Never purchased sounds..

[emohbe]

I have been making beats for a little while now, but I have always gathered my own samples through free mediums or ripped them off the internet(mainly song samples). I was wondering if you think Im hurting my production by doing this?

I mainly use reason, and perhaps this is a big reason why I havent bought any VST or sound packs. I also use Ableton but not as much.

Thanks.

 

[scrapheaper]

I work this way because I can't afford to buy samples, and I feel like I've become a better producer because of it. However, I did buy one synth (synthmaster), because I work with REAPER and it doesn't come with any fully featured synths. If you have ableton and reason you're probably ok for synths if you learn to do sound design. If you're going to rely on presets you might need to buy some synths/ROMplers, but I wouldn't recommend it.

That said, ripping youtube songs for samples isn't a great way to do it because whilst mp3's sound pretty much the same as wavs, they are affected more badly by time stretching and pitch stretching than wavs. So i'd stick to free wav sample packs or buy some CDs if you're going to be stretching or re-pitching samples a lot.

 

[emohbe]

I knew mp3s were of lesser quality but I had no idea the specifics as I do tend to repitch and stretch mp3 samples. Thanks for the tip bro!! I need to step my game up on acquiring these samples.

 

[scrapheaper]

I knew mp3s were of lesser quality but I had no idea the specifics as I do tend to repitch and stretch mp3 samples. Thanks for the tip bro!! I need to step my game up on acquiring these samples.

Well, it's up to you. If you haven't noticed them sounding odd then it doesn't matter...