WRITTEN BY CAROL MA
FOLEY EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST
In past blog posts, we have mentioned different ways to optimize Kontakt, or other samplers, to digitally walk foley for our shows and how advantageous it has been in animation. It often involved pulling walk cycles into Pro Tools and cutting up small samples then exporting the samples and pulling them into Kontakt. This method, although convenient, is not the only way to create footstep samples. In this blog post, I will do my best to give instructions on how to create samples without having to cut up the original audio file in Pro Tools; and instead splice or split the original audio file within Kontakt then mapping it to your desired keys, keeping the source file intact! Woohoo, get excited!
Let’s Dive Right In!
First grab a walk cycle, or even a repetitive sound effect, and pull the whole file into Kontakt. It does not matter where you place the audio file.
Ensure that the file is selected, then open the Wave editor tab in Kontakt. The window should then pop up underneath the mapping editor window and show us the waveform.
Next select the “Sync/Slice” tab in the wave editor and turn on the “Grid.” This should add markers to allow us to slice up the audio file.
In the “width” section there should be a fraction listed, this tells how it’s dividing up the audio file. Personally, I prefer selecting the lowest width and working from there to add/delete my markers. Select the very first blue marker on the top of the wave window and pull it to the first transient of the footstep or sound effect. This should drag all the other blue markers in tandem with it; which is fine.
Near the right edge of this window there should be a “+” and “-” sign with a blue flag on top of it; giving the option to add or delete markers.
Select the “+” sign. When the cursor is moved to the top of the wave window a faint flag should appear, similar to all the other markers. Left click (or right click if that’s your main selector button on your mouse) to add markers to all the other footstep or sound effect transients. After adding them, a grey line should appear.
At the bottom of the wave window, there should be a green tab marked “s” and orange tab marked “e” standing for “start” and “end” respectively. Click and drag the “s” marker to the first grey marker and do the same with the “e” marker; selecting where you want the sound to start and how many “samples” you want to create.
In the center box un-select the “auto find empty keys,” which is bright orange. Next to it, type in where you want to Kontakt to place these slices. Then press the “Drag Midi to Host” button” and this should plop the slices in the proper places!
The last mapped key is usually the whole audio file or extra sound at the end, which I tend to delete. Move any sample, if necessary, and enjoy all your mapped foley sample needs.
Though similar to the other method of creating samples, this one saves the trouble of having multiple audio files with the same name in kontakt. In my personal opinion, this method also saves time with characters who only show up once in an episode or have a very specific sweetener for one episode/segment. Overall both do what is necessary and both have pros and cons.
If you enjoyed this blog, you should also check out:
SWEETENING FOLEY
ONE STEP AT A TIME: THE PROCESS AND BENEFITS OF DIGITAL FOLEY
GUERRILLA RECORDING: BE YOUR OWN FOLEY TEAM AT HOME