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. Use an ambisonic decoder for Processor Ambi Grain or the Ambisonic output of Neon and Decks.
- Load the source files, or route live input to Sample Circulator, Rings, Neon, or Decks for capture. Choose the storage policy below for your samples and recordings.
- 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 Kit | Sixteen mono/stereo pads with shared-source chopping, alternate hits, sound shaping, choke groups, a mixer, character effects, and pair routing. | 2–32 channels |
| Sample Neon 32 | Thirty-two performance pads with 32-layer stacks, nine playback methods, chopping, live input and internal resampling, and one/two NEON controller integration with Tracker. | 32-channel port; stereo, quad, octo or 1OA–3OA ACN/SN3D buses |
| Sample Decks 32 | Two 32-layer stacks with nine playback methods, crossfader performance, deck-to-deck resampling, live input recording, and optional Beatpad 2 control. | 32-channel port; stereo, quad, octo or 1OA–3OA ACN/SN3D buses, with separate stereo headphone cue |
| 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 |
Choose Neon when you want to launch and sequence many pad cells. Choose Decks when you want to work between two evolving stacks: mix them, navigate their layers, and record one into the other. Both work on screen without their matching controllers. Decks also provides headphone cue for auditioning a deck before bringing it into the main mix.
Sample Storage
| Mode | Behavior | Best use |
|---|---|---|
PROJECT | Collects source audio into the saved REAPER project's s3g Samples media directory and stores a path reference. Supported recordings and generated samples are collected too. | 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 project files small but requires the original path to remain valid. EMBED is portable, but decoded audio can be much larger than the source file; prefer PROJECT for routine work. Missing paths remain available for later relinking. In Neon, Decks, and Rings, completed captures are collected in Project mode and stay embedded until collection succeeds; Link and Embed keep those captures embedded. See each instrument's guide for its generated-audio storage options.
Sample Player, Doubles, Wavesets, Motion, Lanes, Grains, Slicer, Rings, Sample Neon 32, Sample Decks 32, and Processor Ambi Grain use this three-mode policy. Sample Circulator automatically collects completed loops into project media, keeps them embedded until collection succeeds, and embeds both loops when saving a preset.