In 2018 we launched the Looper, an easy and fun way to be inspired and instantly make beats. When we launched BandLab Sounds in 2020, we gave creators complete access to our extensive library of professionally created samples as starting points or final flourishes to their creations. The next step for us was to empower creators to make music with any sound.

1. BandLab is the ultimate free music recording and leading social music creation platform with more than 30 million users worldwide. BandLab lets you make and share music, no matter your skill level.
2. From Shouts to changing your profile photo to figuring out how to use our Loop Packs, this is the place for you!

As part of our milestone release of BandLab 10.0, please give a warm welcome to our newest instrument – Sampler.

What is sampling?

BandLab is the ultimate free music creation platform that over 37 million users worldwide are raving about. Import a track or create your song from scratch, collaborate with creators and producers, and publish your epic hits for the global BandLab community! Our easy-to-use multi-track editor is a launchpad that lets you record, edit, and remix. BandLab is the flagship digital product in BandLab Technologies’ portfolio of music brands, and a leading social music creation platform with a global reach of over 30 million users. Through its best-in-class digital audio workstation (DAW) and audio hardware division, BandLab empowers creators to make music and share their creative process.

Historically, sampling played an integral part in the process of making beats. Sampling, as its name suggests, means reusing a portion of a sound recording (the sample) in a brand new recording. This sound can be a portion of an existing song, a random noise you hear on your commute, or even everyday objects. With the BandLab Sampler, the world is your instrument.

The BandLab Sampler

The new BandLab Sampler aims to empower creators to make music as deep as their imaginations allow them to. With Sampler, you’ve got the tools to discover and share your musical identity, and truly feel like you’re making something unique.

Limitless musical creativity is the goal here. Sampler allows you to make as many Sampler Kits as you desire and use them in any of your projects.

Here are a few ways you can build your own Sampler Kits:

Recording your own samples

To record a sample, simply tap and hold a pad. Here’s a cool feature – Sampler automatically detects when you first create a sound, so there’s no need to crop the first few moments of silence when you hit record.

Select samples from BandLab Sounds

BandLab Sounds is home to more than 15,000 (and growing) royalty-free samples, loops and one-shots. These are samples designed by world-class artists and professional sound designers (stay tuned for some exciting releases in the coming weeks!). To add a sample from our library of samples, tap on the pen icon at the bottom right, then tap “Browse”. Here, you can browse all the loops and one-shots available in BandLab Sounds and sort them by instrument. Tap on it once to download if it’s not already in your library, and another time to import it to Sampler.

Need a Sampler Kit ready to make music with instantly? We’ve also curated a whole host of Sampler Kits pre-populated with samples, ready to make music.

To access these Sampler Kits, tap on the folder icon at the bottom left. Here you’ll see our curated library of samples. You can explore the sounds by tapping on the play icons. Once you’ve found the Kit you love, Same as above, tap on it once to download the sample, and another time to import it to Sampler.

Import your own samples

Already have your favourite samples? Of course, you can use them! The process is the same – tap on the pen icon at the bottom right, then select “Import Audio or Video”.

Customize your samples

The whole point of sampling is to manipulate the sample to fit your music. With Sampler, you can customize your samples in a number of ways.

• Trim & crop
• Volume
• Pan
• Pitch
• Attack
• Release
• Tone
• Normalization
• Reverse
• Crop

The playback behavior of your samples can be altered individually via Play Modes:

• Gate (play when pad is held)
• One-Shot (play the whole sample with one tap of the pad)
• Loop (loop the playback of the sample between start and end positions)

Customize the color of all pads

You can customize the color of each individual pad. This lets you have a visual reference for the type of samples in your kit.

A truly cross-platform instrument

Sampler is also truly cross-platform. Everything you record on the go on your mobile device on Sampler is accessible on your desktop via the web Mix Editor and Sampler instrument. It’s the perfect combination – record on the go, refine back in the comfort of your workstation.

Couldn’t have done it without you

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Building Sampler was an epic journey for BandLab. But it couldn’t have been possible without the amazing BandLab community. A sampler was one of the most requested-for features whenever we got feedback from the community. They wanted the ability to make their own custom instruments.

Sampler was also one of the first features which we designed in collaboration with the community. We tapped onto our BandLab Discord channel (you’re missing out if you’re not on it) to get insights and even design mockups!

A word about the BandLab Discord channel: Our BandLab Discord channel is active with musicians using BandLab. The BandLab Discord channel is a great place to find collaborators, get feedback on your tracks and connect directly with the BandLab team. BandLab uses Discord to learn product insights from this group of highly engaged users. Join the BandLab Discord channel here.

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Ready to unleash your creativity with Sampler? All you need is a free BandLab account and you’re set. You get full access to our vast and ever-growing library of samples, loops and one-shots – they are completely free to use and royalty-free.

Note: The BandLab 10.0 update is being released in stages globally and will be available to everyone within the next few days. Head over to the Play Store to see if it’s available. Update to BandLab 10.0 at the App Store for iOS and Play Store for Android.

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Read more: Welcome the all-new BandLab 10.0