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#1 2013-02-22 23:35:05

hatchetfishbobsteve
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-02
Posts: 19

Use audio files as instruments?

Hey, I tried putting this idea forward before, but nobody seemed to notice, so here it is again.

First of all, I love what the Scratch team does, and they're all great, but...the instrument samples in 2.0 are /terrible/. No offense.  tongue

So I had this idea...would it be at all possible for the program to allow a recording or an uploaded file to be used as an instrument sample? I mean, it wouldn't hurt to have some better stock samples (honestly, I'd be more than happy to provide some myself!), but I myself just think it'd be useful to allow for scratchers to upload their own instrument samples, and then other scratchers can use the instrument samples in their own projects. I dunno, is this idea too complex or too narrow? I for one think it's good. Does anybody else have an opinion?

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#2 2013-02-23 10:47:10

zammer990
Scratcher
Registered: 2012-01-22
Posts: 500+

Re: Use audio files as instruments?

It's a good idea, but changing things like tempo on a piece of music is hard, considering Scratch isn't really focused on music. For example, say I uploaded a song as an instrument, how do you play 0.2 beats of bohemian rhapsody? The music controls already let you play uploaded music, so it's already doable, just upload whatever instrument you want as a music file, then use the "play sound" block.


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#3 2013-02-23 22:00:31

Mokat
Scratcher
Registered: 2011-12-08
Posts: 1000+

Re: Use audio files as instruments?

^What zammer990 said. Also, if you want to play only a small amount of a song then you can edit it using a program like Audacity to change the duration. Hope this helps  smile


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#4 2013-05-03 17:09:19

hatchetfishbobsteve
Scratcher
Registered: 2007-07-02
Posts: 19

Re: Use audio files as instruments?

Uh, that's not what I really meant. I mean, of COURSE it'd be impractical to put a whole song into an instrument block.  tongue

Now, a single note of a single instrument, on the other hand, is a different story. That's called "sampling" and has been used in music since at least like the 80's. Herbie Hancock explains it prettty well here: http://www.scratch.mit.edu/ext/youtube/?v=oKoisNv1ftw

Say you found a recording of a single piano note--there are TONS of those on freesound.org alone--or a drum hit or what have you, I was suggesting for there to be a function to use a sound like this as an instrument block. It could be played at different pitches, which is really what I mean about using a sound file as an instrument.

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#5 2013-05-04 12:19:30

kayybee
Scratcher
Registered: 2009-12-07
Posts: 1000+

Re: Use audio files as instruments?

Or: get musescore, import your fancy sound file, write your music, export as wav, import to scratch.

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#6 2013-05-04 12:43:07

veggieman
Scratcher
Registered: 2011-08-12
Posts: 100+

Re: Use audio files as instruments?

hatchetfishbobsteve wrote:

Uh, that's not what I really meant. I mean, of COURSE it'd be impractical to put a whole song into an instrument block.  tongue

Now, a single note of a single instrument, on the other hand, is a different story. That's called "sampling" and has been used in music since at least like the 80's. Herbie Hancock explains it prettty well here: http://www.scratch.mit.edu/ext/youtube/?v=oKoisNv1ftw

Say you found a recording of a single piano note--there are TONS of those on freesound.org alone--or a drum hit or what have you, I was suggesting for there to be a function to use a sound like this as an instrument block. It could be played at different pitches, which is really what I mean about using a sound file as an instrument.

That could definitely work and be really cool, but how would Scratch distinguish between a single sound and a whole song? Have some cutoff sound length?


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#7 2013-05-04 13:26:44

Hyperbola
Scratcher
Registered: 2013-03-15
Posts: 100+

Re: Use audio files as instruments?

kayybee wrote:

Or: get musescore, import your fancy sound file, write your music, export as wav, import to scratch.

So I won't be able to let people make songs in scratch with a custom instrument?


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#8 2013-05-05 18:58:39

kayybee
Scratcher
Registered: 2009-12-07
Posts: 1000+

Re: Use audio files as instruments?

Hyperbola wrote:

kayybee wrote:

Or: get musescore, import your fancy sound file, write your music, export as wav, import to scratch.

So I won't be able to let people make songs in scratch with a custom instrument?

I guess not, not until the Scratch Team has time to do this.

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