How to make your chops sound like a normal loop? How to chop like J Dilla?

T

ThaCarterH

New member
I hate when people have noticeably chopped samples... it's just not my taste. So what are some tips you can give that'll help me (and anyone else who finds this thread useful) chop samples and have them come together smoothly. Like J Dilla, most his songs you would think he's using a full loop.
 
put a tempo for yours song.....chop sample in Edison (or wherever you work) then time-stratch these chops (i do it in FL Slicer)...if original song is old, theres possibility that song isnt very precisely recorded..so if you have problem with some chops, you need to go back to Edison (i do there) and select that 'problematic' chop...take a TimeStratch with Pro Transient option...and thats it :)
 
I have been learning how to do this in ableton recently.

Try to learn with a really short clip. Like one bar of a disco tune. Use the warp feature to drag the kicks you can see on the wave pattern to be in line with the beats.
 
Its basically just good chopping and lots of it. If you have a 4 bar loop chop it into 16 pieces and adjust the start time of these correctly and make them cut eachother off (when one sound starts it interupts the previous sound).

Put these under the kick and snare on the counts of each bar (1,2,3,4 etc). if you combine this with a little bit of attack on each chop they will run very smoothly.

He used a MPC3000 and it didnt have time-strech nor a waveform so he just sampled, pitched, chopped and made it work that way.
 
Its about know what clashes, what the ear is actually listening for, and overall patience. There is a reason people zoom to 1 sample....gotta get it precise!
 
put a tempo for yours song.....chop sample in Edison (or wherever you work) then time-stratch these chops (i do it in FL Slicer)...if original song is old, theres possibility that song isnt very precisely recorded..so if you have problem with some chops, you need to go back to Edison (i do there) and select that 'problematic' chop...take a TimeStratch with Pro Transient option...and thats it :)

This compared to.....


He used a MPC3000 and it didnt have time-strech nor a waveform so he just sampled, pitched, chopped and made it work that way.


People are using so much computer bullshisssshh programs and still can't figure out how to put shit together. Use your 3rd eye or your Spideysense like Jaydee did without all that shhhhhhh.......
 
marrelarre said:
Its basically just good chopping and lots of it. If you have a 4 bar loop chop it into 16 pieces and adjust the start time of these correctly and make them cut eachother off (when one sound starts it interupts the previous sound).

Put these under the kick and snare on the counts of each bar (1,2,3,4 etc). if you combine this with a little bit of attack on each chop they will run very smoothly.

He used a MPC3000 and it didnt have time-strech nor a waveform so he just sampled, pitched, chopped and made it work that way.
Click to expand...

This^

Hey buddy, it's going to take practice and patience. With the MPC it did take more precision and finesse and we can see looking back this is why a lot of people were not into production in earlier decades. It was exhausting and time consuming (and damn expensive). Like D'Amazin said, alot of people use software these days, even the MPC went the way of becoming dependent upon software in order to even function (sadly). BUT these are all tools and should be utilized, not degraded or taken for granted.

If you are using a DAW, then the sampler will be your friend. Learn it's functions and how to create the fades that will eliminate the "choppy" sound you speak of. The amp envelope and the way the sample is triggered will also be important for what you are trying to accomplish. If you check out some youtube videos about it, you should be on the right track.
 
Great advice here. Tools are tools and you need to spend time with said tools. Bridge the gap between your mind and your technical chopping ability!
 
KonKossKang said:
maybe each chop has a perfect or close to perfect zero crossing with alittle delay :/
Click to expand...

THIS is super important. I didn't actually realize how important it was until I attempted to chop a song for practice the way it was chopped by a major producer and was like wow....he very very very carefully listened to cut off points to avoid any nasty sounds. Listening for sounds between half a second and another half a second can make a world of difference.

Also messing around with attack and release helps.
 
Last edited:
I find that if I truncate the sample so that it loops perfectly in its own right; it makes chopping easy.

This and making sure polyphony and choke groups are set up properly (for the chops in the sample)
 
Last edited:
I would say NOT to rely on plugins. There are a few keys like picking the right begin and end points of your samples/chops (don't confine yourself to chopping a 4 bar sample into 16 equal chops). You might have to catch a chop on a high hat as opposed to a kick or snare. It's all situational.

I'mNoGuru also has a good tip in setting the polyphony to maybe where they cut each other off which will make everything more fluid when sequencing.

Timing is also key. Practice will make perfect.
 
The first thing IMO is to not rush when you're chopping, just take your time. and just because you're using one sample as the main part of your beat doesn't mean that you have to only play one chop at a time. For example, I was making a beat today with a real musical sample. What I mean by musical is that there wasn't a pre-established beat to the sample, it was a lot of choir and strings. I chopped it up by just moving around the start point of my samples while the metronome was going, and I'd leave anything that sounded interesting. Then I left the choke off and gave the chops like a 3 second release and kind of played my samples out like I was playing piano. I used two hand on the keyboard messing around layering chops until I got something cool. The layering and release together helps mask a lot what you would hear defining them as "chops" makes it sound more fluid.
 
Yep man doing any sampling correctly or just enough to sound good is a hella bad process lol.
Samplers in general take so much time.
 
LucidLife said:
I use maschine for my sampling. It's so cake.
Click to expand...

While I agree (I use Maschine as well) it might be more useful if you elaborate on your process...
I take it you drop a sample on pad 1, truncate, stretch and then chop(slice)... This is how I work...

What do you do when there's only 3 or 4 usable chops (out of 16) from the sample though?
Have you messed with the 'reverse' on the ones you didn't think you could use and set them up on a separate choke group?
Or deleted unused chops from the pads and copied the chops you have used; maybe re-pitched them and then doubled up underneath in the mix or reversed and done the same?

So cake.
Sounds cool man... But kinda a wasted post.
I'm not tryin to get at you... But posts are a lot more interesting when there's some actual discussion about process.
 
Last edited:
True, no harm bro. I get what your saying.

Well, I'm very basic in my approach to sampling with maschine.

I find a song I like and listen to it. I usually listen to the whole song without skipping through, and make mental bookmarks, on parts I can sample.

Then I chop it up. I don't always have all my pads used for the sample. Let's say I have 4 parts of the song that I think is useable. I will assign 4 pads to each chop, and then make something with that. Then I will add drums to that. I don't need 16 chop ups.

For me the good thing about maschine is that I can keep pressing the pad and have the sample play back, and tweak it in real time. That's vital to my work flow, because I can find new melodies while tweaking when the samples starts, and ends in real time. I'm learning to use kontakt for sampling now, with pro tools. It's a whole different world with those 2.


Also, a sample may only be one second long, or not even. I don't need much to work with.

Also, a big thing is knowing what key the sample is in. I use mixed in key to analyze my song, then I listen to it. I really listen. I listen for any progression the song may have. Once I know the key, I can work with new scales, and chord progressions.

Learning music theory has taught me to listen to music, not only read it.
 
Last edited:
I kinda do the same thing (maschine). I listen to a song, then i drag the sampler along while tapping the pad to get the sounds i like. Usually I truncate a piece and then slice it into 16 new pieces, just to be able to mix them around and see if they sound cooler in a different order. I really liked the tip here on reversing and re-pitching tho. Gonna try that out.

What Im curious to tho is the key analyzer you use. I have been looking for exactly that. I got a sample base full of loops in keys and bpm, but find it hard to recognize the keys in my samples. Could you help me out?
 
Questlove briefly speaking on Dilla's methods:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-h1K34Y468

Lots of good advice already, so I can only add that each loop/sample that you get and alter in this way can have it's own unique swing according to how you cut and sequence it. You can hear in the video above how Dilla, by applying cuts in certain places in the sample, allows the natural swing of the sample to come to life...but it also has his own personal touch to it.

Making a loop that is cut into a bunch of pieces sound like it is not(cut into pieces), is not difficult once you get the hang of it. Where you will find trouble is making all elements of the beat you are trying to make flow together as a whole, organic unit, as Dilla did. Quantize functions are likely to hinder your process depending on where you make the cuts (moreso with the drums IME) when attempting to pattern your beats after his style. You can create some pretty cool swing just by fudging your cuts one way or another, to include a little more space on the front or back end of them.

I cannot comment on the key analyzer that people may use in Maschine, I use the frequency analyzer that is native to Ableton in order to determine the key, if I am not able to by ear.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top