Menu Close

Sound Sampler Manual

Introduction

Controls

Sound mode

Menu

Settings

Script files

App folder

INTRODUCTION

Sound Sampler is a soundboard app for playing sounds on button click. The sounds are customizable and are selected from media files (sound or video) from your device storage. You can create your own unique soundboard. There are 5 different types of buttons for different playing options and you can control sound volume , pitch, speed and balance. There are 3 different sound modes determining how sounds are played – multi layer, single layer and queue mode. For each button you can set options – crop, fade in/out, ping pong and soft stop.

App features:
– set custom sound files from your device (audio or video) for button
– use 5 different types of play (loop, start/stop on press etc…)
– adjust individual sound volume, balance, pitch and speed
– import/export configurations
– browse configurations in configuration browser with option to preview sound of specified button
– use 3 different sound modes – multi layer (many sounds simultaneously), single layer (one sound at a time) and queue (wait for previous sound to finish) modes
– use 3 different queue modes – prime queue (first button stops – next starts), parallel (second button plays with its relative prime button and starts on prime end of loop) and fasttrack (button plays outside of queue)
– assign command on button for playing several buttons simultaneously
assign script on button for playing sequence of buttons and changing playing options
– use file cropping for sound
– fade in/out for sound
– ping pong effect for button sound
– stop fade out
– milisecond definition for effects length
– export and import button configurations
– custom number of buttons
– change button position
– set button name
– control master volume, pitch, speed, balance, low and high shelf equalizer filters

  1. Go to Menu and turn EDIT MODE on
  2. Press a button to go to button settings
  3. Select button type – 1,2,3,4,5
  4. Select the item that will be played on button press using:
    • [Select File] – to browse to file location
    • [Select Audio] – to choose audio from device storage
    • [Select Video] – to choose video from device storage
    • [Internal file] – to select files from internal app folder. For example script files has to be located in app folder so they have to be selected in this way.
  5. Adjust item parameters like crop, fading, volume, pitch, speed etc.
  6. Exit the EDIT MODE (Menu – EDIT MODE)



BUTTON TYPES:

TYPE 1: Green
– On Click – Plays the file

TYPE 2: Blue
– On Click – Plays the file
– On second click – stops playing

TYPE 3: Red
– On Click – Plays the file
– On release – stops playing

TYPE 4: Yellow
– On Click – Plays the file loop
– On release – stops playing

TYPE 5: Orange
– On Click – Plays the file
– On next click – pauses playing
– On next click – resumes playing

Button Settings in Edit Mode
– Button Type – select button type for different playing behavior
– Button position – select button position on soundboard
– Select File – select sound file from file on your device. Files can be audio, video or midi. Note that for Android 10 and further the app has access only to its specific folder. In this case you can access audio and video in other folders using buttons Select Audio and Select Video.
– Select Audio – select audio from device storage
– Select Video – select video from device storage

Other options:

  • Command – starts several buttons simultaneously. Input command like this: {button#,button#,button#}. For example {1,4,10} for starting buttons 1, 4 and 10.
  • Script file – load text script file. For each row in script file – time in seconds and buttons to be pressed are written. The format is: [time in seconds]:[button#1,button#2…]. FIle must be located in app internal folder. Use USB connection to PC and Windows browser to put script file there.

– Button Name – select button name. By default file name is set as button name.
– Volume – set volume for this sound
– Balance – set balance (left – right) for this sound.
– Pitch – set pitch of the sound. 1 is normal pitch.
– Speed – set speed of play. 1 is normal speed
– Shortcut – shortcut for this button to be controlled with external keyboard. Check app shortcuts feature.
– File Crop – used for cropping sound from file. Set start and end position timing. End position must be bigger than start position. Check time interval settings format for time values.
– Fade – set fade in and fade out for sound. Set length for both fades.
– Stop fade out – set fading out on sound stop. Set fade out length. When this is on then when sound stops before reaching the end there will be a fade out with specified length.
– Enable ping pong – sets ping pong panning effect (moves sound left and right). You can set ping pong effect cycle length.

TIME INTERVAL SETTINGS
General time format is:

HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS.MILLISECONDS

For all time intervals you can fill values in format like:
– SECONDS.MILLISECONDS – example – 20.124 means 20 seconds and 124 milliseconds
– MINUTES:SECONDS.MILLISECONDS – 10:20.124 means 10 minutes, 20 seconds and 124 milliseconds
– HOUR:MINUTES:SECONDS.MILLISECONDS – 1:10:20.124 means 1 hour, 10 minutes, 20 seconds and 124 milliseconds

CONTROLS

Master volume, pitch, speed, balance and equalizer low and high filter sliders control sound for all buttons simultaneously. You can hide/show sliders in Settings – Controls or by pressing slider icon in app action bar.
You can enable/disable sliders using check boxes.
You can reset controls to default position using Reset buttons [R] next to them.

SOUND MODE

There are 3 sound modes:

  • MULTI – all buttons can be played simultaneously
  • SINGLE – only one button play. Start of new button stops the previous.
  • QUEUE – when button is pressed it is queued after currently playing. When currently playing finishes then the queued button starts. This mode is available for Blue, Yellow and Orange buttons.

In QUEUE mode there are several submodes. They are controlled with check boxes [=] and [>]:

  • Normal queued mode – activated when QUEUE sound mode is selected and both checkboxes [=] and [>] are unchecked. In this mode if there is playing button the other pressed buttons are queued and will be played after current one finishes or if it is loop button (Yellow) when its loop ends. You can use one or multiple queued buttons by selecting it in SETTINGS – SOUND MODE – Multi queue prime.
  • Parallel queued mode – activated when QUEUE sound mode is selected and checkbox [=] is checked. In this case the parallel queued buttons plays together with current button. Current button is called PRIME and parallel queued – PARALLEL. This is useful when using Yellow loop buttons. In this case the prime button will continue to play after reaching loop end together with parallel queued buttons. You can use one or multiple queued buttons by selecting it in SETTINGS – SOUND MODE – Multi queue parallel.
  • Fast track mode – activated in QUEUE mode by selecting [>] checkbox. This mode allows starting of buttons outside of queue.

EDIT MODE – switches ON/OFF Edit Mode
NEW – creates new blank soundboard
ADD BUTTON – select file and add new button
IMPORT FOLDER – import folder with audio files
APPEND FOLDER – appen folder with audio files
EXPORT CONFIGURATION – exports current soundboard configuration
IMPORT CONFIGURATION – imports existing soundboard configuration
BROWSE CONFIGURATIONS – open configuration browser where you can open and preview configurations by long press congiguration name
SETTINGS – app settings
BACKUP SETTINGS – backup app settings – settings file is exported in phone Download folder
RESTORE SETTINGS – restore app settings by loading app settings file
LOAD DEFAULT CONFIGURATION – loads initial app soundbard configuration
LANGUAGE – select app language
HELP – this manual

SETTINGS

NUMBER OF BUTTONS – number of buttons in current soundboard
USER INTERFACE SETTINGS – settings for app user interface
– Use custom button size – select this if you want to customize button size
– Custom button size – size of the customized button
– Width/height ratio – set button width/height ratio
– Button font size
– Button text maximum lines
– Show button text with capital letters
– Show used effects in button name – when this is active in button name used effects will be included
– Distance size – distance between buttons
– Use scroll zone – select this if there are lot of buttons to ease the scrolling
– Scroll zone size – size of the scroll zone
– Use date time keyboard for time intervals
– Enable button information – when enabled then information about file length, elapsed time and remaining time will be displayed on button
– Show file length information
– Show elapsed and remaining time information
– Button information text size
– Show configuration name – displays configuration name
– Configuration name text size – adjust configuration name text size
– Default new button type – default button type when creating new configurations
– Show sound mode fast switch – displays switch for switching app sound mode – multi layer, single layer and queue

CUSTOM BUTTON SETTINGS – Custom button color can be set in button edit mode. When custom button color is selected then type of button is visible by using icon for different button types. For custom button following things can be set:
– Button icon size
– Adjust automatically button text color – button text color is adjusted based on custom button color brightness
– Use dark text color in button active state – in active state dark color is used even if button text in normal state is automatically set to white when auto adjustment of text color is used
– Button active state brightness – adjust brightness for active state of custom color button

CONTROLS – settings for volume, speed, pitch and balance controls
– Show volume control
– Show pitch control
– Show speed control
– Show balance control
– Show equalizer low frequency control
– Show equalizer high frequency control
– Stop processing when slider is deactivated – when slider check box is unchecked and slider is deactivated the corresponding processing is stopped
– Maximum pitch – maximum pitch for pitch control
– Pitch in semi tones – when this is active pitch control is in semi tones. Useful for music transposition
– Maximum speed – maximum speed value for pitch control
– Auto change pitch on speed change – Automatically adjust pitch when speed changes. When this is switched off then when speed changes the pitch stays the same. When this is switched on pitch increases when speed increasses and pitch decreases when speed decreases.
– Start configuration with all sliders deactivated – when this is on then when new configuration is started or folder of files imported all sliders will be deactivated.
– Long press button to enter button settings – when enabled then on long press of the button will open button settings. Only for red buttons this is not available.
– Resume playing for TYPE5 button on app restart – when this is on then for button TYPE5 files the playing will be resumed from last played position

EQUALIZER SETTINGS

– Low shelf EQ frequency – set low shelf equalizer frequency
– High shelf EQ frequency – set high shelf equalizer frequency
– EQ low filter slope – set low shelf filter slope
– EQ high filter slope – set high shelf filter slope

SHORTCUTS SETTINGS

App buttons and controls can be controlled using external keyboard. For buttons you can set shortcut like A and button will be clicked when A button is clicked on external keyboard. Shortcuts can be also combination like CTRL+A to be controlled by clicking CONTROL button and A button on external keyboard. Possible button combinations are like: CTRL+A, SHIFT+A and ALT+A. For buttons you can set multiple shortcuts separated by space. For example if you set shortcut A 1 F1, then this button will be activated by A button, 1 button and also function button F1.

To set shortcut you have to type in corresponding shortcut settings the shortcut button signature. To get this signature activate “Show message for pressed shortcuts” setting. Then when a button is pressed on external controller then a toast message will be shown with button signature. For example for button [=] the signature is EQUALS and you have to set EQUALS as shortcut.

– Use shortcuts – activate shortcuts. Allows button control using external keyboard.
– Shortcut multi mode – shortcut for switching sound mode to multi mode
– Shortcut single mode – shortcut for switching sound mode to single mode
– Shortcut queue mode – shortcut for switching sound mode to queue mode
– Shortcut parallel – shortcut for activating parallel mode
– Shortcut fast track – shortcut for activating fast track
– Shortcut stop button – shortcut for app [STOP] button

Sliders can be controlled in several ways:

  • directly with buttons for slider up and down for increase and decrease – using buttons with shortcut volume/pitch/speed/EQ high/EQ low/balance up and down
  • by selecting a slider and then use scroll or move controller
  • by selecting a slider and then use buttons with shortcut to increase and decrease active slider

Sliders can be selected using:

  • button with shortcut to change selected slider consecutively – on tapping sliders will be selected one after other. After last slider all sliders are deselected.
  • direcly by using designated button with shortcut to enable each slider – shortcut to activate volume, pitch, speed, EQ hi and EQ low and balance sliders
  • to deselect all sliders you can use button with shortcut to deselect all sliders

Slider value can be changed using:

  • scroll or move using external controller – sensitivity can be changed using Scroll sensitivity and Move sensitivity settings
  • using buttons with shortcuts – shortcut to increase/decrease selected slider – change step can be controlled using Sliders change step setting. This feature can be turned on/off using Enable scroll and move setting.

Sliders can be enabled/disabled using shortcut to enable/disable and select volume/pitch/speed/EQ high/EQ low/balance sliders. When slider is enabled then it is also selected.

Sliders can be reset using shortcuts to reset volume/pitch/speed/EQ high/EQ low/balance slider.


– Show message for pressed shortcuts – show button signature toast message when a button is pressed on external keyboard. Good for figuring out what to put for button shortcut.

CONFIGURATIONS BROWSER – settings for configurations browser where you can preview saved configurations by long press configurations name
– Button to play in browser – set which configuration button to be played for configuration preview
– Sound preview volume – set the volume when configuration is previewed by long press configuration name
– Show suggestions in filter – show suggestions when typing in filter box

IMPORT FOLDER – settings for importing folder of audio files
– Default button type – default button type when importing folder

SOUND MODE – settings for changing app sound mode – multi, single and queue
– Sound mode – select sound mode – multi, single or queue
– Multi queue prime – allows multiple prime buttons to be queued after currently playing button. End of currently playing button (or loop end if it is loop button) starts all prime queued buttons.
– Stop offset on queue – when queue mode is active then set stop offset in milliseconds in order to minimize gap between current and queued button.

NATIVE SOUND – settings about native sound usage for button TYPE1
– Use native sound – use native sound for TYPE1 buttons for low latency. Files must be wav files
– Native sound files type – set what types of wav files (stereo/mono) will be used

– App theme – select light/dark app theme
– Play sounds in background – play sounds while app is in background. Requires notifications permission. App will show notification that it plays in background.
– Zero latency – minimizesdelay on play start. Available in QUEUE mode only.
– Load default settings – loads app default settings

Script Files

Script files can be assigned to a button in order to create automated sequence.

Script file has to be located in app folder. To be able to select script file in button settings use [INTERNAL FILE] button. Use USB connection to PC and Windows browser to put script file there.

Script files have following format:

[time in seconds]:[button #1, button#2]

Also following commands are possible:

  • speed=0.7 (for changing speed to 0.7. Normal speed is 1)
  • pitch=0.5 (for changing pitch to 0.5. Normal pitch is 1)
  • balance=-50 (for changing pitch to -50 angle left. Normal balance is 0)
  • volume=80 (for changing volume to 80% . Normal volume is 100%)
  • reset speed (for resetting speed to 1)
  • reset pitch (for resetting pitch to normal)
  • reset balance (for resetting balance to normal)
  • reset volume (for resetting volume to normal)

Here is an example script file:

0:1
2:2
4:1
5:1
6:2
8:5
10:speed=0.7
10:pitch=0.5
10:balance=-50
10:volume=80
11:5
12:9,10
25:reset speed
25:reset pitch
25:reset balance
25:reset volume
40:stop

Script file instructions are:

time – action
0 seconds – press button 1
2nd second – press button 2
…
10th second – set speed, pitch, balance and volume
10th second – press button 5
11th second – press button 5
12th second – press button 9 and button 10
15th second – press buttons 4 and 10
etc.

You can download this script file here.

App folder

There is difference in location for app folder on devices before Android 11 and devices with Android 11 and more. The reason is introduced “app sandboxing” in Android 11. This means every app has access only to its folder and the location of the folder is hardcoded.

Before Android 11:
The app folder is <phone storage>/SoundSampler

Android 11:
The app folder is
<phone storage>/Android/data/com.gyokovsolutions.soundsampler/files/SoundSampler

With Android 11 to access the app folder you can use:
– file manager app that has access to all folders. If file manager app does not have such access due to “sandboxing” it won’t be able to access app folder.
– USB connection with cable to PC. Make sure you are using Windows File Explorer and go to Android/data folder. There you will see all apps folders.



-->