How To Use The Quick Sampler In Logic Pro | 3 Practical Methods

Apple’s Logic Pro is one of the most versatile Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) used by musicians and producers with different levels of expertise. Among its many features, the Quick Sampler stands out as a powerful and easy-to-use tool that allows you to sample and manipulate audio.

There are different approaches to using the Quick Sampler in Logic. In this post, I will walk you through everything you need to know to sample audio in Logic, whether you want to sample drum kit pieces, bass lines, or synths.

Getting Started: Sampling Drum sounds

One of the most common uses of a sampler is to add custom drum sounds to a project. Although Logic’s library has many high-quality patches and presets for a variety of instruments, you might stumble upon samples from different sources that fit your project better. Moreover, you might wanna use Logic’s sounds as a foundation and manipulate the audio to achieve your desired sound.

Either way, you’d want to start by creating a software instrument track to use the Quick Sampler:

•  Click “+” from the top-left corner of the track header area.
•  Select “Software Instrument” and click “Create.”

By default, Logic will load up “E-Piano” as your virtual instrument. Let’s go ahead and change that to the Quick Sampler:

•  Press “I” on your keyboard to open the inspector menu.
•  From the inspector menu, click on the right corner of the instrument slot to change the instrument.
•  Select “Quick Sampler (Single Sample)” and open it in Stereo.

I highly recommend opening the Quick Sampler in stereo, especially if the samples you’re using are also in stereo.

Once you open the Quick Sampler, you’ll see a large rectangle that says “Load, record, or drag an audio file here.” You can click anywhere inside of the rectangle to open Finder and locate audio samples you have on your computer. You can also add samples from Logic’s Library or open Apple Loops. Moreover, if you have previously recorded something in Logic, you can drag and drop that region into the Quick Sampler’s workspace to use it as a sample.

For this part of the tutorial, I’ll choose a drum kit sound from Logic’s library:

•  Press “Y” on your keyboard to open Logic’s Library.
•  Open the “Electronic Drum Kit” patch and scroll down to “Kit Pieces.”
•  Double-click one of the samples.

As you see in the screenshot above, there are three playback modes in the top-left corner of the Quick Sampler’s workspace (A). One Shot mode plays the entire selected sample when you press a key, regardless of how long you hold the note. With Classic mode, Logic plays back the sample while you hold the key and stops when you release the key, depending on the envelope settings. There’s also the Slice mode which I’ll get into later for synth samples.

For drum kit pieces, you’d typically want One Shot as the sample playback mode.

Next, the Root Key (B), which is set to G#1, determines which MIDI key plays back your sample with its original pitch. In this case, if I press the A2 key on my MIDI controller, Logic plays the sample one semitone higher than its original pitch (so on and so forth for other keys). I personally prefer setting the root key for kick sounds to C1 based on the general MIDI drum mappings.

If you want to edit the original pitch of your sample, you can do so from the Pitch section (C). Moreover, If you turn off Key Tracking, Logic will play your sample with the original pitch regardless of what key you press.

Finally, you can adjust the velocity sensitivity from the bottom-right corner of the Quick Sampler’s interface (D). If you drop the velocity sensitivity to 0.0 dBs, anything you play will be played with maximum velocity, regardless of how much pressure you use when pressing keys.

Once you’ve made the basic adjustments to your sample, you can go ahead and play Quick Sampler as MIDI or use Logic’s Step Sequencer to create drum patterns.

Using The Quick Sampler For Bass Lines

Now, let’s take a look at sampling a note from a bass line to create our own. This time, I’m going to choose my sample from the Apple Loops library.

•  Press “O” on your keyboard to open the Apple Loops library.
•  Drag and drop a bass line into the Quick Sampler.

The Quick Sampler gives you two options: Original will let you sample the file as it is without any automatic changes, whereas Optimized will make some readjustments to the tune, length, and loudness of your sample.

Now, we’d want to find the lowest note and use that as our sample. It is easier to transpose a sample to higher notes and maintain quality than the other way around.

Once you’ve located the lowest note, change the Snap mode to “Transient” and drag the lower corners of your sample to the beginning and the end of that note. Also, you’d want to add a fade at the end of your sample to avoid unwanted pops and sounds.

From the top-right corner of the Quick Sampler’s interface, click settings and select “Retune.” This will set your sampled sound to the correct root key.

Sampling A Synth Melody With The Quick Sampler

Last but not least, let’s look at sampling a synth melody with the Slice playback mode. This method is particularly useful when you stumble upon a synth sample you like but want to make some alterations to the melody.

Once you’ve loaded up your synth sample in the Quick Sampler, switch the playback mode to Slice. Logic will automatically break down your sample into different notes, with the first one starting at C1. If you see unnecessary slices at the wrong places on your sample, you can double-click to remove them.

Moreover, you can change your starting key and switch from the chromatic scale to all-white or all-black keys.

Any adjustments to the LFO, Pitch, Filter, and AMP parameters below will affect all slices on your sample.

Final Thoughts On Using The Quick Sampler In Logic Pro

Strategies you can utilize with the Quick Sampler in Logic Pro are virtually endless. The three methods mentioned above are only a fraction of what’s possible to do with this powerful tool. So, try working with different samples to hone your skills and reach your creative goals.

For more lessons about production, mixing, mastering, and songwriting, I highly recommend getting a copy of my Free 6 Pillars to Learn Logic Pro Faster guidebook.