Tempo!

I've been sampling awhile a long long while and I have never been able to find accurate tempos for loops. I usually chop the crap outs samples and use chunks at my own BPM but i wanna use loops more. Every time I sample a loop and try to add drums they all ways seem off? any advice would be nice

peeps make beats by numbers very robotic, in this day and age of warp audio auto time-stretch it aint an issue.
even in the old day it aint an issue u should be able to use ur ear to match records
and samples.

but alot of dudes is extreme left brain nerds doing music thats why the approach is over scientific and over tech u should just chop and place samples by ear long as the vibe n feel is good.

i suspect djs of old neva knew precise tempo and bpms of all the shit they spun but they could still spin, cos they had a natural ear for music and a natural sense of rhythm and could count to 4.

if shit dont fit it could be u got some sloppy chops, or the sound placement aint right or ur drums are off beat.

Lampdog wrote:
I never understood why some people put such a heavy enphasis on knowing bpm and tempo in loop. I have always done this manually, chop the beginning of a loop and place it in the seq, then adjust the bpm of the seq, and adjust the tune of the loop until it sounds right to me. I have never cared about knowing bpm's or tempo's. I've made plenty of loops work well in sequences never even knowing the bpm of a loop. I know there are several ways to accomplish the same things.
Personally though I don't get it.

seriously... and if you need to know the BPM here's one easy trial and error way of finding out ---- say u have a 2 bar sample- create a 2 bar loop. make sure the start point is right on beat 1.. play.. if the loop ends before you sequencer loop ends speed up ur BPM.. if ur seq loops back to beat 1 before the sample is done playing.. slow it down... how hard is this????

jpeg wrote:but alot of dudes is extreme left brain nerds doing music thats why the approach is over scientific and over tech u should just chop and place samples by ear long as the vibe n feel is good.

i suspect djs of old neva knew precise tempo and bpms of all the **** they spun but they could still spin, cos they had a natural ear for music and a natural sense of rhythm and could count to 4.

EXACTLY!

i find the bpm when im doing remixes (adding accapella to my beat)

i go to original track (song im making a new beat for) and tap tempo with it playing to find the basic bpm. then i work around that

but for simple beat making you shouldn't need to find the bpm ever

my guess would be you are not starting your loop precisely on the downbeat, which would probably help.

at least start it on some beat that you can trigger at the right time.

then just adjust the seq tempo til it fits.

also try setting your sample to 'mono' vs 'poly' play style.

tapedeck wrote:my guess would be you are not starting your loop precisely on the downbeat, which would probably help.
also try setting your sample to 'mono' vs 'poly' play style.

great advice!

Well i will find a loop and it sounds great looped up but when i try to add the drums they alway seem very off no matter how long i try to adjust it by ear with the mpc it doesnt fit ever lol and i know this might sound green but what is down beat? is that when the first beat on a bar?

Can you post up a loop before you add the drums? Would be easier to help if we get an example of such a loop that you're having trouble recording drums over.

NiceKeyz wrote:Well i will find a loop and it sounds great looped up but when i try to add the drums they alway seem very off no matter how long i try to adjust it by ear with the mpc it doesnt fit ever lol and i know this might sound green but what is down beat? is that when the first beat on a bar?

if there is drums or percussion in the loop u have then u have to be more attentive with where u place the drums.

they will eithern need to blen in with the drums in the sample and build on it in a layered fashion.

alternatively u can hpf filter the loop to varying degrees to get some of the drums out to give space to put ur shit in.

or just chop segments out that dont have drums and remold the sound to approximate the loop

NiceKeyz wrote:Well i will find a loop and it sounds great looped up but when i try to add the drums they alway seem very off no matter how long i try to adjust it by ear with the mpc it doesnt fit ever lol and i know this might sound green but what is down beat? is that when the first beat on a bar?

make sure the first sound in your loop is truly on the first beat of hte loop

es-k wrote:

NiceKeyz wrote:Well i will find a loop and it sounds great looped up but when i try to add the drums they alway seem very off no matter how long i try to adjust it by ear with the mpc it doesnt fit ever lol and i know this might sound green but what is down beat? is that when the first beat on a bar?

make sure the first sound in your loop is truly on the first beat of hte loop

...and that's the down beat.