Just a Sample

Note: This is a fork of Just a Sample by Binyamin Friedman.

Binyamin's Git project page (on GitHub)

Promo video (by Binyamin)

Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux in VST3/AU (if you manage to compile, that is, for pre-built binaries, see Binyamin's page).

Overview

Just a Sample is a powerful, modern audio sampler, with a focus on simplicity and ease of use, written by Binyamin. This is just my personal fork of the project.

Features

Detailed feature list (this has Binyamin's screenshots, keep in mind that this fork uses the dark-purple look like in the above screenshot.)

Core features

• Smoothly zoom in to the level of individual samples to set bounds as accurately as you need. Waveform drawing is optimized for large samples.
• Integrated Bungee time stretcher allows for freely modulating time and pitch independently. Try extreme slow-downs (0.01x) for unique sounds.
• Modern navigation controls allow for easy browsing of waveforms with touchpad or mouse.
• A routable FX chain includes reverb, chorus, distortion, and EQ for easy sound design.
• Waveform Mode activates when small bounds are set, looping the waveform periodically like a wavetable synth. This turns Just a Sample into a unique tone generator.
• Easily modify attack and release curves.
• Includes equal power cross-fade looping with separate attack and release sample portions.
• Supports pitch bend and fine-tuning.

This fork's additions

• Ping-pong loop playback mode.
• UI control for crossfade length (the underlying support already existed in the code, but the control was missing from the UI in the original version).

Extras

• Disable antialiasing for a gritty LoFi effect.
• Record samples directly into the sampler.
• Store samples directly in plugin state to remove dependencies (can be disabled).
• Auto-tune to A440 (experimental, works best on simple sounds).

Installation

We only allow build from source here, sorry, see Binyamin's page for pre-built releases

Just a Sample is easy to build from source.

# Clone the repository
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/BOBONA/Just-a-Sample/.git

# Go to the project root
cd Just-a-Sample

# Configure the plugin (replace <platform> with windows, mac, or linux)
cmake --preset=<platform>

# Build the plugin
cmake --build --preset=release-<platform>

Note that the first time you configure the project, CMake will download JUCE and other dependencies, which may take a while.

Your built plugin will be located in out/build/<platform>/<configuration>/JustASample_artefacts/<Configuration>/<format>/ where <platform> is windows, mac, or linux, <configuration> is either debug or release, and <format> is either VST3 or AU (Mac only).

Build Options

You can set the following CMake options by passing -D<option>=<value> to the CMake configure step.

• JAS_DARKMODE_DEFAULT: Set the default theme to dark mode (default: OFF)
• JAS_VST3_REAPER_INTEGRATION: Enable Reaper-specific VST3 extensions (Windows only, default: OFF)

Requirements

All Platforms:

• Git
• CMake 3.22 or higher
• Platform-specific build tools

Windows:

• Ninja build system
• Visual Studio 2019 or later

macOS:

• Xcode 12 or later

Linux:

• GCC 9+
• Ninja build system
• JUCE dependencies (install via the provided script, or do it yourself):

  ./Releases/Linux/install-dependencies.sh
  

Dependencies

Just a Sample relies on:

• JUCE for plugin framework and UI
• Bungee for time-stretching and pitch-shifting
• Melatonin Blur for fast shadow-compositing
• LEAF for a fast pitch-detection algorithm
• readerwriterqueue for lock-free thread communication
• Gin for AirWindows distortion and SimpleVerb reverb algorithms
• MTS-ESP for microtuning support
• reaper-sdk for Reaper-specific VST3 extensions

JUCE, Bungee, Melatonin Blur, and LEAF are included through CMake, readerwriterqueue is included as a git submodule, and the others are included as source files in the project.

Credits

Big shouts going to Binyamin Friedman, the creator of the original Just a Sample project. Also special thanks to the JUCE project, and Codeberg.