Making Music with Samples

Knowledge is like money,
the more you have,
the more you want,

I just got the book "Making Music with Samples" by Daniel Duffell today. I`ll review it and hit cha with tips later plus it comes with 2Cds of techiques on using your sampler. Check it out at www.amazon.com.

ow shoot.. im not into hip hop..

First tip is to learn to eq your drum kit as training for your mixes. Kick in the low bass range, Snares in the high mid range and Hi-Hats in the Highs. Divide the toms, congos,and other percussion in the low mid ranges. Learn to tune the drums like any other instrumentals.

"Learn to tune the drums like any other instrumentals"

For sure dude - this is 'one' of the many many reasons why I dont use samples for all my core drum sounds. I always keep to analogue sources for drum sounds. Went from a 808 to a xBase and now have the Airbase (http://www.jomox.de/airbase.html) so all my drum sounds are totally tweaked to exactly fit the track. For example, it has 11 parameters for the Bass Drum (909 only has 9ish), and 8 for the snare etc etc..

But definitely agree with you. An off the shelf drum sample will rarely fit into your track without needing some tweaking..

ikke wrote:ow shoot.. im not into hip hop..

For those of us that are really working to improve our understanding of your sampler and the process of using samples to make music. It is a great read covering all genres from dance music to soundtracks for films. The writer is the former technology editor of DJ Magazine and current contributor of Future Music. It features the Z8 and 4k along with others samplers also. I just received it so check it for yourself.

If you have any problems with the English translation or genre of music that the majority of the board users are into ask a fellow Dutchman to translate it for ya or hip you to it too.



Peace out to the newbies, seasoned users, and any pros on the 4k forum I will keep ya update.

to my bakayaro

Next basic tip is using the loop play mode in the Sample page. Using a 1 bar drum loop or groove set the loop to the First kick only and open window on loop change the repeat to 1, set loop to release, direction to forward and close. Play the loop and it will repeat the number of times you set. Now experiment to your taste. If you make copies of the sample and set different loop points on each and you can sequence them in to play like two bars loops and one two bar loop with a snare roll at the end. If you are in keygroup or set in 16 tunings you can get the snare roll to cycle faster. Also in trim page set monitor to multi, set loop end to length, go to loop start and you can move your loop around to different loop points in the sample as the sequence plays.



It also talks about the 4k and some features in the Aksys windows take all not in the 4k version. Damm it looks like the Z8 hardware version included the sample page,effects, output effects, and window in the program that weren`t in the 4k version. Hmmmn!

Blue Haze wrote:Next basic tip is using the loop play mode in the Sample page. Using a 1 bar drum loop or groove set the loop to the First kick only and open window on loop change the repeat to 1, set loop to release, direction to forward and close. Play the loop and it will repeat the number of times you set. Now experiment to your taste. If you make copies of the sample and set different loop points on each and you can sequence them in to play like two bars loops and one two bar loop with a snare roll at the end. If you are in keygroup or set in 16 tunings you can get the snare roll to cycle faster.

thanks for this tip but it's not clear at all to me, what are you trying to do exactly ? could you post an precise exemple ?[/quote]

phunk wrote:

Blue Haze wrote:Next basic tip is using the loop play mode in the Sample page. Using a 1 bar drum loop or groove set the loop to the First kick only and open window on loop change the repeat to 1, set loop to release, direction to forward and close. Play the loop and it will repeat the number of times you set. Now experiment to your taste. If you make copies of the sample and set different loop points on each and you can sequence them in to play like two bars loops and one two bar loop with a snare roll at the end. If you are in keygroup or set in 16 tunings you can get the snare roll to cycle faster.

thanks for this tip but it's not clear at all to me, what are you trying to do exactly ? could you post an precise exemple ?

[/quote]


Go to sample trim/edit page

Its an old school way of loop a one bar sample. You can do the same by midi trigger too.

Take one bar or two bar loop make two copies.

First copy set it to loop the first kick in the sample.

Go to Play mode and set it to loop, press open window, you will see the loop play mode page in order repeat/ loop type/direction.


Set repeat to 1 and close the window.

Press the pad and the sample kick should roll twice and then play the whole bar.

Second copy do the same things except set the loop at the end with a snare and hi-hat. Set the repeat to 4. This way the snare rolls 4 times.


Go to Main page

Make a simple sequence just play the first loop 2 times and the second loop once in a 4bar sequence and it will come out.

Like i say it is old school way but you can do the same with no loop midi trigger but you have to set the start points in the sample.

Just listen to the song "Grind Date" by De La Soul to get an idea on the potential of looping and release function.

Back to sample trim/edit page

Also if you set the loop end to loop length you can move the loop region by go to start and sliding Q5 the loop length stays the same like a whole note, half note, or quarter note and you can hear different loop points.

Also change monitor in the sample page to multi then you can listen to your sequence at the same time as you change loop points.

Once again the book is called "Making Music with Samples plus it comes with 2 CDs of practice and one with samples" The Mpc tutors Beat Making is great also. I would only add that the usage of full samplers is what I needed to know since I came from a 2xl without ever using a full sampler before.

I read this post sometime last week and went straight to Amazon.com and ordered it. As soon as I got it I started flipping through the pages and looked at the table of contents and most of the information seems to be useless rehash information that most of us that use this board already have knowledge of.

Information like.... what do terms like frequency, tempo, key signature mean. Information like what a MIDI cable is and does vs. an AUDIO cable. I mean come on... this is Basic shit people... there ARE books that cover basic principles of audio out there on the market. Why do they load these books up with information that is covered extensively elsewhere while the MAIN TOPIC OF THE BOOK is treated as if it was no more important then the basic stuff.

Why must they publish these books that appeal to the lowest common denominator? I mean... the targe audience for this type of book would seem to be people that already have knowledge of the basics and want intermediate & advanced tips/tricks/techniques & approaches. But these books are always written as if its audience knows absolutly NOTHING to begin with and is filled with information that is extremely elementary to the average reader of this forum. I mean... I know if they appeal to the masses they have the potential to make more money, but if they made a real, hardcore, indepth book on sampling techniques and practices they'd have a bonafide best seller.

You end up paying $30 hard earned dollars on information you already have a very firm grasp on. This book probabbly has at least 85% information that I already know and maybe %15 I can actually learn something from.

If anyone wants it, I be putting it up on Ebay in about a week or so after I get a chance to really go through it. I'll put it up for half the price I got it for at Amazon.com. This is the last book on the topic of AUDIO i'll ever buy cuz they all suck

Yo, I agree with what 4000is1monster is saying...but then I don't. As a newbie, and I'm sure other newbies can agree, you have to have a good foundation to build anything. The stuff in that book was and probably some is..things that I didn't know before getting back into this last year. Dog, I went to a school of Engineering 10 years ago and forgot a lot of basic things. I made a call to Akai about MIDI, and the guy had to refresh my memory that MIDI cables don't carry sound, I felt stupid as hell but if I would have search the forums or bought that book I could have saved so much time and worry.
When it comes down to it, the author has a target audiance, it just isn't the experienced producer. Can't be mad a that. On the other hand, I got beat in the head with Making Beats: the art of sample based hip-hop by Joseph G. Schloss...I thought was a book about the technically building a beat using samples( much like the book you have ) ...turns out it's a history and ethics-type book, worse thing is that it's written horribly like dudes with PHDs gonna read it, instead of the average Hip-Hop head. I was heated.
So when you finished with your book, I'll buy it. Or we could trade........................lol

Sorry to hear that monster the book isn`t for you. But it was intended for newbies and reference for the basics. It covers alot of the old school tips and goes much more indepth on the usage of samplers. Alot of basic questions on the board would cease with help from this guide. There are only books like the Paul White series and "The Sampling Book" by Steve De Furia & Joe Scacciaferro and so on. But I disagree as if the book it bad for anyone else. I agree it may be the worse purchase for you and I`m sorry you wasted your money. I hope and I would recommend that you sell it fast to a newbie or experienced user looking for a reference guide or intro to using samplers be it software or hardware. I truely enjoyed the book and I plan to by the next one also. For me personally it helped to break down Just Blaze`s and Kanye West`s techniques but I just read between the lines.

Just a minor old school tip I pick up was how to fiqure out the tempo of a sample using the length of the sample in seconds. By 60/2.526 seconds=23.753*4 beats or any number of beats=95bpm. I chop my samples into smaller tips and use the equation just simple things.


All well Tyran, others if you need, like it buy it from 4isM cuz you can get a good deal from him. If you want to know what envelopes are it explains it, if you want to know how to use velocity zones it explains it, if you want to do velocity mapping, crossfades and layering it explains it, if you want to use INT A/B and midi it explains it. But if you want it to explain step by step how to put a song together it don`t. Thats up to the ear, experience and basic music theory.





For me once I read thru the book that Akai manual made a hell of alot of sense afterwards.

For each his own just remember we all came here with some basic questions in the beginning of 2004.

Like http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php ... highlight=

I didn`t know either at a time and how to use it effectively and many new users of a sampler won`t either. But a basic guide as save alot of time.

Peace out. I hope everyone can have a better understanding of their mpc. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... s&n=507846

The example you posted of a previous question I had was a question about the MPC 4000 itself because id just bought it, not a question as to what an envelop is. I'd already worked with audio enough to know what an envelop is and does, my question was more about how to use them on the 4000.

I think everyone would agree that the fact that the edit page does not use real numbers in terms of frequency and such is a huge pain in the ass on top of the fact that the MPC 4000 manual hardly goes into any depth at all as to how to operate the machine.

And the main reason i bought the book was because of your statement...

For those of us that are really working to improve our understanding of your sampler and the process of using samples to make music.

The key word there was IMPROVE, you didnt say... for those of you who are looking to get a basic understanding of working with audio. I've been reading these boards for a lil while and respect your knowlege and the fact that you used "US"...

those of us...

made it seem to me that you yourself found the book enlightening, So i thought to myself "this book must be hardcore"

Im not saying I know everything at all, there is tons of stuff I know I still need to learn which is why I still read these boards and look for new books to expand my knowledge. But if every book on the market is ground level ish then whats the sense of them even putting out new books on Audio/recording/producing. They need to step up and start putting out intermediate level books.

4000is1monster wrote:The example you posted of a previous question I had was a question about the MPC 4000 itself because id just bought it, not a question as to what an envelop is. I'd already worked with audio enough to know what an envelop is and does, my question was more about how to use them on the 4000.

I think everyone would agree that the fact that the edit page does not use real numbers in terms of frequency and such is a huge pain in the ass on top of the fact that the MPC 4000 manual hardly goes into any depth at all as to how to operate the machine.

And the main reason i bought the book was because of your statement...

For those of us that are really working to improve our understanding of your sampler and the process of using samples to make music.

The key word there was IMPROVE, you didnt say... for those of you who are looking to get a basic understanding of working with audio. I've been reading these boards for a lil while and respect your knowlege and the fact that you used "US"...

those of us...

made it seem to me that you yourself found the book enlightening, So i thought to myself "this book must be hardcore"

Im not saying I know everything at all, there is tons of stuff I know I still need to learn which is why I still read these boards and look for new books to expand my knowledge. But if every book on the market is ground level ish then whats the sense of them even putting out new books on Audio/recording/producing. They need to step up and start putting out intermediate level books.

I respect and I apologize if I mislead yo in any way. I myself enjoyed it. and I use it alot.

Another small tip pick up from the book in about mutimode filters aka triple filter in the 4k giving a example of the NI Kontakt filter. We can use three separate filters combined to form one monster filter. Using a LPF, BPF, and HPF. Set LPF to be the lowest out of the three with medium resonance on each. Now to adjust all three cutoff in real time setup up the mod matrix with ext 1 as source and tr cutoff 1, 2, 3 as the destinations. Go to Qlink Setup page select the part on Q3 or whatever, assign to Ext 1 and you can leave type as offset( which will increase of decrease a value with your three filters set at three different values for example 80, 30, 20 if you turn the value to increase by 10 you will change the three settings to 90, 40, and 30. The offset send out a positive offset of 10 and anything that was set up respond to had its value increased by 10.) Set the range between 25/25 and start real time adjusting on a drum loop and check the sounds.

Just a small tip I got from the Customizing sounds section on how to use my sampler functions. I love this series and I plan to buy the next one in April. But it may not be for some of the more experienced users. If this is a basic tip that users already know or familiar with keep on trucking and ignore the post. For newbies and others have at it.

[quote="punkdISCO"]"Learn to tune the drums like any other instrumentals"

Yo, can i ask....
I understand that say sampling your drums straight of a jomox/909/808 etc.. is going to give a purer sample without dodgy artifacts (other tones) that can some times come with sampling of records etc . but my question to you all is:
When sampling off records etc and tuning your drums.. do you tune them to a sinewave at the pitch you want (and obviously by ear) or do some of you use spectrum analysis to eq/harmonically correct the sound (aswell as using the ears)?
your replies are appreciated.