How can I create/import my own samples (not drum) to the OP-1?

Just got my OP-1 last week and loving using it. I’ve downloaded a great sample pack made by someone on these very forums and now I’m looking to make my own. Is there any way I can import samples directly to the OP-1 rather than recording them in via the line in audio port? I know they need to be a specific kind of AIFF file with metadata etc rather than just an audio file, but is there some tool or program on computer (ideally Mac) that will allow me to import sounds like WAV files and make them into sampler presets?

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Hey :slight_smile: have you discovered the Op-1 Drum Utility yet?

D’oh… sorry, you said “not drum”

I have! Thanks! :slight_smile: But what I’m looking for is the ‘sample’ version of this drum utility, something that will allow me to import different sampled instruments (like small WAV files) and have them accessible as my ‘samples’ for the keyboard instrument, like organs, pianos, and other classic synth sounds… Does that make sense?

Yes, makes sense… I’m not overly sure how people go about importing samples without recording them into the op-1. I don’t know whether it suffices to simply drag an aiff of the correct format into the synth directory. Anyone know?

I know that the aiffs on the op-1 have a specific format (there’s an APPL chunk inside that contains information about loop start and end points, which fx, lfo settings, etc) but it’s well possible that given a correct format file under 6 seconds that the op-1 would initialise all the application specifics when it starts up after you drag files on.

Yeah, I’m aware it’s a specific format containing the sample as well as parameter info kind of ‘masked’ within an AIFF file, but I know it is possible as, like I say, I’ve downloaded someone’s cool samples from these very forums, so I guess it’s just about figuring it out… Because I have all the sample files I’d want to use on my computer already (mostly from other sampling VST plugins) so it’d be kind of stupid to have to re-capture the files again manually via an audio input…



You may need a sample synth already in presets 1-8.
Use 6 sec or less mono Aif.Then drop straight in replacing file (or delete,then drop).
Convert from Aiff to Aif with sonething like Audacity.
I’ve had results dropping to tape with samples simply by making sure they are mono and correct bit/kHz and deleting the extra F in the extension manually.

oh the name and number must be the same.

Use the drum utility with a single wav then lift and drop into the synth sampler?

Use the drum utility with a single wav then lift and drop into the synth sampler?

Nope, wouldn’t work… Because AFAIK the drum sampler works using an actual AIFF sound file that contains each drum sample one after the other, but the sampler files (like all of the other synth presets) are some kind of ‘wrapped’ file that, while still possessing the ‘.AIF’ extension is not a regular sound file, but rather some kind of encoded data file. In fact if you attempt to open any of the sampler/synth presets files in an audio editor, you’ll hear a spoken message, something like “This is an OP-1 sound file.”, but somewhere in the metadata of that file is the sample contained.


So we need to work out how they’re packaging the samples/other data about the synth presets into those .AIF files.
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Use the drum utility with a single wav then lift and drop into the synth sampler?

Nope, wouldn’t work… Because AFAIK the drum sampler works using an actual AIFF sound file that contains each drum sample one after the other, but the sampler files (like all of the other synth presets) are some kind of ‘wrapped’ file that, while still possessing the ‘.AIF’ extension is not a regular sound file, but rather some kind of encoded data file. In fact if you attempt to open any of the sampler/synth presets files in an audio editor, you’ll hear a spoken message, something like “This is an OP-1 sound file.”, but somewhere in the metadata of that file is the sample contained.


So we need to work out how they’re packaging the samples/other data about the synth presets into those .AIF files.


No, I meant load into your drum sampler and then lift (from the drum sampler, or tape) and drop (into the sample synth) on the OP1 itself. A bit of a workaround and uses up unwanted RAM (for the drum samples), but will get the audio in there.

Oh I see! Sorry :slight_smile: yeah that makes sense. I’ll try it tonight! So you can lift/drop on the sample synth too? That’s a cool trick if so!

Just drop straight into synth(sampler) preset ,replacing name.Make sure its mono and <6sec.Aif extension.should work.

So we need to work out how they're packaging the samples/other data about the synth presets into those .AIF files.

Just an interesting note on this… I’m currently writing a Java API that understands the format of the Aiff files on the OP-1. Once I’ve got this in place, there are loads of fun applications that could be done with it. For example, lots of us have directories on our computers where we stash libraries of samples. The little tool I’m writing at the moment will search through the file system looking for audio files and generate lots of Op-1 drumkits with all the samples it finds. I’ve coded it to use an algorithm that tries to find an efficient way of packing at most 24 samples into the 12 seconds of sample data inside the drumkits, ie so you end up with as few drumkits as possible. I think it’s somehow nearing being usable, too :slight_smile: (don’t get an awful lots of time to work on it mind, what with day job and family, etc).

Awesome! Sounds great. Even just a simple script that can take an audio file (WAV, MP3 etc) and convert it to a 6s OP-1 sampler AIF would be awesome. Give me a shout if you need beta testers! :slight_smile:

Nice one, thanks :slight_smile:

Resurrecting this thread as it’s one that came up when I was doing a web search for this topic. I’ve been trying to load a nice sample I made myself of the OP-1 layered with the Waldorf Streichfett and Make Noise Telharmonic onto the OP-1. I’ve got a Mono AIF file less than six seconds, but when the OP-1 restarts it just says "doesn’t recognize sample."


I’ve loaded soundkits onto it before (I’ve got a nice Shruthi set of samples from a bandcamp site specializing in OP-1 samples). On my file system they sound like normal AIF files (there’s no robotic “op-1 patch” voice).

Am I to understand that these files still have some additional data in them and I can’t load AIFs onto the OP-1 without a special tool?
Use the drum utility with a single wav then lift and drop into the synth sampler?

this is the simplest method although not exactly fully featured or efficient.


load the single aiff as a drum into the drums folder, load that drumkit, hit lift, then drop into a loaded sampler instrument.

Bump - has anyone had any success with this? Is the drum utility still the best bet?

Lift drop or resampling to synth are prolly yur best options