Ear Training

I was reading another thread,talking about the art of sampling, how did you train your ear to pick out samples,i think thats my biggest problem, i sometimes don't find anything on records. any tips to help train the ear. i know no one but you know what you want your track to sound like. but any ear training tips or exercises would be helpful

Usually anything that catches your interest.It may take a while to chop it and flip it but it's not about time.It can get frustrating when you can't seem to get it to go a certain direction but just experiment,and add your own style you'll be fine.

Alot times if you hear something you like but you don't sample it because antoher instrument in there messes up the loop. At first I was doing that and I would miss on a lotta great samples. As a producer you always gotta remember that most of the people who buy albums aren't producers so if you got 1 instrument out of wack always remember that you can just layer something on top of it.

Also I do something just for fun, I'm not sure if it trains your ear or anything, but when I am just listening to albums or even I cd I'll try to pic apart the different instruments.

Time. Until your ear becomes really unique, listen hard for things like sound quality, emotive sounds, instruments that you like etc. And just sample anything, don't be selective about what you put on the mpc to start with. Hearing the sample is a big part of it, but until you can hear the heat on your records, work on technique. Then in a couple years, you'll be killing it. There's absolutely something to sample on every record, but there isn't a shortcut to hearing your records, you just gotta spend a lot of time with them. And spend time finding new ones.

The more you chop the more you find.

da longer u dig da better u get,
its all time, and just not having so many midsets as what a beat HAS to sound like.
If u've been diggin for a lil while. pick up one of your oldest records that every time u look at it u dont wanna fukk wit it, and watch, u gonna find something you didn't before.

interesting post,

"not having so many midsets as what a beat HAS to sound like"

^^ I think that's a key point when listening to records ^^

You gotta listen to whats there as opposed to trying to find something that sounds like ur fav producer cos then u might only tune into certain sounds and miss a whole bunch of other usable stuff.

lokurabzlpimp wrote:da longer u dig da better u get,
its all time, and just not having so many midsets as what a beat HAS to sound like.
If u've been diggin for a lil while. pick up one of your oldest records that every time u look at it u dont wanna **** wit it, and watch, u gonna find something you didn't before.

Great advice. Thats a very very true statement aobut finding things you didnt the first time. That shows your ear develops as time goes by

yeah, realize that it takes time, and sometimes what you pick out has to do with your current state of mind/emotion.

Like i skip samples all the time because im not feelin them, but if i revisit, i can turn that same sample into a banger, when i couldnt first time around. Alot of times it wasnt like i didnt realize that the sample was good, i just didnt feel like doing it, so i wasnt gonna force it............

sample anything that gives you immediate inspiration or evoke emotion.

dont force anything

dont limit your self

dont set hard and fast rules to sampling like: "i only sample soul records" or "i dont make such and such style of beats!"

listen to your emotion and feeling

experiment

dont be afraid to put things on the back burner and revist (make sure you remember or mark where the sample is though!)

I think that your ear is developed by listening to things you like. I mean, think about it, if you enjoy sampling it, you are gonna do a good job, or atleast have inspiration to do a good job. you gotta channel that inspiration and emotion into the beat-thats what a good ear does!

cyrus thats a morbid avatr man^^

i think the key is listening to the record in it's entire state. as you listen to whats going on you will hear sounds that really sound great together, so you sample and try to recreate the sound or your own sound.
the key to training your ears is listening observe ceartain intsruments listen to what they are doing as the song plays you hear some incredibale sht going down .

man thanks for the info some very usefull info on this thread. i will use the suggestions thanks