Please help with laying down my chopped samples to the right tempo

T

TDOT

New member
What up FP?

I'm new to sampling but I'm having a hard time laying down my sample patterns after I've chopped it up.

I get my loop or track or whatever I want to sample into my NI Maschine and chop it up manually.
Once I've chopped up some slices of a song I can play something that I think sounds I'LL live, but once I go to record my vision and what I'm playing I can't match the tempo. I try tap tempo to match it, and everything but it jus never seems to work out, or I'll get it close but when it loops back around on the down beat it will sound off.

Anyone have any suggestions? or maybe I'm doing something wrong?
When I've purchase loops and they come with the BPM it's a piece of cake but when I'm digging I have problems.

Thanks in advance for any help
 
Does the Maschine have a time-stretch function? If my chops are slightly off even after matching tempo of the original sample to my project I just stretch the chops a little bit to line everything up. For example, if I chop a 2 bar loop and it's still slightly off when I loop it in the sequencer, I just stretch the chop to 2bars and it lines up perfectly. Your chops could also be off-beat or your just missing the correct BPM when using tap-tempo.
 
Na no time-stetch with Maschine...yet...
Not sure what it is though, if I'm making a beat from scratch and I have a melody in my head, I have no problem figuring out what my melodies BPM would be.
When I have the sample loaded and I'm playing it back, it's nothing for me to tap along to the beat, so why can't I find the right tempo???

It's as if I can play my chops livefor people to hear, but I can't record it?
Dang this is frustrating still
 
Damn I don't know man. You could try using software like Mixed In Key to detect the tempo of your sample. At least then you would know it's not you just being a little off with the tap-tempo. Keep grinding, you will figure it out.
 
try chopping your samples in to smaller pieces. maybe in like 1/4 beats or even 1/8. i.e 8 slices per beat etc. then you can control more of when the important parts of the slices are triggered in order to match the tempo. otherwise try playing around with the pitch of all the slices as a whole, and lay down a pattern and fiddle with the pitch to see if they work with the tempo. this will be a little easier if you have stab sort of chops like a trumpet chord etc. try different methods of chopping and see how many slices you wanna do. could be more could be less. ive never used maschine before but thats just a general suggestion in case your still stuck and dont get no help from some maschine heads. hope that can help :)
 
Respect on the tips still,
I've been trying different things, guess that's the only thing that will work, trial and error, i'll find my way eventually. It's tricky but once it clicks I'm sure it's nothing after.
 
Start by figuring out your samples tempo. If you keep your beat close the original tempo, chopping in any division increment (1/4, 1/8, 16ths etc . .) will keep your replay smoother. (You find a 2 bar sample that you wanna loop and plan to keep the original composition.)

If you go outside of traditional sampling and would like to use your chops/hits to create your own melody then time stretching would greatly help especially of your not going to use the original tempo. Try to keep your chops/hits consist in measure, this way when you time stretch all your samples will be consistant in sound and length.

You could also use your hits to fill in gaps if you go outside of the original tempo. If you have a chop/hit that plays under an 1/8th or 1/4 note, leaving a gap at the end, trigger it twice or three times.

In no way are these the absolute correct way to go about sampling, just a few ideas that i've learned over time.
 
in slice mode in the maschine software it tells u the bpm of the sample , or u can find a free app that'll do just bpm try mixmeister bpm analyzer ... its free google it
 
If the issue is detecting the BPM of your sample you could always open FL Studio, load the sample into Edison, play it and use the "tap" function (right click on top of the BPM counter). This way you can tap along to the samples and figure out the BPM. I'm sure a lot of other programs do this and probably Maschine does to, I'm using FL as an example 'cause it's what I use.
 
Yea it's weird though, cause Maschine has tap tempo, I'd play my sample and tap to it on beat and everything and after I chop it up it still sounds choppy and slightly off.
The only thing to do is just keep playing with it, it's not something that can be explained, cause it seems so easy when explained.
 
Chopping samples is all about groove man. I don't even try to find the BPM of the sample anymore.. all I need to grasp is the rhythm of it unless it's a simple loop you want in the first place. Sampling by each beat would probably be the best option for you. I'd love to hear how you chopped them in the first place.. just wondering how you're not able to match em.
 
That's what I've realized, it's about feeling more then anything.
I try and chop my slices on a down beat and keep the chop either 1 bar, or all the 2ay to 4 bars it depends, when I play it on my Maschine it sounds great, when I lay it down in a pattern it sounds choppy, it's almost as if the quantizing of the chops makes it off, frustrating stuff still
 
Take that 1 bar chopping and divide it by four. You cannot lose chopping that way. That's usually the way I do it. I either loop by 1 bar. chop according to the samples bass.. or chop individual notes out of the sample. Get tedious and detailed with it. More control.. the easier it is to get everything to match.
 
Last edited:
One of the many reasons why people enjoy slicing samples into small segments is that it seems to offer them more freedom from the constants of the source material's original BPM because the sample's ends simply get cut off or end prematurely, however when you slice longer samples that don't match your project tempo you can run into problems with overlapping lengths based on the original tempo not fitting that same length in your project, or you might have edited ill fitting lengths based off swing that you are finding difficult to shoehorn into an arrangement.

I would recommend learning how to accurately determine a songs tempo as well as learning how to make a proper loop by using simple math as it will help you to understand the relevance of lengths and divisions even though you will still continue to edit most things by ear.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top