Yes, you're right about sampling.

There's no real rules, whatever you think might work. Most rap sampled based beats are just small bits and pieces here and there, but then there's Kanye who pretty much just layers drums over a whole song.

I'm just starting to use Live myself, so if anyone has any hints, share them please! I've been using reason since Version 1, and same with Acid/Soundforge stuff. So I'm not new to beat making, just Live.

Sorry for the rant, to answer you're other question, sample stuff you want into Soundforge, loops/hits, etc... and then you sequence them in Live

The midi is actually pretty easy to set up, just hit the midi button and the parameter you want to trigger, then press that key on your keyboard.

Check out their website, they have video tutorials, which are awsome!