Choping up samples help!!??

T

TDOT

New member
What up FP?

I'm trying to sample an ambient track, but the song is veryyyyy slow and also there are no drums for me to count with.

I can't seem to find the BPM and see any directions because the beat is so slow and there are no drums with it.

Any tips on how to loop an ambient type sample or find the bpm so I can chop it up?
 
Thanks for responding, yea I've tried playing around with it can never get it to be perfect, maybe I'm just being to picky with my loop wanting it to be exactly right on, cause last night I tried looping this sample I found spend so long (wasting time pretty much) find that good 4 bar loop. I finally settled on what I had figured I couldn't get it any better
-then I chopped it into 16 slices and there's still a few clicks when I play it back.
 
TDOT said:
can you maybe explain the chop not being at zero point a bit more?
Click to expand...


So you know how when your looking at the waveform there is the line going through the middle? Zoom in really close on the beginning of the chop and adjust the chop so it starts where the waveform is passing through that middle line.
 
no drums means it easier, not harder. speed it up or slow it down until you like what you have... dont make it harder than it is.
 
Alright thanks for all that info
Good tips gonna try it all out, Zero Point for sure I will try that out
and no drums being easier I guess I'll have to listen more, with the drums it was easier to find a count for my bpm
 
i dunno why you wanna chop it in 16 pieces, make good chops however many it takes. probably less than 16. personally i chop on notes, although ambient tends to not have notes. if you make your chops too small they become worthless IMO.
 
ego killer said:
i dunno why you wanna chop it in 16 pieces, make good chops however many it takes. probably less than 16. personally i chop on notes, although ambient tends to not have notes. if you make your chops too small they become worthless IMO.
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I'm starting to realize that it takes away from ur creativity when chopping perfect 4 bar loops over 16 pads. Only reason why I'm doing it that way now is cause sampling is new to me and I was told it's good way to practive finding loops etc.
But yea I know what u mean cause sometimes I'll hit a pad and wish it continues but instead it ends because the chops are so small
 
ego killer said:
i dunno why you wanna chop it in 16 pieces, make good chops however many it takes. probably less than 16. personally i chop on notes, although ambient tends to not have notes. if you make your chops too small they become worthless IMO.
Click to expand...


Yeah I've never done it like that either.
 
Chopping non-beat music is tough, I usually only do it as a background effect, Id recommend not chopping it but rather finding a loop you wanna use....
 
Even without drums you should be able to keep time and count, so that's something you will need to work at. If you are having some difficulty due to the slow tempo try speeding up the track when determining the tempo and then divide your answer down to get the original BPM, if you are using tap tempo I would recommend that you use it to time bars rather than beats anyway as it will improve accuracy.

I determine BPM with a stopwatch and calculator, so I already have the loop length as well as the BPM, but I can also work the other way around to determine loop lengths from a BPM.
 
Thanks for the help FP!

The problem with the samples that I have trouble looping is that, not only are there no drums but it's as if the tempo throughout the song changes.
What's your formula for finding the bpm?
 
TDOT said:
Thanks for the help FP!

The problem with the samples that I have trouble looping is that, not only are there no drums but it's as if the tempo throughout the song changes.
What's your formula for finding the bpm?
Click to expand...

I use a metronome and I also count the music and make a point to listen carefully as not all music begins on the "1", which can definitely throw some people off if they don't understand what's happening. You should consider learning how to count rhythm as this will help you not only with sample slicing, but also sample sequencing as well.
Knowing how to count rhythm and identify rhythmic structure will help give you much more control over your sampling and slicing capabilities and help open your imagination up to some creative sample arrangement possibilities.
And for those about to chime in with "Derp, I just use my ears", I ask you, since understanding how to count rhythm involves listening as the baseline essential requirement, at what point in the process are you NOT using your ears?
 
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TDOT said:
Thanks for the help FP!

The problem with the samples that I have trouble looping is that, not only are there no drums but it's as if the tempo throughout the song changes.
What's your formula for finding the bpm?
Click to expand...

If I timed one bar with my stopwatch and the readout was 2 seconds this is what my formula would look like.

60/2=30x4=120BPM

60(seconds as in one minute)/2(seconds from the stopwatch readout)=30x4(beats making one bar)=120(BPM)

If I timed one bar and got a reading of 2.526 seconds.......60/2.526=23.752x4=95BPM

If I timed two bars and got a reading of 5.052 seconds......60/5.052=11.876x8=95BPM

Tap tempo works the same way but timing short beats rather than longer bars is not going to be as accurate because dividing a bar into beats reduces timing errors, you also don't get the loop length displayed as you do on a stopwatch.

Just like Pumpthrust said you will still need to have rhythm and use your ears, it's also important when using a stopwatch not to accidentally cut bars short by a beat, practice timing something you know the tempo of first.
 
hollandturbine said:
If I timed one bar with my stopwatch and the readout was 2 seconds this is what my formula would look like.

60/2=30x4=120BPM

60(seconds as in one minute)/2(seconds from the stopwatch readout)=30x4(beats making one bar)=120(BPM)

If I timed one bar and got a reading of 2.526 seconds.......60/2.526=23.752x4=95BPM

If I timed two bars and got a reading of 5.052 seconds......60/5.052=11.876x8=95BPM

Tap tempo works the same way but timing short beats rather than longer bars is not going to be as accurate because dividing a bar into beats reduces timing errors, you also don't get the loop length displayed as you do on a stopwatch.

Just like Pumpthrust said you will still need to have rhythm and use your ears, it's also important when using a stopwatch not to accidentally cut bars short by a beat, practice timing something you know the tempo of first.
Click to expand...

These days you shouldn't even have to go through all that. Back when I was deejaying, counting tempo by ear was an essential technique, but in this day and age of software daws, its not even necessary anymore if you're only really a studio producer and not a live performer.
I'd say being able to count music in quarter/eight/sixteenth notes and triplets is a much more useful skill to have, especially when chopping and arranging samples and communicating with other musicians. And contrary to what most people would think, you are using your ears.

---------- Post added at 05:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:39 PM ----------
TDOT said:
Thanks for the help FP!

The problem with the samples that I have trouble looping is that, not only are there no drums but it's as if the tempo throughout the song changes.
What's your formula for finding the bpm?
Click to expand...
Is there a way you could post a 15 second clip of the track containing the passage you want to loop so I could better help you?
This isn't something I can just explain without hearing any audio.
 
Pumpthrust said:
These days you shouldn't even have to go through all that. Back when I was deejaying, counting tempo by ear was an essential technique, but in this day and age of software daws, its not even necessary anymore if you're only really a studio producer and not a live performer.
I'd say being able to count music in quarter/eight/sixteenth notes and triplets is a much more useful skill to have, especially when chopping and arranging samples and communicating with other musicians. And contrary to what most people would think, you are using your ears.
Click to expand...

Understanding the relationship between the tempo and the length of a measure is important in regard to production because one effects the other, like if you set the project tempo to the wrong BPM the sample will not fit properly within each measure, it can also have an impact upon time stretching.

Software can't tell you the BPM unless it has transients to work off, so it's up to you to get things right, most people use tap tempo and that's just fine, but like I said it's not usually set up to give the most accurate result, so I would recommend tapping over the duration of a bar and multiplying the result as opposed to tapping from beat to beat.
 
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