Filtering

Okay, I got the records. I can find the sounds. But almost everytime I find something that I want to use, there is always something in the background that throws it off. I've had to deal with everything from cowbells, triangles to animal sounds. I know that some sort of filtering should be able to at least help me out. Through trial and a handful of errors I have realized that the filter on the MPC 2000 XL sucks but. Anybody know of another filter, esp. of the software type, that can help me out? Or some other method, anything.

The MPC's low pass filter only really works for taking out unwanted sounds if you're sampling a bass or something low and you just filter it way down.
It's really more about finding sounds on records that are "open" (alone without any other instruments playing.) It takes more searching, but that's what it takes.

I record my samples thru a dj mixer. I use the 3band EQ to get rid of as much of the unwanted parts as possible. Or see if the part I want repeats anywhere else in the song. Most times I can create the melody I wanted by choppin other parts of the song.

Cool Edit Pro has a variety of filters that I have used to get rid of unwanted crap. It depends on what you want to get rid of. You can easily get rid of noise, needle noise, clicks & pops, it has a 32-band eq, a lot of preset eq's. If you can get a clear sample of what you want to eliminate, you can sometimes use CEP to sample that unwanted sound, and CEP will filter it out of the sample you want to keep.