Advice on chopping samples.

Bri10

New member
Lately I've been trying to avoid looping my samples. I'm trying to chop them up more but I find it hard to chop them into new patterns without redoing them in drum patterms. And the beat comes out repetitive

The 3rd snippet is a prime example of what I'm on about


I'd like advice on how to go about chopping a sample like which parts to chop and how put it together.
 
I apologize if I'm hearing what you're asking wrong, but try this.

Try taking parts from throughout a song and rearranging them into something new instead of looking into just one 4/4 loop. Example, take 1/4 from the outro, 2/4 from the chorus, 3/4 from the bridge, 4/4 from the intro. If the song was synced to a tempo(gotta be careful with live stuff)when all these parts are combined, they still go together fluently making a completely new melody/sound. Ad a little pitch and timestretch to a new tempo after doing that and you instantly have something new.
 
What ive been doing kinda like what Deranged said i think is i will take a bar from here maybe two bars there make sure they all loop up nice individually and chop on kicks and snares... Then just play with the different chops till i come up with something nice...
 
That's kind of what I'm trying to do probem is it can get a tad repitive at times when I do it coz I always end up with a basic kick snare kick snare pattern
 
somebody will probably be able to help you better than i can but i understand what your saying... check this is you have a couple different loops from the same sample and its tempo based as deranged said you will have a good amount of chops to play with and it will sound good and if the drums on the record your sampling arent to strong theres nothingwrong putting a chop where theres a kick in it on a snare if same with snare and kick if you get what im saying plus if you hpf you can get rid of the kick all together, if thats what your going for...and then you can add your own bass too... As long as your drums are heavy, they will mask the snare and kick from the record your sampling...most of the time
 
first big piece of advice would be use your ears. Dont really on your chops to always be on beat use your ears and use effects to liven the sample i could play you a sample with all bottom end and no bottom end and they would sound different and the difference between those two versions could change how your baseline and keys and chords sound. if you email me ill be glad to help iamgalaxey's comments on SoundCloud - Hear the world check out my sampled stuff you'll see what i mean and oh yeah no timestretching ruins the sample totally or extreme time stretching i should say. All of your samples may need additional attention like tuning, pitching, effects, etc. use your ears and believe in your music bro! keep practicing! Also pay attention to your chops and the sequences you play them in i can make a set of chops sound very different just by changing the way i play them and my baseline changes as well to provide a different feel to the song.
 
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First of all it's a bit better to be able to play your chops on the fly with a MIDI controller as opposed to clicking shit into your sequencer just in case that's what you are doing......then it's probably best not to start off by chopping shit too small because ideally you will want long shit which you can choke/cut off as you play but then you might also want to cut your long chops into separate shorter chops too, like say you have a slice with a kick followed by a snare you can choke/cut off the snare as you play but what if you want just the snare without the kick?...well you make another sample but without the kick.
 
Also, if you make your own basslines you can always trick the ear into thinking there more going on that there actually is. for example make a 4 bar loop with the chops and repeat it twice, but with a 8 bar bassline = you got a 8 bar loop. To me the bass is the most important thing to make beats intresting, cus lets face it, its mostly loops.

And to the drums, dont worry about them being a lil sloppy, you can always place the chops under the drum-hits later on, and it'll all fit anyways. For example dilla had beats that could go on forever, but the drum patterns were basic as hell, he just made it swing



Like this, a good beat (to me), but it doesnt have that many elements, it jsut swings + nice bass.
 
first big piece of advice would be use your ears. Dont really on your chops to always be on beat use your ears and use effects to liven the sample i could play you a sample with all bottom end and no bottom end and they would sound different and the difference between those two versions could change how your baseline and keys and chords sound. if you email me ill be glad to help iamgalaxey's comments on SoundCloud - Hear the world check out my sampled stuff you'll see what i mean and oh yeah no timestretching ruins the sample totally or extreme time stretching i should say. All of your samples may need additional attention like tuning, pitching, effects, etc. use your ears and believe in your music bro! keep practicing! Also pay attention to your chops and the sequences you play them in i can make a set of chops sound very different just by changing the way i play them and my baseline changes as well to provide a different feel to the song.

Thanks man I'll admit stretch my samples too much but I'll try stop that in terms of effects I don't have too big a problem with that.
First of all it's a bit better to be able to play your chops on the fly with a MIDI controller as opposed to clicking shit into your sequencer just in case that's what you are doing.

The problem is I don't the budget to get any hardware I have to use my DAW to do all that.

Also, if you make your own basslines you can always trick the ear into thinking there more going on that there actually is. for example make a 4 bar loop with the chops and repeat it twice, but with a 8 bar bassline = you got a 8 bar loop. To me the bass is the most important thing to make beats intresting, cus lets face it, its mostly loops.

And to the drums, dont worry about them being a lil sloppy, you can always place the chops under the drum-hits later on, and it'll all fit anyways. For example dilla had beats that could go on forever, but the drum patterns were basic as hell, he just made it swing.

That means I'll have to improve on my bassline coz I'll admit bassline are my greatest flaws. But in terms of drum patterns I really only decide on that after getting a solid loop & as it is I think I know when to complicate them or do something simple
 
If you use Ableton you can automatically slice your loops into individual samplers in a drum rack and arrange them in MIDI ;)
 
Here is some good advice that I'm doing right now because my sample game is struggling also go to whosampled.com and listen to as many sampled songs as you can learn what they are taking and what there not listen to the elements they add and when they add them....also try to find sample packs online someone already chopped in 4 or 8 bars...I mean your just learning here so no big deal if its been chopped 1000 times.not to mention your not spending 2 hours finding a open break which means more time being creative with the sample...
 
i usually chop on the beats, its just the way i like doing it i think the cops sound smoother that way, i also do like 10/20 chops to depending on the sample, tbh though, some times i just loop it too haha, depends on how im feeling!
 
The easiest way to chop breaks and phrases is to count the rhythm and chop into rhythmic subdivisions. The foundation of music is rhythm, a pulse. Understand rhythm and the world is yours. And before any of you goofs try to counter by saying "just use your ears", counting rhythm is all about using your ears as well as your brain, duh. The idea is understanding where the drums and notes fall to make sample chopping more effective and efficient. Its also a consistent technique you can apply to ANYTHING music related. Why dick around if you don't have to?
 
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