Whats your chopping technique?

O

OrhanGizzle

New member
So I'm back at making beats after a long break, and I wondered.

How do you guys generally chop up your samples? Do you match the sample's tempo with your track's tempo before chopping or do you use the original tempo and try fit it anyways? Do you chop by the beats or in between? How many slices do you take etc.?

Really looking for some input, as I'm trying to switch up and evolve as a producer.

Peace
 
I used Acid Pro to chop samples and I sequence and do drum sequences in Fl Studio. The great thing about Acid is the sample automatically time stretches when you change the tempo. The number of slices depend on how many parts of the sample I want to use. I try to avoid chopping in 16th's because it's so typical these days but sometimes the parts of the sample that interest me dictate that I chop it in 16th's.
 
1. Find a song to sample. After listening to it, you should figure out what type of beat you want to make out of it.
2. Make a drum loop you think might work. If you don't know if it will work, use it anyway(just to try), just make sure it's banging.
3. Set the first slice from that part that makes you want to sample it, chop it up. Listen to it and picture it over the drumbeat you made, chop up some random shit if your unsure where to slice. Or just slice around the drums, make sure every hit sounds pretty clean on the attack. That way, you can fix things later on.
4. LivePlay the chops on the beat and see what happens. Always picture the result your after. If you feel something that is cool, but not quite there. Chase that feeling, and you will make a cool beat. Don't stop, unless the feeling is completly gone. If you get no feeling at all. Do it all over with a new sample, or a new beat.

Also remember Eq'ing/filtering/effecting the sample can be done to experiment. The same with pitching the sample. Make it fit the way you think, Just make sure it gives you a feeling you like, and chase that feeling. Make what you see before your eyes come true.
Also, you don't have to use each slice as is, you can effect certain slices. Be creative.

To the threadstarter: Not really exactly what you asked for, but I wrote it in like that anyway. Have a good day, and have fun making beats again.
 
Last edited:
I still use Soundforge.
Do all my editing and chopping there and then load it into the 2KXL or Pro Tools.
The amount of chops depends on the song,could be as little as 10 or as many as 72.

Peace
 
I make a loop of the part that has what I want to chop and archive it in my library. I open it in FL and drag it onto a SliceX channel. If I already know exactly what I want, I'll clean up that part in SliceX (making sure it's not sliced up into shorter clips or making a shorter one longer) and go. If I don't know what I want, I'll mess around in SliceX to see what's on each key and then start adjusting based off of a cool idea I come across.

I like SliceX. I used to use BeatSlicer or whatever they called it before that. I like that they'e non-destructive so I still have the perfect loop there in case I want to just make a beat out of the loop later. They also make chopping ridiculously easy. You can see the waveform and making a drop is just dragging a line and you're done. I have a spontaneous approach to music and this method lets me keep that for samples.

As far as tempo, it's whatever. I've been making beats for a while so I'm good at making perfect loops that always line up right and are perfect at an interval that's easy for quick-time stretching, generally 1,2,4, or 8 bars. When chopping, tempo matters even less for me because I'm mangling the audio.
 
Last edited:
Sample

Edison...
Fpc...
30 mins or so....
Drum selection
Other instrumentation if i feel it fits...
Mix n export to see what else it need or rather whats lacking
Back to work......
 
I record my samples from vinyl using Soundforge (not recording full songs but parts I feel like I could sample some day). This is usually done the first time I listen to a new record, so I have a folder full of samples to browse when I feel like making a beat. If the record is extremely noisy I may edit it a bit to remove some of it, but I tend to steer away from bad condition records so I don't do it often.

I chop the samples with my MPC 2000XL. I usually use the zones so I get max 16 slices per audio file (meaning that if there's more to chop in the sample, I'll chop it to a few smaller parts first and chop them in zone view), no "auto-chop" style though, I manually move the zones where I need them. And the way I chop the sample depends on the sample and the sounds I want to chop out of it. No set amount of slices, the sample determines the amount, I chop as much as I can from the particular sample. I'm one of those guys who likes to create a barebones drum track and start generating the groove by playing around with the chops so more slices makes it more fun. I pitch the slices or adjust bpm or both. Or just let it be if it works that way.
 
Last edited:
It's been a few years since I've made any beats so I still might be stuck in 2008 as far as tools lol. I use Recycle after finding a section of a song I want to sample. Most times I save it as a REX file and load it into Dr. Rex.
 
I chop the sample in Edison. (Although Slicex is easier but it has bugs)
Than drag it into Fruity Slicer.
Start sequencing.
Copy the Fruity Slicer a couple of times layer them using the build in Filters.
 
I stopped using Slicex cause it gives errors when you copy the Slicex plugin a few time to layer.
Ruins your entire project.
So i went back to Fruity Slicer & use Edison to chop the sample cause if you chop the sample in Slicex and drag it to Fruity Slicer the Fruity Slicer also gets bugs.
 
Main Loop said:
I'm a Reason guy. I isolate samples as WAV files, load them into Recycle, chop them up and export them as Dr Rex files to play with in Reason.
Click to expand...
Do you make beats for my dude BeWill? I think I have heard some of those bangers you did.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top