4. The Sampler and the Drum Rack: your own sounds

Two instruments let you bring your own recordings into Nebula rather than playing a built-in synth patch. Both live in the SAMPLER and DRUMS groups of the instrument browser.

Getting a sound file into Nebula

Drop .wav files into Documents/Nebula/Samples/ (or use File > Open samples folder to jump there). They then show up in the PROJECT panel's SAMPLES tab, ready to drag anywhere.

The Sampler — one sound across the keyboard

Choose Sampler in the browser, then switch the instrument screen to FX (the Sampler's own card lives there, first in the list). Drag a sound from the browser's SAMPLES tab and drop it onto the card — or drop it straight onto the track in the timeline.

The Sampler's knobs:

Knob	What it does
Gain	How loud the recording plays (100% = as recorded)
Root key	The key that plays the recording exactly as it was recorded; other keys play it higher/faster or lower/slower
Tune	Fine tuning in cents (100 cents = one semitone)
Attack	How quickly the sound fades in after a key press
Release	How long the sound takes to fade out after the key comes up
Loop	On: the sound repeats for as long as the key is held. Off: it plays once

The Drum Rack — up to 16 pads, each its own sound

Choose Drum Rack, switch to Pads in the Keys/Pads view (or FX to see the pad grid card). Drag sounds from the SAMPLES tab onto individual pads — each pad plays independently, at its own gain, tuning and release, so a kick, snare, hi-hats and percussion each behave correctly (a hi-hat should be short; a kick usually should not loop). Dropping a sound directly onto the Drum Rack's track (rather than a specific pad) fills the first empty pad automatically.

The 16 pads correspond to a contiguous block of MIDI note numbers starting at note 36 (the General MIDI kick drum note), so a standard MIDI drum controller lines up with them without any extra mapping step.

Playing either one

Both instruments show up on the Pads view like any drum-style instrument, and both also respond to a MIDI keyboard/pad controller connected to Nebula (see Options > Settings > MIDI to choose the input device). Everything you record or sequence against a Sampler or Drum Rack track is saved with the project, including which sound files are loaded — reopening a project finds them again in the samples folder automatically.

What is not there yet

Slicing a sample into pieces, start/end trim points, and choke groups (one pad silencing another, e.g. open vs. closed hi-hat) are planned but not implemented yet — today each pad plays its whole file from the start every time it is triggered.