Sampling Producers.

[50 cal]

For everybody that samples, what's your usual process. Do you just search for loops and add drums and a baseline, or do you just hunt for individual stabs and sounds. Also how do you guys go about chopping the sample and rearanging, so it sounds like something totally new.
I'm Really getting into diggin for records and sampling, so any tips or knowledge that ya'll can give me would be real usefull. I'm saving up for my mpc but at the moment i'm using reason 3.0 and a m-audio 49e keystation.

 

[Agent Smith]

first of all get your hands on recycle...that will make your life easier for sure. what i usually do is jsut try to find a few bars (hopefully just drums or nstrumental but it can be interesting if theres both) and i sample it. maybe 4-8 bars of it. then i load it into recycle and slice it up. they i load the slices i want into my fantom (or reason) and sort of "play" them. in reason, load up a dr. rex, load up the rex fie you just made and then play the keys with the slices assigned to them. then you have total control...

 

[classic]

--Find a sample from vinyal or other means
--Load the sample into sound forge get loops situated
--Take those loop(s )save em to my CF card and load them on my MPC
--One loaded into my MPC i make sure the sample is in tune, if not i tune it manually<--very important espically when u want to compose over the sample

--Chop and re-arrange the sample, (zoing feature on MPC is dope for this) add drums effects etc...compose on top with my own melodies
--(optinal) if i want more effects &filters on the sample I transfer the sample from my MPC to my fantom rack and add some crazy filters(this can be done via CF card sense the fantom rack has a CF card reader also)

--Create 2 or 3 sequnces with differnt varations
--Record a general wav of beat in PT(to listen too)

--go watch family guy

 

[KurtisRich]

I look for everything in a sample. When I dig for records, I dont just dig for a particular sound, I dig for what I really feel during that moment. It's all about the ear. I try to loook for every single element when I sample. But its kind of hard to pick out that on particular sound sometimes. So all you gotta do is dig dig dig and dig.

 

[Vince]

I hate to loop. But I mean, some of my favorites loop alot. But as long as the loop hasn't been used before, and it's very cool I got no problem with it. As long as it doesn't sound "lazy" ie. a pitched soulsample looped 32 times for one song.

I usually look for sound, or a specific "vibe".
But the outcome is never how I predicted that it would be. If you loop, you know how it will sound, and it ain't never as cool as it would be if u chopped it. I usually chop my samples so you really can't hear what I sampled.

Just recently I had a beat comp with my friend where we sampled Charles Aznavour - A ma fille. He looped it, I chopped it up and rearranged it so much that he didn't even think I used the same sample, and mine sounded better

So yeah, when I chop I look for sounds.

 

[bigdmakintrax]

All of the above and also when i sample I look for pieces of the sample, such as a small phrase that captures a mood as the cornerstone of the song I will build off of it...usually for that I may need a piece of a change or transition that I could use either for a bridge and to build the hook of the song from that could be 1 or 2 bars.

Main thing for sampling its a lot of your own techniques you can put into it.

My approaches for sampling and building a song from that.
There are approaches to sampling that I have that come straight from making songs with artist from scratch but once again in hip hop there are no rules after you understand song building from the perspective of both a producer and artist(sometimes mc's like to have a longer intro than an instrumental listener wants I usually have about 8 bars for that) intro-verse-(breakdown or bride)-hook-then do it over 2X then outro (basically find the elements to sample to fill those gaps).....


You can have a loop all the way thru but it needs to be consistent or have some recognizeable melody in it.....and there should be be a build to a hook in a perfect song....MC's and Singers that are seasoned can easily pick a song apart if you do not have enuff space for them to work in and the most important THa hook or you composition is unequal in bars....hook building to me is a bitch...even beyond a melody....look at the original song you want to sample and see if all these elements are there that in a perfect world is a good sample to use especially if there are piece where there are no vocals in the record.....go to any hop hop song and listen man especially a classic song, you have to listen first to get an idea and buid from there.....anthems are big and thats what I would use first then start listening to other joints.....

 

[RigorMortis]

loops, stabs, filters, effects, i do everything, depends on the sample and my experimenting mood..

 

[50 cal]

thanks to everybody that dropped some insight

i was at my desk last night for 8 house just experimenting and i learned some new stuff

@jmaafia i forgot to List it but i actually do have recycle.

 

[Agent Smith]

word..start mangling those samples!

 

[Sucio]

I use FL Studio..

Loop/chop...I just edit the portions needed in cool edit...

Then I put the file into a channel......put hats in there so they are on beat.......for 4 bars long...or shorter depending on the sample used....then once it's on beat....I just do whatever I feel that it needs....

 

[x-squizet]

wow these are some good tips

 

[Ca$h Pacasso]

What up my dudes....Aight first I find a song and load it in Cool Edit..then I find samples I want from the song length depends on what I'm trying at the time. Chop them joints up...I rarely take a sample and chop it up too much or make it totally unrecognizable...that takes away from the feel of what drew my attention to the sample(just my opinion)...unless I'm really trying to create a beat that's nothing like the song(such as a Premeir joint)...Then I load the samples I took usually nomore then 8 into FL and usually I'll just load 1 at a time and put a basic sampler channel on the channel I'm loading into...and play with my main sample first adding hi hats just to get a feel for the tempo..then from their its building from that with the other samples I took or others I take after because I run my Cool Edit and FL at the same time so its constant building from there its all about the feel of that first sample loaded... Signing Off

 

[ManDAmyth]

It can be a stab or a loop. If it inspires me I'll start developing it.

I experiment a lot. I'll take something and throw it into Sound Forge and just throw a kitchen sink of effects onto it and see what happens. Sometimes I keep the effects other times I don't mess with the sample or stab at all.

I really chop the samples up so I have absolute control over it and how it will be composed in my beat.

I recently came across a loop of a CD that is killer. I've just used the loop and used a Yamaha keyboard and some stabs to fill it out and add variations.

Since you said your going into digging. Just go out and buy records. Don't inherit other heads methods and keep all your ish secret. You'll quickly figure out what to look for and become intuitive of what will be a hot record. I'm a vinyl junkie so I have money for my personal collection and funds for digging for sounds. When I dig for sounds I specifically go for the records that I know no other muthaphukka will have.

 

[classic]

Also i think another important key is to try new stuff, try sampling other genere's besides the typical soul, jazz, funk stuff.

Also experiment with your sampliing tecniques, lately ive been sampling my guitar and running it threw the fantom filters coming up wit crazy effects.

 

[Freakwncy]

1. try to stay away from famous names if possible (but even I sampled Britney Spares)
2. try to feel the mood of the album... u can save alot of dig time if u do that...
ie: if a blues guitar player is done 3+ trk on an album in spanish style guitar... chnces are the rest of the album is like that.. so there might not be too much bluesy sample on the album
3. with that said " KNOW UR ARTISTS"... u'll find samples easier that way
ie: J. Brown (funky band) most of the sampling is going to be at the intro, break and ending... those are the spots where the band get to do their thang

 

[RigorMortis]

Also i think another important key is to try new stuff, try sampling other genere's besides the typical soul, jazz, funk stuff.

Word, i rarely sample soul, jazz and funk, cos it has been done so often, so i rather try to find some curiosa music when digging.. i dont mind picking up soul, jazz or funk but i rather scoop the underdogs...

 

[dj360_iNfInItE1]

Wow, I do a lot of different things. But I do agree with Classic 100% on the tuning thing. If you chop up a sample, and you want to compose over it, it has to be in tune. I am still trying to figure out an easy way to do that. Anyway, I like to chop up drum loops and make my own drum sets. I also like to use loops, at times. But lately since I have recently picked up FL 5 XXL, I am using the time stretch to more accurately combine my different samples so that they match up instead of playing a sample at a different pitch but the tempo was off. Time stretching is a blessing to me for sure. I use Audacity 1.2.3 to edit my waves and chop them. I am going to get into more sampling and composing over the top. If anyone can give me any tips on how to make sure my sample chops are in tune, that would make life easier for me. Classic, I would love your advice on this especially but anyone with tuning tips for me, I would love it. Thanks!

 

[Svenghali]

I don't search for samples. I like to let the samples present themselves to me. I've got a good ear which enables me to catch parts of a sample that other heads would've skipped over 'cause they're looking for that "break" in a record.