All the above are important with sampling!
This is what I usually do.
The digging : If I'm feeling a sample. I like to to listen to it & study it. Things like tempo, key, the instruments in the sample, structure of the sample are all important.
The chopping: I usually go through the whole song and find certain parts that catch my ear. Sometimes it may be a subtle part of the sample like a small guitar riffs and shots, vocal breathing/words, or it could be a larger sample like a dope chord or vocal.
There's is one thing I learnt a long time ago with sampling.
THERE ARE NO RULES! You can sample any way you want, any part of the song you want. Myself after I chop my main samples, I may sometimes sample the sample into smaller bits.
One peice of techinal advise. When making cuts in the sample, make sure the the start and end of the actual sound wave itself is at the zero point ( I tried posting a diagram but not enough posts lol ), though it may take time, that will prevent poping or clicking on the track later on.
The arrangment of the chops: The arrangment depends on the sample. I find that experimenting with the sounds you've sampled is the best way. So what I would suggest is place all chops to PAD and just go in with an open & clear mind frame.
There's no rules to it you don't even need to start off with the sample. You can always start with the drums or another instrument.
Chopping on beat: The above explains this question. Something else that will help you a lot will be; filtering, compressing and gating. In some instances when I decide that I want to sample a seperate vocal or instrument on a main sample loop, I eq and filter out the vocal sample until you only hear the vocals in the sample. And when you put the main sample and filtered vocal together it should work if the samples match. But this works with anything not just vocal samples.
PRACTCE & PATIENCE ARE IMPORTANT.
GO IN WITH AN OPEN MIND & LET YOUR CREATIVITY TAKE CONTROL.
---------- Post added at 12:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:21 PM ----------
I just do it by ear. I find that to be the most accurate.
Any tips for finding the key of a sample?
