CONCEPTS - Soundsources

Soundsources in Trilian are typically quite large, and can be made up of thousands of samples. A Soundsource can include chromatically sampled, velocity-switched multi-samples mapped across the full range of the keyboard, multiple channels for Mic and Direct Pickup Input (DI) sources, plus Round Robin samples, Legato samples, and articulations such as Release Noises, Slides, and other performance effects. All of these can be included when you load a single Soundsource!

Soundsources are based on a ‘map’ of audio samples stored in Trilian’s ‘Core Library’ in the proprietary Spectrasonics STEAM format. Each Soundsource was carefully prepared and optimized by the Spectrasonics Sound Development team.

Larger and more complex Soundsources take a bit longer to load, but still load relatively quickly, since the STEAM Engine includes “streaming” technology to allow for playback of very large multi-samples.

Streaming allows for the samples to buffer off of the computer’s hard drive in real time, instead of all of the samples having to be loaded into the computer’s physical RAM first.

Still, very large Soundsources can demand a great deal of a system’s Memory resources. Trilian includes useful controls for memory management and “sample thinning”, which allow you to reduce the number of samples that will load with a Soundsource, giving you just the sound you need while allowing conservation of system resources.

Soundsources in Trilian are somewhat similar to “programs” in some samplers, but there are some key differences:

1.    A Soundsource contains not only all of the raw samples and mapping information, such as pitch, velocity, zones, and loop points – but also Soundsource images, notes and tags.

2.    Soundsources do not include envelopes, filters, LFOs, FX or any modulation settings (which are stored in the Patch instead).

For this reason, you can load a new Soundsource into a Layer without changing any of the Layer’s parameter settings. This is extremely useful because you can take any Patch you like and create countless variations on it simply by changing the loaded Soundsource! This is something like changing waveforms on an analog hardware synth, but with far more possibilities.

Spectrasonics is constantly improving and adding to the Factory Soundsource Library, so make sure you stay up to date with the “Check for Updates” feature.