Introducing SampleBot: The Automated Hardware Sampler for macOS

I built a tool to solve a problem I’ve faced too many times: the tedious process of sampling hardware synthesizers.

If you have a studio full of gear, you know the drill. You want to capture that perfect patch to use in your DAW sampler (like Kontakt or Logic’s Sampler), but sitting there hitting “Record,” playing a note, trimming the silence, and renaming the file 88 times is a creativity killer.

SampleBot automates this entire workflow.

What It Does

SampleBot connects to your hardware synthesizer via MIDI and your audio interface. You tell it what note range you want (e.g., C1 to C6), how many velocity layers to capture, and then you hit “Start.”

The app takes over:

1. Sends a MIDI Note On.
2. Records the audio output from your synth.
3. Waits for the note duration and release tail.
4. Automatically saves the file with a perfectly formatted name (e.g., MyPatch_C3_v100.wav).
5. Repeats for the next note.

Key Features

• Velocity Layers: Captures multiple dynamic levels (Soft, Medium, Hard) to create expressive instruments.
• Smart Trimming: Automatically removes the silence at the start of the recording, so your samples trigger instantly.
• Normalization: Ensures consistent volume levels across all samples.
• CoreMIDI & CoreAudio: Built natively for macOS using Apple’s high-performance audio and MIDI frameworks.

Technical Details under the Hood

SampleBot is a native macOS application built with SwiftUI.

• Audio Engine: It utilizes AVFoundation to capture 32-bit Float WAV files, ensuring high-fidelity audio retention with plenty of headroom for processing.
• Concurrency: The sampling engine runs on a background thread to keep the UI responsive while processing real-time audio.
• Distribution: I automated the release process using a custom shell script that handles xcodebuild, code signing with my Developer ID, and notarization with Apple’s notary service. This ensures the app is safe, trusted, and runs without security warnings.

Download

You can download the latest beta of SampleBot from my GitHub releases page: Download SampleBot