It's possible that the snare is a single sample and not part of a keybank with multiple samples. Therefore, when you play the snare up and down the keyboard - the sound is "pitch stretched" to sound at different pitches. At some point, there's a limit to how far this can happen. It should be around the same limit you can set pitch shifts within the tone engine which is a couple octaves. Do you need the snare to really cover all these notes - or was this an experiment? If an experiment - it would be better to use something that's not a single sample since these have limits as to where you can place them pitch-wise. All samples have these limits with respect to pitch shifting. You'll run into the same "ceiling" if you use controller modulation to offset pitch of an element/PART since this uses the same mechanism to alter pitch as running up/down the keybed with a single sample does.

The reason why a multi-sample does not run into this same problem (like a piano related element) is that the piano has samples for different ranges. There's a sample very high up the keyboard (G5 and higher) such that these samples in this range pitch stretch for several octaves and should cover the full range all the way to G8. I haven't broken down the keybanks - but some pianos have one sample per key such that the top key of an 88 key piano (without octave shifts) will have a sample and only pitches above the highest natural note will be pitch shifted.

Other instruments use one sample for a range - so the pitch shift only has to cover a few notes (maybe 7 semi-tones past the root of that range of pitches) until the next sample - which covers another 8 semi-tones (the next "root" note plus 7 semi-tones).

I've got a feeling something like snare - a non-pitched type sample - only has one pitch it is "meant" to sit at although you can pitch shift it up and down to the limits of the tone engine's ability to do this.

Ok I got it.
I have to create keybanks with multiple samples in order to do this.
Do I have to use John Melas software (Montage wave editor)please???
Thanks a lot for your help Jason!!!!!:) 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Typically, when placing a snare drum in an Element, you would place it in a Drum Kit Part. A Drum Kit Part differs from a Normal Part, just like drummers differ from so called, normal musicians!

A Drum Kit is made up of 73 Keys, C0~C6. Each Key is an Element; typically each contains a different instrument. (There are a few exceptions where the single instrument occupies more than one Key; Hihats have 3 different articulations, Guiro has two different strokes, triangle has open and mute) But the majority of the 73 Keys house a single autonomous instrument - each with its own volume, Pan position, Filter, envelopes, output and effect routing, etc., etc. each is an instrument by itself.

Remember in a marching band there are musicians who play only the Bass Drum, others who only play the snare drum, still others who only play cymbals, — sometimes we forget they each are separate instruments!
This being the case, typically, an instrument like snare drum would be sampled and the original pitch would be fixed to middle C (C3).

Because you will also want to tune this drum for use in musical compositions, and yet still access it via a single Key you’ll find the default Note Limit for Drum Kit Samples is set to full range, C-2 through G8. Because the snare will only be addressed by a single Key within the Kit, how does the tuning occur? When used in a Drum Kit you want the original pitch to play from Key you assign it and when you tune it you want the the ability to tune it up or down. How to make this range available?

Say you have a snare drum .wav
You load it with original pitch set to C3
You assign this snare drum in a Drum Kit to D1 — when you play D1 you’ll hear the original pitch.
If you set the Note Limits to just C3-C3 you would not be able to tune this drum up or down.
Think on that for a minute... the D1 (assigned Key) is the window to access the snare. If the Note Range is limited to just C3-C3 there is no room to play it back faster or slower (it only occupies the one Key)! By setting the Note Limits to “C2~C4”, the sample that was original Key = C3 would be able to be tuned up or down an Octave.

Now that’s the theoretical. The practical is a bit different. These are not absolutes, just because the Note range of MIDI is 128 Notes, C-2 through G8, DO NOT expect any single sample recording is going to play all those pitches... it is not only not practical, it’s not possible and the good news, it’s totally not necessary.

When tuning a drum you wind up using the Fine tune more than the Semitone tuning... Equal Temperament is very severe on most Percussion sounds.

Place a .wav in a Normal Part, sure you could map the Note Range so that it covered C-2 through G8, and the default tuning is Equal Temperament... which means each Key is 1/12th of an Octave higher or lower to its neighbor. Timpanis is a percussion instrument that can easily take advantage of normal mapping and tuning theory. In Normal instruments the sample may cover a range of Keys... audio played back at the original speed of the recording will sound the original pitch, speed the pitch up twice as fast, not only does it play in 50% of the time it doubles in pitch. Play that same recording half as fast and not only does it take twice as long to playback, it drops exactly one octave.

If you have ever heard your “Voice” recorded on tape or other device and the speed is even slightly off, you find it humorous (you’re not sure if it’s you talking any way, but let the pitch (speed of playback) be off just a little and it becomes disturbing. This is true musically as well.

So there is a practical limit to how far the AWM2 engine will allow you stretch a sample. That’s a fact. It’s not based on the theoretical maximums, but on the practical — where the goal is primarily musical. Samples can be stretched only so far... +2 octaves is the maximum you can stretch a sample higher... and I believe it’s -4 octaves in the other direction.

The sound is so munchkinized, so chipmunked, by the time you go up two octaves it becomes less likely to useful for anything but laughs.
If you want to create sounds that cover enormous ranges, experiment with the FM-X engine where pitch change is not based on playback speed, at all. In FM-X you generate the harmonics — no speed of Audio playback manipulation is used in FM-X Synthesis.

It’s physics that make the behavior of sound do what it does when audio is recorded and then played back. A piano note sampled at middle C starts to sound funny when stretched to play just a few pitches going upward, but is forgivable for a greater range when going lower. Our ear is more forgiving going lower... But in a perfect world - Sampling “every pitch” is better than attempting to time stretch them.

So the “practical” helps determine the limits... when the audio playback becomes laughable, and/or musically not useful.

First of all thanks for your very detailed explanation. I agree that a higher pitch it make the sound more for laughs than for a useful sound to some music parts, but in sound effects, the acoustic results is different than other sounds in higher pitch. Ok maybe the sound of snare it is not so representative example but other sampled sounds can give much different acoustic results. Anyway it is up to the user and the result that the user wants to get.:) 🙂 🙂 Thanks Jason !!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Anyway it is up to the user and the result that the user wants to get.

No, it’s not! That’s what I’m trying to telling you, it’s up to the specification. I know what you’re trying to say... “wouldn’t it be nice if you could stretch a sample an unlimited distance in any direction?” The practical reality is that the AWM2 specification tops out at +2 octaves. That’s reality. It’s main function is not humor but the serious emulation of Acoustic and other musical instruments. There are other methods to accomplish the ‘humorous’ goal (pitch shifting it before importing it to the synth... easy enough to do).

OK Thanks a lot Jason !!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂