Prefuse 73 choppy loops ?

what i want to know is how he does those time signature changes mid sequence, y know going from a straight beat to one of those shuffled (is it triplets?) beats mid-sequence..its like the first two bars are straight and then it changes rhythm- how on the mpc?


a good example is on storm returns

greg

The same techniques that are used to CHOP bits into little pieces are mandatory when producing ROCK AND ROLL or guitars with an MPC
as there were no metronomes before bnack in the days before straight up electronic music the only way to "get things in time" to loop on beat when producing Big Beat styles (Rock and electronic) beats with an MPC is to do just exactly the same thing.. You need to chop shit up then rearrange it..
Try making music incorporating rock or funk from the 1970s and you will find the ONLY way to get it perfectly tight is by chopping things up into smaller and smaller bits then relaying it over your beats..
Prefuse just leaves the beats sounding choppy instead of smoothing things out..
He's very intricate
but this has been done for 20 years already
check out The Latin Rascals, Omar Santana, Juan Kato, Chep Nunez
these cats were actually cutting stuff into bits long before MPCs existed on Reel to Reel tape with RAZOR BLADES
These guys were the real pioneers.. the Editors doing Multi -Edits
I have a record label that releases only B Boy style mash-ups of cut and paste and Multi edits and most cats used either MPCs SP1200s or ACID for these amazing cut ups

that technique someone posted about the 16 levels/vel to start point is reall cool- have been getting some cool prefuse chops with a james brown phrase- great thing is you can set the pad to mono so each snip cuts the previous one off...plus use filter enving and stuff- well cool....

i think all these tips should be accumluated somewhere....my mate who also rocks the mpc and never even considered such a technique

greg

Hey- how do u think Prefuse and Shadow get rid of crackles, hiss and smallpops from vinyl samples. They way I produce is similar, but when I transfer audio from MPC the M Audio interface the noise is very noticeable, unlike dudes mentioned above tracks.

i'll collect these tips and write an article then.


as for crackle and hiss? well perhaps your records/mixer/cables arent up to the task. clean your records, use a good mixer and cables

its far far wiser to START with a clean sound source then attempt to "fix it in the mix"

stupidkid, i think there are many things these guys do- like d samp said make sure everything is clean, vinyl, needles- good quality wire, well balnaced pre-amp and a good signal - this can be really hard to achieve but mess around to get a good balance between sound and noise, might involve using a v hot signal from the deck but lower on the sampler so it doesn't clip.....


greg

well i hate to burst anyones bubble but i happen to work in the same building as prefuse's ex girlfriend. i somehow found out who she was and picked her brain over lunch and found out he does use pro tools. but it is really only to process and f up sounds so he can put them into his mpc. he definitely only uses the mpc as far as sequencing goes, but he still uses a computer. which if you ask me(nobody did but i dont care) is perfectly fine. use a computer, use whatever the hell you want to. just make dope music.

quite right- i read an intereview where he says he uses many different things to mess up sounds....but relies on the mpc tightness.....

greg

Thanks for the tips, it just sucks that some of the best (and hopefully unheared) vinyl samples I've found are on OLD LPs which due to time have deteriorated therefore gotten noiser.

hey, do use a computer to edit or mix with? if you can get your hands on a plug in called DINR from digidesign, that shit cleans up dirty samples pretty well. there are others like that too so look around.

mesh, I work with samplitude 6 through and M-Audio interface. I've tried a couple plug ins and just when the sounds starts getting cleaned up, the upper freq start to get eating away as well, begins sounding dull. What technique do u use with NR. Reduce noise then EQ (way I've done it)? Boost "noisy" freq. then reduce noise and re-EQ?

I looked up the DINR, pricey plug and only for PT right?

yeah it aint cheap, its nice to work on someone elses system(thats me) cuz i definitely dont have $ for those types of plugins myself. my boss has all that sh*t, but anyways, sometimes i will go into my editor and delete certain pops, or i will eq the hell out of it. it sux to not be able to find that record again too, but it sounds like you are doing the same stuff i do. just keep trying and experimenting using two different types of eq or a deesser. experimentation is teh key to learning audio engineering . good luck and let me know if you discover a cool technique.