Are you a looper or chopper?

I always go in with the intention of finding a good loop and then chopping it.
The best chops seem (for me) to come from the best loops.
That said I'll often take 1-bar parts from different sections of a sample... Might only ever use the first half-bar (or less) before I choke it with another sample but sampling less than a bar makes it more difficult to stretch in Maschine.
I guess I've made rules for myself just to keep up with a process I can work to quickly. Good thing about breaking your own rules is you only have yourself to explain yourself too...
 
I do both! I'n in reason 8 when I do it too. I love playing with pitch of chops and making new patterns out of the chops. I'm always adding more to the sample. My beats are never just a sample and drums. Gotta have more to create a fullness. You can always layer samples but then theres not as much original composition. Unless as a producer you believe a flip is original, its just not 100% original tho.
 
Some folk just don't dig on sampled music but I think the key for producers is to take reference from from existing work that they admire and respect (or even love) and to do their utmost to make it their own...

This isn't something that's unique to music production though. It's something that's done across all artforms and always has been... Entire movements of visual and performative art are based on similar process...

In literature it comes with the term 'Intertextuality' and the theory of it is taught as part of literature programmes in universities. Used often as a device by authors from Dickens to Tolkien to Hosseini.
 
I chop, change the pitch, create different loops of the chops so it wont be all the same, add some reverb, and add I sometimes adds some synths.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top