Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!greg_labrec@interactive.sony.com
From: Elliott Lee <tenchi@netmagic.net>
Newsgroups: scea.yaroze.programming.sound
Subject: Re: Vag length problem
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 23:23:03 -0800
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Richard Malka wrote:
> 
> I am having a problem with the length of a Vag file.
> I have a guitar sample that goes for about a third of a second. The midi
> file had notes that go for a few seconds but when it is converted to seq
> format it only plays them at the original length of the sample. Surely I
> don't have to sample them at the longest note length that I will be using?

No, technically you "loop" the sample.  A decent guitar sample lasting
even 1/16th of a second can be looped to sound like a long guitar.  Then
you modify the ADSR envelope to have a steady decay.  Keep in mind the
way digital music works as well:  you record a sample at a certain
speed,
to make the sample play back at a higher pitch, you accelerate the
playback
of that sample.  To make the sound lower, you decelerate the playback
just
like the speed of the record.  

So, if you were to record a sample at the longest note length, you would
have to record a sample at the highest pitch played for the duration of
the longest note length.  Just imagine if you had a string ensemble hold
out a chord for 3 seconds---at CD quality sound, that would translate to
about 130KB.  So, the solution is to take just a fragment of the sound
you want and loop it.  AIFF2VAG has an option to force looping (-L).

*But*, at least I have never successfully been able to loop a sound.  :P

> Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> Daniel Wilson.

- e!
  tenchi@netmagic.net
  http://www.netmagic.net/~tenchi/yaroze/