less chops, better results?

I've recently been getting better results with my sequences if I use less chops on my samples. Example:

2 bar sample (includes percussion)
If I chop this into 16 parts and use the percussion as a guide, technically the sample should lock to the grid perfectly - but now it sounds choppy, stutters, and noticeable gaps. If I chop the same same sample into 8 parts, choppy chops and gaps and now reduced by 50%, sequence is a lot smoother.

If you listen to early 90s / late 80s hip hop, sequencing isn't that tight and I think its because they were just finding sounds that blended, instead of worrying about gaps and stuttering chops.

Any1 else have good results using less chops?

Yeah the reason is because the machines chopping it for you. The machine doesn't have a brain or doesn't know anything else but to cut it by 16, 12, 8 etc etc.

You might even get smoother chops if you manually chop them yourself to the point of your satisfaction.


That 90's hip-hop was really heavy on loops too so you couldn't here the gaps (unless it was Premos work who style is that sloppy chops)

agree i dont use auto chop so i only tend to use between 4 to 8 chops, when nerds got into music production as it got more popular then u had peeps using 32 or 128 chops.

so it became an ego thing who can use the most chops

if u chop right, quarter note chops should be just fine

some people i've heard say get as many chops out of a sample you can and to me that never made since. usually in most of my chops, i only need 12-16 even chops. and i almost always add some delay or something to make them sound "not choppy" and have them play out smoothly.

when you have more chops, you will have to play them back more on your own, as opposed to only 4,8,12 chops, you will do less actual playing yourself.

ie , on 4-8 chop loops...you just hit chops and they will "play themselves out"......when you have more chops, you're going to be hitting multiple pads thus more work and you will hear it be choppy

..(i feel like i did a real shitty job at explaining this )

chop bigger, then if you need to, chop those bigger ones smaller as per taste.

this is what has been working nice for me.

i usually dont go much smaller than 1/4 notes, but yeah, manually chop them and you will get better sounding chops.

phuc an auto chop.

Only on a UBB type break would my chops have any chance of being equal length. Even then each snare, hat and kick are still different lengths. I mean you usually know even with offline chopping how you're gonna freak it.

Outside of the type of break I described with very pronounced transients, I see little use for auto chop. Even on those I end up placing them manually (Recycle is my chopping environment). Generally it's just a mess you have to clean up if you let the auto detect routines do their thing. Or as was already said just arbitrary divisions that will not necessarily match the best spots to cut your loop. (sustained notes, legato and so on).

The more chops the more control and flexibility you got but also the more work to do and the more of the original vibe is gone.

I like both methods. You can get many chops of a original song by taking all the small parts between the vocals to get build up something completly new or you can take a 2 bar loop and cut it in 1/2 or 1/4 to get all the groove and/or vibe thats in it. The most chops I had was 20something out of a Sonny Stitt track. It was really dope but got lost in a harddrive crash

peace

I' may have the track peterpiper, what Sonny Stitt track was it?

Metatron72 wrote:I' may have the track peterpiper, what Sonny Stitt track was it?

I still have the original but not my chops. It was "Sonny's Blues" but since there where so many chops from different parts of the song I'm not able to recreate it (don't even remember how it sounded cause I did that 12 years ago and there is no recording of it. But I still know how it feel after I finished it. It was like "DAMN. What the f... have I done here!" )

peace

good replies, but I don't auto chop, all my chops are done manually.
Less chops = retained rhythm!

its like a real deli shop... MANUAL CHOPPIN is thee key to get smooth & precise chops
& where u want them to be... *just my thoughts*

i chop usually only oneshots with very good results.
you have to be carefull about the sample lenght: i leave mostly the f.e. snaretail as long as possible and cut it on the mpc with the decay function while the sequence is running. also a good tip is to sample a little "air" from the record to put in between.
after the break is done you can always little compress the whole beat for glueing all together.


oneshots: any tempo u want and your own groove, way more fun to play the pads (but a lot harder work)

equal lenght: absolute must is to use the original tempo, but sounds sometimes way smoother than oneshots. mostly on funktype breaks and stuff with a lot of ghostnotes...

I like to have long chops cut each other off. And layering with short chops . specially extra drums and INST programms for basslines and whatnot.. maybe some stabs as well.
I dunno. Mix it baby!