Sampling is fucking hard

[Iron Keys]

I'm using Bandlab on my phone... it has a splitter function like rx.

Sometimes I'm not using the splitter and just sample straight.

Using this to sketch ideas - sometimes I export from phone and mix in daw.

My current one I've sketched on phone and then just gone and recreated this in Studio One.

Annoying thing with studio one however is that chopping samples in Impaxt XT does not auto fade and has no fade out option. So very hard to avoid clicks.

 

[Fade]

Appreciate this. Needed to hear it.

That's one of the biggest skills you can have when sampling - finding samples! Instead of the old days where guys would spend hours digging through vinyl at the store looking for that gem, now you can do it browsing Youtube while sitting in your underwear and eating cheetos. Just listen to all kinds of music and eventually you'll start to hear something really good to sample.

 

[Iron Keys]

now you can do it browsing Youtube while sitting in your underwear and eating cheeto

I've told you to stop hacking my webcam

 

[Fade]

 

[K-waz]

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

Only when youre stuck you start with the drums first. Like 9th he sometimes he does the drums first then place his sample chops on top

 

[Mike Chief]

Well, my man, you gotta figure out what method suits you best. Like how you are gonna go about it in the first place. As others have mentioned, practice is number 1. BUT, its hard to practice when you dont have a method down. Some people chop a loop and then use that audio file in their DAW on the arrangement screen/window. I, for example, chop my sample and then load it into a piano roll (I just got used to doing it that way). My process honestly has too many steps so it takes me longer than others, but, I got pretty decent at it. Sample beats are almost all I do.

Figure out what is most fluid for you to extract the audio and then chop. I still use Cool Edit Pro to cut certain chops, and then I load it into ReCycle to chop even further.

Its a bit redundant since I can use the stock plug ins (Im using FL) but I just feel more fluid in using the other two programs because of how used to it I got. And, as Fade mentioned, YouTube is a great source for some hidden gems. I find some shit on there every here and there. I still go out and dig for records though. Find some shit that not even the internet has.

But yeah man, just keep it moving forward. For YouTube digs, I highly recommend checking out Andre Navarro II (fucking loads of heat)

I thoroughly struggled in the beginning, and sometimes would completely chop the "wrong" part. It just takes pausing, giving ears and brain a break and then re-assessing. Definitely save whatever you chop though because a week or two down the line you may come at it from a completely different perspective and hear something entirely new.

Id be happy to help drop insights to help guide you in some direction.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Appreciate this. Needed to hear it.

I misunderstood what you were saying, if a particular sample just isnt going anywhere, then find another one. I took it as you were talking about sampling in general.

That said, forcing yourself to try different things with a "tough" sample will only grow your skillset, thats why I always try to do the sampleflips, because I dont choose the sample and have to work with what Im given. Thats when you find out if all the little tricks with chopping, microchopping, reversing, pitch shifting, time stretching, replacing parts with sidechained compression/eq, filtering and equing, panning and over composition has all come together.

 

[2GooD Productions]

If you want samples, this is where I get mine...

https://youtube.com/@robbie604?si=FZ0FnFrfxIVwnQGj

His rare soul playlist had over 4000 tracks to choose from.

 

[Fade]

It's just that sampling takes a long time to become really good at. When I first started I would get frustrated too and want to throw my sampler out the window because I had no idea what I was doing. Back then there was no Youtube so all I could do was read the manual and try to figure things out through practice. It takes time. But with today's resources it shouldn't be hard to get started.

You could look at it just as you do if you make a melody with a VST. Let's say you make a piano melody, then ask yourself "How can I make the same pattern but with a piano sample?". Something like that.

You could also keep it simple. For example, if you have a piano sample, chop it into a few pieces. Have one loud piano part and a tiny part as I mentioned earlier that you loop. Make just 1 bar:

PIANO 1
| - |
piano 2
| - - - - - - - - |

repeat

 

[Iron Keys]

I was quite keen on trying the chopping by parts as in...

Chop kick
Chop hat
Chop snare
Chop hat

And doing that across your pads. I've not had great success with it ends up very choppy. I've tried using a faster tempo so parts overlap a bit but that can mess with when you have longer parts or such. And some chops sound horrid or painful when chopped.

I often aim for easy long sustain parts. But want to get better at the rest.

 

[Iron Keys]

One Just Blaze beat I love I was listening to it over and over... and I noticed that one of the vocal chops. When it isn't present, it's still present.

So I'm quite curious what happened there. Whether he's chopped the same bit a few times and filtered, or whether he was doing some kind of mute / fade and the sample didn't get completely quietened. Or it's part of a parallel process.

Then unsure whether the sample is there intentionally or as a byproduct.

Because sometimes the sample is triggered in the same place but intentionally.

Gave me more to think about.

 

[Iron Keys]

Went back to that one sample and finally worked something.

Then when I played it back it just sounds wrong.

Doesn't make sense, cause it sounds good immediately. But then seems to not. Can't quite figure out why. Timing and everything is on point. But musically for some reason just feels odd.

When you play it sounds right. But on listen back a bit off.

Annoying. Really want this one to work - it should work

 

[Dusty B]

If you're using FL Studio, Wave Candy can do a pretty good job at detecting the key. I made a preset:



1) Add Wave Candy to the Master
2) Load the Key Finder preset
3) Mute all tracks except the sample
4) Play
5) Click the snowflake icon to freeze...
6) Tinker with whatever you're trying to layer in the piano roll

If there's a lot going on, i.e. a sample with a lot of instrumentation (or drums) you'll need to of course use your ears/eyes to identify what you're trying to spot.

 

[Mike Chief]

Went back to that one sample and finally worked something.

Then when I played it back it just sounds wrong.

Doesn't make sense, cause it sounds good immediately. But then seems to not. Can't quite figure out why. Timing and everything is on point. But musically for some reason just feels odd.

When you play it sounds right. But on listen back a bit off.

Annoying. Really want this one to work - it should work

Sometimes when I've run into that problem, it was because my chops were kinda off - like, in a way that was of a different timing even though it still technically fits. What can give you more freedom to achieve what youre hearing in your head, imo, is chopping smaller. Sometimes it lets you hear things a little deeper and give you a key/hint.

 

[2GooD Productions]

I often have to microchop and timestretch tiny chops individually to smoothen it out.

 

[Dusty B]

& oh also to identify the key of a sample... if using FL Studio, right click on the audio file >> edit in pitch corrector -- it does a decent job at aligning to the piano roll, you can also export the midi, but of course takes some tinkering.

 

[2GooD Productions]

For pitch detection I play a piano vst and go through the 12 keys until I find the root that sounds right, sometines I find the perfect 5th by mistake and think thats the key, but usually find the right root, then I check for major or minor 3rd and see which one is working best to determine major or minor. Usually turns out to be minor, music in a minor key just always sounds best to me. Maybe its a genre thing.

 

[Iron Keys]

For pitch detection I play a piano vst and go through the 12 keys until I find the root that sounds right, sometines I find the perfect 5th by mistake and think thats the key, but usually find the right root, then I check for major or minor 3rd and see which one is working best to determine major or minor. Usually turns out to be minor, music in a minor key just always sounds best to me. Maybe its a genre thing.

Word for word 100% same here.

 

[Iron Keys]

Sometimes I'll play a bass instead, maybe an octave up from the lowest.

As bass gets really obviously dissonant a lot easier.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Sometimes I'll play a bass instead, maybe an octave up from the lowest.

As bass gets really obviously dissonant a lot easier.

I find in the bass frequencies it can be a little bit harder to distinguish between semi tones. If its any instrument in a higher register I can pretty much find the scale in seconds. I always recommend piano though as its tone is very clean for sonebody still training their ears.