Tips for sampling

[glassJAw]

I'm curious how you guys approach sampling and making different bits of samples work together. I've been listening to hip-hop for a while and I try to decipher how some artists do what they do.

My problem is I find one good loop/sample but I just can't seem to find anything to add to it. How do you guys approach this? Do you listen to a bunch of records and something pops out at you and you work from there?

 

[GRAFIK]

Find a track that you want to sample. Go through and anything that catches your attention take it and chop it up. When you have your samples I will then chop them play around with all the sounds until I find something that I am happy with. Some producers will sample multiple records piece them together. I usually dont do this unless I know one sample will work with another. Premier is a master at this! But for you I would stick with one track to sample from. It is all about listening to the track though.....and finding what moves you.

 

[Quality]

Word ^^

Basically, I just record anything sound that I think I could possibly use from records that I bought. Sometimes I mess around with the low pass filter, and record one version of a sample with the filter and one without.

Then I just organize my sounds according to insturments, etc. Whenever I feeling a certain sample in particular I'll chop it up and load it. After that, I just go through my library and just guess and check to see what goes with it and what doesn't. I sometimes do this by playing the mp3 of a sample while the loop is running on FL Studio, that way I can hear what they sound like before I decide to load it up with the original sample.


There are probably a million different ways to go about sampling, but no matter what just experimenting to see what works is what it comes down to.

Here is a dope thread by 5th with a looooad of great sampling tips. I learned a lot from it when I first read through it. Check it out:

https://www.illmuzik.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17023

 

[MarkN]

i find the best way to work is to look through your records and find one main sample that makes a good hook or melody etc and put that down with some basic drums then i'll go looking through my stuff for things to add to it, i have a library of stuff that ive already sampled some are just like a piano sound or a horn sound and you can mess about adding things in and build it up gradually if you're gonna play stuff as well then you can load up a synth and flick through the patches looking for something thats gunna work well!
the better sample library you have the easier it is because if you know you want a particular sound you can just go and get it rather than searching thru 100 records to find a flute in E major or wotever!

 

[DJ Xsinna]

Also, what I love to do is after I've done my chopping, I take certain sample say, the guitar bass in it, copy it eq all the highs out of it until all I have is just the bass. Then, any samples that have high freqs like horns or voices or junk like that and filter out all the lows. Then I reassemble the samples. Basically, I tear a sample down and then rebuild it back up again to a much better joint. kinda like "extreme home makeover"! LOL!! I don't do all my joints this way. it just depends on the sample and the elements within it. Oh, I never sample from just one record either. I take the Hank Shockley approach.

 

[glassJAw]

Thanks for the tips.

I have one problem now. I made a kick ass sample so I started chopping it up. The problem is I get these "clicks" at the end of them. I guess I'm not sampling right, but it sounds right when I play the sample stock over and over...

What I did was cut off a little bit off the end of each chopped up loop and added a little reverb.. Is this how you do it? It feels like I'm doing it wrong.

All I'm using is Garageband, Apple Loop Maker, and Audacity to do it.

 

[LDB]

Thanks for the tips.

I have one problem now. I made a kick ass sample so I started chopping it up. The problem is I get these "clicks" at the end of them. I guess I'm not sampling right, but it sounds right when I play the sample stock over and over...

What I did was cut off a little bit off the end of each chopped up loop and added a little reverb.. Is this how you do it? It feels like I'm doing it wrong.

All I'm using is Garageband, Apple Loop Maker, and Audacity to do it.

clicks usually mean your chops are just a bit too long. Slowly adjust them back until you don't hear the click.

ACTUALLY THAT MAY BE THE COMPLETE OPPOSIT....LOL....EITHER WAY YOUR CHOPS NEED SHORTENED OR LENGTHENED

 

[GRAFIK]

Thanks for the tips.

I have one problem now. I made a kick ass sample so I started chopping it up. The problem is I get these "clicks" at the end of them. I guess I'm not sampling right, but it sounds right when I play the sample stock over and over...

What I did was cut off a little bit off the end of each chopped up loop and added a little reverb.. Is this how you do it? It feels like I'm doing it wrong.

All I'm using is Garageband, Apple Loop Maker, and Audacity to do it.

What equipment are you using FL, Hardware, etc. If you are using FL or the MV I know some tricks to elimiate clicks on the ends of your samples

 

[Ash Holmz]

i dunno, if there chopped right they shouldnt click .. just take ur time and make really precise chops... it makes a big diffrence in the overall fluidness of beat. sloppy chops scream "newbie" just as much as stock drums do so take the time to really do it well. If u are using software, u can zoom in on the sample and adjust ur slices precisely. but if it still does click .. u can do short fade out at the end of the sample to eliminate the click.

 

[Ruimixx]

GlassJaw, check out this vid. It's hilarious and inspired me.

Basically, have fun with it. (which is at times I forget to do) Peace

 

[glassJAw]

Thanks for the tips, I guess I'm going to have to try it again.

What equipment are you using FL, Hardware, etc. If you are using FL or the MV I know some tricks to elimiate clicks on the ends of your samples

I'm using Garageband, phatMatik Pro, Audacity, and Apple Loops Utility.

Can these tricks work with what I have?

 

[dahkter]

I have one problem now. I made a kick ass sample so I started chopping it up. The problem is I get these "clicks" at the end of them.

Always chop at zero crossing on the waveform. If you're looking at the wav on the MPC screen, or on the computer screen, there's a horizontal line running through the middle of it. Always chop at the point where the waveform goes through that horizontal line, then you won't have any click. If it's a click at the end, maybe it's set to note off, if that's the case, try to use a fast release at the end of the sound to fade it out.

 

[Quality]

Thanks for the tips, I guess I'm going to have to try it again.



I'm using Garageband, phatMatik Pro, Audacity, and Apple Loops Utility.

Can these tricks work with what I have?

I use Audacity, and it is great and easy to use for chopping. Definitely recommend it.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Any wave editor is suitable for chopping, as long as the chops are clean(no clicks). As pointed out, by chopping on the zero point of the wave file(the point it crosses the line), and also on time. The first hit point of each chop has to be spot on. Taking the extra time to get clean chops is key. Then arrange the chops on seperate keys on a sampler and then play chops off of each other till you have something going on, record it.
Add drums if necessary, a little salt, maybe some pepper, and you are on your way to a recipe for a decent beat.
Understanding the key of a sample is important, tuning your ears to hear the different keys will take time, but will always get better the more you practice. Try using a patch of a piano and improvising to the sample, trying to hear which keys of the piano match the keys of the sample. Once you know the keys you can then add melodies or bass etc to phatten up the sample and make the peices work as a whole. This is a process that comes only with practice, there is no quick fix solution. So keep at it and I promise you will only get better and learn more of the process of getting chops to work together. Once you know this you can then get samples from any source and start mixing and matching and recreating. Practice practice practice.

 

[glassJAw]

Thanks for the tips!

This is what I still don't understand.

So I chop a sample at a zero points. Say this is a 8 measure sample.

Now I'm in garageband and I want to take the first a 1/8 of the sample and loop it.

I get clicks at the end of that 1/8 part of the sample still so I'm assuming that I'm not sampling it at the right time still.

I even take the sample loop it and count in my head the timing and it seems like it's right.

This shit is hard.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Thanks for the tips!

This is what I still don't understand.

So I chop a sample at a zero points. Say this is a 8 measure sample.

Now I'm in garageband and I want to take the first a 1/8 of the sample and loop it.

I get clicks at the end still so I'm assuming that I'm not sampling it at the right time still.

I even take the sample loop it and count in my head the timing and it seems like it's right.

This shit is hard.

Thats why I use a wav editor to do chops, I dont know if you can do it in garageband but if I cannot stop a sample from clicking then I will add a very small(ie quick) fade in or out depending if the click is at the start or end of the sample. Just zoom right into the start or end(depending on where the click is) highlight a small section from the very start for start or very end for end and fade in or out.
Its not hard, but it certainly isnt childsplay. Like I said just keep with it and the peices will fall into place.
There are many ways to get certain things done, you just have to pick them up as you go along.

 

[glassJAw]

Alright well if I do that, how do manipulate a bunch of chops out side of garageband? I want to be able to change the tempo and shit. If the sample is cut up and I open it in Apple Loops Utility it will read each chop at a different tempo so it will mess things up.

Because if I chop up that 1/8 sample in audacity,

 

[2GooD Productions]

I personally use reason, and the NNXT within reason. There are many different sampler programs out there, its a matter of learning how to use one . Most will be able to tweak the samples pitch etc. Using the one sampler with each chop assigned to a different key on the keyboard you can then play each key(chop) and you can also go into each chops properties and tune each chop to how you want it. Some samplers are better than others with timestretching and other good FX to tweak a sample, but its good to learn the basics first.
As you mentioned before, yes using reverb effect to fill some blank spaces is a good idea at times, but the trick is to not over do it. Delay is another good effect for the same purpose.

 

[glassJAw]

Thanks...

I got phatmatik pro and it's pretty cool but it doesn't do time stretching. Do you know of any that work with Macs?

EDIT:

I guess I'm not really understanding how people make hip-hop music.

I see people sample shit, obviously these all have different tempos. Do a lot of you guys use time stretching to make certain things work??

Do you tempo your songs based around samples?

 

[Shonsteez]

Dj Xsinna gave some really good advice...FILTERING is super important if you rely heavily on sampled material for your beats. Particular frequencies in one sample will often conflict with another sample once things begin to get layered together and so filtering will usually remedy that problem. Filtering is also great for achieving a particular sound that u may be going for with a certain sample.
Id say that the FILTER is by far the first thing i reach for before i bother with anything else like compression or EQ. Of course, filtering is essentially a form of EQ but more similar to shelving effect.
Very useful though, def try this if you havent experimented very much with that sort of thing.

(Applying some light synthesis to the samples if your sampler allows it can be really cool too.)

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Sorry, i just noticed your last post:
From what it sounds like, you simply need to start at square 1.
If you really wanna make beats but dont know where to start - I would suggest simply listening to the music that you would like to emulate and start to break down what your hearing in LAYERS.

LAYERING is key. Music is often easier to look at like digital artwork for example in photoshop. ( ie. You create a composition via orchestrating various elements together to form ONE COHESIVE finished product. )

1. Start with the basic elements of RHYTHM first.
Think about what your hearing. Are all the notes 16th notes, or are they Triplets, or whatever???.....
Is there a late feel to the swing or a early feel???.....
What kinds of sounds are being chosen to form the kit???.....
Then try to recreate something similar.

2. Once you got that main building block you can move onto either sampling some kind of media whether it be a CD, RECORD, or whatever u got.
Or, if your not the sampling type - nows where u have to consider what you want your melody to sound like or maybe your bassline???......

3. At this point, you got 2 layers already. Now its just on you to continue forming different parts together to form a song.

Thats about it man.