Guides

Sampler app for Mac: chop and play samples on pads

By Kevin Clayton, maker of Loopstack · October 12, 2026

Sampling means taking a sound (a drum break, a chord, your own voice, a knock on a table) and playing it as an instrument. A pad sampler puts pieces of it on pads so you can play them like a drum machine. Here's how to sample on a Mac using the sampler in Loopstack Pro; most pad samplers work the same way.

A note on what to sample

Sample sounds you made yourself, sounds you have the rights to, or royalty-free libraries. Recording your own sounds is the most original route anyway: a pan, a door, a chord you played on a piano.

1. Get a sound in

• Record it: Sample records from the Mac's microphone or your audio interface.
• Import it: Import takes an audio file from your Mac.
• Load a kit: Kit loads a whole set of sounds onto the pads at once.

2. Chop it

Chopping cuts the sample into pieces, one per pad:

• Hits finds the attacks (each drum hit or note) and cuts there. Best for drum loops and anything rhythmic.
• Even cuts it into equal slices. Best for chords, pads and voices, where there's no clear hit.

Now each of the 16 pads plays one chop. Play them with the mouse, the Mac keyboard or a MIDI keyboard or pad controller.

3. Shape each pad

Pick a pad and its controls are right below it, grouped the way a hardware sampler groups them:

• Sound: level, pan, tune (semitones) and fine tune.
• Filter: cutoff and resonance, to darken or thin it.
• Envelope: attack (fade in) and release (how long it rings after you let go).

Then choose how it plays: One-shot (plays to the end), Hold (only while you hold it) or Loop.

4. Choke groups

A choke group makes pads cut each other off, like a closed hi-hat stopping an open one. Put two pads in the same group (1–4) and playing one stops the other.

5. Play it in

Hit record and play the pads. Repeat retriggers a held pad in time (1/16 notes for rolls), and Full Level plays every hit at the same volume, which is handy for drums. Each take becomes a loop you can edit later: fix timing, change notes, or move it to the timeline.

Sampling tips

• Record more than you need. A long take gives you more to chop.
• Tune your chops to the song's key; a chord sample a semitone off clashes with everything.
• Short release on drums, longer on pads and chords.