
2. Drag the .ablx file into the Extensions pane.
3. Restart Live so the Extension Host loads it.
4. Right-click an audio clip. If the install worked, you see a sample studio+ submenu.

extension or plugin

The slice, design, layer and export tabs are the same in both. The differences are in how audio gets in and where the pack goes. In this manual, anything that needs Live is marked Live extension only.

opening the tool

In Live, right-click anything that holds audio and choose from the sample studio+ submenu. In the plugin, load audio on the input tab.

in Live: where the menu appears

Live extension only.

You can right-click:

• an Audio Clip, in Session View or in the Arrangement
• a Sample file
• the sample loaded in a Simpler

in Live: the three commands

Live puts the extension's name before each command, so the menu shows sample studio+: …

in the plugin

The plugin and the standalone app open on the input tab, where you load or record audio.

the window

The window has four tabs: slice → design → layer → export. A footer runs along the bottom of every tab. It holds the LC mark, a help line that describes whatever is under your cursor, and the cancel and next buttons. On the export tab, next becomes export.

The top right corner always shows how many segments you have and the length of the recording, with undo and redo. The help line in the footer is never empty. When nothing is under the cursor, it describes the current mode.

how you touch it

sample studio+ has no sliders and no outlined buttons. It uses four gestures, and every control works with one of them.

The help line in the footer describes whatever is under your cursor.

0 · input

The input tab is where audio gets into the plugin and the standalone app. It sits left of slice, and it is the tab they open on. The other tabs light up once audio is loaded.

Plugin and standalone app only. In Live, you right-click a clip instead.

You can:

• drag in a recording: wav, aiff, flac, mp3 or m4a
• click open from finder…
• record a new take

Load one long take to slice it, or several samples to edit them as regions, one segment for each file.

record

Pick a source from select audio in, then click ● record.

macOS asks for permission the first time you record from a source. The meter shows the input level.

While you record, the waveform draws as it comes in, and you can pause, stop or cancel. When you stop, the take loads on the slice tab. In a DAW, you can close and reopen the plugin window during a take. The recording carries on.

1 · slice

The slice tab shows the recording as a detailed waveform. Pick one of six detection modes from the mode dropdown, bottom right. The default is threshold. Then adjust single cuts by hand.

the six modes

01 threshold

Cuts out the silence between sounds, like a gate. min silence sets the shortest gap that counts. learn reads the noise in the recording and sets the threshold just above it. Good for a take of one-shots.

02 transient

Cuts at the start of each hit. Set how many hits it finds with sensitivity.

03 grid

Cuts on Ableton's tempo grid. The BPM is detected for you, and you can nudge it and skip silent cells. See below.

04 division

Cuts the sound into N equal slices. The "full file" option divides the whole file, edge to edge.

05 markers

Cuts at the clip's Ableton warp markers. Use it on a loop you have already warped. In the plugin this mode is called regions, and it makes one segment for each file you load.

06 manual

No automatic detection. Draw each region by dragging across the waveform.

grid mode: cut on the tempo

Grid mode takes the tempo grid from Ableton and cuts on it. It is the fastest way to turn a loop into clean slices named with their tempo.

• In Live, BPM comes from Ableton's tempo. In the plugin, or if Live's tempo cannot be used, the BPM is detected from the audio. It shows to the left of the grid control. Click − or + to change it by 1 BPM, and click the BPM to go back to the automatic value.
• ◄ ► moves the whole grid earlier or later, so it lines up with the downbeat.
• Drag grid to set the slice length: 1/32 · 1/16 · 1/8 · 1/4 · 1/2 · 1 bar … 8 bars. Double-click it to type a length from 1 to 64 bars.
• skip silences leaves out empty grid cells between hits. It still works if the grid is slightly off.
• Each slice is tagged as drum or melodic, and you can still split single segments. Put {bpm} in the file name and turn on folders by tag to sort the result.

adjust one cut at a time

In every mode, you can change the setting for one segment on its own. Drag the dashed line over a segment. Depending on the mode, this sets its threshold in dB, its transient sensitivity, or how many parts to split it into (×N). The value shows above the segment as you drag.

A segment with its own setting has a blue line. Double-click the blue line to remove the setting, so the segment uses the main setting again.

min length removes any slice shorter than the value you set. The default is 50 ms. It works in threshold, transient, grid and division modes.

the keyboard, preview and remove tools

Three tools sit at the top right of the slice tab:

• keyboard (on by default). Play the slices from your computer keyboard. The keys a to p play 16 slices. z and x move to the next or previous 16.
• preview (the headphone icon). Click a segment to play it from its start. In manual mode it plays from where you click. space plays it again. You cannot edit while preview is on.
• remove. Click a segment, or drag across several, to delete them.

With no tool on, hover over a segment and press space to hear it.

When you hover over a tool or turn it on, every segment is tinted so you can see what will happen: blue for preview, red for remove.

edit the waveform by hand

When neither tool is on, you can edit the waveform directly in any mode:

Changes you make on the design tab show here as manual cuts.

advanced settings and denoise

A row of advanced settings sits at the top left of the slice tab:

2 · design

On the design tab you listen to one sample at a time and shape it. Each effect block draws what it is doing on the waveform. The drawing updates as you drag, while the sample loops.

listen

• play (space) and loop. Use ← → for the previous or next sample.
• Turn on the headphone toggle to hear each sample as you step to it.

edges and fades

vari: speed and pitch together

vari, in the toolbar, speeds up or slows down the whole sample, like tape. The range is −100…+100%, which is ±2 octaves. It changes the sample's length. The original stays visible underneath in grey. vari runs first, before the fx chain.

the fx chain

There are three fx slots: fx1 · fx2 · fx3. Each holds one effect, which you pick from the slot's dropdown. Drag an effect onto the waveform and it becomes a region you can move, with a coloured tint and its own display. The effects run in slot order, fx1 → fx2 → fx3. Click a block to bring it to the front.

• Automation. Each block's value is a curve you can edit. Click to add a point, drag points to move them, and double-click a point to remove it. Hover over a line to show its curve handle, then drag the handle to bend the line. The value shows next to the point as you drag, and in the slot's label.
• Edge fades. Each block fades in and out at its edges to avoid clicks. Drag the fade handles to change the fades, and bend them with their curve handles. The tint and the automation line fade with them.

the eight effects

Any slot can hold any of these eight effects:

randomise

The ∗ button puts a random chain on the sample. It fills the slots with effects, places the blocks across the sample and draws large automation curves. Use it to find sounds you would not make by hand. ⌘/Ctrl+Z undoes it.

change a sample's category

Each sample has a category dropdown next to its length. If the auto-tagger picked the wrong category, set it here. A category you pick shows in blue. The sample's detected key shows next to it.

more design controls

3 · layer

The layer tab stacks up to four samples into one sound. Each lane shows a sample with all its design changes. If you change a sample on the design tab, its lane updates straight away.

controls for each lane

• To the right of each lane: ▶ plays only this lane, ∗ picks a random sample for it, and ‹ n / total › steps through the samples. Drag a lane's clip along the waveform to delay it.
• The mix row along the bottom is tinted in the lane's colour. Double-click a value to reset it. It has volume (dB), pan (L / C / R), delay, tone, vari, reverse, mute and solo. tone is a DJ-style filter: left is lowpass, right is highpass and the centre is off. vari changes the lane's speed and pitch, like the design tab's vari. reset, at the right end of the row, clears the delay, volume, pan, tone and reverse of every lane.

controls at the top

4 · export

On the export tab you name the samples, choose where they go, and write the pack. The file list on the right updates as you change the names.

name the files

You build each file name from tokens. Write a token in UPPERCASE to put its value in capitals: {TAG} gives KICK, and {tag} gives kick. The default schema is {prefix}_{TAG}_{key}_{bpm}_{suffix}_{index}. Empty tokens are left out. For example, a drum has no key and a one-shot has no BPM. The token list below has every token.

the file list

The file list on the right shows every file name that will be written. Click a row to hear that sample. Only one plays at a time. Use it to check the pack before you write it.

output and finishing

what export writes

export writes every sample as a WAV file into your folder. In Live, it also adds a new samples track to your Set, with one white clip for each sample. The pack is then on disk and in your project.

In Live, the footer also has save to live. It adds the samples to your Set as clips and writes no files.

the quick commands

Live extension only.

Once your slice and naming settings are right, you can go straight from a right-click to the export tab.

Right-click and choose sample studio+ → Chop and export with current settings. It slices the recording with your saved settings and opens the window on the export tab. Check the file list, then click export.

strip silences + normalise → new track

The third command never opens the window and never writes files. It uses your saved threshold settings to cut out the silences, normalises each sound to about 0 dB, and puts the samples on a new samples track in your Set. Use it when you want a take of one-shots as clips in your project, with no pack on disk.

auto-tagging

Every sample is sorted into one of ten categories. The category fills in the {tag} token, decides the folder when you export by tag, and marks the sample as drum or melodic.

The categories are kick · snare · hat · clap · perc · bass · synth · pad · loop · fx.

You can change any category. Open the sample on the design tab and pick its category by hand. Categories you pick show in blue, and they are used in the file names and folders.

key detection

sample studio+ detects the musical key of each pitched sample, for example Amin or F#maj. The key fills in the {key} token and shows next to the tag on the design tab.

Percussion and FX samples are skipped, because drums have no key. A key is only written when the detection is confident. Otherwise the token stays blank. Check the keys before you export, as you would check the tags.

walkthroughs

Seven walkthroughs on real recordings. Each starts with a right-click in Live and ends with a folder on disk. In the plugin, load the recording on the input tab instead, and skip the steps about Live.

keyboard

You can slice, listen, step through samples and export from the keyboard.

naming tokens

Build the file name from these tokens. Write a token in UPPERCASE to put its value in capitals ({TAG} gives KICK). The default schema is {prefix}_{TAG}_{key}_{bpm}_{suffix}_{index}. Empty tokens are left out, and a run of underscores becomes one.

Save a schema you like with +. Load or delete saved schemas from ▾.

tips & gotchas

• What you hear is what gets written. The waveform and the preview match the exported files exactly.
• The waveform loads after the window. On a long recording, the window opens at once and the waveform appears a moment later. This is normal.
• You can undo a render. Render writes the effects into the sample so you can add more. ⌘/Ctrl+Z still undoes it.
• Subfolders never overwrite. create subfolder numbers each {prefix}_exported folder, so a new export never replaces the last one.
• Fix tags on the design tab. A category you set there changes {tag}, the folders and the drum or melodic label. Fix it before you export.
• In Live, reopen from the clip if you move it. If you delete or move the source clip while the window is open, close the window and open it again from the clip.

troubleshooting

I don't see the menu item.

This applies to the Ableton extension. Check that Live is 12.4.5 beta or newer, and that the .ablx is listed in Preferences → Extensions. Then restart Live. Right-click directly on an audio clip, a sample, or the sample in a Simpler.

The grid cuts are off the beat.

Correct the BPM first. Click − or +, or click the BPM to detect it again. Then move the whole grid onto the downbeat with ◄ ►. If only one cell is wrong, drag the dashed line on that segment.

A key didn't write.

This is expected. {key} is only written when the detection is confident, and never for drums or FX. Check that the tag is a pitched one, and check the key shown on the design tab.

A tag is wrong.

Open the sample on design and pick the right category from its category dropdown. Categories you pick show in blue. They change the file names, the folders and the drum or melodic label.

Export wrote nothing where I expected.

Check that the output folder is set. If create subfolder is on, the pack is one folder further down. The file list on the export tab shows what will be written.

Where do logs go?

To the Extension Host log. On macOS it is ~/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live x.x.x/ExtensionHost.txt. On Windows it is %APPDATA%\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\ExtensionHost.txt.