Sample Instruments
The Sample family turns loaded or captured audio into playable instruments. Choose by the kind of source movement or performance structure you need; each linked guide covers the complete controls, routing, and state behavior.
Workflow
- Insert the required output format—stereo, multichannel, or Ambisonic—and match the REAPER track width to its fixed output.
- Establish monitoring before loading audio. Route ordinary multichannel outputs to speakers, a direct panner, or Output Autogain Stereo/Quad; follow Processor Ambi Grain with an ambisonic decoder.
- Load the source files, or route live input to Sample Circulator or Sample Rings for capture. Choose the storage policy below for file-backed sources.
- Use the instrument guide for its source regions, timing, MIDI, processing, and routing controls, then audition and save the project.
Choose an Instrument
| Instrument | Use it for | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Sample Player | Chromatic one-shots and forward, reverse, wrapping, or ping-pong loops from one file. | Stereo or 16-channel |
| Sample Doubles | Two independently positioned copies of one source, with offset timing and performance crossfading. | Stereo |
| Sample Wavesets | Chromatic playback of zero-crossing groups, with ordered or distributed triggering. | Stereo or 32-channel |
| Sample Motion | Bounded source trajectories combined with continuous or retriggered segment events. | Stereo or 32-channel |
| Sample Lanes | Continuous loop paths through as many as four independently timed files. | Stereo or 32-channel |
| Sample Grains | Overlapping granular events drawn from a four-file source field. | Stereo or 32-channel |
| Sample Cutups | Clocked file-to-file cuts using equal or transient-derived source regions. | Stereo or 32-channel |
| Sample Slicer | Equal or transient slicing of as many as four breaks into mapped MIDI voices. | Stereo or 16-channel |
| Sample Circulator | Crossfading two loaded or live-captured performance loops. | Stereo |
| Sample Rings | Moving eight read heads through as many as 32 file or input-channel rings. | 8-channel |
| Processor Ambi Grain | Granulating 1OA, 2OA, or 3OA ACN/SN3D media as one coherent field. | 16-channel Ambisonic bus |
Sample Storage
| Mode | Behavior | Best use |
|---|---|---|
PROJECT | Copies the unchanged source into the saved REAPER project's s3g Samples media directory and stores a path reference. | Normal sessions; the default |
LINK | References the original file without copying it. | Stable externally managed media |
EMBED | Stores decoded floating-point audio in CLAP state. | Self-contained exchange |
PROJECT requires a saved REAPER project and supported project-media access. Until both are available, collection remains pending and the current source stays usable. Copies are content-verified and reused when the source is unchanged. Registered media follows a REAPER Save As only when a copy-media option is selected.
LINK keeps state small but requires the original path to remain valid. EMBED is portable, but decoded audio can be much larger than the source file and may enlarge host undo snapshots; prefer PROJECT for routine work. Missing paths remain available for later relinking. Generated Slicer material can be written as project media, while live captures remain embedded.
Sample Player, Doubles, Wavesets, Motion, Lanes, Grains, Slicer, Rings, and Processor Ambi Grain use this three-mode policy. Sample Circulator is the exception: it always embeds its two stereo loops, with a capacity of approximately 32 seconds per loop.