Editing Sample wav Files?

[Doug S.]

Can existing wet sample files be edited in something like Audacity to dramatically decrease the sound volume of the "dry" and leave the "wet" tails unaltered?
Thanks,
Doug

[mdyde]

Hello Doug,

Could you clarify what you mean by 'decreasing the volume of the dry'? For example, are you referring to simply making the attack/sustain portion of a sample quieter, relative to its release tail?

(It isn't possible truly to remove reverb from any portion of a wet sample alone.)

[Doug S.]

Martin,
I "shadow" the actual pipework in my hybrid with equivalent wet HW samples to provide a most satisfactory non sterile wet overall sound. Doing this seamlessly with non hybrid stops requires raising the overall loudness of the whole instrument beyond what one might wish.

What I want to do Martin, is just the opposite. I want to preserve the volume of the reverberant tails after the note is released and suppress the volume heard when the key is struck and held.
Thanks,
Doug

[mdyde]

Hello Doug,

Thanks for the clarification. In that case, if the sample set's licence allows it (which notably wouldn't be the case for a copy-protected sample set), it would technically be possible for you to edit the WAV files to to reduce levels of their attack/sustain portions. You would need to be very careful not to change or remove any other data in the files (especially loops points, cue points, pitch information). Also, be aware that if you subsequently applied an upgrade to the sample set from its maker then it could potentially overwrite your changed files, so you would need to keep backup copies, so that you could copy them back in afterwards if needed.

[Doug S.]

Martin,
Are the points you identify easy to spot with the right editor?
Might this capability be added to a future CODM rev.?
Thanks,
Doug

[mdyde]

Hello Doug,

Are the points you identify easy to spot with the right editor?

They're standard features in WAV files, so yes -- good-quality audio editors (probably including Audacity) will almost certainly make them visible/editable, but I'll have to leave that to you if you want to try it.

Might this capability be added to a future CODM rev.?

I don't think it's functionality that would be of interest to enough people for it to be worth us including in Hauptwerk, I'm afraid. (It wouldn't be sufficient to adjust the levels of attack vs. release samples as wholes anyway, in an organ definition or otherwise, since envelopes/fades would be needed to avoid potentially blips in amplitude on key release, as the portions of the samples were cross-faded). Sorry!