The Digging Advice Thread (great for beginner diggers)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nicro
  • Start date Start date
Asking about YouTube sampling is a shit storm waiting to happen lol. Many love it many don't. I personally am not a fan of it.
 
You never know what to find sometimes. Soul, jazz, or 80s records are usually golden to me. Time to time though I do go on a limb and get odd records. I bought a Spanish folk compilation which Im going to pull from. Gotta keep in mind how you want to sample things though
 
Xabiton said:
My second piece of advice is be picky about samples. When you are making beats you are creating part of your legacy. The sound of your records is the sound that people will remember you for when you die if you are fortunate enough to have a large fanbase. Think if J Dilla just sampled every open 2 bar loop he could find rather than finding dope ones to chop up.
Click to expand...

That is a great point, I think that skill comes with more and more practice. Learning what records to sample, and being able to recognize whether that sample worth chopping vs looping (or even sampling at all) takes a long time to figure out. Shit, I still haven't figured it out.

The piece of advice I wish I could have given myself when I started: dedicate time each and every day (not just when the inspiration strikes) to the fundamentals. Listen old records in your spare time, learn what music inspires you to create.
 
My advice is to be open to every style of music. Everythin can be chopped and flipped you just have to train your ears
 
jyri said:
Do your homework. Some starting points for the very beginner: What labels generally put out the music you like? Artists you like? How many records/what records have been released by them? There are plenty of resources online that can help figuring things out a bit.

I'd personally advice starting by getting a few solid listenable joints to avoid possible frustration. Sure, it is fun to pick up cheap random records and it can be fruitful regarding sampling, but in the beginning of your digging career, you might simply end up with stuff you don't feel (and stuff you wouldn't want to sample too). Picking up cheap records you haven't heard of before will get easier as you build up your knowledge. And hey, if you bought something you don't feel, at least you got those solid listenable joints you got earlier.

Some useful links:
Discogs - Database and Marketplace for Music on Vinyl, CD, Cassette, MP3 and More
www.the-breaks.com, AKA The (Rap) Sample FAQ
AllMusic
eBay | Electronics, Cars, Clothing, Collectibles, and More Online Shopping

Soulman's World of Beats articles are a nice read too.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links it helps.
 
Very true, I have a huge collection I've built up over the years, and I always end up going back to listen to something again... You never know what you'll find!
 
I live in a little town with no record shops, so i utilize the local thrift shops that are available. Other than that i dig on the internet, you can really find some good websites or music blogs that have a lot of the classic soul/funk/disco records for download, i also use a russian website that recommends me downlaods, causing a snowball effect of record downloads
 
raɛnɪˌgeɪd;49558707 said:
I live in a little town with no record shops, so i utilize the local thrift shops that are available. Other than that i dig on the internet, you can really find some good websites or music blogs that have a lot of the classic soul/funk/disco records for download, i also use a russian website that recommends me downlaods, causing a snowball effect of record downloads
Click to expand...

Exactly man, you have to be thrifty. You can find stuff to sample EVERYWHERE, shit Exile samples off the radio.
 
If you think a record might have something dope, pick it up, or else your conscience will eat at you for not picking it up.
 
Always go with your gut instinct when crate digging. If you see something that even slightly that piques your interest then snatch it up and don't think twice about it.
 
Love this thread! it wasn't so long ago I was doing all this!
 
Xabiton said:
Asking about YouTube sampling is a shit storm waiting to happen lol. Many love it many don't. I personally am not a fan of it.
Click to expand...

Why not Kev? I say, use everything at your disposal. Music on YouTube is definitely a good place to begin.

---------- Post added at 01:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:52 AM ----------
Izeytope said:
Always go with your gut instinct when crate digging. If you see something that even slightly that piques your interest then snatch it up and don't think twice about it.
Click to expand...

Good advice. I would also sample different pieces of your records MULTIPLE times over. I've have some songs that I have chopped and flipped a half a dozen times. As my ear for being able to recognize good pieces of songs to sample has gotten better, I am able to go back and find tons of different pieces of records that I never thought to sample before.

All in all, be thrifty with it! And like Izeytope said, "go with your gut."
 
It doesnt matter where the sample comes from. As long as its dope it shouldnt matter where the source material comes from.
 
I think the quality form Youtube is really bad but its a great place to find music. My tip is once you have found a track type in the name with the word blog and find a good quality file of it

---------- Post added at 09:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:28 AM ----------

Also I have use you tube sample and pitch them down making a kinda degraded bit crushed sound that can be really interesting
 
Ok im am going to put a different spin on this. I come from the "old school" of beat diggin. Back in teh 80's and 90's there was no real inernet source that you can check to see if a song was sampled OR who that sample came from. If they did not list it on the credits then you either had to already know who it was because you had the record OR had to "stumble" upon it when you bought other records.

Nowdays its way to easy for any avergae joe to look at YouTube or do a Google search to see what records have been sampled etc. I feel the art has been lost. It is just way to easy now. Of course there are still tons of records to be sampled from but I like to see it go back to the days of "mystery" where you had to put in work to find a sample or who sampled what. There were some GREAT places in the Bay Area where records were .10 and .29 cents and TRUST ME just because the cover is torn there is GOLD in that sleeve!
 
thank u all. some good advice here.saturday iam on a "vinyl-convention/swap meet"(i dont know how to call it...) for the first time,and it think this thread will rly help me!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top