Audio Files and Samples contain digitally recorded sound. For more background info on digital audio, check this Wikipedia page.
In MuLab, an Audio File is an AIFF or WAVE file that is streamed from disk at its original pitch, and because it's streamed it can be as long as you want because only the actual portion that is playing is loaded into RAM.
How to import Audio Files into MuLab:
- By drag-drop onto the Composer.
- By drawing a new Audio Part in the Composer.
- Via the "Open..." option in the Audio Files list.
Because MuLab streams Audio Files at the current audio engine's samplerate, an Audio File that has a different samplerate than the samplerate of your audio device would sound at higher/lower pitch.
For example, imagine you have an audio file with a 440 Hz sine wave recorded at samplerate 44.1 kHz. Now if you would play it back at 96 kHz, that would result in a (96/44.1) x 440 = 957.8 Hz sine wave.
To anticipate for this possible problem, MuLab will check the samplerate of the Audio Files you're using and if necessary, MuLab will propose to resample the Audio File so to match the current audio device samplerate and so it will still sound at its original pitch.
A Sample at the other hand is an AIFF, WAVE, MP3 or OGG file that is fully loaded into RAM, and so it can be easily pitched up/down using a (Multi) Sample Player module.
If MuLab finds a key name in the Sample name, for example "Trumpet-C4" implicitly tells that it's a Trumpet at C4, MuLab will set the root key for that Sample to C4 and so the Sample will play at its original pitch on C4.
You can edit the root key for a Sample via the Sample's context menu -> Edit Properties.
When using a Sample in the Multi Sample Player, and if there is no explicit root key set, the Multi Sample Player uses an implicit root key which is in the middle of the zone.
How to import Samples into MuLab:
- Via the SESSION -> Add A Sample context function.
- By drag-dropping an audio file onto a Sample Player's audio display, e.g. onto MuSampla's audio display.
- Via the "Open..." option in the Samples list.
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