Akai S950 Operator's Manual page 98

So, once those numbers are in the sampler, you can EDIT the sample. Here, you
can instruct the computer to mess around with the data rather like you can
use a word processor to edit text. The most basic thing you tell it to do is
to actually play the sound.
Let us imagine that we have taken a one second sample at a bandwidth of 16k
to give us a sample that is 39,900 of these digital numbers long, when you
play a note on your MIDI controller, the- computer reads out the numbers from
1 to 39,900 from the RAM - the stream of numbers is then fed through the DAC
and we hear the sound. If we tell the computer to read out those numbers at a
faster speed - the sound will be higher in pitch. Similarly, if we tell the
computer to read out those numbers slower, the sound will be lower in pitch.
Now then, you could also instruct the computer to read those numbers out from
39,900 down to 1 - in other words, the sound will come out backwards.
But we have a problem here with this sample we have just taken because
someone in the background coughed just before the sound and then laughed dust
after the sample was taken. Well, you could instruct the computer to rend out
only numbers 3,000 to 27,350 - now you won't hear the cough at the start or
the laugh at the end of the sample ° you have just edited the start and end
points of the sample.
But we have another problem now.. This one second sample only lasts half a
second when you play it an octave up so you can tell the computer to read out
those numbers from 3,000 to 27,350 but then, when it has finished doing that,
to read out numbers 25,180 to 27,350 over and over and over again for as long
as you keep your finger on the keyboard ° you have just looped a sample so
that it sustains for as long as you hold a key down. If the loop sounds a bit
odd and full of glitches and clicks, you can even tell the computer to help
find a better loop point using an AUTOLOOP function.
FIG. 3. Looping a sound
We do have another problem though:
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