Tempo changes in the middle of a sample

[dacalion]

Sampling is something I rarely do but every now and then I run into a portion of a song that I just can't let go. Sometimes I wonder how these cats pulled off live shows back in the day. I was working on the ojays song "brandy" and at the beginning I sampled what turned out to be a 10 sec sample (after I changed the bpm from the original) and ran into all kinds of tempo issues. About half way through the sample, the tempo gradually speeds up about 4 bpms (remember, we're talking about a 10 sec. sample). Makes me wonder how these cats pulled it off when they did it live. I know how to make the sample work and all that, Im just amazed at the drastic change in bpm's. It also makes me wonder if these cats knew that 20 yrs later somebody would try to sample their ish and they just decided to make it as hard as possible to do...lol. I find that alot of the older beats have tempo changes in small sections but I dont think I've ever run into one so pronounced as this. Makes it fun but tidious as hell.


MAN ON FIRE

 

[Relic]

Check out Ball of Eyes..great samples in that song but the tempo goes from 101 up to 106..
Try fuckin witth that! lol..

 

[LDB]

Sampling is something I rarely do but every now and then I run into a portion of a song that I just can't let go. Sometimes I wonder how these cats pulled off live shows back in the day. I was working on the ojays song "brandy" and at the beginning I sampled what turned out to be a 10 sec sample (after I changed the bpm from the original) and ran into all kinds of tempo issues. About half way through the sample, the tempo gradually speeds up about 4 bpms (remember, we're talking about a 10 sec. sample). Makes me wonder how these cats pulled it off when they did it live. I know how to make the sample work and all that, Im just amazed at the drastic change in bpm's. It also makes me wonder if these cats knew that 20 yrs later somebody would try to sample their ish and they just decided to make it as hard as possible to do...lol. I find that alot of the older beats have tempo changes in small sections but I dont think I've ever run into one so pronounced as this. Makes it fun but tidious as hell.


MAN ON FIRE

You have to play the drums for those kind of samples str8 thru like Dilla did, no looping or quantizing (if it's 10seconds, play the pattern for 10 seconds then loop it) or stretch the loop out the length or the song and play the drums the whole way. Back then tempo was kept by the drummer. He often got the tempo started but but soon after followed the lead singer. If the lead singer increased his tempo so did the drummer, if he slowed down so did the drummer. They were in the studio recording tracks live with no click track. That's how you get the tempo changes.

 

[Ash Holmz]

u guys must not listen to any rock music..... i have a lot of rock records and ALOT of them shit have crazy tempo switches like u would not believe. There is this rock group called morley grey they are dope.. everysong is like 4 diffrent songs with diffrent tempos and structures.. thats crazy that they could keep in rythm through there whole performance but i guess thats why they play the music and why we sample it lol..

 

[Precog]

Yeah that can be really annoying sometimes. Normally I'm too lazy to sort it out, but once i chopped the sample into individual bars then time stretched each bar accordingly. I see what your saying there drama boi though, might try that out sometime, always wondered how dilla got so much of a loose feel to his drums.

 

[konceptG]

sometimes it's just human error. I had a Roy Ayers sample I was working on many years ago and couldn't get it to work right for shit. The problem was that the band on a whole appeared to be following the timing of the drummer, and if the drummer slowed or sped up even slightly, the band accomodated. I ended up finding a useable break, looped it, then replayed the vibes and bass parts to make it work.

 

[LDB]

Live music has always had "human error"....that's why it's called live. No humanbeing can keep constant consistant timing. The digital world introduced perfect timing.