Half my time (maybe more) in the studio these days is listening to the records I've picked up in the last week or so... I might hear a sample and think "Yeah, I can do something with that later" make a note and keep on listening.... Or I might hear a sample and think "LETS GO!" and get straight to work!
I'm definitely making less but what I'm making is better.
...rarely i hear a dope ass drum break that hasn't been used before and feel like i'm obligated to use it now. so then i start building off that. that doesn't mean the drum break will be in the final beat either though lol
I don't even bother with drum breaks... Much quicker and easier to program my own drums... I sample strictly for a grooves and instrumentations I guess.
No rules 'cept your own though... Then you only have yourself to give the hard word to! LOL!
i hear that. i used to never mess with drum breaks at all too and only program. but then i noticed layering drums breaks, especially in the mid and high frequencies made my drums thicker and tied the one shot samples together better.
Oh I layer my drums! My kicks and snares are made up of a minimum of 2 sounds per instrument... That's a big part of my process.
I find layering hi-hats and ride cymbals has an adverse effect though, so I just pick 4 sounds (I usually use 3 hi-hat sounds - open, slightly/less open & closed as well as a muted/dullish ride) that fit well with my layered kick and snare...
I'm also careful with compression... Many samples/sounds have already been compressed at source and compressing them again can easily kill any punch they had...
if I think my kick needs a bit of compression I'll start with just 1 of the sounds that make up that kick; always leaving at least one of the sounds (usually the one that sets the tone of the kick - the one I want highest in the mix) uncompressed.
Kinda've an offshoot of the parallel compression (NewYorkCompression) technique as I'm using different sounds and blending the result...