MASTERCLASS
Discover the latest time-saving programs and workflow features that samplists should know
Artificial intelligence is well and truly here, and even past naysayers must be finding it harder to deny its inevitable further symbiosis with human life across the board. AI has been with us for a while in music technology, with noise removal and restoration software being the most viable use case, and some compelling uses in mixing and mastering technology too.
More recently, as AI booms across disciplines, we’ve seen more powerful uses of AI in music tech, from the generating professional singers of Voice-Swap and the sampleinterpolating powers of Synplant 2 to tools like Riffusion that will generate whole songs – or at least snippets – that sound pretty legit.
Perhaps one of the least expected areas of musical workflow to be impacted by AI is that of sample library management: a seemingly menial, overlooked part of our creative process that, on the surface, might not seem like it needs much attention. However, applications like Atlas 2, Cosmos, XO and Sononym have proven that this is an area of everyday work that can not only be enhanced but made fun and creative with the implementation of AI.
These sample management tools are built to change how we interact with and navigate our sample libraries, breathing life into a fairly tedious task. Using AI, they can accurately sort samples into advanced categories based on the audio’s characteristics. Applications like Atlas 2 go further, letting you build kits and sequences from your samples that can be imported directly into your DAW as MIDI data or raw audio, with great efficiency.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the leading AI sample management software/plugins and attempt to demonstrate the pros and cons of each, to better inform you of their potential applications. We also hope to show you just how effective these new AI-driven technologies are at enhancing our workflow as musicians. After all, if something simple like sample management can benefit so deeply from artificial intelligence, imagine the potential improvements in other areas of our creative process.
Maybe there’s a place for all of these sample managers in your digital toolkit. After all, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, proving efficient in different applications. There’s no reason why you couldn’t rely on Sononym to collate some truly similar samples, and then import them into Atlas 2 for an easy-to-navigate visual map of them grouped together.
The choice is yours, but we recommend jumping into each sample manager at your leisure to find a workflow that suits your needs. After all, you’re sure to find some benefit from the AI’s assistance in one form or another.
