Time Signature

This question is for Jahrome as he is the guru of MPC-forums. I missed music theory class so time can be a little confusing outside of the basic 4/4 or 3/4. This is probably going to sound really confusing but I'll do my best to explain. If you've heard that Dilla track "So Much More" on De La's "Grind Date" or on Lupe's mixtape you might notice that the sample doesn't start on the first down beat of a sequence. It starts in between the 2nd and 3rd beat of the end of the sequence and bleeds into the first bar of the sequence. I can't figure out how to work with a sample that doesn't necessarily start on the down beat. Is this doesn't make sense please let me know.

Are you having a problem because you don't know how to loop it or know exactly where it comes in. My guess would be that Dilla chopped that sample up into eighth notes, maybe smaller, and then assigned them to the pads. For a visual of this technique, check this Pete Rock interview. I find this to be a much better approch than just a straight loop.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jQWxrWSsI2k& ... ete%20rock

In terms of that track, "Much More", the part of the sample that with the vocals starts on the upbeat of 2. "and what we have is much more than"- each note is an eighth note long, so by chopping into eighths, each word would be on a seperate pad. Then "they" would be three eighths long, "can" is one and "see" sounds to be about 3 or 4 eighths. Then he fills the other bar and a half or so with some other chops.

Part of the reason why this feels wierd is becasue its a loop of three bars of 4/4 as opposed to the usual divisions of 2 (4,8,12,16). I feel it with the "much" on the one of the first bar, and then the "and what we have is" is the pick-up, starting on the upbeat of the 2 in the 3rd bar.

Hope this helps. Any more questions, hit me up.