Chopping Samples with Drums

StanleySteamer

New member
Hey guys, quick question about chopping up some samples with drums here. I have a sample I'm working with and I want to add drums on top of it, but my drums aren't matching up with the samples drums and they are clashing/cluttering the beat. I have a HPF on and I rolled off around 200 HZ, helping a good bit but still a lot of punch from the kick area. Basically, I have heard that people chop their samples into like 16th or whatever they need and play it so the snares and the kicks and what not seem to work. I use Maschine 2 Studio and it gives me the option to auto slice my sample/loop into whatever I want. In this particular sample, it is a 4 bar loop that I chopped into 16th notes on the maschine and I just played it across accordingly. This has helped a little bit as far as getting my timing a little bit closer but still so far not exactly clean how I want it to. I was wondering if people could give me some advice on this and how they would chop their loop or sample that contains drums so that it matches better with the drums being layered on top of the sample drums? Hope this post isn't too complicated, always appreciate feedback thanks FP and happy holidays!
 
Samples with drums is the easiest to chop.
What you did is correct for rolling off the lows.
What DAW are you using?
Listen to your sample drums and chop them all into lot of pieces,
Kick - Chop , Snare - Chop , Kick - Chop, Snare - Chop.
Once you got it all seperated, Quantize one by one to fit in a bar.
Make a simple drum beat lay on top of it and see weather it follows the tempo.
If it fits, then make crazy ass drums on top of it.
I use this technique most of the time.
There is alot of techniques.

Hope this helps.
 
Do what kenny said. Sample each count into a chop 1 2 3 4, each chop being either a kick or snare (usually the kick hits on 1 and snare on 2).

What you then can do is add a little bit of attack to each chop to solve the "cluttered" problem you were speaking of, this will give your drums more room.
This works well if the drums only hit on the counts Kick, snare, kick, snare. However if your sample has more drums you can also side chain compress the loop to your drums. What this does is that whenever you kick & snare hits it will lower the volume X amount for X amout of time. With this your drums will bascically kill the drums underneath and I use it all the time.
These two techniques can together really make the loop sound like there are no drums at all.

I realize my description is rather confusing but hopefully I got the point across.
 
..What Marrelarre said. Filtering, and increasing the attack will do wonders to make room. Also, consider switching the drums you are adding to mesh better.
 
wow great responses guys thanks! Ok so to answer the first question I am using Maschine 2 Studio hardware as well as the software. I use the drag and drop feature they added to then import everything into pro tools as mono or stereo.
One question I am still having is so I should NOT be using the auto slice that comes with maschine? I mean it kind of does give me the kick/snare on each pad already chopped but its like my drums are still kind of off. Is it because these 16th chops aren't being quantized?

And lastly, so if my attack is at 0ms that is fast attack right? So you guys are telling me to add attack as in add more time to the attack to make it slower? Appreciate the help and feedback guys!

Edit: sorry I know this is a lot of questions lol but I just wanted to add that in the song I am working with, I have like literally 4 different 4 bar loops from the song that all contain drums and I am trying to get all of these sections perfectly on time. My drums are following the drums of the sample as far as the pattern so I can mask and cover them but the timing is clearly off.
 
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Correct. You increase the attack. I usually switch it from one-shot to ADR, and boost the attack around 30% (to preference of course). As for auto-chop, it depends what you are sampling. If you consider that the original sample was not properly quantized with the tempo held naturally as opposed to using a metronome, than the chops will be off. I so seldomly use that function because honestly it just takes a few mins to chop something into 16 pads. In fact, I usually only auto-chop if I want the option of playing the pads in reverse saving myself the trouble of editing the end points of each pad.
 
Thanks for the response. Yeah I see what u are saying and doing. As far as the tempo being off, it's really not the tempo. Most of the kicks are being covered by my drums perfectly. The snares aren't an issue. But a few of the kicks are just blatantly off time lol. Idk I was wondering do u think after I find the right tempo for my loop I should just chop into 16ths and then time stretch each one to a 1/16th?
 
Like you mean the drummer on the original track himself was well off? Well you could always make your kick off to fit with it. I've never once used time stretch. If you got it at the right tempo, then you wouldn't need it. Just chop at the 16ths and play accordingly.
 
Yeah the original drummer in the track. Those drums are off from mine. I have tried offsetting my kick to be off time just like my samples kicks but I never get them perfectly covered. Also how would I pitch my samples up if I can't time stretch them? I always pitch up around 400 cents
 
I just change the pitch on the group setting. Upwards or downwards, whatever fits best to what I want. So why not just not put your own kick where the off-kick is? Just let that one ride on its own? Are you playing with one-hits or a drum break?
 
No I have 4 different sections I have chopped out of the sample. Each section is 4 bars long. All sections contain both music elements like pianos and guitars and drums like kicks and snares. And when I mean offset I mean like it's not perfectly on time with the grid of my drums. Like my drums are quantized u know and the sample drums are still there even with the filter so they clash because they aren't hitting at the same time and it's super noticable
 
So don't quantize your drums and play them in accordance to the sample. Quantization is an overrated crutch.
 
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Because you cant have 1 chop o 4 bars thinking it will add up perfectly. You should chop those 4 bars into 16 chops, one for every count. That way you can make sure the kicks & snares are exactly on the counts and put yours over. This works with quantize aswell.

Lets say you have a classic pattern of "kick kick snare, hihat, kick, hihat, snare, hihat" you want to cover with the same pattern, bu tthe drums arent really syncing?
What you then can do is adjust the start point of the chop where its off beat. If the drum in the chop is a lil bit late compared to your own drums = you have to take away some from the start so they aline.

Sounds hella confusing but It really isnt.
Make the drums fit the chops but also you can force the chops to fit your drums (to a certain degree).
 
Like what Marrelarre said.

Anyway I've made a video. But bare with me. Because I sound a little confusing and mumbled alot.
Its not the best and I don't usually do tutorial video.
I've made 2 sampling style in the video, Technique that I uses all the time, same goes to others.
Make sure you watch the whole thing.

I'm a Fruity Loops User and Studio One User, both works pretty much the same,
For FL case I chop the samples up and combine them up on the playlist. I don't use Edison or Slicer, but Edison or Slicer works okay too.
But since you're using Maschine It would be doper that way. Regardless of what DAW you're using. just try messing around with it.

I hope my video helps.

 
thanks a bunch everyone for the advice especially you kennycleod for the video

edit: shoutout to jeepz too good advice homie
 
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A different approach to chopping every drum hit of the sample and then quantizing (and possibly ruining the feel of the other musical elements on top), would be to do the exact opposite-- learn about drumming (at least the basics, and about concepts like "on," "behind," or "ahead of" the beat, get pretty decent at "finger drumming," etc.), and play your drum hits into your loop "live" as an "overdub" and leave the original drummer's feel (probably the thing that attracted you to the sample groove in the first place) intact... If you practice matching-up your drums with the loop drums, you will get a better all-around feel without having to resort to slice-and-dice ad nauseum...

Not saying either approach is "better;" just a different way of doing it.

GJ
 
quick question here guys, in my maschine i normally chop a loop first and then i time stretch it to 4 bars and pitch it up. After I do this I am trying to chop the sample up using the slice function in the maschine. However, on the piano roll the chops are all ****ed up and some of the notes are too short or something. Any advice?
 
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