[linux-audio-user] Beginner sampler questions

Hi. I've been playing guitar for 7 years or so, and using linux in one way or another for about the same amount of time; but only this past year have I started playing around with what I can do musically with my linux box. One of the things I've recently learned about is samplers. As I understand it at this point (and I'm hoping someone will set me straight if I'm wrong), a sampler accomplishes basically the same thing as a wavetable synth -- it uses sound samples to generate tones, doing frequency shifting and interpolation as necessary. And as I understand it, the main difference between a sampler and a wavetable synth is the lack of constraints on the samples used -- with a sampler, anything at all could be a perfectly good sample, including samples of almost arbitrary duration (and thus size). One of the most obvious uses I can see for a sampler would be to use it to provide instrumentation that the user doesn't know how to play. For instance, if I wanted to record myself on guitar with a piano accompaniment, I could use a sequencer to write the piano line and generate it through a sampler. But that brings my first question -- if you don't own/play the instruments in question, where do you get the samples? I've done a lot of web searching, and found tons of drum loops and bass lines that are two measures long and so forth, but don't find much in the way of e.g. individual notes on basses. And I wonder about how people use the extended samples I find. It seems kinda constraining, to be stuck with a melody/harmony line given to you by whatever someone sampled. Of course, there are tons and tons of samples available; but then, in order to express the music you're hearing in your head, you're gonna be spending hours and hours trying to find samples that work. Am I missing some obvious things here? How do people use samplers, for the most part? Thanks for dealing with my beginner-type questions. -c -- Chris Metzler cmetzler(a)speakeasy.snip-me.net (remove "snip-me." to email) "As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I have become civilized." - Chief Luther Standing Bear