samples

In the context of Furnace, a sound sample (usually just referred to as a sample) is a string of numbers that hold sampled PCM audio.

In Furnace, these samples can be generated by importing a .wav (think of it as an higher quality MP3) file.

supported chips

as of Furnace 0.6, the following sound chips have sample support:

NES/Ricoh 2A03 (with DPCM support and only on channel 5)
Sega Genesis/YM2612 (channel 6 only)
PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16/HuC6280
Amiga/Paula
SegaPCM
Neo Geo/Neo Geo CD/YM2610 (ADPCM channels only)
Seta/Allumer X1-010
Atari Lynx
MSM6258 and MSM6295
YMU759/MA-2 (last channel only)
QSound
ZX Spectrum 48k (1-bit)
RF5C68
WonderSwan
tildearrow Sound Unit
VERA (last channel only)
Y8950 (last channel only)
a few more that I've forgotten to mention

compatible sample mode

effect 17xx enables/disables compatible sample mode whether supported (e.g. on Sega Genesis or PC Engine).

in this mode, samples are mapped to notes in an octave from C to B, allowing you to use up to 12 samples. if you need to use more samples, you may change the sample bank using effect EBxx.

use of this mode is discouraged in favor of Sample type instruments.

notes

due to limitations in some of those sound chips, some restrictions exist:

Amiga: sample lengths and loop will be set to an even number, and your sample can't be longer than 131070.
NES: if on DPCM mode, only a limited selection of frequencies is available, and loop position isn't supported (only entire sample).
SegaPCM: your sample can't be longer than 65535, and the maximum frequency is 31.25KHz.
QSound: your sample can't be longer than 65535, and the loop length shall not be greater than 32767.
Neo Geo (ADPCM-A): no looping supported. your samples will play at ~18.5KHz.
Neo Geo (ADPCM-B): no loop position supported (only entire sample), and the maximum frequency is ~55KHz.
YM2608: the maximum frequency is ~55KHz.
MSM6258/MSM6295: no arbitrary frequency.
ZX Spectrum Beeper: your sample can't be longer than 2048, and it always plays at ~55KHz.
Seta/Allumer X1-010: frequency resolution is terrible in the lower end. your sample can't be longer than 131072.

furthermore, many of these chips have a limited amount of sample memory. check memory usage in window > statistics.

the sample editor

You can actually tweak your samples in Furnace's sample editor, which can be accessed by clicking on window (at the top of the screen) then clicking on sample editor.

In there, you can modify certain data pertaining to your sample, such as the:

volume of the sample in percentage, where 100% is the current level of the sample (note that you can distort it if you put it too high)
the sample rate.
what frequencies to filter, along with filter level/sweep and resonance options (much like the C64)
and many more.

The changes you make will be applied as soon as you've committed them to your sample, but they can be undoed and redoed, just like text.

tips

if you have a sample you wanna use that is about 44100 or anything over 32000Hz, downsample the sample to 32000Hz so that the pitch of the sample in Furnace stays like the original audio file,

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