Sampling is fucking hard

[Iron Keys]

Dunno how those top guys are doing it.

Don't know what the key thing to figure out is???

I can find cool records etc, but when chopping them usually the drums or other perc are making the chops sound weird.

Chopping by beat method doesn't seem to work as smooth or natural as it's shown in demos.

Not sure what the difficulty is, whether it's being able to hear what can be chopped or not.
Whether it's the re chopping itself in a musical way. Or what.

The top producers like Just Blaze, Alc, just seem to be able to chop shit with no background shit gettingnin the way, everything's smooth, almost sounds like they have access to the stems (when they don't/didnt), and I don't mean when they've had the parts rerecord.

Annoying.

I can hear some dope shit to make but struggle to do it.
Sometimes I get away with it. Other times not.

Can't seem to figure out what the key is to just being able to chop anything.


Sample heads, is it really that difficult? Do you find dope records and then just can't chop them? I'm curious.
I'm trying to use the sample flip threads as a way into it. A practise tool.


FYI... I have my own way I can "cheat" sampling. Splitting audio. Time stretching etc etc. BUT, I'd rather have the old authentic method locked first before moving on to cheats. Want to nail the fundamentals, as then surely what I could later do by cheating would be even greater.

Appreciate any insight on this one.


Love

 

[Fade]

Dunno how those top guys are doing it.

Don't know what the key thing to figure out is???

I can find cool records etc, but when chopping them usually the drums or other perc are making the chops sound weird.

Chopping by beat method doesn't seem to work as smooth or natural as it's shown in demos.

Not sure what the difficulty is, whether it's being able to hear what can be chopped or not.
Whether it's the re chopping itself in a musical way. Or what.

The top producers like Just Blaze, Alc, just seem to be able to chop shit with no background shit gettingnin the way, everything's smooth, almost sounds like they have access to the stems (when they don't/didnt), and I don't mean when they've had the parts rerecord.

Annoying.

I can hear some dope shit to make but struggle to do it.
Sometimes I get away with it. Other times not.

Can't seem to figure out what the key is to just being able to chop anything.


Sample heads, is it really that difficult? Do you find dope records and then just can't chop them? I'm curious.
I'm trying to use the sample flip threads as a way into it. A practise tool.


FYI... I have my own way I can "cheat" sampling. Splitting audio. Time stretching etc etc. BUT, I'd rather have the old authentic method locked first before moving on to cheats. Want to nail the fundamentals, as then surely what I could later do by cheating would be even greater.

Appreciate any insight on this one.


Love

I know Studio One has a feature where it can detect (pretty closely) the key of an audio clip. I can't remember offhand but there's some videos on Youtube on their channel I think.

But as far as detecting the key, I never do that because I don't need to and I don't care about the key, never have. I just sample whatever sounds good to me and try to find something else that goes with it. I've always just done everything by ear because it's what I'm used to. Even if I want to add a VST on top of my sample, same thing but also I don't add some massive melody over it, usually it's just a few notes here and there.

For drums getting in the way, yeah it can be a pain but what's usually done is you just make sure your drums hit on the exact spot as the sample. Of course EQ comes into play and all that. One trick I use sometimes is to just chop out the kicks and snares then find a way to make the sample work. But for me I usually don't even sample 1 or 2 bars, instead I just look for sounds. I was never a fan of sampling loops so when I'm finding samples I'm always listening for just a few parts that just sound good and I take those (even between drum hits). Then I'll look for another nice sound further into the song and see if it matches up. Pitching up or down is a huge part of it. So with that I can easily get a few sounds just from that one song and then it's a matter of being creative with it.

If you want to add samples from a completely different song then that's really hard, so don't bother trying that right now.

I think one of the biggest issues people face when starting to sample is they're looking for bars and loops. That's fine but the main reason why I never cared for that is because there's so many songs that have already been sampled so instead I try to find sounds. So if you look at it that way then it changes the sampling game completely. I've covered this in a few videos I did a while ago. There's so much you can do if you have a few sounds chopped up and you simply play around with the pitch and move things around.

 

[Iron Keys]

I know Studio One has a feature where it can detect (pretty closely) the key of an audio clip. I can't remember offhand but there's some videos on Youtube on their channel I think.

But as far as detecting the key, I never do that because I don't need to and I don't care about the key, never have. I just sample whatever sounds good to me and try to find something else that goes with it. I've always just done everything by ear because it's what I'm used to. Even if I want to add a VST on top of my sample, same thing but also I don't add some massive melody over it, usually it's just a few notes here and there.

For drums getting in the way, yeah it can be a pain but what's usually done is you just make sure your drums hit on the exact spot as the sample. Of course EQ comes into play and all that. One trick I use sometimes is to just chop out the kicks and snares then find a way to make the sample work. But for me I usually don't even sample 1 or 2 bars, instead I just look for sounds. I was never a fan of sampling loops so when I'm finding samples I'm always listening for just a few parts that just sound good and I take those (even between drum hits). Then I'll look for another nice sound further into the song and see if it matches up. Pitching up or down is a huge part of it. So with that I can easily get a few sounds just from that one song and then it's a matter of being creative with it.

If you want to add samples from a completely different song then that's really hard, so don't bother trying that right now.

I think one of the biggest issues people face when starting to sample is they're looking for bars and loops. That's fine but the main reason why I never cared for that is because there's so many songs that have already been sampled so instead I try to find sounds. So if you look at it that way then it changes the sampling game completely. I've covered this in a few videos I did a while ago. There's so much you can do if you have a few sounds chopped up and you simply play around with the pitch and move things around.

Yeah so I mostly looking for sounds.

Like nice little standout things etc.

I know Alc seems to find like an 8/16th note and just trigger it on every 16th or something.

But some of them sound like they've managed to get each source isolated. Tom rolls. Sample vox. Etc. Like I can chop things on the drums like kick snare and even hihat.

I've seen how people align their pads so all downbeat on one up beats on second snare on third and play across pads.

When I try this the samples are slightly short so sounds too choppy. Alternatively I speed my project tempo up so there are no gaps, but then the background drums in the sample are out of time so it also sounds odd.


Re S1 I think you might be talking about "detect chords" - can be pretty useful but can also get in your way. Kept detecting things as like 7ths or something when it wasn't.

Or there was a song with two identical sections and it identified the same parts differently.

Maybe I should just use the tech we have now to cheat samples to get around the issues I have. But I feel there's probably great benefit to learning the original way first. Which should improve the work I do when I do 'cheat' it.

 

[Fade]

The main thing is to just play around with the chops and see what you can come up with. One of the main things I do to avoid choppy chops with gaps in the beat is to have something very subtle constantly in the background. It could be a very soft piano note that I just play all throughout so at least it helps fill in those gaps. Adding a bit of delay to some of the chops is great too for filling in the gaps.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Practice.

 

[Iron Keys]

Practice.

I've been doing it.
And doing it more.

Trying to figure what's the key to it. Is it to do with the sample itself. Or is anything just as sampleable. Or what tricks to make things easily sampled and chopped.

 

[TWU]

I've been doing it.
And doing it more.

Trying to figure what's the key to it. Is it to do with the sample itself. Or is anything just as sampleable. Or what tricks to make things easily sampled and chopped.

Just don't use Studio One...

But seriously, there are some tricks to avoid unwanted drums in a sample:
- EQ or filters
- Attack on the sample chops
- Loop on sample chops
- Sidechaining

Or:
- Use the drums in the sample to create a groove/rhythm and add/layer some extra drums (kick, snare) that go well with them.
(This can be a little more tricky as drums in a sample can be heavily panned whilst the drums from sample packs you add are usually centered.)

Most of Alc's older stuff, the main sample, bass and drums are centered, with some layers of side-panned effects or fx over it.

Here's an example of where the original drums from the sample are clearly audible:


&

 

[TWU]

Practice.

 

[K-waz]

The first and easy way to sample is loop a open part (which is usual in the beginning or end of the song) Second like Jdilla he'll chop (sometimes) where the Kick and Snare starts at and put it together like a puzzle. (Don't Cry) The greatest sample chopped song ever. It would sound like a hot mess until he add his drums and bassline and you'll be like WOW. Just Blaze sample techniques are easy because he does #1 technique with speeding it up with add a lowpass to it or he'll just chop and loop the vocals of the samples. My favorite Sample chop masters is 9th Wonder

 

[Iron Keys]

I just chopped something up. Sounded dope. Really onto something. Then after like an hour I'm like nah this ain't working.

Then try playing it different. Also not. It's also stressing my ears. Seem to find samples can do that.

Might just have to give up on it.

 

[K-waz]

I just chopped something up. Sounded dope. Really onto something. Then after like an hour I'm like nah this ain't working.

Then try playing it different. Also not. It's also stressing my ears. Seem to find samples can do that.

Might just have to give up on it.

Always keep what you chop. Start with a drum break/ drum loop that you like and cater your sample chops to that drum break and you'll see what you need to change or correct in your chops that you're trying to reach

 

[2GooD Productions]

I just chopped something up. Sounded dope. Really onto something. Then after like an hour I'm like nah this ain't working.

Then try playing it different. Also not. It's also stressing my ears. Seem to find samples can do that.

Might just have to give up on it.

"I cant do it, I quit" there in may be where the problem lies. The "trick" is doing whatever you have to do to make it work. All the different methods of messing with samples only come from not quitting at the first sign of difficulty and just getting on with it.

 

[Iron Keys]

"I cant do it, I quit" there in may be where the problem lies. The "trick" is doing whatever you have to do to make it work. All the different methods of messing with samples only come from not quitting at the first sign of difficulty and just getting on with it.

It wasn't the first sign. Was trying for few hours and it weren't working out. So saved new project and worked on the original part of the sample I was doing

 

[Iron Keys]

Always keep what you chop. Start with a drum break/ drum loop that you like and cater your sample chops to that drum break and you'll see what you need to change or correct in your chops that you're trying to reach

As opposed to chopping your samples then laying drums on top? This the way I currently work (sample first)

 

[Kane the MOD]

I actually try first to separate the drums, melodies and vocals using izotope RX. Then I flip the drums, layer them and try to make a few melody flips and add some of the vocals in Maschine before I continue and add more stuff in Studio One.

 

[Fade]

It happens to me all the time where I spend forever on a sample and I end up just turning off my MPC because I realized the sample doesn't work. I take a break then look for something else to sample.

 

[Fade]

I actually try first to separate the drums, melodies and vocals using izotope RX. Then I flip the drums, layer them and try to make a few melody flips and add some of the vocals in Maschine before I continue and add more stuff in Studio One.

Yeah RX is dope for that. I should try to use it more.

 

[Kane the MOD]

Another approach is to sample just a tiny melody or noise and add layers to that. To the point that I usually forget what the actual sample was.

 

[Iron Keys]

I actually try first to separate the drums, melodies and vocals using izotope RX. Then I flip the drums, layer them and try to make a few melody flips and add some of the vocals in Maschine before I continue and add more stuff in Studio One.

Yeah this is what I do. Tho it's not perfect.
This is what I refer to as "cheating".

I wanna be able to nail the OG way so hopefully my cheat way will be improved dramatically. Maybe even combining both

 

[Iron Keys]

It happens to me all the time where I spend forever on a sample and I end up just turning off my MPC because I realized the sample doesn't work. I take a break then look for something else to sample.

Appreciate this. Needed to hear it.